Jours tranquilles à Clichy (1990)

Expatriate Henry Miller indulges in a variety of sexual escapades while struggling to establish himself as a serious writer in Paris.

Director:

Claude Chabrol

Writers:

Claude Chabrol (adaptation), Ugo Leonzio (adaptation),

Stars:

Andrew McCarthy, Nigel Havers, Barbara De Rossi

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Andrew McCarthy	...	Henry Miller, AKA Joey
Nigel Havers	...	Alfred Perlès, AKA Karl
Barbara De Rossi	...	Nys
Stéphanie Cotta	...	Colette Ducarouge
Isolde Barth	...	Ania Regentag
Eva Grimaldi	...	Yvonne
Anna Galiena	...	Edith
Giuditta Del Vecchio
Stéphane Audran	...	Adrienne
Mario Adorf	...	Ernest Regentag
Elide Melli
Henri Attal
Jean-Marie Arnoux
Hélène Benayon
Jacques Brunet	...	Colette's father

Storyline

The American writer Joe arrives in Paris to research and write about Proust. He meets the Polish Karl and they become friends and costumers of brothels and restaurants. When the fifteen year-old Colette arrives in Paris, they both fall in love with her.

---

Plot Keywords:

erotica | shower | female frontal nudity | 1930s | place name in title | 

---

Genres:

Drama

---

Details

Country:

France Italy Germany

Language:

French

Release Date:

9 May 1990 (France)

Also Known As:

Quiet Days in Clichy

Filming Locations:

Calvados, France

Company Credits

Production Co:

AZ Film Production, Cinecittà, Italfrance Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

120 min

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Did You Know?

Connections

References Jules and Jim (1962)

User Reviews

Not bad, but not really noteworthy either

This Claude Chabrol film is (obviously) quite unpopular with Henry Miller fans because it is not especially faithful to his original book. Still, the late Chabrol was a talent nearly on par with Stanley Kubrick, and has certainly earned the right to "re-imagine" works of literature the same way Kubrick often did with stuff like Stephen King's "The Shining" or Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita". Miller was a better writer than King, of course, if certainly not in the class of Nabokov. Like Nabokov though, a faithful film adaptation of his best books would be well nigh impossible, which is why this unfaithful one is really no less successful than the more faithful 1970 Danish version. It has its share of sex scenes, of course, but is not as sexually fixated as Miller's writings or the earlier Danish adaptation, choosing instead to focus on the two male characters' fixation/unrequited love for the teenage "Collete" character, who falls into their lecherous hands after her prostitute grandmother dies and wills one of them her brothel.

The modern-day flashback story where an elderly Miller is painting a nude picture of a "Collete" look-alike (who may only exist in his imagination) while cursing the "one-that-got-away" has nothing to do with Miller, of course, but is actually the best scene in the movie (unrequited fantasy is always more thematically interesting than the sexual over-indulgence Miller usually traded in). At any rate, the modern-day scenes don't detract from the 1930's setting nearly as much as the hippie-looking girls and that horrid Country Joe and the Fish title song featured in the dated 1970 Danish version.

The acting is indeed a liability. Andrew McCarthy is better than usual, but then he's usually awful. Barbara DeRossi (as a prostitute/love interest) is good, but underused, and newcomer Stephanie Cotta (who plays "Collette") doesn't need to act too much, which is fortunate because she really can't. This IS certainly a misfire within the oeuvre of Chabrol, who is much better at subtle Hitchcockian thrillers and is actually one of the few French directors who HASN'T generally traded in sex-oriented films like this. This isn't bad, just not really noteworthy either.