Film Review
In the wake of his inspired Patricia Highsmith adaptation
Plein
soleil (1960) and Fascist-themed period comedy
Quelle joie de vivre (1960),
René Clément made one of his less well-known films, an
intense war-time drama starring the magnificent Simone Signoret at the
height of her powers. Released in France on 5th April 1963,
Le Jour et l'heure was
Clément's twelfth feature and the fourth of his films to be set
during the Second World War. In 1946, Clément won the Best
Director award and Grand Prize at the first Cannes Film Festival for
his acclaimed war time drama-documentary
La Bataille du rail; this was
followed by
Le Père tranquille
(1946),
Les Maudits (1947) and the
Oscar-winning
Jeux interdits (1952).
Le Jour et l'heure deserves
far greater prominence than it currently enjoys as it is assuredly one
of the best of the WWII-era films made in France in the 1960s, far
superior to the director's subsequent overblown, rambling epic
Paris
brûle-t-il? (1966). Clément's technical
expertise and penchant for authenticity is evident throughout the film,
and with directorial assistance from Costa-Gavras and Claude Pinoteau
(both of whom became renowned filmmakers in their own right a short
time afterwards), he could hardly fail to turn out yet another
winner. Through its remarkable attention to detail and Henri
Decaë's atmospheric photography, the film powerfully evokes the
mood of Nazi Occupied France, the fear of betrayal and the constant
threat of arrest. Best known for his soundtrack on Jacques
Deray's
Borsalino
(1970), the jazz pianist and composer Claude Bolling provides a
suitably menacing score for the film.
This is not to say that
Le Jour et
l'heure is an unqualified masterpiece. Occasionally,
Clément shows a tendency to over-egg the pudding, over-playing
the drama, for example in a long, claustrophobic train sequence and a
violent police interrogation. However, these lapses are more than
made up for by the poignant relationship at the heart of the narrative,
between an American airman and the depressive middleclass woman who
helps him to evade the Nazis. It is an unlikely romantic pairing
but somehow Simone Signoret and Stuart Whitman (recently seen in a
grander WWII piece,
The Longest Day) manage to make
it totally believable and we are soon immersed in their characters'
struggles as they become caught up in the twin tumults of war and
emotional involvement. Signoret's character is remarkably similar
to the one she later played in Jean-Pierre Melville's
L'Armée des ombres
(1969), and it seems likely that Melville gave her the role on the
strength of her performance in Clément's film.
Even though Signoret and Whitman monopolise our attention for most of
the film it helps that the supporting cast includes such distinguished
performers as Geneviève Page (excellent as a despicable
collaborator) and Michel Piccoli (in a small but beautifully formed
role). With his grotesquely sinister looks (which often led him
to be cast as vampires and killers) Reggie Nalder makes a disturbing
German policeman, whilst Marcel Bozzuffi and Pierre Dux prove to
be unspeakably vile as a pair of Nazi-loving French cops.
Le Jour et l'heure marks the
start of a run of films in which René Clément cast
prominent French and American actors in the leading roles. After
this we had the pairing of Alain Delon and Jane Fonda in
Les
Félins (1964), Marlène Jobert and Charles
Bronson in
Le Passager de la pluie (1970),
Jean-Louis Trintignant and Robert Ryan in
La Course du lièvre à
travers les champs (1972) and Maria Schneider and Sydne Rome in
Jeune fille libre le soir
(1975). In a filmography that is studded with enduring classics
and impeccable masterpieces,
Le Jour
et l'heure is all too easily overlooked but it is easily one of
René Clément's most compelling and humane dramas, far
more nuanced and satisfying than any other film he subsequently made
and perhaps more worthy of attention than some of his earlier
award-grabbing successes.
© Willems Henri (Brussels, Belgium) 2013
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Next René Clément film:
Les Félins (1964)
Film Synopsis
During WWII, Thérèse Dutheil refuses to have any interest
in politics, even though her husband is being held a prisoner-of-war in
Germany. Arriving in the village where she was born,
Thérèse learns that an American aeroplane has been shot
down and that the Germans are looking for the three airmen who
parachuted out to safety before the plane crashed. In the lorry
that is to take her back to Paris, Thérèse is surprised
to find the three American airmen. Having reached their
destination, one of the airmen, Captain Morley, is unable to take
refuge at a pharmacist's as planned. Instead, he asks
Thérèse to find him a place to stay, believing that she
is in with the French resistance. Thérèse agrees to
hide him at the house of her sister-in-law, Agathe, in spite of the
fact that the latter is far from hostile towards the Germans...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.