Stormy youth
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Stormy youth / devil in body |
| Original title | Le Diable au corps |
| Country of production | France |
| original language | French |
| Publishing year | 1947 |
| length | 125 minutes; Abridged version: 112 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Claude Autant-Lara |
| script | Claude Autant-Lara, Jean Aurenche , Pierre Bost |
| production | Paul Graetz |
| music | René Cloërec |
| camera | Michel Kelber |
| cut | Madeleine Gug |
| occupation | |
| |
Stormy youth or devils in the body (original title: Le Diable au corps ) is a French love drama directed by Claude Autant-Lara from 1947. It is based on the novel The Devil in the Body by the French writer Raymond Radiguet . Like its original, the film caused a scandal because of its risky content, but the work also received many positive reviews internationally.
action
France, a suburb of Paris during the First World War : Marthe Grangier, a beautiful woman in her twenties, works as a sister in a military hospital. Marthe can actually only carry out this nerve-wracking activity with great effort, but her dominant mother insists. One day Marthe meets the underage François, who goes to the neighboring high school and feels very drawn to her. François, unusually self-confident for his age, advises Marthe to leave her work in the hospital if she doesn't like it. When Marthe goes to Paris to do some errands there, François follows her and wins her over. On the return trip by boat there is a passionate kiss, but Marthe's mother and her fiance, the soldier Jacques, who is on home leave, are already waiting at the pier. Marthe quickly arranges a secret meeting point with François, where they want to clarify the situation. However, the student turns out to be jealous in his behavior when he happens to watch through the window as Marthe sleeps with her fiancé. In his heartache, François ponders whether he should take his own life with his father's pistol. His father notices his son's grief and goes with him to the agreed meeting point, where Marthe is also waiting, to François' surprise. He, still disappointed that Marthe has "cheated" on him with her fiancé, but leaves her standing.
So that his son can forget his lovesickness, the father sends François to the country for a few months. When he comes back, Marthe has meanwhile entered into the loveless but solid marriage with Jacques. However, Jacques is now back at the front and Marthe is lonely. François soon returns to Marthe's life, and Marthe gets involved again. Both are happy, even if the neighbors blaspheme and there are occasional arguments. Marthe becomes pregnant by François, the two dream of a family together. She no longer answers Jacques' letters and when a soldier's train with her husband briefly stops at the town's train station, Marthe is not waiting for him. But in the end she does not manage to confess her infidelity and the end of the marriage to her husband. But even François turns out to be too volatile for a long-term relationship with Marthe. The health of the pregnant woman is increasingly suffering from her private problems. When Marthe's mother wants to send her to relatives by train, François secretly sneaks into the train. He and his lover spend a happy evening in Paris, but finally Marthe breaks down exhausted. In the end, Marthe dies shortly after the child is born.
Most of the film is shown as a flashback from Marthe's funeral, which takes place in the midst of the excitement over the just announced end of the war.
background
The young writer Raymond Radiguet had published his partially autobiographical novel in 1923 and died just a few months later at the age of 20. Radiguet's novel caused a scandal as soon as it was published: A married woman, whose husband risked his life at the front, is having a passionate affair with an underage student. The novel was seen as an insult to the soldiers at the front, and the relationship between François and Marthe broke some taboos. This first film adaptation of the novel also caused another scandal in France in 1947. Radiguet's novel was later remade several times: in 1986 by the Italian director Marco Bellocchio under the title Il diavolo in corpo ; 1989 as Scott Murray's Australian television film Devil in the Flesh ; 1992 in France as the television film Le Diable au corps , directed by Gérard Vergez.
The role of the precocious student brought Gérard Philipe , who had previously only played a few supporting roles in the film, the breakthrough to film star. Although it is essential for the plot that Marthe is a few years older than François, Micheline Presle was only four months older than her film partner Gérard Philipe. At the request of his friend, the director Claude Autant-Lara , the legendary comedian Jacques Tati took on a small supporting role: he played the military officer in the bar in which pregnant Marthe collapses at the end of the film.
reception
When it was released in 1947, the film, like the novel it was based on 24 years earlier, sparked some heated controversy. In some cases there were demands to ban the film. The Spiegel was convinced of the cinematic implementation, the film was endowed with "all artistic refinement" - but the love affair was a "culpable entanglement". It goes on: “As far as the randomness of the circumstances and the depth of the passion are concerned, this novel, motivated in the most benevolent manner by the camera and dialogue, appears human and convincing in its realistic interpretation. But it is another matter whether one can call it ethical. "
Overall, however, the film received largely good reviews and also found international recognition: The American National Board of Review voted Stormy Youth about 5th place among the best films of the year. At the Italian film prize Nastro d'Argento , Stormy Youth was awarded in the category Best Non-Italian Film . The American critic Bosley Crowther wrote, exemplifying many positive reviews, in the New York Times : “The extraordinarily honest and understanding consideration of a tragic love affair between a 17-year-old French student and the wife of a soldier during the First World War is beautifully and tenderly achieved in an extremely formidable new film from France. ”The two main actors would also be very convincing in their roles. Overall, according to Crowther, it may be the best French film in a few years.
The lexicon of international film showed itself to be convinced with the distance of many decades: “Raymond Radiguet's novel, published in 1923, a scandal for the time, is a very sensual accusation against the war, which Claude Autant-Lara filmed stylishly and convincingly. The film is probably the best and most self-contained of the director. ” Cinema gave a succinct but positive judgment:“ 40s scandal film , sensual and touching ”.
Web links
- Stormy youth in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ The devil in the body at Arte ( Memento of the original from July 17, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ The devil in the body at Cinema
- ↑ The devil in the body at Arte ( Memento of the original from July 17, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ The devil in the body . In: Der Spiegel , 23 August 1947.
- ^ List of the National Board of Review in the English Wikipedia
- ↑ Devil in the Flesh at the New York Times see: this picture is perhaps the finest, most mature from post-war France
- ↑ Stormy youth. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed July 4, 2017 .
- ↑ The devil in the body at Cinema
