Le Paquebot Tenacity (1934)
Directed by Julien Duvivier

Film Review

Of the many films Julien Duvivier made in the 1930s, Le Paquebot Tenacity is one that is most easily overlooked.  A rough and ready adaptation of a popular but tediously dull stage play by Charles Vildrac, the film probably deserves its comparative obscurity.  The only thing that it has in its favour is that it is the earliest of Duvivier's films in which poetic realist style of his subsequent masterpieces is readily apparent, albeit in a fairly primitive form.  A common failing of screen versions of stage plays of this era is their inherent staginess.  Duvivier overcomes this by shooting virtually all of the film on location in the port of Le Havre, the setting of Marcel Carné's Le Quai des brumes (1938), the most perfect example of poetic realism.

Le Havre has an ambiance unlike any other French town and, with its constant background activity and indefinable aura of melancholia, is a perfect setting for any romantic drama.  Because it contains so much location footage, Le Paquebot Tenacity has a newsreel feel to it, although the vibrant exteriors scenes sit uncomfortably alongside the dead studio interiors.  It the locations scenes that work best, giving the film not only a striking realism but also a subtle poetic quality.  The photography is imbued with a sense of unattainable yearning, mocking the cheery optimism of the main protagonists as they set out, or try to set out, on a new life in a foreign clime.  Whilst it may not be quite so bleak, Le Paquebot Tenacity has a remarkable similarity with Duvivier's later La Belle équipe (1936).  Both films depict a friendship that ends in betrayal and disillusionment, the main characters falling out over a woman.

It's the classic love triangle scenario, with Albert Préjean and Hubert Prélier both succumbing to the obvious charms of the extremely photogenic Marie Glory, who had previously starred in Marcel L'Herbier's epic L'Argent (1928).  Préjean and Prélier make an effective contrast, their different acting styles reflecting their character's different natures, the one out-going and decisive, the other introverted and hesitant.  Prélier was primarily a stage actor (he appeared in only half a dozen films) and had already played Ségard in the original stage production of Le Paquebot Tenacity.  Préjean was, at the time, one of the biggest stars in French cinema, although he would soon be overtaken by Jean Gabin, with Duvivier's help.  Like Gabin, Préjean had a rugged charm and was at his best in proletarian hero parts, as he amply demonstrates in this film.  Uneven and lethargically paced, Le Paquebot Tenacity is by no means a classic but it has its own charm and presages the greater films that were to come from the Duvivier stable.

Film Synopsis

Paris, at the time of the Great Depression.  Bastien, a manual worker, persuades his timid friend, Ségard, to leave with him for Canada, to start a new life in a country where, according to the publicity films, everything is possible.  The two men arrive in the port of Le Havre, ready to depart on the ocean liner Tenacity.  They take lodgings at a boarding house where they both fall under the spell of the charming serving girl Thérèse.  When the boat's departure is delayed, Bastien takes advantage of the hiatus to court Thérèse.  One evening, he gets her drunk and lures her into bed with him, without his friend knowing.  The next day, Bastien has made up his mind to stay in France with Thérèse...