Film Review
Louis Malle's
Ascenseur pour l'échafaud
(1958) was the film that set Jeanne Moreau on the road to international
stardom, but before this the actress has spent almost a decade
appearing in less notable films, many of which deserve their place in
obscurity.
Gas-oil (1955), a minor film
noir directed by Gilles Grangier, was one of the first of Moreau's
films to make effective use of her mystique and unconventional
sensuality, although their second collaboration -
Trois jours à vivre - was
somewhat less successful. The most interesting aspect of this
later film is its humorously derisive perspective on a repertory
company consisting of third rate actors who have an over-inflated
opinion of their own talents.
The thriller element of the film appears to have been added as an after
thought and pretty well undermines what might otherwise have been a
cruel satire on provincial theatre and all who sail in her. The
film's schizoid feel may in part be down to Jacques Deray's input as an
assistant director. A far more talented director of thrillers
than Grangier, Deray would later direct some of the most successful
French policiers of the following decades, including
Borsalino
(1970) and
Flic Story (1975). The
darker, more noirish aspects of
Trois
jours à vivre carry Deray's distinctive signature, and
Deray even gets to lend both his voice and his name as a news reporter
on the radio in one scene.
Needless to say, Moreau is the one bright spot in this otherwise
lacklustre Grangier offering, alluring as a wannabe star who achieves
fame not by merit but by playing the femme fatale for real.
Daniel Gélin has the same ambitions as Moreau but, being as
spineless as he is talentless, he elicits no sympathy whatsoever when a
butch Italian good-for-nothing named Lino shows up and threatens to
kill him for denouncing him to the police. Lino is of course Lino
Ventura, well and truly cast according to type as a muscle-bound
hoodlum with as much heart as a lump of concrete. Risibly shallow
as the characterisation is, Ventura succeeds where every other member
of the cast fails, which is to make his archetypal character
sympathetic and believable, although he would be far better served on
Grangier's later thriller
125, rue Montmartre
(1959). Unevenly paced and saddled with a dull, unconvincing
B-movie plot,
Trois jours à
vivre is by no means the most memorable of Gilles Grangier's
thrillers but the few feisty scenes with Moreau and Ventura make it
worth the effort.
© James Travers, Willems Henri 2015
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Next Gilles Grangier film:
Échec au porteur (1958)
Film Synopsis
Simon Belin, a minor actor with a travelling theatre company, witnesses
a murder. Hoping that the publicity he will gain will help his
career, Simon identifies the killer as Lino Ferrari, a notorious
gangster who, in reality, is innocent of the crime. As a result
of Simon's testimony, Ferrari is arrested and given a twenty year
prison sentence. The gangster swears that when he gets free,
Simon will have only three days to live...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.