Jusqu’au dernier (1957) - film review

After a short stretch in jail, Fernand Bastia turns up at a travelling circus and persuades his sister to find a temporary job and accommodation for him. There, he is attracted towards the shapely young dancer Gina.  He reveals to her that before his arrest he was involved in a spectacular robbery, and that he alone knows the whereabouts of the stolen money.   Unfortunately, Bastia’s former colleagues are also eager to retrieve the loot...

The 1950s was when French film noir was in its heyday.  The genre was both remarkably popular in France and occupied a dominant place in French cinema of this decade. Jusqu’au dernier is one film which epitomises the best and the worst of the French film noir, an almost slavish pastiche of the American gangster film, yet oozing with Gallic charm and sophistication.

Like many French films which attempt the film noir in its purest form, Jusqu’au dernier ends up resembling more a parody of the more memorable American films of the 1940s than a serious attempt to reinvent the style of those legendary films.  Most of the characters in the film are the familiar stereotypes, there are the inevitable shoot outs (which are actually rather well done) and the film’s ending is as comical as it is dramatic.

But, however dreadful all this may sound, none of it really matters. Jusqu’au dernier is a great film mainly because it does not take itself entirely seriously, but also because it is a quality film with its own distinctive charm.  Whilst the film is not as overtly comical as other gangster films of the period (most notably the Lemmy Caution series), it certainly does stray closer to melodrama than drama, with the familiar film noir trappings exploited in a particularly tongue-in-cheek vein.   However, the atmospheric sets, the lingering suspense and underlying morality tale manage to fuse to give the film some moments of sheer pleasure, making this a classic film of its genre.

The film will probably be best remembered for the excellent acting performances, most notably from Raymond Pellegrin, Paul Meurisse, Jeanne Moreau and Howard Vernon (not to mention the incomparable Mouloudji).  Although the film has some difficulty maintaining its dramatic intensity, this is more than compensated for by the larger than life characters which bring it to life, aided and abetted by the dialogue and dry wit of script-writer Michel Audiard.

© James Travers 2000

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