RETOUR À LA VIE
T. it.: Ritorna la vita; episodio Le retour de Jean; Regia: Henri-Georges Clouzot; Scen.: Henri- Georges Clouzot, Jean Ferry; F.: Louis Page; Dial.: Louis Page; Scgf.: Emile Alex, Max Dout; Mo.: Monique Kirsanof; Su.: Roger Biard; Int.: Louis Jouvet (Jean Girard), Monette Dinay (Juliette), Jeanne Pérez (madre di famiglia), Germaine Stainval (ospite della pensione), Cécile Dylma (servetta), Noël Roquevert (comandante), Jean Brochard (proprietario dell’hotel), Léo Lapara (Bernard), Maurice Schutz (anziano), Jo Dest (tedesco), Louis Florencie (commissario), Georges Bever (padre di famiglia), Jean Sylvère (ispettore); episodio Le retour de Tante Emma; Regia: André Cayatte; Scen.: Charles Spaak; F.: René Gaveau; Mo.: Léonide Azar; Su: Antoine Petitjean; Int.: Madame de Revinsky (Tante Emma), Héléna Manson (Simone), Jane Marken (Tante Berthe), Nane Germon (Henriette), Bernard Blier (Gaston), Lucien Nat (Charles); episodio Le retour d’Antoine; Regia: Georges Lampin; Scen.: Charles Spaak; F.: Nicolas Hayer; Mo.: Léonide Azar; Su.: Jacques Lebreton; Patricia Roc (Tenente Evelyne), Tanya Chandler (Capitano Betty), Gisèle Préville (Lilian), Janine Darcey (Mary), François Périer (Antoine), Max Elloy (vecchio barista); episodio Le retour de René; Regia: Jean Dréville; Scen.: Charles Spaak; F.: Nicolas Hayer; Mo.: Claude Ibéria; Su.: Antoine Petitjean;Int.: Madeleine Gérôme (giovane vedova), Suzanne Courtal (portinaia), Marie-France (monella), Noël-Noël (René), Jean Croue (zio Hector), François Patrice (traf cante), Lucien Guervil (vecchio scapolo), André Carnège (colonnello), Paul Azaïs (capitano), Julien Maffre (soldato), Jacques Mattler (rappresentante), André Bervil (barista), Jacky Gencel (giovane), Jacques Hilling (soldato); episodio Le retour de Louis; Regia: Jean Dréville; Scen.: Noël-Noël; F.: Louis Page; Mo.: Boris Lewin; Int.: Cécile Didier (Signora Froment), Elisabeth Hardy (Yvonne), Anne Campion (Elsa), Florence Brière (comare), Serge Reggiani (Louis), Paul Frankeur (sindaco), Léonce Corne (Signor Virolet), André Darnay (maestro), Lucien Frégis (farma- cista), Léon Larive (Jules, la guardia); Mu.: Paul Misraki; Prod.: Jacques Roitfeld per Les Films Marceau; Pri. pro.: 14 settembre 1949 35mm. L: 3275 m. D.: 112’. Bn.
Film Notes
This is the darkest of all the episode films that were the fashion in the late 1940s. The work of four directors, the film’s unity comes from its writer (Charles Spaak, with four out of five stories) and from the pessimism shared by all. Only one of the stories, directed by Georges Lampin, has some lightness, and it happens to be the only irrelevant one. André Cayatte is here at his very best, covering the new deals of property and the cynical financial side of war and its aftermath, and how the brutally selfish behaviour during the Occupation continues in human hearts. The last episode, Jean Dréville’s second one, likewise tells the story of a German wife and it highlights how war has transformed even “normal” people into beasts and moral morons.
The most chilling episode comes expectedly from Henri-Georges Clouzot, with Louis Jouvet in the role of a former prisoner who meets his German torturer in a shabby hotel room. It’s a great portrait of a victim who becomes the executor, and of an aged man who seems totally harmless and is a presence not unlike the real life image we got almost 40 years later during the Klaus Barbie trial… If there is a familiar ring to this, it is because so many later films seem to have stolen a cue from this relentless, powerful story, that perhaps reverberates from Clouzot’s first- hand experience: the complicated story of his masterpiece Le Corbeau, and its many interdictions (added with the director being banned from working for several years). Yes, “cruelty was effective,” as the German man says in the film.
Peter von Bagh