Le jour se lève - cinema review

(France 1939)
directed by Marcel Carné, starring Jean Gabin, Arletty, Bernard Blier, Jacqueline Laurent
b/w, 93', 35mm Italian dubbed version
Working class François kills his love rival and shuts himself up in his room. While the police are laying siege to him, François thinks about his recent love relationships: one with a girl who sells flowers, the other with a worldly-wise woman. The film is a masterpiece of French poetic realism that sums up the dramatic world conceived by Prévert - who wrote the screenplay along with Jacques Viot. Le jour se lève puts a deep existential spin into a working class study, creating a style soon to influence even American noir films.