Les yeux de l'amour (1959)

User Rating:

5.3/10   

Director:

Denys de La Patellière

Writers:

Jacques Antoine (novel)
Michel Audiard (dialogue)

Release Date:

22 April 1960 (West Germany)

Genre:

Romance

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel

Cast

Danielle Darrieux	...	Jeanne Moncatel
Jean-Claude Brialy	...	Pierre Ségur
Françoise Rosay	...	Mme Moncatel
Bernard Blier	...	Le docteur Andrieux
André Reybaz	...	Le curé
Eva Damien	...	Denise
Louis Seigner	...	Le chirurgien
Suzanne Nivette
Pierre Vernier
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Nicole Desailly
Gisèle Grimm
Marie Mergey	...	La concierge

Also Known As:

Amanti nelle tenebre
Eyes of Love (International: English title)

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

France | Italy

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:16

Company:

Boréal Films

The French "magnificent obsession"?

Probably not.Melodrama is very hard matter to handle and it takes a lot of talent to pull it off.Denys De la Patellière is not the FRench Douglas Sirk,by a long shot.

During the Occupation at the end of WW2 ,a young man(Brialy) takes refuge in an old mansion in the country where an old maid (Darrieux) and her authoritarian mother (Rosay) live.Following an accident he became blind.

Do not let the "historical" background fool you.The vital question is :will the old maid find love at last?Danielle Darrieux is not well cast:how could she pass for an ugly woman?And Françoise Rosay,who plays her over possessive mother overplays as hell.Brialy,one of the few young actors of the era who work for both nouvelle vague directors (Chabrol,Godard) and their predecessors (Cayatte,Duvivier) is ill at ease.

Although he began in the mid-fifties ,as a contemporary of the early nouvelle vague,De la Patellière should be looked upon as a keeper of the flame ,a continuator of Duvivier,Clouzot,Decoin,Autant-Lara or Christian-Jacques.But those directors were genuine artists whereas he's only a drudge.Some elements for instance come at the most awkward moments ,the mother's intellectual ambitions for instance,or the "historical " events.

Later works do nothing but confirm De La Patellière's blatant lack of talent."Le tatoué" (1968) will be Jean Gabin's worst part.