Happy Birthday, Marcel Carné! Born today in 1906 as Marcel Albert Carné, this French film director's place in cinematic history is assured as the foremost exponent of Poetic Realism. He is regarded as one of Europe's great filmmakers.
Carné began his career as a film critic, becoming editor of the weekly publication Hebdo-Films. He also worked for Cinémagazine and Cinémonde between 1929 and 1933.
In the same period, Carné worked in silent film as a camera assistant with director Belgian actor, screenwriter and film director Jacques Feyder. By age twenty-five, Carné had already directed his first short film.
He later assisted Feyder (and French filmmaker and writer René Clair ('Le Million', 'Freedom for Us') on several films as well.
During the late 1930s, Carné directed the first film of which he is best known. This was the 1939 French black and white romance/drama crime film 'Le Jour Se Lève' ('The Day Rises'; also known as 'Daybreak').
The film is considered one of the principal examples of the French film movement known as poetic realism. It had been based on a story by French academic and diplomat Jacques Viot, who also co-wrote the screenplay.
The film tells of taciturn laborer François (Jean Gabin), who cherishes the ingenuous orphan Françoise (Jacqueline Laurent). However. he grows increasingly disturbed by her attraction to a seedy entertainer, Mr. Valentin (Jules Berry).
When Clara (Arletty), Mr. Valentin's assistant and lover, leaves him, she takes up with the reluctant François, who still continues to pine for Françoise.
Amused by François' frustrations over his increasing attentions to Françoise, Mr. Valentin taunts him, bringing about a shocking and tragic act.
Six years later, Carné directed the second and final film of which he is best known. This was the epic 1945 French black and white romance/drama film 'Les Enfants du Paradis' ('Children of Paradise').
The film had been written by French surrealist poet and screenwriter Jacques Prévert, and was made during the German occupation of France during World War II.
Set against the Parisian theatre scene of the 1820s and 1830s, 'Children of Paradise' is divided into two epochs. These are Boulevard du Crime (Boulevard of Crime) and L'Homme Blanc (The Man in White).
In this expansive drama, the lovely and enigmatic Parisian actress Garance (Arletty) draws the attention of four men in her orbit. Most notably, these include the thoughtful mime Baptiste (Jean-Louis Barrault) and the ambitious actor Frédérick Lemaître (Pierre Brasseur).
Though Garance and Baptiste have an undeniable connection, their fortunes shift considerably, pushing them apart as well as bringing them back together, even as they pursue other relationships and lead separate lives.
Running at three hours and ten minutes (although never feeling its length), and told in two parts, 'Children of Paradise' was described in the original American trailer as the French answer to 'Gone with the Wind', an opinion shared by the English film critic and writer David Shipman.
French film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film critic François Truffaut once said: "I would give up all my films to have directed Children of Paradise".
By the 1950s, Carné's reputation was in eclipse. The critics of Cahiers du cinéma, who became the filmmakers of the French New Wave, dismissed him and placed his films' merits solely with Prévert.
In 1952, 'Daybreak' was included in the first Sight & Sound top ten greatest films list.
In the Truman Capote's 1957 biographical book The Duke in His Domain, Marlon Brando called it "maybe the best movie ever made".
In 1995, 'Children of Paradise' was voted "Best French Film of the Century" in a poll of six hundred French critics and professionals.
According to Carné's personal life, he was openly homosexual. Several of his later films contain references to male homosexuality or bisexuality. Carné's one-time partner, French film actor Roland Lesaffre, had appeared in many of his films.
Carné was an unfashionable figure long before his directing career came to an end.
Scorned by a new generation of filmmakers, he grew more and more out of touch with contemporary developments, despite an eagerness to explore new subjects and use young performers.
His failure is a measure of the gulf that separates 1950s and 1960s conceptions of cinema from the studio era of the war and immediate prewar years.
However, Carné was the epitome of this French studio style, its unquestioned master, even if—unlike Renoir—he was unable to transcend its limitations. Nonetheless, his films remain rich.
Carné has been active from 1936–1976.
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