Although ,it was awarded a prize in the New Orleans festival, "rue haute" has remained ignored in France ; but it's actually a Belgian movie with a Belgian singer/actress.
One may think that Annie Cordy ,who is mainly known as a comic singer , is cast against type; but after playing in dozens of duds , in the late sixties ,she showed in supporting parts in Clément's ,Chabrol's or Granier-Deferre 's movies that she was able to tackle dramatic parts.In "rue haute" , they made her an ugly crude fishmonger ;it sometimes look like an update of Henri Colpi's "une aussi longue absence" ,but devoid of poetry, beauty,and romanticism ;this is a raw hard work , which had nothing to do with the other movies dealing with the Nazi's roundups (notably Losey's remarkable "Monsieur Klein" ) ,and it's so bald that it may repel some viewers .
Mimi is waiting ....waiting.....Every time a bus leaves the stop ,she strikes on the door like a person possessed ,she screams like a lunatic; at the door of the church , she shouts at the believers that inside all they're telling them is a pack of lies .No neighbor heeds to her calls anymore , she's crazy ,even the shrink declares that there is nothing to do.He's already tried.
But someone pays attention:it's a fashionable American painter (Mort Schuman
,the great songwriter who teamed up with Doc Pomus and who was fluent in French ): his character lacks focus, one wonders why he would involve with people with squalid living conditions .
But it does not matter ,Cordy is terrific and will blow your mind if you give the movie a chance ; the viewer is often lost ,for the flahbacks are fleeting ,and the whole truth is only revealed in the last pictures ( the role of her companion ,who maintains the illusion that "he " may come back some day,is a little implausible )
