La part de l'ombre

Ambitious but only moderately successful.The first lines promised great things: every man has a secret garden ,the dark side of his mind,you never know who he really is,blah blah blah...

It seems that Delannoy had a film/symphony in mind.What Frank Borzage ("I'll always love you") and Abel Gance ("Un grand amour de Beethoven" ) were not far from achieving is here an aborted attempt .To be successful,the movie should have focused on the Barrault/Feuillère relationship.Barrault was ideally cast as an accursed musician ,he had everything the character needed ,but Charles Spaak's script meanders through clichés of melodrama.

The ending looks like a poor man's "children of the paradise" ,which Barrault's presence reinforces -Both movies are contemporary-.

Some good scenes but they are few and far between: -the Kremer/Noblet meeting in the castle where the old virtuoso asks the young musician to do him a favor:never come back to his mansion ,cause he is sure he is going to destroy everything he touches.

-Kremer ,in the eating-house,refusing to hear a record which is muzak to his ears.

Delannoy would do much better in the following years::"la Symphonie Pastorale" "Dieu A Besoin des Hommes" "Les Jeux sont Faits" or "Le Garçon Sauvage" are eminently commendable.