Montmartre-sur-Seine (1941)
Directed by Georges Lacombe

Film Review

Although she had made a brief appearance (as a singer) in Jean de Limur's La Garçonne (1936), Édith Piaf's screen career began proper with this amiable sentimental melodrama that would probably have been lost in the mists of time had it not been for Piaf's captivating presence and her rendition of several of her best numbers of the period.  Immediately prior to this, Piaf had made her acting debut on the Parisian stage in Le Bel indifférent, a play written for her by her close friend Jean Cocteau.  In this play, she had starred along side her partner at the time, Paul Meurisse, who appears in a supporting role in Montmartre-sur-Seine.  Another of Piaf's handsome protégés, Henri Vidal, was cast opposite her in the film (at Piaf's insistence) in his first screen role, here credited as Henry Vidal.  The principal cast is completed by Jean-Louis Barrault (an actor Piaf greatly admired) and Roger Duchesne, who is best remembered today for playing the lead in Jean-Pierre Melville's seminal gangster film Bob le flambeur (1955).

Directed by Georges Lacombe and scripted by André Cayatte (an unlikely pairing for a musical romance), Montmartre-sur-Seine owes its lyricism and modernity to its extensive use of real location in the picturesque locale of Montmartre, a quiet district of Paris renowned as a haven for artists.  It's a suitably romantic setting for a tangled tale of frustrated love, the pains of which are beautifully expressed by Piaf's extraordinary vocal work.  The song Tu es partout typifies the romantic street ballad that first made Piaf famous and provides the centre piece for what could very nearly pass as a biography of the singer's own tormented life. 

Piaf's own thwarted quest for personal happiness is mirrored in the fate of the character she plays, a dowdy-looking street singer who finds fame but loses her true love (the man who plays her lover, Henri Vidal, would die tragically young when his career hit the rocks).  The film's other musical showstopper is L'Homme des bars, a rare blues number for Piaf in which she amply demonstrates just why she was the greatest French chansonnier of her generation.  It is an electrifying sequence that cannot fail to leave the spectator struck with awe and admiration (although it makes the rest of the film seem pretty dull and listless).  The story may be banal and unconvincing, but a totally committed performance from one of France's greatest cultural legends makes Montmartre-sur-Seine one of the most enjoyable films to be released during the dark years of Occupation.

Film Synopsis

In Montmartre, Paris, Michel is in love with Lily, but she only has eyes for Maurice, a handsome shop assistant.  Unaware of Lily's interest in him, Maurice loves Juliette, but the arrival of another man, Claude, threatens his budding romance.  Rejected by Juliette, Maurice begins to pay Lily some attention and accompanies her on his accordion when she sings songs in the streets.  Fortune smiles on Lily and within no time she is a star of the Parisian music hall.  Her only desire is to see Maurice succeed as a musician, but his lack of talent drives them apart...