Film Review
In the 1930s, Marc Allégret directed a number of films that are
rightly considered classics of their time -
Lac
aux dames (1934),
Sous les yeux d'occident
(1936),
Entrée des artistes
(1938) - but there are many others which have fallen by the
wayside. Amongst those that now languish in obscurity there are
several little gems waiting to be rediscovered, including
La Dame de Malacca, a quality
melodrama featuring two of the biggest French stars of the decade,
Edwige Feuillère and Pierre Richard-Willm. A prestige
production, Allégret brings to it the visual flair that is
readily apparent in his better known films, and also his distinctive
form of romanticism. In contrast to the bleak fatalism seen in
poetic realist films by Julien Duvivier, Jean Grémillon and
Marcel Carné, the protagonists in Allégret's melodramas
are victims not of fate but of social convention and human intolerance.
Adapted from a novel by Francis de Croisset, the film exemplifies the
kind of torrid colonial melodrama that was enormously popular in France
(and also in the English speaking world) in the latter half of the
1930s. In addition to numerous films set in the North African
colonies - including, notably Duvivier's
Pépé
le Moko (1937) - there were many, similar to
La Dame de Malacca, that ventured
to the Far East, other examples including Marcel L'Herbier's
Forfaiture
(1937), G.W. Pabst's
Le Drame de Shanghaï
(1938) and Jean Delannoy's
Macao, l'enfer du jeu
(1939). Thanks to Jules Kruger's proto-noir cinematography and
some impressive art design, Allégret's film evokes the
fragranced mystique of the Orient, together with a stifling sense of
the unease that comes with an unfamiliar culture, witnessed by the
primitive spectacle of a cock fight in a crowded gambling den.
Against this exotic background, a fairly conventional melodrama
acquires a new and exciting dynamic, a familiar story revitalised by an
unfamiliar setting.
Edwige Feuillère's stock in trade was playing women who made a
habit of defying social taboos in the pursuit of personal
fulfilment. On stage in the 1940s, she triumphed as the courtesan
Marguerite Gautier in Alexandre Dumas'
La Dame aux camélias, and
most of her best screen portrayals took in characters of a similar
hue. In
La Dame de Malacca,
Feuillère's sensual outcast doesn't only commit the social faux
pas of adultery, she does so with a man of another race, a far greater
crime in the eyes of her straitlaced peers. This is by no means
Feuillère's most controversial role - she would later be
cast as a lesbian schoolmistress in Jacqueline Audry's
Olivia
(1951) and a craddle snatcher in Claude Autant-Lara's
Le
Blé en herbe (1954) - but such was the stigma
surrounding miscegenation at the time that audiences would have been
shocked by her character's passionate liaison with a dark skinned
foreigner, even if the dark skinned foreigner in question was played by
a distinctly non-Oriental-looking Pierre Richard-Willm. Whilst
certain aspects of the film badly date it (the plot is pure hokum, too
many of the characters are blatant stereotypes), it does have many
redeeming qualities, its prime asset being an utterly captivating
central performance from one of the unrivalled divas of French cinema.
© James Travers 2015
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Marc Allégret film:
Entrée des artistes (1938)
Film Synopsis
Audrey Greenwood is glad to leave behind her a dull and uneventful career
as a teacher at a provincial school as she embarks on a new life as the wife
of Major Carter, a British Army officer. The couple are soon on their
way to Malaysia, so that Carter can take up a post in a British colony in
the small state of Malacca. During the long sea journey, Audrey makes
the acquaintance of Prince Sélim, the heir to the Malay throne.
Life in Malaysia does not seem to agree with the spirited young woman.
She gets herself into trouble by taking photographs of the natives, disregarding
their religion, and then causes tongues to wag in profusion when she begins
an intense love affair with the prince.
By now, Audrey's indifference towards her husband has turned to outright
contempt when she realises what an unscrupulous opportunist he is.
The humiliating intervention of Lady Brandmore, the prim and proper wife
of the province's governor, merely furthers her standing as a social outcast.
Driven from the husband she can no long tolerate and the hypocritical society
she now despises, Audrey becomes ever more isolated and soon falls dangerously
ill. It is the prince who comes to her rescue, and by accepting his
hand in marriage she is finally able to get her revenge on all those who
sought to drive her from polite society...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.