Pierre Alcover is released from prison in French Guyana, whither he had been sent for killing his wife in a rage. He returns to Paris to find his daughter, Nadia Sibirskaïa,and a job. The job comes easily enough, but he doesn't realize that Mlle Sibirskaïa has been earning a living as a prostitute, and that her boyfriend wants to buy a garage and live a middle class life. To finance this, they intend to hold up a pawnbroker -- although they intend to repay him. But the scheme goes wrong, and to save the boy friend from being strangled, Mlle Sibirskaïa kills him.
Director Jean Gremillion makes effective use of silent film techniques in this early talky,with the opening sequences of the prisoners, and the late one of Black performers at a jazz club having a documentary feel. Mlle Sibirskala shows her acting technique to good effect in the aftermath of the murder in a fashion that reminds me of Hitchcock's Murder, albeit without the striking use of sound effects. Instead, it looks like large sections were shot wild, with sound used to fill in a naturalistic manner.
Although the copy I looked at wasn't of the highest quality -- it looks like it was drawn from a slightly battered 16mm print -- the still-experimental melding of image and sound in techniques that soon fell out of favor make this an unusually idiosyncratic movie.
Bob.
Director Jean Gremillion makes effective use of silent film techniques in this early talky,with the opening sequences of the prisoners, and the late one of Black performers at a jazz club having a documentary feel. Mlle Sibirskala shows her acting technique to good effect in the aftermath of the murder in a fashion that reminds me of Hitchcock's Murder, albeit without the striking use of sound effects. Instead, it looks like large sections were shot wild, with sound used to fill in a naturalistic manner.
Although the copy I looked at wasn't of the highest quality -- it looks like it was drawn from a slightly battered 16mm print -- the still-experimental melding of image and sound in techniques that soon fell out of favor make this an unusually idiosyncratic movie.
Bob.