Saving the Criterion Eclipse box set of Julien Duvivier films for a special occasion, a Noirember event taking place on ICM made me decide it was time to open the box. Finding just one Film Noir in the set, I got ready to witness Duvivier taking on Maigret.
View on the film:
Turning the page of Georges Simenon's Maigret tale, co-writer/(with Pierre Calmann and Louis Delaprée) directing auteur Julien Duvivier displays his most flamboyant side in closely working with regular collaborator cinematographer Armand Thirard to glaze the Film Noir atmosphere with playful stylisation, popping from the wipe edits and extended first person camera angles.
Continuing to build on the theme across all his films of finding the loners in back alleys,Duvivier builds the dread of a simmering Gothic Horror in shards of shadows being cast across faces and criss-crossing of cutaways with jolts of wide-shots and lingering close-ups on monstrous killers Maigret is trying to catch.
Sticking the murder rep on a country bumpkin, the writers give Radek a ticking time bomb to his impending death in their thrilling adaptation of Simenon's Maigret, thickly cutting Radek with pessimistic Noir dialogue that gives his exchanges with Maigret a confrontational undertone.
Chipping away at the corner of the alibis built, the writers follow Maigret's investigation with a real precision in picking up at first what sounds like casual, throwaway comments, and peeling them open to find the real blood- covered hands of the killers.
Finding flaws in the alibis that others miss, Harry Baur presents a towering take on Maigret,with Baur wrapping Maigret in a dusty coat creating a larger than life appearance, whilst Baur also gives Maigret's questioning of suspects a casualness which brings a believable tone to when they drop their guard.
Using his quick-wits at every turn for double dealing,Valéry Inkijinoff gives a mesmerising performance as Radek, with Inkijinoff mixing a monster-like isolation of being left with no shadow, and a hard-nosed Film Noir viciousness to outwit Maigret.
View on the film:
Turning the page of Georges Simenon's Maigret tale, co-writer/(with Pierre Calmann and Louis Delaprée) directing auteur Julien Duvivier displays his most flamboyant side in closely working with regular collaborator cinematographer Armand Thirard to glaze the Film Noir atmosphere with playful stylisation, popping from the wipe edits and extended first person camera angles.
Continuing to build on the theme across all his films of finding the loners in back alleys,Duvivier builds the dread of a simmering Gothic Horror in shards of shadows being cast across faces and criss-crossing of cutaways with jolts of wide-shots and lingering close-ups on monstrous killers Maigret is trying to catch.
Sticking the murder rep on a country bumpkin, the writers give Radek a ticking time bomb to his impending death in their thrilling adaptation of Simenon's Maigret, thickly cutting Radek with pessimistic Noir dialogue that gives his exchanges with Maigret a confrontational undertone.
Chipping away at the corner of the alibis built, the writers follow Maigret's investigation with a real precision in picking up at first what sounds like casual, throwaway comments, and peeling them open to find the real blood- covered hands of the killers.
Finding flaws in the alibis that others miss, Harry Baur presents a towering take on Maigret,with Baur wrapping Maigret in a dusty coat creating a larger than life appearance, whilst Baur also gives Maigret's questioning of suspects a casualness which brings a believable tone to when they drop their guard.
Using his quick-wits at every turn for double dealing,Valéry Inkijinoff gives a mesmerising performance as Radek, with Inkijinoff mixing a monster-like isolation of being left with no shadow, and a hard-nosed Film Noir viciousness to outwit Maigret.