Gilding the Cage:
French Cinema of the Occupation
From September 3 to September 29, the Gene Siskel Film Center presents Gilding the Cage: French Cinema of the Occupation, a series of nine films presented in association with Cultural Services of the French Embassy and the Ministère des Affaires Étrangères (MAE).
The period between the 1940 Nazi invasion and the 1944 Allied liberation is one of the most contradictory, controversial, and fascinating in French film history. Despite the terrible circumstances of the German Occupation, French cinema flourished during the war. Downcast by rationing and defeat, people flocked to movie theaters for escapism and relief. The forcible elimination of most foreign competition, chiefly from Hollywood, enabled French films to dominate their home market, with only occasional imports from Germany.
It is a bittersweet irony that the removal of several leading French filmmakers via exile, imprisonment, and anti-Semitism also opened the door for an influx of fresh talent. As Francois Truffaut pointed out, the label “new wave” could have been as aptly applied to the early 1940s as to the late 1950s. Over two dozen important new directors came to prominence at this time, including such luminaries as Claude Autant-Lara, Jacques Becker, Robert Bresson, André Cayatte, Henri-Georges Clouzot, and Jean Delannoy.
Despite the constraints of government censorship, French filmmakers managed to produce a rich body of creative and stylish work, often by retreating into fantasy and period films. The extent to which these films functioned as veiled commentary on the current political situation is still debated by film scholars. However, only a handful of French films produced during the Occupation actually supported the collaborationist regime.
Our selection includes such celebrated classics as CHILDREN OF PARADISE, LE CORBEAU, and DOUCE (all currently out of circulation in the U.S.); rarely screened rediscoveries such as IT HAPPENED AT THE INN and STORMY WATERS; and Bertrand Tavernier’s recent tribute to Occupation filmmaking, SAFE CONDUCT.
film descriptions
CHILDREN OF PARADISE
(LES ENFANTS DU PARADIS)
1945, Marcel Carné, France, 163 min.
With Jean-Louis Barrault, Arletty
The acknowledged masterpiece of the Occupation period and one of the most beloved French films of all time, CHILDREN OF PARADISE is a sweeping panorama of the theatrical and criminal worlds of 19th-century Paris, topped by the legendary performances of Barrault as the brilliant mime Baptiste and Arletty as the beautiful heartbreaker Garance. Begun in 1943 but not completed until after the Liberation, CHILDREN OF PARADISE is a provocative reflection on the political role of popular culture, made all the more fascinating by its relationship to the troubled time when it was made. In French with English subtitles. There will be a 10-minute intermission. In French with English subtitles. 35mm. (MR)
Saturday, September 17, 3:00 pm;
Monday, September 19, 6:30 pm;
Wednesday, September 21, 6:30 pm
LE CORBEAU
(a.k.a. THE RAVEN)
1943, Henri-Georges Clouzot, France, 92 min.
With Pierre Fresnay, Micheline Francey
A milestone of French noir, LE CORBEAU exposed the rancid underside of Occupied France more bitingly than any other movie. As a result, it offended nearly every faction of French society, from the Church to the Vichy government to the Resistance, and it was banned after the war. A country town is disrupted by a series of poison-pen letters signed by “The Raven.” Exposing the dirty secrets of the town’s most respected citizens, the malicious missives spread havoc, while suspicions run wild regarding the identity of their author. In French with English subtitles. 35mm. (MR)
Saturday, September 10, 3:00 pm;
Wednesday, September 14, 6:00 pm
DOUCE
1943, Claude Autant-Lara, France, 109 min.
With Odette Joyeux, Marguerite Moreno
“Not to be missed . . . One of the finest French films made during the German Occupation.” -- Elliott Stein, Village Voice
This elegant blend of social satire and poignant romance was the first film scripted by the celebrated “Tradition of Quality” team of Jean Aurenche (one of the main characters in SAFE CONDUCT) and Pierre Bost. Its intricate plot centers on a young upper-class woman (Joyeux) who attempts to rebel against her stifling social milieu. In French with English subtitles. 35mm. (MR)
Sunday, September 18, 3:00 pm;
Thursday, September 22, 6:00 pm
IT HAPPENED AT THE INN
(GOUPI MAINS ROUGES)
1943, Jacques Becker, France, 100 min.
With Fernand Ledoux, Georges Rollin
IT HAPPENED AT THE INN was the revelation of our 2003 Jacques Becker retrospective, and we urge you not to miss the opportunity to see this rarely screened gem. A not-as-dumb-as-he-seems city lad arrives in a provincial backwater where he finds himself embroiled with a murder, a hidden treasure, and the warring factions of a most peculiar family. Part mystery story, part black comedy, part Balzacian social canvas, part satire of country-city conflicts, INN is at all times a ripping good yarn, laced with irony and vivid characterizations. In French with English subtitles. 35mm. (MR)
Sunday, September 11, 3:00 pm;
Monday, September 12, 6:00 pm
LE MARIAGE DE CHIFFON
1941, Claude Autant-Lara, France, 103 min.
With Odette Joyeux, André Luguet
Director Autant-Lara’s first major work (co-scripted by Jean Aurenche) in many ways anticipates his masterpiece DOUCE, with Odette Joyeux as a young woman caught in the net of bourgeois hypocrisy. Her mother (Suzanne Dantès) pressures her to marry a wealthy colonel, but Chiffon secretly yearns for her uncle, an impoverished aviator. In French with English subtitles. 35mm. (MR)
Sunday, September 25, 3:00 pm;
Thursday, September 29, 8:00 pm
LA NUIT FANTASTIQUE
1942, Marcel L’Herbier, France, 100 min.
With Fernand Gravey, Micheline Presle
Retreats into the past and into fantasy were leading trends in French wartime cinema. In this delightful romantic fantasy, a student (Gravey) who works in a flower market steps into a dream world where he follows a luminous young woman (Presle) through a night filled with strange adventures. A giant of French silent cinema, L’Herbier enlivens the film with fluid camerawork and witty allusions to the style of M�li�s and the 1920s avant garde. In French with English subtitles. 35mm. (MR)
Saturday, September 3, 3:00 pm;
Wednesday, September 7, 6:00 pm
SAFE CONDUCT
(LAISSEZ-PASSER)
2001, Bertrand Tavernier, France, 163 min.
With Jacques Gamblin, Denis Podalydès
We begin the series with Bertrand Tavernier’s fictional tribute to this controversial period of French film history. SAFE CONDUCT explores the complex moral terrain of the era through two fact-based characters: hedonistic, apolitical screenwriter Jean Aurenche (Podalydès) and Resistance-member assistant director Jean Devaivre (Gamblin). Often ranked with Martin Scorsese as a world-class filmmaker with a passion for film history, Tavernier enriches the drama with a vivid overview of the films, personalities, and day-to-day problems of French cinema under the Nazis. In French with English subtitles. 35mm. (MR)
Friday, September 2, 6:30 pm;
Sunday, September 4, 3:00 pm
STORMY WATERS
(REMORQUES)
1941, Jean Grémillon, France, 81 min.
With Jean Gabin, Michèle Morgan
Interrupted by the war in 1939 and completed two years later, STORMY WATERS bridges the worlds of 1930s “poetic realism” and Occupation cinema. Gabin plays a Brittany tugboat captain torn between his sickly wife (Madeleine Renaud) and a woman he rescues (Morgan), but the real star is director Grémillon’s powerful sense of atmosphere, a haunting symphony of waves, wind, and sirens. In French with English subtitles. 35mm. (MR)