Carnet de baile

'Carnet du Bal' is a beautifully realised piece by one of the truly great directors and comes from the 'Golden Age' of French cinema. A film of elegance and grace but also of ineffable sadness and regret that deals with failure and the ravages of time. A rich widow comes across a dance card of a ball she attended at the age of sixteen. She decides to seek out the men with whom she danced to see how Life has treated them. None of them alas has realised his dreams or fulfilled his potential which will no doubt strike a chord with most viewers. The film at least ends on an upbeat as she adopts the son of the first man on the card who had committed suicide for love of her.The success of this film resulted in Julien Duvivier being invited to direct'The Great Waltz' in Hollywood. He would return to the multi-story format on more than than one occasion but not as effectively. The cast is pure gold and represents France's finest, the likes of whom are gone forever.