Coeur de lilas (1932)
Directed by Anatole Litvak

Film Review

Coeur de lilas is an interesting early example of the French policier and was based on a stage-play by Bernard and Hirsch.  It is one of the earliest films to be directed by the Russian émigré Anatole Litvak who later went on to make a successful career as a film director in the United States, helming such popular fare as Anastasia (1956).  The film cost 120,000 dollars, making it reputedly the most expensive film to be made in France up to this point.  The plot is admittedly somewhat unsophisticated, but it has all the familiar film noir elements which would recur in subsequent French crime thrillers over the following decades.   The film was a popular commercial success, more than recouping its high production cost.

Perhaps the most striking thing about this film is how it captures the mood and feel of the early 1930s, thanks to some ambitious exterior filming, convincing interior sets and - most noticeably - the popular musical hall melodies which run the length of the film.  The film exudes a sense of nostalgia which makes watching it today a genuine treat, in spite of the dated production values and the mediocre quality of the surviving film prints.

As the titular Coeur de Lilas, Marcelle Romée has a haunting, almost ethereal, presence and makes an effective contrast with her more down-to-earth male co-star André Luguet.  Romée's promising screen career was cut short when she committed suicide within a year of making this film - she drowned herself in the River Seine after running away from the clinic where she had been hospitalised. The actress's own personal tragedy is echoed in that of the character she plays, and brings a heightened poignancy to the film's tragic conclusion.  Future icon of French cinema Jean Gabin also appears in the film. By this time, he was major star of the French music hall and had shown up in a few films, but he had yet to make his name in the cinema in such films as Pépé-le-Moko and La Belle équipe. Here, Gabin is cast in an atypical role - a rough thug who is always itching for a fight.

Many early French sound films included musical hall-style songs, presumably to make the new medium appeal to the wider public.  Coeur de lilas is no exception and includes no less than three numbers.  The first is sung by Fréhel, a popular singer of the 1930s, renowned for her rough yet deeply emotional voice.  Fréhel and Gabin sing the film's main song, La Môme caoutchouc (which Gabin subsequently recorded solo, with great success).   The final number is sung by a comparatively unknown actor named Fernandel - what ever happened to him?

Film Synopsis

When an industrialist is found dead it is not long before one of the employees at his factory is arrested and charged with his murder.  Inspector André Lucot has reason to believe the man is innocent of the crime and instead he begins to suspect a young woman in her mid-twenties named Couchoux - better known by her nickname Coeur de Lilas.  All that Lucot has to go on so far is that one of the woman's gloves was found at the scene of the crime.  To gain her confidence, he goes undercover and mixes with her slum entourage of criminals, drunks and prostitutes.  As he gets to know Couchoux, Lucot finds himself gradually falling in love with her, and it isn't long before he is completely convinced of her innocence.  It is then that the woman admits to him her terrible secret...