Quai des Orfèvres (1948)
Film:
DVD:

Written by Henri-Georges Clouzot & Jean Ferry, based on the novel Legitime Defense by Stanislas-André Steeman
Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot
Music by Bernard Blier, Suzy Delair, Louis Jouvet, Simone Renant, Jean Daurand

Features:

• Interviews with director Clouzot and actors Blier, Delair and Renant from the 1971 French television program, Au Cinéma ce soir
  
• Original theatrical trailer
  
• International poster gallery
  
• Essay on the film by Luc Sante
  

Released by Criterion
Rating: NR
Region: 1
Anamorphic: N/A; appears in its original 1.33:1 format.

My Advice: Rent it as precursor to owning.

Meet Jenny Lamour (Delair). She's a performer, a helluva singer, a helluva looker, and she wants advancement. She's ambitious and not above using her feminine wiles to try and take herself further. Trouble is, her husband, Maurice (Blier), has the look about him of the terminally put-upon. He's a plain man, friendly enough--but jealous as hell. Here's the thing, though: they truly are in love with one another, so it's not a simple story of jealousy--not simple at all. Through a photographer friend and neighbor (Renant), Jenny meets a man with his work in film, Brignon (Dullin), when he stops by to get some nudes taken--he brings his own model, even. Brignon wants to help Jenny with her career--and more than that, wink wink nudge nudge--but Maurice is not having it. And the whole thing might get to the point where somebody will get killed.

As anybody who's read my reviews for long enough will know, I have a warm place in my heart for films that look like they're going to be one thing--and turn out to be something totally different. I'm not talking about the product of some absurd switcheroo, but a recent example would be Road to Perdition--which is painted up like a gangster flick, but is instead a moving tale of fathers and sons. Here, what looks like a simple, straightforward crime story--maybe a whodunit--is instead a very intricate fabric of love and devotion, and the things that people do for love and devotion. It has such great depth to its characterizations, that it feels like a play more than a film.

Probably the most impressive part of the whole thing, was how natural everything felt. In most films, I can sit back and marvel at the direction going on, how the person at the helm left their thumbprints in the actual experience. Here, although I knew that Clouzot was present, it was very easy to forget--his signature in the work was that his signature was invisible. Very fascinating stylistically. Helping matters is the incredible cast. While both the leading ladies, Delair and Renant, do have a lot of interesting things going on, I felt that the two leading men, Blier and Jouvet, got the better part of the deal. Their characters are both tormented in their own particular ways, and most of it, as I stated before, having to do with love. Blier's character for his wife and Jouvet's character for his son and for the love he does not have. Wonderfully understated and powerful, all the performances are excellent.

The release is from Criterion, so it's fairly packed. While we don't have a commentary, although to hear from one of the many film historians Criterion keeps on tap for such things would have been nice (and Delair and Renant I can't, on first look, find word that they have left us--so that would have been superb to hear from them), what we do have is choice. The interviews--indicated by "Depositions" on the menu (nice touch)--last a little over fifteen minutes and include the three leads who were still with us in 1971 (Jouvet died in 1951, sadly). It focuses on what it was like to work with Clouzot and is a fascinating look into both the director and the film. This is a director who decided to adapt a book he had read, couldn't find a copy to work from, so did it from memory and only touched upon the source material. So refreshing to see what Hollywood does on a daily basis admitted to by a director who had the balls to such a thing and move right along making a good flick.

The trailer and posters are here, as is an essay in the booklet. While it doesn't offer any startling revelations, it is a nice companion piece to the interviews.

Personally, this is a movie I'd want to own simply because it benefits from repeated viewings. The bonuses only add to the flavor. However, if you're uncertain, rent it before plonking down the coin. But regardless, make sure you see it.