ulicknormanowen

In Toulon, three sailors from the ship "L'Invincible," Antonin, Honoré, and Papillotte, are in love with pretty girls: Honoré loves Mireille, who loves Antonin, and Papillotte only has eyes for Angèle, who, upon returning from a long cruise of more than fifteen months, presents him with a baby she claims is their son. In the suburbs of Toulon, Papillotte's uncle's open-air café is bustling with activity. A very pretty young (and mysterious) woman, Patricia, makes a striking entrance on a scooter.

Maurice De canonge had made "trois de la cannebière " the years before ;"trois de la marine" is more of the same ; it's an operetta , a musical with pleasant ditties if it is your cup of tea.

Three sailors on furlough disambark in Toulon where plenty of girls are supposedly waiting for them; for today's viewer,the main interest in Jean Carmet ,cast as Papillotte (= curlpaper);he discovers that he's now a family man and ,along with his two mates (check the title) is entrusted a suitcase which contains official-secret documents : "the place where I have hidden these hush-hush papers ,you'll never find" says stupefied Carmet to a shady man who makes him drink so as to know his secret.

Another good moment is the sailor who seizes Patricia's camera because it's forbidden to photograph the warship but "don't worry I'll give it back to you when the photos are processed. I'll only keep the forbidden negatives (he keeps one of them :the girl in swimsuit.)

Edmond T Greville worked,now in France,now in the UK .His filmography suffered accordingly. But when he broke through, he made brilliant films.

"Remous" , produced in the thirties, was,for the time, absolutely scandalous and they called a spade a spade: the word 'impotence" is uttered and the wife's sexual frustration is depicted as strongly as the times (mid-thirties) allowed;"Menaces" dealt with the months before WW2 in a hotel:the fear of the impending war was everywhere.

One cannot help but feel the influence of Victor Vjöström's "the wind" ,a silent movie from 1928 in "le diable souffle" the wind became a true character, Greville cut loose all the visual and sound effects at his command and let the gusts surge and flow around Louvaine .

"Pour une nuit d'amour might surpass all these great unsung works ; it will certainly remind you of Autant-Lara's "douce" (1942 ) which Odette Joyeux 's presence reinforce ; it deals with the clash between the working classes and the upper ones.

Mme de Versanne (the extraordinary Sylvie) wants her daughter to marry a count ;a money match, but young Thérèse is not a pure heroine; she accidentally kills her lover (a servant's son) and asks a young man,Julien ,in love with her, to help her get rid of the dead body .Julien is poor ,not good-looking at all ,and the only thing he owns is a flute he plays in the night .But he is proud and he refuses the night of love promised by the wealthy girl .

Admirable sequences: -The guests ,swirling round the bright lights ,while the poor boy carries the corpse along the graveyard down to the river.

-The girl , racked by remorse, admitting to the crime ,which nobody believes ,not even the sisters of the convent ; "God too does not want scandal " She bitterly says.

-The wedding in the church celebrated with great pomp while the poor boy is harassed by the populace, who has found the ideal scapegoat ; Julien is so in awe of the selfish girl that he doesn't even try to vindicate himself .

-The flute ,falling into the sewer ....

Based on a Zola novel.

Now the re-release of the "let it be " movie which I found disappointing when I saw it in a movie theater ,has become pointless;Peter Jackson's 8-hour editing is the treasure any Beatles fan was waiting for; notice that the "let it be " album was released with a book called "the Beatles get back" ,the supposedly "new phase of Beatles album "

Many of the tracks were heard by the fans ,because at the time ,these sessions took bootlegging to new limits (Richie Unterberger's book "the unreleased Beatles " is the more exhaustive work about it ); but you missed the pictures when you heard these spotty pirate records

Besides ,the quality of the color is much better than in the 80 min movie (it was first intended as a TV movie) ;the film is a calendar of January 1969 , each day brings new rehearsals and events : Harrison left the group during several days, the arrival of Billy Preston seems pivotal and recharges the group's energy; George Martin's appearances are few and far between before they move to the other studio ,and he seems often dubious ;Alan Parsons seems downright indifferent;and would you believe it?: a scene shows Yoko and Linda chatting in a friendly way

But the apex remains the rooftop concert ,which shows that the Beatles could have returned to the stage, had they not split.

The most influential group of all time gets what they deserve at last!