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En cas de malheur (1958) More at IMDbPro »
20 out of 22 people found the following comment useful :-
The most controversial of Bardot's films…, 24 July 2005
Author: ironside (robertfrangie@hotmail.com) from Mexico
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
The phenomenal success of the Bardot myth, like that of James Dean which just preceded it, was very much the immediate response of the youth public to a need they felt in themselves and which Bardot was the first young girl to realize on the screen…
In Claude Autant-Lara's film, Bardot came off as more than a sexual image, her persona giving life to the character she portrayed... The film contained of the most erotic scenes of her career: Brigitte was called on to raise her skirt in order to convince a skeptical lawyer to represent her case!
In her frank demand for sexual pleasure Bardot is without any feminine guile, and the film contrasts her 'honesty,' for what it is worth, with the sophisticated behavior of the 'woman of the world' played by Edwige Feuillère…
Gabin and Feuillère, dubious at first of appearing with her, claimed subsequently to have found her charming and intelligent, but at the same time nervous, full of self-doubt, and uncertain both of her talent and her beauty…
2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Gets better with every viewing, 16 February 2009
Author: adrian290357 from Portugal
This is not a particularly well known movie among the anglophone crowd but it is definitely very advanced for its year of production, 1958. Yvette Maudet ("maudit" means accursed in French) as portrayed by Bardot is a constantly split personality that seems utterly unable to decide whether she wants the wealthy but old and not overly attractive Gabin or the young and handsome, but poor, Gaston. The way she enlists the services of Gabin as her lawyer is memorable and the scene so graphic and far ahead of its time that it was cut!
Curvaceous 22-year-old blonde Bardot is to die for but it is Gabin that carries the film with a masterly performance. Look out for Feuillere in role of Gabin's wife. She is apparently liberal and allows the affair to unfold and develop in the belief that her husband will eventually come back and she will remain in control of the marriage. Watch how she puts away her glasses when he comes into her bedroom so she looks more attractive to him... even though she knows she cannot compete with the much younger and voluptuous BB. Watch her loyalty to her husband as she sees him run after the mirage of young and callously carefree beauty, and she sees his business collapse and begin to affect her own life.
There is more: There is the extremely competent direction, an engrossing screenplay, and bewitching photography from director Autant-Lara and his team. It provides no happy end but this film has so much to offer that I can only encourage you to not miss it, dear reader.
4 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
STRANGE LITTLE MELODRAMA WITH BEAUTIFUL BARDOT!, 22 September 2004
Author: shepardjessica from sparks, nevada
Gorgeous Brigitte Bardot is perfect as the mixed-up, spoiled young woman carrying on with an older attorney (Jean Gabin)who sets up her own fate. Mr. Gabin has always been a marvelous actor with a commanding presence at all times. Nice music and cinematography, but it's Ms. Bardot who makes it worthwhile. Beside her looks and sex appeal, her personality always shines through and she seems very comfortable on screen, even at a young age.
A 7 out of 10. Best performance = B. Bardot. You never quite knew where this film was going to end up, but it reaches a touching ending of closure for all concerned.
5 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Love is blind..., 17 May 2000
Author: Eric Sayettat (sayettat@hotmail.com) from Paris, France
Well not entirely blind when one of the protagonists is Brigitte Bardot. She certainly was the cutest cutie of her times and Gabin was some kind of a man...
Yvette is foolish and gay, he is stern and reasonable, she is a thief and a good for nothing, he is hard working and honest (mind you , a lawyer...).
Not a masterpiece but a excellent piece of acting and a far from innocent movie.
3 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
good drama, 7 August 2003
Author: Wout Visser (wrvisser-leusden-nl) from Leusden, Holland
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
Brigitte Bardot, at the pinnacle of her career, plays a cheap whore committing a robbery. At her trial she is defended succesfully by the jet-set lawyer Gobillot, played by the great Jean Gabin. Needless to tell that Gobillot gets involved by Brigitte's charms, and that she becomes his mistress afterwards.
'En cas de malheur' shows fascinatingly the spell young, blond and beautiful Yvette (= BB) excercises on Gobillot - him getting into serious professional and marital trouble as a result. Of course Yvette meanwhile keeps involved with a lover of her own age.
The movie also bridges a generation gap. It really is the splendid youthful beauty of Bardot against the magnificent acting by the mature Gabin and Edwige Feuillière (who plays madame Gobillot).
The greatest thing about this good movie is, I think, that Brigitte accepted second billing after Gabin. At the height of her breathtaking career she did just that, and the results show her right.
You may be interested to know that the story of 'Malheur' was written by Georges Simenon. He is a Belgian who became famous all over Europe for his detective-novels, featuring policeman Maigret. Also interesting is that Gabin had a love affair with Marlène Dietrich (at the end of the forties, I believe). So he knew about beautiful actresses: when Brigitte met him for the first time on the set of 'Malheur', she was so over-awed that she spoke her lines wrongly. Gabin, understanding, made a few mistakes himself in his lines - purposely, thus putting Brigitte at ease. It worked.
The end of 'Malheur' fits well: Yvette is murdered by her lover, the young one. A crime out of jealousy.
1 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Late 50's film with flawed characters, 3 October 2007
Author: wildpeace10 from Canada
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
When we are first introduced to bardot's character,her charm doesn't get through because,first she's chewing gum & then she plans a robbery that ends up in her hitting an older lady on the head and face.
But when she gets to see a lawyer played by gabin and seduces him,we get seduced also by her character,at least for a little while.
Because you see,bardot is a free spirit that not only was selling drugs and sleeping around but that seems to want to have a relationship with both gabin et her old boyfriend.
Gabin is not always all that sympathetic of a character either.
He doesn't hesitate to bend or cheat the law to save bardot.
He hurts his wife mentally by having an affair and at first doesn't care that bardot is not a one man woman.
This film has a certain famous reputation for having been censored and the 2 second scene featuring bardot lefting her skirt exposing her backside(gabin apparently sees the lower front but we don't) is available on the french DVD.
It's hard to understand what the fuss was all about since past the 90 minutes,we also see bardot's butt in a slightly longer scene which wasn't censored.
While the old boyfriend has an obsession with bardot and isn't such a good character, nothing indicated that his jalousy would push him to commit a crime.
Yes,the film does indeed end with a sad conclusion which probably results in the film having a more powerful impact.
This black & white film is way too long. At first,you feel that everything is wrapped up in about the first 30 minutes & that the rest of the film was written afterwards.
Perhaps because i first saw bardot in pictures about ten years after this one,i'm more attracted to her older version in her less older films.
So in conclusion,this remains an interesting film but a very uneven one also.
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