Sous le ciel de Paris (1951)
Directed by Julien Duvivier

Film Review

The anthology or episodic film was a genre that particularly appealed to director Julien Duvivier.  His 1937 film Un carnet de bal was one of the earliest films of this kind, and during his stay in Hollywood Duvivier made two further anthology films: Tales of Manhattan (1942) and Flesh and Fantasy (1943).  Towards the end of his career, he gathered together a host of famous French actors for Le Diable et les dix commandements (1962), one of his most entertaining comedies.  Sous le ciel de Paris just about qualifies as an anthology film because it is made up of several separate story strands, but what sets it apart is that these stories are intertwined and form part of a much bigger mosaic depicting the everyday drama of Parisian life.  Perhaps it is more accurate to classify this as an example of what is now known in France as the film choral, a patchwork-quilt kind of film in which the lives of several seemingly unrelated individuals become enmeshed purely by chance.

From its gorgeous opening vistas of the capital, Sous le ciel de Paris first appears to be an affectionate love letter to the City of Light.  With Paris looking as resplendent as ever in the morning sunlight, various happy souls are seen going about their business, all hopeful of finding what they most desire before the day is out.  It isn't long before the film's darker purpose is revealed, and what starts out as an affectionate billet doux is soon revealed to be a scathing, deeply pessimistic commentary on human nature, typical of Duvivier's later work.  With this director, first impressions are invariably misleading.
 
The old woman who begs for money to feed her starving cats is treated with indifference and contempt by everyone she turns to for help.  A little girl is cruelly abandoned by the boy she has befriended.  A fashion student is subjected to sexual harassment by her employer.  A striking factory worker is shot by a policeman - not for being on strike, but because he just happens to get in the way.  A solitary artist seeks a way out of his personal abyss but ends up stalking the city like something out of a Gothic horror novel.  A young woman from the provinces has all her dreams dashed in quick succession and suffers the most ironic blow of all as Duvivier gives poetic realism one last savage twist of the knife.

But even as the mood of the film darkens, with the Grim Reaper seemingly stalking each of the protagonists with eager intent, the gloomy Mr Duvivier relents and condescends to offer a few rays of hope.  We are spared some of the more horrific plot turns that he could have taken and, in (almost) every case, virtue and perseverance are shown to be rewarded.  Admittedly, two of the main characters come to a very nasty end, but the rest are spared and are treated to what, for Duvivier, passes for a happy ending (albeit one with a very sour aftertaste).

No doubt in an attempt to convey the many different facets of la ville lumière Duvivier adopts a dizzying multitude of different cinematic styles, so that the end result is a curious hodgepodge of social drama, comedy, melodrama, psycho-thriller and documentary.  Most of the film was shot on location in Paris, in a way that makes it appear uncannily similar to the early films of the French New Wave.  The young Turks of the Nouvelle Vague would often ridicule directors of Duvivier's generation for being out of date but here Duvivier is anything but démodé.  He shows a keen interest in the problems of the young, understands the concerns of ordinary people and appears eager to try out radically different approaches to filmmaking. In Sous le ciel de Paris you can readily glimpse the foetus of the French New Wave - Truffaut's Les 400 coups, Godard's À bout de souffle and Rivette's Paris nous appartient and Rohmer's Le Signe du lion all seem to be here, in embryo form.  There is nothing new under the skies of Paris.

Groundbreaking as the film was at the time, Sous le ciel de Paris was not one of Duvivier's more successful ventures.  In common with most of the director's post-WWII work it was judged harshly by the critics and is now completely overshadowed by his earlier work.  The film's main claim to fame is its title song, which was written especially for the film by Hubert Giraud and Jean Dréjac and sung by Jean Bretonnière (who appears uncredited in the film as a street singer).  This song became a huge hit in France when it was released as a single by Édith Piaf, whilst the film itself soon plunged into obscurity.  Sous le ciel de Paris is not without its faults - the frenzied mix of genres and styles inevitably makes it an uncomfortably disjointed viewing experience, and the hearty voiceover narration soon becomes irritating.  Yet, imperfect though it is, the film has much to commend it.  At a time when French cinema had become dismally formulaic and predictable, it offered something refreshingly new in its crazy mélange of styles, as well as a bleakly insightful commentary on modern life in the city.  You might almost think the French New Wave began here, almost a full decade before Truffaut, Godard et alia showed up and claimed the mantle of modernity for themselves.  Julien Duvivier was the real trailblazer.

Film Synopsis

In a small garret in Paris's sixth arrondissement, Mademoiselle Perrier lives with her numerous cats.  To feed her treasured pets, the old woman needs to find 64 francs, so she sets out one morning to see if some kind soul will give her the money.  Wherever she goes, no one appears willing to help her.  Meanwhile, Denise, a naive young woman, has just arrived in the capital, hoping to receive a proposal of marriage from a young man she has fallen in love with.  A fortune teller assures her that she will shortly find love, wealth and fame.  Fashion student Marie-Thérèse becomes disillusioned with her chosen profession when her employer begins making unwelcome advances.  Fearing that her parents will punish her for doing badly at school, a little girl named Colette runs off with a boy of her own age.  After a happy boating expedition on the Seine, Colette finds herself alone and runs into Matthias, an artist suffering from a mental derangement that leads him to kill attractive young women.  After Matthias has claimed his next victim, he is pursued by the police, who accidentally shoot a factory worker returning home to attend his silver wedding anniversary party.  The worker's life hangs in the balance as a trainee surgeon tries to redeem himself after failing his exams...