Le Jour se Lève by Ben McCann

Author:Ben McCann [McCann, Ben]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Performing Arts, Film, History & Criticism
ISBN: 9780857725691
Google: MDqjDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2014-06-10T03:33:11+00:00

Valentin ‘acting up’

Stage two of Valentin’s tactics is ‘self-loathing’. This self-pity is signalled by a new posture – hands unclasped, placed contritely across the arms, or stroking the chin contemplatively – and a facial gesture that involves him wrinkling his forehead and avoiding François’s gaze. There is only one reaction shot of François in this section – Valentin’s performance requires his attention and ours – but when it comes, the reverse-angle shot of him is revealing. Gabin’s downturned mouth and resigned look suggest sympathy, even pity. François is himself an orphan, brought up in assistance, and so this conversation becomes, through framing and editing, a quasi-reunion between father and son. Prévert’s screenplay adds a delicious subtextual layer here – Valentin describes the eyes of Françoise’s ‘mother’ as ‘the same eyes, greyish green […] a colour that changes like the sea in winter’. Like François’s ‘sad eye and happy eye’, eyes here suggest duality and difference, but also, unwittingly on Valentin’s part, suggest a union between François and Françoise that we know cannot be sustained.

The final stage – ‘authority’ – culminates when Valentin brandishes his paternal authority, telling François that he does not think Françoise will be happy with him. Valentin’s use of the French subjunctive form here – ‘je ne pense pas qu’elle puisse être heureuse avec vous’ – is a refined linguistic mark of difference that separates the two men (François responds with a contracted ‘T’es formidable’ [‘Well, if that isn’t magnificent’], itself a specific linguistic trait). The editing, so underplayed in the earlier sections, becomes more rapid, as the cuts between the differing reactions of the two men inject pace and momentum into the scene. Now it is François’s turn to seize the initiative, grabbing Valentin by the lapels and declaring his love forcefully to his surrogate father/father-in-law-to-be. François leaves, and the final two shots are of Valentin – from behind, nervously tapping his fingers against the bar table, and then in medium close-up, biting his fingernails. David Thomson writes that ‘[s]tars sometimes just wait, reflect and dwell on themselves in close-ups. Character actors never get that time: they have to be busy’.8 Berry’s busyness is epitomized in this scene which, at six and a half minutes, is one of the longest in the film. His energy, his non-stop talking and his ability to shift emotions all reinforce Valentin’s malign, implacable presence. It is telling that the blind man who was the first to discover Valentin’s body at the start of the film is also in the bar-tabac at the start of this scene – fate, death and Valentin go hand in hand.

The two female performances are also important in establishing the film’s tonal qualities and, through their interaction with their male counterparts, have revealing implications for class and sexual politics. Arletty was born Léonie Bathiat in 1898 in Courbevoie, on the outskirts of Paris, and during the 1920s became a prominent music-hall and cabaret star, famous for her richly sardonic and high-pitched voice. She worked with Carné

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