A script writer and a film director have decided on the characters for their next film but have yet to come up with an original plot. As they bounce ideas off one another a storyline starts to emerge. The heroine of the story is Henriette, a Parisian dressmaker who is engaged to Robert, a reporter. At a ball, Robert has to abandon Henriette, having received a mysterious invitation from a female acquaintance, Rita Solar. Henriette gets her own back by pairing up with Maurice, a small-time crook who persuades her to assist him in his next daring robbery…

Over a meal in a French restaurant, Sy poses a conundrum to his fellow diners: Is the essence of life comic or tragic? For the sake of argument, he tells a story, which the others then embellish to illustrate their takes on life. The story starts as follows: A young Manhattan couple, Park Avenue princess Laurel and tippling actor Lee, throw a dinner party to impress Lee's would-be producer when their long-lost friend Melinda appears at their front door, bedraggled and woebegone. In the tragic version of what happens next, the beautiful intruder is a disturbed woman who got bored with her Midwestern doctor-husband and dumped him for a photographer. Her husband took the children away and she spiraled into a suicidal depression that landed her straight-jacketed in a mental ward. In the comic version, Melinda is childless and a downstairs neighbor to the dinner hosts, who are ambitious Indy filmmaker Susan and under-employed actor Hobie. Back and forth the stories go, contrasting the destinies of the two Melindas.

2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
With Old Waves Like This Who Needs New or: Eat Your Heart Out, Godard, 6 June 2006
**********/10

Author: writers_reign from London, England

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Class, Style, Brilliance Is Alive And Well - or at least it was in 1952 when top writer Henri Jeanson collaborated with top director Julian Duvivier on this Fabergé egg of a movie which incredibly provided the basis for the dire Paris When It Sizzles a decade later. On paper the premise is simple; two scriptwriters who have run up against censor trouble improvise a new scenario on the hoof and we cut between the actual brainstorming/dictating to clips of what will be the finished product which switches genres on a dime. Jeanson's script is lethally funny and laced liberally with Billy Wilder-type mordant wit and all hands acquit themselves with more than distinction. This reaffirms Duvivier's place in the pantheon of not just great French directors but Great directors period. Unmissable.

by - jdcopp 18 hours ago (Sun Jun 25 2006 13:43:09 )

UPDATED Sun Jun 25 2006 20:03:09

We have all read many times of how the young critics at Cahiers du Cinema have savaged Julien Duvivier. Rarely, though, is an attempt made to specify what was said and done during these "attacks'. This is an attempt to begin to draw up a ledger of the reaction of these young critics to Duvivier.

Some Notes.

The conseil des dix was a tableau where the reactions of ten critics to recently released films were recorded. Usually it would break down to about 5 Cahiers regulars and five critics from other newspapers or magazines. Some critics from other venues who would regularly weigh in would be Claude Mauriac, Jean de Baroncelli, Henri Agel, Georges Sadoul and Positif's Robert Benayoun.

The system could be described as:

4 stars -- See it even if you have to go out of town to.
3 stars -- Go across town if need be to see it.
2 stars -- See it but wait till it is playing in your neighborhood.
1 star -- If you are going to the theater and it is playing, go -- it won't hurt you.
bullet -- No reason to go see it.

4 stars was used only from mid-1957 onward.



Voici le Temps des Assassins...

This film was reviewed in the May 1956 issue of Cahiers by André Labarthe. He said, in part, “Duvivier’s techinique, as fluid as that of Dassin, is not in question, it is his view of the world.”
Nine critics gave the film eleven stars, including two from François Truffaut and two from Jacques Donoil-Valcroze. No one bulleted the film, André Bazin abstained.

In his recapitulation of French film for the year 1956 published in the final issue of ARTS-LETTRES-SPECTACLES of that year, Francois Truffaut would write this about this film:

"Even though Julien Duvivier isn’t a young filmmaker, "Le Temps des Assassins", made with an exemplary probity and a touching love for welldone work, is attractive, naive, falsely gloomy, and, all in all, an enterprise generous in spirit."

NOTE: The reference to "young filmmmaker" was occasioned by Truffaut's having just praised films by the younger directors Henri Verneuil and Claude Boissol.
From "The Early Film Criticism of François Truffaut" edited by Wheeler Winston Dixon and translated by Sonja Kropp.


L’Homme à l'Imperméable

This film was not reviewed by Cahiers. The March 1957 issue noted its release in Paris and commented, “Fernandel soaked in a dark story, but Duvivier does not wish to get himself wet.”
Five panelists gave the film one star, including François Truffaut. André Bazin was the lone bullet. Among the abstainers were Jacques Rivette and Eric Rohmer.


Pot-Bouille

François Truffaut reviewed this film in the December 1957 issue of Cahiers. My translation of that review is available:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0245213/b...36515#44136515

Six critics gave the film nine stars in total, including two each from Pierre Braunbarger and Jean de Baroncelli. Jacques Rivette and Charles Bitsch abstained.


La Femme et le Pantin

Luc Moullet reviewed this film for the April 1959 issue. He said that it was more a film starring Brigitte Bardot than a film directed by Julien Duvivier.
Two critics (Moullet and Braunbarger) gave the film one star each. Seven bulleted it (Godard, Rivette and Louis Marcorelles plus Henri Agel, Georges Sadoul, Claude Mauriac and Jean de Baroncelli). Eric Rohmer abstained.


Marie-Octobre

This film’s release was noted in the June 1959 issue. It was called a sort of reverse “Twelve Angry Men” whose “authors hold the 90 minutes only by a series of techniques and plot twists completely artificial. The direction goes accordingly.”
Two critics gave it a total of two stars. It was bulleted by five critics, including Rivette, Godard and Moullet. While Jacques Demy, Charles Bitsch and Eric Rohmer all abstained.


Das Kunstseidene Mädchen

This film’s release was noted in the September 1960 issue with a two sentence plot summary and it was not considered by the conseil.


Boulevard

This film’s release was noted in the January 1961 issue without any allusion being made to Duvivier.
Two critics (Michel Aubriant and Jean de Baroncelli) gave it one star each.
Two from among the younger Cahiers staff (Jacques Rivette and André Labarthe) bulleted the film. Claude Mauriac and Jacques Donoil-Valcroze also bulleted the film.
Eric Rohmer abstained.


La Chambre Ardente

Release noted in the July 1962 issue with the comment, “…It is no longer necessary to speak of an unawareness or an incapacity, but of a pure and simple shoddiness.”
The film received one lone star from Paris-Presse critic Michel Aubriant. Six panelists bulleted the film, including, Jacques Rivette, André Labarthe and Jean Douchet. Michel Delahaye and Louis Marcorelles abstained.


Le Diable et les Dix Commandements

Not reviewed, its release was noted in the November 1962 issue with the comment, “The devil has dropped two or three commandments, but this monotonous Heptalogue or Hexalogue is ample enough to prove to us that, in the comic or the sentimental as well as in the saucy, Beelzebub is stripped of humor and talent.”
The film received its only star from Georges Sadoul. It was bulleted by five panelists including two from the younger staff at Cahiers, Jacques Rivette and Jean Douchet. Others bulleting the film were Henri Agel and Michel Aubriant. Eric Rohmer and André Labarthe abstained.


Chair de Poule

Not reviewed, its release was noted in the Dec63-Jan64 issue with the comment, “…flat, skimpy, without any attempt at intellectual justification.”
This film received not one star. Six panelists bulleted the film including Jacques Rivette and Jean-Luc Godard. Also bulleting the film were Godard-nemesis and Positif critic Robert Benayoun, Georges Sadoul, Jean de Baroncelli and Jean-Louis Bory.
Jean Douchet was among the abstainers.


Diaboliquement Vôtre

The February 1968 issue noted its release and Jean Narboni wrote, “…constantly flat or rehashed.”
Two critics gave it one star, including Michel Aubriant. Seven bulleted the film, including, Positif’s Robert Benayoun, Narboni, Jean-André Fieschi and Michel Delahaye .

Even though it would seem the most natural thing to do, in movies, for a director to play with the space and time structure of his story, can you think of any example previous to 1952 where an on-screen scriptwriter intervenes to change the run of the story?

I started my study in 1956 with "Voici les Temps des Assassins" for two reasons. First, the so-called "young turks" did not coalesce as group of regulars at Cahiers until about 1955. Second, 1955 was the year that Cahiers instituted the conseil des dix as monthly feature. Thus it was then possible to gauge a group of opinions about a single film and to compare to what other critics felt about the same movies.

Had one of the "young turks" reviewed one of Duvivier's films from before to 1955, I would have discussed it. Prior to 1955, the record reads:

"La fête à Henriette" was reviewed by Jacques Donoil-Valcroze* in the January 1953 issue. His review was negative. Briefly, he felt that Duvivier was imitating Orson Welles** and Henri Jeanson was imitating himself.***

"L'Affaire Maurizius" was reviewed in the July 1954 by Jean-José Richer. This review also could be charactrized as negative. What bothered Richer was that he felt that Duvivier was no longer reaching for Art but only being commercial.

In April 1952, André Bazin [wrote an article] that examined the issue of Hollywood remaking European classic[s]. He did this by comparing the American remakes of Pepe le Moko with the original. and also by comparing the Joseph Losey's Hollywood remake of "M" with Fritz Lang's original. He also compared "Le Jour se Lève" with its Hollywood remake. This essay is discussed by Michael Harney in a chapter in the book "Dead Ringers: The Remake in Theory and Practice" edited by Jennifer Forrest and Leonard Koos. That book is available on-line through GoogleBookSearch. I tried to paste the URL for the book in but the URL refuses to wrap-around.

Given that Cahiers was a magazine that intended to examine film as an art, it is not surprising that Cahiers did not deal with the Don Camillo films. In the fifties, Cahiers was a note-book size magazine of 64 pages. They would publish three or four reviews of about two pages and maybe another two to four short reviews. So it is not that surprising that a film was not reviewed.

As a cinephile and a Catholic kid growing up in fifties Quebec where the Don Camillo movies were both a staple and a treat on television, I am particularly offended that anyone would think they are not "art". Those films (the first two directed by Duvivier, anyway) took the world by storm because they were extremely topical, extremely funny, extremely well made, they starred Fernandel who was a huge star and they poked gentle fun at a delicate subject (the relationship between the Church and the Communist party in Italy) without being condescending, trivial or offensive in any way to any party, ideology, religion or social class. Everybody loved those films because they had a lot of heart, truth and humanity and they are partly responsible for the world holding together during a very difficult international political period. I suspect that the Young Turks - or their predecessors at the Cahiers - let their more or less overt communist sympathies dictate the party line on that one! And they were, in fact, too snobbish (or jealous) to condescend to venture an opinion on such "commercial trash".

Of all the French New Wavers, it was Louis Malle - not Godard, not Truffaut, not Eric Rohmer - who showed the greatest diversity and range of achievement (...) Malle's next project, in extreme contrast, was 1960's Zazie dans le métro, a frenetic and colourful visual comedy about an unruly 12-year-old girl's exploration of Paris. Using the full range of cinematic tricks - speeded-up film, jump cuts, and so on - Malle's hyperactive live-action cartoon looks back to silent cinema and surreaslism and forward to everything from Richard Lester to Delicatessen and Amélie. At times laugh-out-loud funny, it's still joyous and surprising 40 years on.

Dear Sir,

On July 3rd, 2006 you published your so rightly favorable comment concerning the movie "La Fete a Henriette".

Now it so happens that I saw and have admired this very picture since the unforgettable day in 1952, my last of my stay in Europe and, if I may say so, also the last day of my "former life" (I am nearing eighty at present). Since then, no other picture has left such an indelible impression on me - precisely because of its "unconventional narrative structure" which you so rightly stress.

Living since fifty four years far away from the great centers, and in spite of my renewed efforts, I have been unable to see again this unusual movie - and, perhaps, thereby to meet again the time of my enthusiastic youth.

I would be very grateful if you could somehow find and lend me a copy of this film. It goes without saying that all the expenses would be gladly borne. A good friend of mine, residing in Toronto, could help with all the technical difficulties arising.

Please excuse this rather peculiar request of mine - and accept the warmest thanks of a sentimental (?) old man.

Sincerely yours,

Just a few words (lengthy expression of thanks and commentary will follow) to thank you wholeheartedly for Henriette, whom I meet again after 54 years of efforts. I don't wish to appear sentimental (elderly gentlemen often are) but don't you see in this collaboration, motivated by good will only, between yourself and the unknown Monsieur Dumonteil - a proof that (some) people are good and ready to help?

I have not yet watched the movie - I have been too excited. But I did put it in my computer: both the sound and the picture are of very good quality. Let to morrow be La Fete a/// at least for me.

Sincerely, Igo Feldblum