Film Review
Whilst he certainly had his detractors (the esteemed screenwriter Henri Jeanson
being the most outspoken) Roger Richebé deserves to be
recognised as one of the more capable French film directors of his
generation. Indeed, he brought a great deal of artistry to a wide
range of genres, which included melodrama, historical drama, comedy and
noir-style thriller.
Gibier de
potence is among Richebé's most compelling films, a slick
adaptation of the 1949 novel of the same title by the Prix Goncourt
winning author Jean-Louis Curtis. It is a film that deals with a
subject that was hardly ever been touched on before in French cinema,
namely male prostitution, and does so with surprising candour and
directness for its time. The film also broke new ground with a
sequence in which the photogenic lead actors Georges Marchal and Nicole
Courcel strip naked and make an innocent night-time swim resemble a
passionate love scene - incredible to think that this preceded Louis
Malle's
Les Amants (controversial for
its nude scenes) by a full seven years.
Gibier de potence's other
claim to fame is that it gave Arletty, one of the great icons of French
cinema, the opportunity to play a truly evil character, something that
eluded her for most of her career. Arletty was of course famous
for playing seedy individuals, mostly prostitutes slinking about out in
the lower depths of Paris, but rarely was she cast as an outright
villain, and the main joy of Roger Richebé's film is watching
her play a truly vile specimen of humanity, and doing so with absolute
conviction. (A decade previously, Arletty had delivered a similar
knock-out performance in another film by Richebé,
Madame
Sans-Gêne). Madame Alice is the kind of role
that you'd think only Bette Davis could get away with in her later
years, a stone-hearted female pimp who, by exercising her magnetic
charm, entices pretty young men into her vice-sodden den and then
guards them with the ferocity of a tiger. Arletty's best years
were behind her by now but her performance as Madame Alice, possibly
the greatest female fiend that French cinema ever gave us, proved that
the 52-year-old actress was still a force to be reckoned with.
With Arletty firing on all cylinders, the male lead needed to be an
actor of comparable talent and charisma to avoid being totally eclipsed
or made to resemble a weak-willed fool. Georges Marchal was
eminently up to the job and, well-served by an excellent script from
Jean Aurenche and Maurice Blondeau (which is marred only by some
over-earnest moralising), has rarely given such an involving and
intense performance. There's a wonderful ambiguity to the
relationship between Marchal and Arletty's character, which is subtly
emphasised by Philippe Agostini's noir-like cinematography.
Madame Alice clearly has no romantic interest in her prize victim
Marceau but there's an unmistakable sexual tension between the two, a
bond of mutual dependency so tangible that you can almost see it on the
screen.
Madame Alice is more than just a cruel, self-interested dominatrix,
revelling in the power she has over her young protégé;
there is also something resembling maternal interest, as if she
genuinely believes she is acting for his best interest by making him a
career gigolo. Marchal's devotion to his supposed benefactor is
even harder to fathom, and we cannot be sure whether it is the lure of
easy money that makes him such a willing victim or a genuine attraction
for a woman he knows he can never possess. Maybe he just imagines
her to be a substitute for the mother he never had.
Gibier de potence impresses on many
fronts, but, more than anything, it is the relationship between the two
contrasting and equally flawed main characters that makes it such a
darkly fascinating film.
© James Travers 2015
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
On leaving the orphanage in which he grew up, Marceau Le Guern has
difficulty finding gainful employment. Not long after he is
dismissed as a butcher's assistant he encounters the mysterious Madame
Alice, an older woman who, seeing he is in difficulty, offers him easy
work for good pay. The 'work' turns out to be posing for
pornographic photographs for lonely women, and whilst the prospect
disgusts Marceau, he is in no position to turn down the offer. He
then finds he can earn even more money as a gigolo, hired out by Madame
Alice to her wealthier clients. WWII then intervenes and Marceau
spends most of the next five years as a prisoner of war. On his
return to France, Marceau intends turning over a new leaf, but Madame
Alice's grip on him is too strong. He is soon resuming his former
life and Madame Alice contrives to win for him the position of estate
manager to a rich woman, Consuelo. During his first visit to the
latter's family home in the country, Marceau meets and instantly falls
in love with a young woman named Dominique. He is determined to
start a new life with Dominique, but Madame Alice is equally resolved
to prevent him...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.