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Le jour se lve
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Wikipedia article
'Le jour se lve' (, "The day rises"; also known as 'Daybreak') is a 1939 French film directed by Marcel Carn and written by Jacques Prvert, based on a story by Jacques Viot. It is considered one of the principal examples of the French film movement known as poetic realism.
In 1952, it was included in the first 'Sight & Sound' top ten greatest films list.
Synopsis
Foundry worker Franois (Jean Gabin) shoots and kills Valentin (Jules Berry). Franois then locks himself in his apartment. He is soon besieged by the police, who fail in an attempt to shoot their way into the room. As they regroup to decide how to apprehend him, Franois begins to reminisce on how he came to be in this predicament.
Several months earlier, he had begun to date Franoise (Jacqueline Laurent), a florist's assistant. They bonded over the similarities in their names and the fact that they both were orphans. Franois fell in love with her and hoped to marry her, but she turned him down in order to have a relationship with the older Valentin, a narcissistic, manipulative dog trainer. Embittered, Franois began a relationship with Clara (Arletty), Valentin's former assistant in his dog show. Over the next few weeks, Clara fell in love with Franois, but he preferred to have only a casual relationship with her; she knew it was because he had continued to see Franoise, with whom he was still in love. One day, Valentin told Franois that he was in fact Franoise's father; she was the product of a youthful dalliance. Later that afternoon, Franois asked Franoise if Valentin was telling the truth. She denied it, saying that Valentin habitually made up stories. But she also confessed that she was falling in love with Franois and wanted to be with him.
Valentin confronted Franois in his apartment. He admitted to having lied about being Franoise's father and brandished a gun with which he had intended to shoot Franois. Instead, he taunted Franois with allusions to his sexual encounters with Franoise. Enraged, Franois picked up the gun and shot Valentin.
Alone in his room and out of cigarettes, Franois realizes he has no hope of escape. He does not know that Franoise, delirious with guilt, is now being tended to by Clara. The police decide to throw tear gas into Franois's room in an attempt to subdue him. But just before they do, Franois commits suicide by shooting himself in the heart.
Cast
* Jean Gabin as Franois
* Jacqueline Laurent as Franoise
* Jules Berry as Valentin
* Arletty as Clara
* Arthur Devre as Gerbois
* Bernard Blier as Gaston
* Marcel Prs as Paulo
* Germaine Lix as singer
* Georges Douking as blind man (uncredited)
Distribution
'Le jour se lve' was released in France in June 1939 and shown in the US the following year. In France, however, the film was banned in 1940 by the Vichy government on the grounds it was demoralizing. After the war's end, the film was shown again to wide acclaim.
In 1947, it was again suppressed when RKO Radio Pictures wanted to remake the film in Hollywood (as 'The Long Night'). The company acquired the distribution rights of the French film and sought to buy up and destroy every copy of the film that they could obtain. For a time it was feared that they had been successful and that the film was lost, but it re-appeared in the 1950s and has subsequently stood alongside 'Les Enfants du paradis' as one of the finest achievements of the partnership of Carn and Prvert.
Home media
In 2014, a restored version of the film was released as a region-B Blu-ray disc by Studio Canal. This version reinstates dialogue and shots (including a nude Arletty) that had been deleted by Vichy censors.
See also
*List of rediscovered films
References
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