Though working with all the usual suspects at the apex of classic French cinema (‘30s thru ‘50s), director Jean Grémillon flew just below radar outside his country. And good as L’ETRANGE is, you can see why. Raimu stars as a blustery dry goods shop owner in Toulon nervously due to become a father. Deferring to his wife & mother, this soul of propriety also leads a secret life, fencing stolen goods for a gang of local thugs, unexpectedly tough as needed. And when a murder comes into this double life, he lays low and lets a neighboring cobbler take the rap. Seven years later, our shopkeep, now a man of means, has grown estranged from his wife, his young son, even his own mother, changed by a guilty soul and the man still rotting in prison in his place. Oozing his criminal responsibility from every pore, he’s a French bourgeois Raskolnikov desperate for punishment. And when the innocent cobbler escapes, and risks going home to see his wife (about to remarry) and his son (a teenage lout), he’s overwhelmed by the unsolicited friendship & help Raimu uncomfortably forces on him. A marvelous setup, but only a pretty good film. Hard to put a finger on just why. To some extent, Charles Spaak’s screenplay foreshadows with the subtly of a trailer at a Drive-In movie theater, and the different styles of acting sometimes bump against each other. On the other hand, Grémillon does a fine job messing with our sense of allegiance & sympathy. Perhaps it’s simply a case of needing to see the one film that unlocks the rest of a filmmaker’s output.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: Three more Gremillon films currently posted: LUMIERE D'ETE/’43, which lands somewhat behind this one and REMORQUES/41 which we place slightly ahead. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2013/09/lumiere-dete-1943.html https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2022/05/remorques-1941.html https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2015/07/le-ciel-est-vous-woman-who-dared-1944.html
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