Sous le ciel de Paris (1951)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Julien Duvivier

Writers:

Julien Duvivier (screenplay) &
René Lefèvre (adaptation) ...

Release Date:

5 May 1952 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Cast

Brigitte Auber	...	Denise Lambert
Jean Brochard	...	Jules Hermenault
René Blancard	...	Le professeur Bertelin (as Rene Blancard)
Paul Frankeur	...	Milou
Raymond Hermantier	...	Mathias, l'artiste
Daniel Ivernel	...	Georges Forestier
Pierre Destailles	...	Michel
Jacques Clancy	...	Armand Mestre (as Jacques Clancy de la Comédie Française)
Christiane Lénier	...	Marie-Thérèse (as Christiane Lenier)
Marie-France	...	La petite Colette Malingret
François Périer	...	Récitant (voice) (as François Perier)
Marcelle Praince	...	Madame Balthazar, la voyante
Catherine Fonteney	...	La dame des invalides (as Catherine Fonteney de la Comédie Française)
René Génin	...	Le cocher
Georgette Anys	...	Madame Malingret

Also Known As:

La Seine coule à Paris (France) (working title)
Sous le ciel de Paris coule la Seine (France)
Under the Paris Sky (USA)

Runtime:

114 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:K-12 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Paris Studios Cinéma, Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, France

Company:

Regina Films

Trivia:

French censorship visa #10.510

Soundtrack:

Sous le ciel de Paris

The French fifties were great!

It has been often mooted that the Nouvelle Vague was the Second Coming,saving French cinema from tediousness,routine,ennui,mediocrity,you name it.

So on the site n+x comments on Godard and co,and only one on this Duvivier jewel.It's when one sees such marvels one realizes all that the New Wave has deprived French cinema of:the very substance of a film,the telling of a story.And Duvivier comes first for that;here he transcends the film made up of sketches he brilliantly pioneered in the thirties with "un carnet de bal"(1937):he uses now intertwined plots with gusto,and Paris places with taste.All his characters are endearing,and he runs the whole gamut:the young girl coming from her province (Brigitte Auber who will be in Hitchcock's "To catch a thief");you're going to say it's a cliché,but wait and see,you"ll never guess what fate is in store for her,it defies conventions;the old lady and her cats (A marvelous Sylvie),trying to make ends meet;the children who find themselves back on a boat alone on the Seine ;the student who always fails(Daniel Ivernel);a sculptor gone mad;a working man,celebrating his silver wedding,and more,and more....And all that happens in the space of one day under Paris sky (sous le ciel de Paris), all these lives run into each other,or don't,making a whole,under Duvivier's magic wand.

Because magic is the only name that can describe such a treat.Orson Welles used to admire Duvivier,how I understand him!