Quai des Orfevres - Criterion Collection

Rating:
Summary: Joyfully Cynical Comedy
Review: Clouzot, the "French Hitchcock", downplays the suspense here to make a joyfully cynical comedy in the guise of a murder mystery about Parisian show-biz lowlife. Bernard Blier plays a loser-ish musician (who looks like, in the words of one critic, "a homicidal Bob Newhart") who is crazily jealous about his hotsy-totsy wife, the night-club singer Jenny Lamour. When she threatens to hook up with millionaire Brignon (the amazingly repellent Charles Dullin), mayhem ensues. Blier and wife are aided by their neighbor, the smut photographer Dora (who has a "masculine aspect" to her, if you get my drift) but the police are called, in the person of Louis Jouvet's magnificently dour detective. The film explores the raffish milieu of low-rent entertainment of the 1940's with great style. Clouzot retains his unique combination of satire and sentiment about equivocal human nature that is also found in his other masterpieces, "The Wages of Fear", "Diabolique" and "Le Corbeau." This is a most entertaining movie.

Rating:
Summary: Joyfully Cynical Comedy
Review: Clouzot, the "French Hitchcock", downplays the suspense here to make a joyfully cynical comedy in the guise of a murder mystery about Parisian show-biz lowlife. Bernard Blier plays a loser-ish musician (who looks like, in the words of one critic, "a homicidal Bob Newhart") who is crazily jealous about his hotsy-totsy wife, the night-club singer Jenny Lamour. When she threatens to hook up with millionaire Brignon (the amazingly repellent Charles Dullin), mayhem ensues. Blier and wife are aided by their neighbor, the smut photographer Dora (who has a "masculine aspect" to her, if you get my drift) but the police are called, in the person of Louis Jouvet's magnificently dour detective. The film explores the raffish milieu of low-rent entertainment of the 1940's with great style. Clouzot retains his unique combination of satire and sentiment about equivocal human nature that is also found in his other masterpieces, "The Wages of Fear", "Diabolique" and "Le Corbeau." This is a most entertaining movie.

Rating:
Summary: Another winner from Clouzot
Review: Quai des Orfevres takes too long getting going, with Clouzot so enamored of his back-stage milieu that he is almost in danger of forgetting the story. However, once it does, it's Clouzot at his best. Bertrand Blier (father of Bertrand Blier and co-star of his Buffet Froid) is the worldworn pianist who married beneath himself and who plans to kill the seedy studio mogul with designs on his wife only to find that someone has beaten him to it. Not only that, but his carefully planned but clumsily executed alibi falls to pieces, not least when a thief steals his car at the murder scene...

The film really kicks into life with the arrival of Luis Jouvet's police inspector, a rather wonderful creation half Alistair Sim in Green for Danger and half world-weary Maigret with better dialog. In a neat running gag, his investigation is constantly conducted at the top of his voice against chaos and noise, whether it be the noisy typewriters of the police station or a loud rehearsal. The police station itself is a wonderfully realistic creation, a wealth of chaotic and telling small details that makes Steve Bocchco's once revolutionary 80's US cop shows look like antiquated museum pieces by comparison.

If Suzy Delair is a rather unconvincing femme fatale, the supporting cast more than compensate, with the beautiful Simone Renant a standout as the lesbian photographer in love with her from afar and constantly mistaken for Blier's lover by Delair and other interested parties (only Jouvet, similarly unlucky with women, understands and genuinely sympathises). With great black and white photography by Armand Thirard, this is a terrific little thriller with a nice twist ending and a lovely scene with a cab driver reluctantly identifying Renant in a police station. (Trivia note: Pierre Larquey, who played the playfully philosophical Dr Vorzet in Le Corbeau, turns up in smaller roles as a cab-driver in both Quai and Les Espions.)

The Criterion DVD is quite superb - great picture quality plus an illuminating extract from a French TV show featuring interviews with Clouzot, Blier and Renant.

Rating:
Summary: FABULOUS FRENCH NOIR
Review: The first time I saw QUAI DES ORFEVRES (Criterion), I was hooked within minutes. I saw it again with some friends, who said they didn't want to see a foreign film and have to read subtitles, but they too were riveted almost immediately.

This noirish French crime story directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot captures the feel of 1940s Paris at night -- the back alleys and smokey cabarets -- better than any film I can think of.

But more than that, it reveals the unexpected human behavior that revolves around a possessive husband, a sexy night club singer, a best girlfriend photographer, a murdered lecherous movie producer and the persistent investigation of a weary police inspector. This terrific film is full of surprises. (The title "Quai des Orfevres" is the French equivalent to England's Scotland Yard.) Highest recommended.

Rating:
Summary: FABULOUS FRENCH NOIR
Review: The first time I saw QUAI DES ORFEVRES (Criterion), I was hooked within minutes. I saw it again with some friends, who said they didn't want to see a foreign film and have to read subtitles, but they too were riveted almost immediately. This noirish French crime story directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot captures the feel of 1940s Paris at night -- the back alleys and smokey cabarets -- better than any film I can think of. But more than that, it reveals the unexpected human behavior that revolves around a possessive husband, a sexy night club singer, a best girlfriend photographer, a murdered lecherous movie producer and the persistent investigation of a weary police inspector. This terrific film is full of surprises and my favorite of this week's picks. (The title "Quai des Orfevres" is the French equivalent to England's Scotland Yard.) Highest recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Clouzot fans will appreciate this one
Review: This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

"Quai des Orfèvres" (which means "Quay of the Goldsmith") in English was Henri-George Clouzot's first film after the notorious release of "Le Corbeau" which had him blacklisted.

Quai des Orfèvres is about a ballet dancer and her jealous husband who try to cover up a murder. To say much else would be a spoiler in my opinion.

The film has some nice scenes though I found it somewhat boring.

The special features on the DVD are:

Interviews with cast and crew
Gallery of lobby cards for the international release
Theatrical trailer.

I think that Clouzot fans will probably be the most inclined to view this release