UN REVENANT (1946)

Best known for the color & zest of Gérard Philipe’s irresistible period romp FAN FAN LA TULIPE/’52, this rather bitter comic revenge story may be writer/director Christian-Jaque’s best work.*   (Though with so many titles unavailable Stateside, how to judge?)  Louis Jouvet is magnificent (and perfectly cast) as a ballet impresario bringing his company to the town he left twenty years ago after a romantic scandal left him disappointed and shot.  Not to gloat over his success, but to punish the once wealthy/now fading family who done him wrong: the lover who spurned him for comfort & social standing, the husband and brother (one of whom probably took the shot), even the artistic leaning family scion, a twenty yr-old now being set up to save the family fortune thru a loveless, arranged marriage (irrepressible work from François Perier).  With the enticement of his ballet company, Jouvet has the lifestyle, the romance of travel & the sexual promise of prima ballerina Ludmilla Tchérina to tempt all.  Christian-Jaque hits his points a little hard at first, detailing family squabbles & finances in a fusty manner, but once Jouvet & Co. show up, everything snaps into place, with a slightly mocking, yet almost sentimental tone.  But not for long.  Halfway in, a privileged moment lets us see (or rather hear) exactly what Jouvet is truly up to, playing the long game against respectability in the most cynical fashion.  Not simple social comeuppance, something more savage, more lasting, thrilling to watch.  Shot & edited with a master’s touch, the film is also unusually precise in its tailoring (of all things), the way clothes reveal class & character, especially on Jouvet (that overcoat, those creaseless suits with matte finish).  Costume design credited to ‘Karinsky’ of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, soon to be poached by Hollywood.  But whomever responsible, give that nameless suit-maker a prize.  The film deserves one, too.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: The modern ballet music not only written by Arthur Honegger, but with Honegger conducting on screen.  And check out that surrealistic stage set, Ionic column & giant forearm.  Presumably the work of production designer Pierre Marquet.

DOUBLE-BILL: *That bitterness, a leftover from Nazi Occupation only a year in the past and still alive in the shadows of UN REVENANT, an on-going reality in the small town backstabbing atmosphere of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s LE  CORBEAU/’43.