L'Épave (1949)
Directed by Willy Rozier

Film Review

Willy Rozier is not a film director that springs to mind readily these days, although in his time he did enjoy some success, turning out low grade but popular melodramas for a less discerning French film audience.  L'Épave is one of his best-known films, mainly on account of the fact that it introduced an actress who would become one of the divas of 1950s French cinema, Françoise Arnoul.  Arnoul was just 18 when she took the lead in this, her first film (she had appeared briefly as an extra in Jacques Becker's Rendez-vous de juillet). The part not only exploited her multiple talents as an actress, singer and dancer, but also established her as a sex symbol via a scene in which she appears topless.  Disproving the old adage about lightning striking twice in the same spot, Rozier would also unleash another sex bombshell on French cinema a few years later, namely Brigitte Bardot in Manina, la fille sans voile (1952).

L'Épave is as inexpertly realised as any other film that Rozier put his name to but it also has a primitive lyrical quality that elevates it above the director's usual low standard.  It's a pity that the visual poetry of the impressive underwater sequences isn't equally represented in the rest of the film, but some engaging performances (Arnoul is stunning throughout) just about masks the vacuity of the insipid plot and Rozier's clumsy attempts to play the auteur.  (The director was at his best when he stuck to established conventions, as with his enjoyable Feydeau farce Monsieur Chasse (1947) and crime drama 56, rue Pigalle (1949)). Some of Rozier's artistic choices - notably the use of voiceover narration - are borderline weird and highly distracting, but these at least help to alleviate the film's soporific pace and lack of substance.  It's by no means Willy Rozier's worst film, and Françoise Arnoul's 'wild gamine' presence endows it with a charm that makes it worth watching, but only just.

Film Synopsis

Perrucha is a Spanish refugee who has just one ambition: to become a famous singer.  Performing at a bar in Toulon, she meets Mario, a young deep-sea diver.  They fall in love but the romance does not last - Perrucha is too committed to her career to want to settle down with Mario.  As Perrucha pursues her dream and becomes the protégée of a rich impresario, Mario leaves Toulon to find work recovering treasures from a sunken ship.  The work proves to be more hazardous than Mario expected and he sustains a serious injury.  Returning to Toulon, he is sent into a murderous rage when Perrucha rejects him...