La fin du jour

It's been decades since I've seen this French classic, but I'm bemused by the description of it as "bitter". Like Dustin Hoffman's new "Quartet" (2012), it views aging performers both wistfully and lovingly and certainly not without humor. There is a harsher and more tragic incident at the heart of the chief conflict here, but ultimately the film is a loving portrayal of everyone from the truly great to the mediocre but devoted personalities that make up the theater. It is a homage in other words to the whole world of performing, which of course ranges from tragic to comic figures, from stars to failures, but, as stirringly presented in one speech here, is united, and set apart, by a shared passion. The climactic scene is expertly orchestrated and the words "We, the poor, the obscure" ("Nous, les pauvres, les obscures") from a classic play are re-purposed to devastating effect, so much so that they linger with me decades later. As does, not a bitter, but an uplifting sense of the nobility of living one's life in service to art, even if the rewards at "the end of the day" may be no more than bittersweet memories. -- Probably hard to find, but if you understand French (I doubt anyone's taken the trouble to sub-title this), worth the effort.

A fabulous cast of actors (Jouvet, Simon and so on) for a bitter movie, with still some tenderness in it. It is a hard story about people loosing themselves in front or THE big issue of life. Remember this movie was shot a few month before WW2 started ? Even if not connected at all with the political/social context of that period, still it reflects the uncertainties of the period, through hard and changing characters. A must.

Well, it might have been one of the great French classics, to stand with Les enfants du paradis, Quai des brumes, La regle du jeu and so on. Instead we have Louis Jouvet who is really inspired as the great seducer Saint Clair; he was moving as the Baron in Les bas-fonds, and as Arletty's pimp in Hotel du nord, but here he is really vicious as a washed-up actor who doesn't get curtain calls anymore. He rereads old love letters from his flames of thirty years ago; this is an agreeable way to pass time.

Michel Simon as the understudy who can never get on stage because the star is never sick gives another fine performance. Think of a Boudu with more work ethic and a sense of humour and you've got him. The third male lead is Victor Francen, playing an actor who never realized his potential because his wife died (in a suspicious manner). He was born to play Racine and Corneille, but could not rise to any heights owing to the weight of grief. I am not convinced by anything Francen does here: there seems to be a hollow man behind the well-trimmed beard and elegant clothes. Gabrielle Dorziat is a pleasure to watch in anything (how great she was in Les parents terribles). She has a very affecting scene with Jouvet, one of her old loves.

I love French Pre-WWII Films, Marcel Carné has become one of my favorite directors, and Julien Duvivier's previous movie (Panique) is one of the best movies i have watched. Unfortunately, i can't say the same about this one. La fin du jour is a good movie, well acted and well directed but it was too miserable at times. Usually, it's not such a bad thing and i don't need every movie i watch to bring me joy, most of the greatest movies ever are dark and sad. But it was not only that, in addition, this was not that interesting. Maybe if i revisit this when i get old as the leading characters here, i will appreciate it more. But at this stage of my life, i was not moved by this movie. "Sad" moments didn't feel sad, "funny" moments were not funny. This was unimpressive, bland, even lifeless at times. And the whole charade about this (supposedly) 17 years old girl who could end her life just to show the world her love about a 70-ish years old guy, felt ridiculous and out of place. (Maybe this was not something unusual those years, ok, but great movies are timeless, regardless of their age, and this one is not just dated but obsolete).

Yet, i cannot not recommend it, because it is still a good movie, classy and elegant. Michel Simon is a great actor, even though i couldn't stand him here. And the ending was good.

Just don't start your French Pre-WWII Films journey with this one. Search for Carne movies first.

"One never touches something great without being grown up oneself". This melancholic praise of the theater, as if it had more reality than life, is superbly put in abyss by Duvivier, who has fun revealing to us its pretenses, its sad and pathetic narcissism. A tender, crepuscular and dark ode to a world that is unraveling at the same time as it is being filmed. A last tribute, an ultimate remorse.