Weather lights (1943)

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Movie
German title Weather lights
Original title Lumière d'été
Country of production France
original language French
Publishing year 1943
length 113 (Germany) 112 (France) minutes
Age rating JMK from 12
Rod
Director Jean Grémillon
script Jacques Prévert
Pierre Laroche
production André Paulvé
music Roland-Manuel
camera Louis Page
cut Louisette Hautecoeur
occupation

Weather Light is a 1942 French fictional film by Jean Grémillon , a dark late work of poetic realism .

action

The cynical, cocky and wealthy castle owner Patrice Le Verdier has set up a hostel for his lover Cricri in the mountains to have her close by. One day young Michèle arrives at this place. At her side is her friend Roland, an equally unsuccessful and talentless painter who is increasingly indulging in alcohol. When Patrice is once again at the inn, he quickly catches fire when he sees Michèle for the first time. But the girl too quickly realigns herself. She has her eye on the very young, straightforward engineer Julien, who is busy building a dam in the vicinity. When Roland misbehaves once again, Michèle decides to part with him for good.

In view of these constantly changing emotional constellations, disaster quickly develops on the relationship fronts of all those involved. Fearful of losing her patron and lover Patrice to Michèle, Cricri puts him under pressure. She knows that her lover once murdered his wife from behind on a hunting trip and disguised her death as an accident. But Patrice does not want to be blackmailed and soon becomes active herself. He invites everyone involved to a costume party at his castle, hoping to win Michèle over. From the outside, the festival looks high-spirited, but behind the facade of cheerfulness and exuberance, dramatic developments are beginning to emerge. Cricri, who is very attached to Patrice, is treated worse and worse by him, and he begins to push her back and forth. Patrice's frustration is even greater when he sees Julien and Michèle kiss for the first time at the party.

Like an unstoppable dance of doom, things take their course. Patrice, furiously jealous of Julien, decides to kill the engineer. The party is over, Julien is gone. Roland dies in a car accident with Patrice and Michèle. The slightly injured Patrice goes to the construction site and confronts Julien. But at the moment of a verbal argument, he is called to an emergency. Julien has to climb onto a cable car. At that moment Patrice, still in full costume, aims a rifle at him. The approaching Cricri tries to keep him from his murderous intent with a scream. Another dam worker arrives and overwhelms Patrice just before he can pull the trigger. More workers from the large construction site join in and are now threatened by Patrice with his weapon. As the construction workers approach him bit by bit, he takes a step too much and falls a scree slope into the depths. Cricri is horrified to see how her lover perishes. In the last shot you can see Julien and Michèle setting off into a new life together.

Production notes

Was filmed lightning as the majority of the productions André Paulvés during the occupation in Nice , in the unoccupied at that time still part of France by German troops. The premiere of weather lights took place on May 26, 1943. The film premiered in Germany in December 1946.

The films were made by Léon Barsacq , his brother André and Max Douy with the help of Alexandre Trauner . Trauner was not named in the opening credits because at this point in time, due to his Jewish faith, even in Vichy France, which was not yet occupied by Germany, he could not appear openly without danger.

criticism

Reclam's guide states: “This film has been compared to Renoir's La règle du jeu .” In both films, class contrasts are sharply emphasized, in both there is bitter irony, and in both the focus is on a party in the castle. Grémillon probably shot his best film here - full of dark humor, with subtle and at the same time caustic character portrayals. The attack on the class of the “rulers”, who perish in the end while the “people” triumph, has induced the French Vichy government to ban the film.

In the biography of Grémillon, the film's large lexicon of people recalled the model for his staging and wrote: “With the sometimes cynical-bitter, gloomy social drama“ Weather Lights ”, Grémillon stylistically oriented himself to poetic realism up to 1939, the content of which was based on Jean Renoir's class attack“ The rule of the game "."

The Lexicon of International Films, on the other hand, sharply criticized the film: “Prévert's script is full of swelling, anguish and too much 'lightning'. The production of Grémillon is oppressive, sultry and not without embarrassment. "

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reclams Filmführer, by Dieter Krusche, collaboration: Jürgen Labenski. P. 395, Stuttgart 1973.
  2. ↑ Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 3: F - H. Barry Fitzgerald - Ernst Hofbauer. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 389.
  3. ↑ Klaus Brüne (Red.): Das Lexikon des Internationale Films , Volume 9, S. 4280, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1987

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