Dazzled by Paris Frills (also reviewed), I decided that I would double bill it with another title by film maker Jacques Becker. Looking down the list of credits, I spotted a movie from Becker that I had not heard of before, leading to me joining the comrades.
View on the film:
Produced the year that Popular Front won the election, and directed by a collective, (with Jean Renoir prominently keeping everything on track) the directors capture the growing fear of what was happening in Germany, with one of the most striking sequences being 1000's of WWI veterans marching to stop fascists from claiming The Unknown Solider.
Along with speeches made by people fearing another world war, the directors go all-in on pushing propaganda for the French Communist Party, with long segments of the movie based around showing the full speeches of FCP members.
Taking an anthology approach, and featuring a debut performance from the lovely Madeleine Sologne, (with cameos also from Becker and Renoir) the collective writers/directors emphasis the themes of the speeches with compact short tales, from the rules of the game being laid out by the bourgeoisie who control a huge part of France's industrial output, to following a man waiting in line to be served at a soup kitchen.
View on the film:
Produced the year that Popular Front won the election, and directed by a collective, (with Jean Renoir prominently keeping everything on track) the directors capture the growing fear of what was happening in Germany, with one of the most striking sequences being 1000's of WWI veterans marching to stop fascists from claiming The Unknown Solider.
Along with speeches made by people fearing another world war, the directors go all-in on pushing propaganda for the French Communist Party, with long segments of the movie based around showing the full speeches of FCP members.
Taking an anthology approach, and featuring a debut performance from the lovely Madeleine Sologne, (with cameos also from Becker and Renoir) the collective writers/directors emphasis the themes of the speeches with compact short tales, from the rules of the game being laid out by the bourgeoisie who control a huge part of France's industrial output, to following a man waiting in line to be served at a soup kitchen.