Lumière d'été

Suudelma pimeässä / Bergtagen. FR 1943. PC: Discina. P: André Paulvé. D: Jean Grémillon. SC: Jacques Prévert, Pierre Laroche. DP: Louis Page, Roger Arrignon. PD: Alexandre Trauner, Léon Barsacq, Max Douy. Starring Madeleine Renaud (Cricri), Pierre Brasseur (Roland Maillard), Madeleine Robinson (Michèle Lagarde), Paul Bernard (Patrice Leverdier), Georges Marchal (Julien), Marcel Levesque (Monsieur Lerouge), Charles Blavette (Vincent). 110 min. Beautiful print from La Cinémathèque francaise. E-subtitles in Finnish by Lena Talvio. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 15 Jan 2008. Jean Grémillon's masterpiece is a strange continuation of the 1930s French cinema during the Occupation. It has aspects of romantic fatalism (love under threat), working-class milieu (complete with Charles Blavette, Renoir's Toni), the pension ensemble (like Renoir, Feyder), the château party (as in La Règle du jeu), and a hunter's gun, but there are surprising turns to all the familiar situations. In a bizarre role, there is even Marcel Levesque, the funniest member of the old Feuillade ensemble. In one of his earliest roles, there is Georges Marchal, the future Buñuel favourite. It's a rich web of relationships and stark juxtapositions between the idle castle and the construction site.