Andre Cayatte was the director of many tiresome pictures in which he took moral positions on capital punishment (Nous sommes tous des assassins), the yellow press (Il n'y a pas de fumee sans feu), and just about any other issue that came to his attention. Now, we could dismiss him as just a French Stanley Kramer if he hadn't made films like this one in his younger days. It's a very highly-colored version of Romeo and Juliet in which Jacques Prevert's script dispenses with most of the play's story to concentrate on political comment. The Maglias are a very disturbed family indeed. Not only is the head an ex-fascist but the brother, played by Dalio, is hallucinating pretty freely (he had a bad war, we are told). Only Georgia, Ettore's daughter, played by the 16-year-old Anouk Aimee, has any quality of humor and generosity. The Romeo is played by Serge Reggiani, looking somehow a lot younger than he did in Casque d'or.
When we add Pierre Brasseur to the mix, things really get wild. He's playing a sort of Satanic figure, a demon of hate and revenge, as if trying to top his portrayal of the thug in Quai des brumes. There's a wierd sado-masochistic character to his relationship with the Maglias that I can't recall seeing before in film. He won't stop at murder to have Georgia as his wife. Cayatte's direction has pace and the lighting is especially fine--Alekan's camera really caresses the lover's faces.
When we add Pierre Brasseur to the mix, things really get wild. He's playing a sort of Satanic figure, a demon of hate and revenge, as if trying to top his portrayal of the thug in Quai des brumes. There's a wierd sado-masochistic character to his relationship with the Maglias that I can't recall seeing before in film. He won't stop at murder to have Georgia as his wife. Cayatte's direction has pace and the lighting is especially fine--Alekan's camera really caresses the lover's faces.