Good gang
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Good gang |
| Original title | La Belle Équipe |
| Country of production | France |
| original language | French |
| Publishing year | 1936 |
| length | 94 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Julien Duvivier |
| script |
Charles Spaak , Julien Duvivier |
| production | Arys Nissoti |
| music | Maurice Yvain |
| camera |
Jules Kruger , Marc Fossard |
| cut | Marthe Poncin |
| occupation | |
| |
Guild gang (original title: La Belle Équipe ) is a French feature film from 1936 by Julien Duvivier with Jean Gabin , Charles Vanel and Viviane Romance in the leading roles.
action
At the center of the plot, which takes place at the beginning of the French Popular Front government, are five young workers who are friends with each other. This is Jean, whom everyone just calls "Jeannot", the older Charles Billot, who is mostly called "Charlot" based on Charlie Chaplin, Raymond, who is roughly the same age, who is mostly called "Tintin", and Jacques and the Spaniard Mario. Their life, which is determined by work and the little everyday joys, experiences a big change one day when all five of them hit the jackpot in a lottery with a community ticket and win 100,000 francs. Endless discussions ensue about what to do with the money, until finally the “proper gang” (in French: 'La belle équipe') decides to follow Jean's suggestion and use the profit to give everyone a run-down house on the outskirts to build a guinguette , an entertainment tavern, and to cultivate the shared garden.
But soon things suddenly change for the worse, and the developments strongly challenge the community and the solidarity of the men with one another: one of the five falls from the roof during repair work and breaks his neck, another leaves the group because of a woman. To make matters worse, the Spaniard Mario is also expelled from France, so that in the end only Jeannot and Charlot remain. But the two also fall apart when suddenly Gina, Charlot's ex-wife, appears, and with her feminine charms the two men who soon wrestle with her seem to go mad. While in the optimistic version (see production notes) Jeannot and Charlot finally pull each other together and the old friendship over seduction, the "eternally feminine", wins, Gina in the pessimistic version (see ibid.) Manages to divide the two friends apart what to do committing a crime of passion.
Production notes
Guild gang emerged in the early stages of the French Socialist Popular Front government Léon Blum , in June and July 1936, and is heavily influenced by the politically left spirit of the time. The world premiere took place on September 15, 1936 in Paris. The film was released in Vienna on July 9, 1937. In Germany, Guild Gang only came to cinemas in 1949.
Jacques Krauss designed the film structures .
Duvivier had shot two film ends. The original version he preferred had a rather pessimistic ending: the woman destroyed the "proper gang", one of the last two friends shoots the other in desperation. This version was shown in city cinemas on the Champs-Elysées . The second version, ordered by the film's producer, was supposed to have a happy ending. It is the version that was mostly seen in the suburban cinemas of the “little people” in 1936. The pessimistic version had its German premiere in 1992 when it was broadcast on the TV channel Bayern 3 .
Reviews
“Like Renoir, Duvivier brought workers to the screen and found actors capable of portraying them: Aimos, Jean Gabin, Charles Vanel. But the end, the collapse, is ambiguous. Are we to conclude that a group of workers cannot build their happiness and prosperity on the fringes of society, or, conversely, that fate doomed any honest collective effort? It's hard to choose this alternative. The more so as Duvivier reserved the defeat of the workers for the audience of the Champs Elysées and shot an optimistic version for popular cinemas: the last members of the community (Gabin and Vanel) resist the temptation to get together over a whore (Viviane Romance) to marry; they chase them away and can become respected and wealthy merchants. Despite this strange ambiguity, ' La belle équipe ' has a folk character. "
“ La belle équipe is considered by many film historians to be Duvivier's best film. The first part in particular is excellent: the description of the life of the unemployed, the start of a new life together. That is exactly true in the milieu and in the characterization; You can also feel the spirit of that time when the 'Popular Front' seemed to many to be a promising new beginning. An impressive symbol of the hopes and efforts is the scene when a storm threatens to destroy the roof of the house and the friends lie down next to each other on the roof tiles to hold them down. "
“A brilliant cast, remarkably consistently conceived and staged film; imaginative, detailed, realistic and portrayed in a cozy and original way. "
Individual evidence
Web links
- Hearty gang in the Internet Movie Database (English)