La Belle équipe (1936)
Directed by Julien Duvivier

Film Review

The sublime belief in collective action through fraternal solidarity that resulted in the election of the Front Populaire government in France in the spring of 1936 is cruelly mocked in La Belle équipe, a film which, in its original form, is among Julien Duvivier's most sarcastic and most frighteningly prescient. Whereas the left-leaning Jean Renoir threw his all in with the naive aspirations of the Front Populaire, to the extent that his Le Crime de Monsieur Lange (1936) and La Vie est à nous (1936), both reek of Communist propaganda, Duvivier and his screenwriter Charles Spaak were more sceptical and, as it turned out, far more realistic.  The film they envisaged bleakly anticipated the failure of the ragtag leftwing coalition government, but unfortunately it was not the film that audiences were allowed to see.  The film's original downbeat ending was substituted for a happier one that was more in keeping with the mood of the time.  It was almost as if no one (other than diehard cynics like Duvivier) dared to imagine that the Utopian dream of a worker's paradise on Earth could ever fail.

And so the version of La Belle équipe that is now most widely available is one that seems to come out in favour of the Front Populaire ideal, cheerily conning us into believing that a shared dream can succeed and overcome petty self-interest, random misfortune and even sexual rivalry.  Whilst not as drearily upbeat as Jean Boyer's Prends la route (1936), the film with its obviously fake ending cannot help feeling as contrived and unconvincing as a government broadcast, which partly explains why it is somewhat less well regarded than Duvivier's other important films of this era.  It is only the original version of the film that has any kind of coherence, and even then it is beset with the melodramatic conventions of the time, with the plot bearing a more than passing similarity with the director's previous La Bandera (1935) - an impression that can only be reinforced by Jean Gabin's presence in the lead role.

This was the third of six films by Duvivier in which Gabin played the central character, following Maria Chapdelaine (1934) and La Bandera (he also had a notable, atypical supporting role in Golgotha (1935)).  By this time, Gabin was strongly identified with the working class heroic archetype that epitomised the noble proletariat, so who better to play the lead in La Belle équipe, a man whose blinkered idealism and misguided faith in human nature mirrored perfectly those of the Popular Front government?  It starts out well enough, with five close male friends willingly pooling their lottery winnings to form their own riverside collective, but it isn't long before the delusions start to come unravelled, and when slinky über-vamp Viviane Romance enters the frame and starts to drive a mountain-sized wedge between buddies Gabin and Charles Vanel it's only a matter of time before the whole stack of castles in the sky come tumbling down.  Or not as the case may be (depending which version of the film  you get to see).

The film's eminently hummable title ballad Quand on s'promène au bord de l'eau, sung by Gabin (a more than capable chansonnier), evokes the spirit of the Front Populaire era so strongly that it might have been its anthem.  Not surprisingly, the song was a notable hit of the time - more so than the film which, even with its crass, sanitised ending, failed to enthuse the public.  Despite being one of Julien Duvivier's major films, La Belle équipe has yet to be released on DVD.  The descendents of the film's director and screenwriter recently won a lawsuit against the French distributor René Chateau which now forbids them to exploit the film in the 'happy ending' version that Duvivier was himself so strongly opposed to.  If and when the film ever makes it on to DVD it seems pretty likely that it will be the version that its authors intended - a depressing modern fable in which a splendid dream is progressively eroded and ultimately hacked to pieces by human frailty. Duvivier's moral is that whilst solidarity is a noble thing that can achieve great things in the short term (the Popular Front government lasted long enough to introduce paid leave and the right to strike), in the end self-interest and stupidity will always prevail over collective good will.

Film Synopsis

France, 1936,  Jean, Charles, Mario, Raymond and Jacques are five unemployed friends who are desperately looking for work and live in a squalid Parisian apartment block.  They can still afford to buy the odd lottery ticket, and it is with astonishment and jubilation that they react to the news that they have just won 100 thousand francs.  The temptation to go out and spend their winnings at once is almost too strong to resist but instead the friends decide to use the money to convert an abandoned washhouse into a riverside café, thereby obtaining an income for life.

In a mood of carefree bonhomie, the five men throw themselves into their business venture with unbridled enthusiasm but, through a series of unhappy circumstances, their spirit of solidarity gradually fragments.  Jacques is secretly in love with Mario's fiancée.  Rather than cause trouble, he opts to walk away from the group and is seen no more.  Mario, a Spanish refugee who is in the country illegally, is soon taken away by the police.  Then there were three - and the worse blows are yet to come.

Raymond, the most cheerful member of the gang, falls to his death on the eve of the café's grand opening.  This leaves Jean and Charles, and they end up falling out when the latter's ex-wife Gina shows up unexpectedly and demands her share of her husband's good fortune.  Jean becomes so infatuated with the seductive woman that his friendship with Charles is threatened.  It is just as likely that he will kill his rival as it is that he will patch things up with him and make a success of their shared venture...