The distributor decided to cut a third of this film, and so it was reduced from 4,200 to 2,800 meters. Today, this shortened version is the only one that survives, and it was brilliantly restored by Les Archives du film mainly thanks to Arte France. This restored work benefits from new recordings of the music chosen for the first screening by Jean Grémillon himself. At first glance, these pre-existing and original pieces might appear disparate, but their unity, a result of the arrangements, imbues the film with cohesiveness, and the movement from one piece to the next gives the film a dynamic rhythm. At times, the filmmaker uses music to provide a dual reading of Maldone. In fact in two instances, in the symmetric dance sequences (the traditional dance of Saint-Jean, and at the chic black tie event at a cabaret), the music performs both a narrative function […] as well as a commentary on the action, as music in a film should. Such a smart use of music in the era of silent film […] is not surprising considering the musical background of the filmmaker. Grémillon began his career by playing background piano for silent films, and he himself composed the music for his later films, all documentaries. Even though silent film reached its maturity towards the end of the 20s […], it is possible to imagine that the narrative complexity of film, which relies heavily on alternating editing (from sequence to sequence, but also from shot to shot) and flashback, and the film’s socially subversive elements (refusal of the protagonist to be a bourgeois owner, nostalgia for his time as a field hand, refusal of the bourgeois propriety of marriage, the attractiveness of the bohème’s carnal eroticism) drew criticism and led to misinterpretation. […] Maldone straddles a family context based on class privileges that he rejects and humble locations such as the Briare canal where he chooses to live. […] The film’s entire dynamic is centered on this social tension constantly explored from one side followed by a view of the other through masterful directing that encompasses the full spectrum from high angle shot to low angle shot.
(Hubert Niogret, Maldone. Ton ennemi est en toi, “Positif”, n. 494, April 2002)