Jenny (1936)
Directed by Marcel Carné

Film Review

Jenny is the first full length film to be directed by Marcel Carné, one of the undisputed masters of French cinema.  Carné had previously made one short film Nogent, Eldorado du dimanche (1929) and had worked as an assistant to another great film director, Jacques Feyder.  Eager to make his own mark, Carné refused the support of Feyder on his first film and generally showed greater independence than most directors of this time, notably in the choice of screenwriter, cast and cinematographer.

Significantly, the film marks Marcel Carné's first collaboration with Jacques Prévert - one of the most well-known and talented screenwriters in French cinema.  Together, these two men developed a new style of film, poetic realism - an attempt to bring a much deeper sense of truth into conventional melodrama.   Over the course of a decade, beginning with Jenny and ending with Les Portes de la nuit (1946), Carné and Prévert refined poetic realism and gave us some of the finest French films of this era - including such masterpieces as Le Quai des brumes (1938), Hôtel du Nord (1938) and Les Enfants du paradis (1945).

What is most striking about a poetic realist film is its dark, unrelenting mood of pessimism.  In some respects, it is the forerunner of film noir - the cinematographic style has a bold expressionistic feel, with long shadows, confined sets and deep focus photography working to create an oppressive, fatalistic mood, with characters resembling mice caught in the cruellest of traps.  In Jenny , the poetic realism only becomes apparent in its second half - for the most part it feels like a standard piece of melodrama.  It is the exterior sequences of this film where the poetic realist style is most effective - for instance, the scene by the canal where Danielle and Lucien meet (beautifully shot, but with an unavoidable note of doom) and then later in the painfully tragic final sequence where Jenny faces up to her destiny.

The impact of Jenny is dimmed somewhat by Carné's inexperience (it is far less polished than his subsequent films), but also by some obvious changes that were imposed by the censor.  Prévert refused to make any changes to the script himself, and so this was undertaken by Jacques Constant - with the result that the film seems a lot tamer than it ought to be.  On a more positive note, the film has an extraordinary cast which includes no fewer than six major stars of French cinema in the 1930s.   The part of Jenny is played by Françoise Rosay (the wife of Jacques Feyder), one of her most memorable performances, although she is better known for her role in Carné's next film, Drôle de drame (1936).

Film Synopsis

So heartbroken is Danielle when her fiancé breaks off their engagement that she can no longer bear to go on living in London.  Badly in need of emotional support, she heads for Paris to stay with her mother, Jenny.  With her business associate Benoît, the latter runs what seems to be a perfectly respectable nightclub.  In fact, it is really nothing more than a high class brothel, where the rich male patrons can buy the favours of the attractive young female employees.  Danielle is entirely ignorant of this, just as she knows nothing about her mother's equally sordid private life.

Jenny's present lover is a handsome young man named Lucien, whom Benoît regards with some suspicion.  It is Lucien who comes to Danielle's rescue when one of her mother's more lecherous customers mistakes her for a prostitute.  The two young people are instantly attracted to one another and are soon deeply in love.  A violent falling out with Benoît results in Lucien being so badly wounded that he ends up in hospital.  It is only when she notices her daughter's tender concern for the injured man that Jenny realises the truth...