Le Grand Jeu (1934 film)
Encyclopedia
Le Grand Jeu is a 1934 French film directed by Jacques Feyder
. It is a romantic drama set against the background of the French Foreign Legion
, and the film was an example of poetic realism
in the French cinema. The title Le Grand Jeu refers to the practice of reading the cards. Blanche asks whether her client wants the 'full works', the whole story: "Alors... je te fais le grand jeu?"
), a young Parisian businessman, is brought to financial ruin and disgrace through the extravagant lifestyle that he pursues with his lover Florence (Marie Bell
). Forced to leave the country, he joins the Foreign Legion, as Pierre Muller, and seeks to submerge his own despair in a new life in North Africa alongside other unhappy refugees such as the Russian Nicolas (Georges Pitoëff). When not on campaign, they lodge in a cheap hotel run by the greedy and lecherous Clément (Charles Vanel
) and his sadly stoical wife Blanche (Françoise Rosay
), who passes the time by reading the cards to tell her customers their fortunes. When Pierre encounters Irma (Marie Bell
) working in a local bar as a singer and a prostitute, he finds her almost identical to his former lover Florence, except for her voice and the colour of her hair. Irma is vague about her past and Pierre becomes ever more obsessed with the apparent reincarnation of his old love. They live together at the hotel, and when Clément forces himself on Irma, Pierre kills him in a struggle; Blanche makes it appear to be an accident. When Pierre's term of service finishes, he and Irma plan a new life together back in France where he has now inherited some money. But on the eve of their embarkation in Casablanca, Pierre happens to meet again the real Florence, now mistress to a wealthy Arab, and his feelings for Irma are shattered. Having duped Irma into returning to France alone, he re-enlists in the Legion. Blanche's cards foretell a brave death for him in his next campaign.
had been working in Hollywood since 1929. However, in 1932, when he and MGM failed to reach an agreement on any new projects, he returned to France. One of his last unrealized projects in Hollywood had been to direct Greta Garbo
in an adaptation of Pirandello's Come tu mi vuoi (As You Desire Me
), in which he proposed to give a different voice to Garbo for part of her role. He carried this same idea into the scenario for Le Grand Jeu, in which two different roles would be played by the same actress, but with one of them dubbed by a different voice to create a disconcerting dramatic effect.
With Charles Spaak
as his scenarist, Feyder developed a romantic drama set in the colonial world of French North Africa, which he had previously explored in his silent film L'Atlantide
.
For the central character of Pierre, Feyder had originally wanted Charles Boyer
, but after a disagreement between them he chose the popular film and theatre actor Pierre Richard-Willm
.. The supporting cast included Charles Vanel
and Feyder's wife Françoise Rosay
.
Filming took place in the autumn of 1933, and the film was released in May 1934. In addition to the atmospheric set designs of Lazare Meerson
, Feyder wanted to film some scenes on location. When however he took his cast and crew to Morocco, he failed to obtain the cooperation of the Legion for his story, and he was obliged to film some scenes of legionnaires at work and on the march in real life as though he were making a documentary.
One of the assistant directors on this film (and others by Feyder) was Marcel Carné
, some of whose later films (Le Quai des brumes
, Le Jour se lève
) would create a similar mood of romantic fatalism (and poetic realism
).
Critics have subsequently tended to find weaknesses in the acting of the two principals, now overshadowed by the supporting contributions of the better-known Charles Vanel and Françoise Rosay, but the vivid portrayal of a colonial garrison has continued to impress.
, also scripted by Charles Spaak, though actually about the Spanish Foreign Legion. Other French films with similar background were Un de la légion (1936, dir.Christian-Jaque
- a comedy with Fernandel) and Les Hommes sans nom (1937, dir.Jean Vallée
). Meanwhile, American cinema showed a continuing interest in the Foreign Legion with remakes of Beau Geste
and Under Two Flags, among many others.
Le Grand Jeu was also one of the films which defined a characteristic mood of romantic despair in the French cinema of the 1930s, a mood shared by films such as Pépé le Moko
, Hôtel du Nord
, Le Quai des brumes
, and Le Jour se lève
.
Although there is no reason to claim a connection, the theme of a man re-inventing a new lover in the image of his old one was later explored by Alfred Hitchcock in Vertigo
.
A remake of Le Grand Jeu was directed by Robert Siodmak
in 1954, featuring Gina Lollobrigida
and Arletty
.
Jacques Feyder
Jacques Feyder was a Belgian actor, screenwriter and film director who worked principally in France, but also in the USA, Britain and Germany. He was a leading director of silent films during the 1920s, and in the 1930s he became associated with the style of poetic realism in French cinema...
. It is a romantic drama set against the background of the French Foreign Legion
French Foreign Legion
The French Foreign Legion is a unique military service wing of the French Army established in 1831. The foreign legion was exclusively created for foreign nationals willing to serve in the French Armed Forces...
, and the film was an example of poetic realism
Poetic realism
Poetic realism was a film movement in France of the 1930s and through the war years. More a tendency than a movement, Poetic Realism is not strongly unified like Soviet Montage or French Impressionism. Its leading filmmakers were Jean Renoir, Pierre Chenal, Jean Vigo, Julien Duvivier, and Marcel...
in the French cinema. The title Le Grand Jeu refers to the practice of reading the cards. Blanche asks whether her client wants the 'full works', the whole story: "Alors... je te fais le grand jeu?"
Plot
Pierre Martel (Pierre Richard-WillmPierre Richard-Willm
Pierre Richard-Willm was a French actor during the 1930s and 1940s.-Biography:Richard-Willm was born in south-western France in the city of Bayonne. His mother, Elisabeth-Fanny Willm, died at the age of thirty-one, and he was raised by his maternal grandmother...
), a young Parisian businessman, is brought to financial ruin and disgrace through the extravagant lifestyle that he pursues with his lover Florence (Marie Bell
Marie Bell
Marie Bell , born Marie-Jeanne Bellon, was a French tragedian, comic actor and stage director. She was the director of the Théâtre du Gymnase in Paris from 1962 onwards, and this theatre now bears her name....
). Forced to leave the country, he joins the Foreign Legion, as Pierre Muller, and seeks to submerge his own despair in a new life in North Africa alongside other unhappy refugees such as the Russian Nicolas (Georges Pitoëff). When not on campaign, they lodge in a cheap hotel run by the greedy and lecherous Clément (Charles Vanel
Charles Vanel
Charles-Marie Vanel, known as Charles Vanel was a French director and actor. He made his screen debut in 1912, in Robert Péguy's Jim Crow...
) and his sadly stoical wife Blanche (Françoise Rosay
Françoise Rosay
Françoise Rosay was a French opera singer, diseuse, and actress who enjoyed a film career of over sixty years and who became a legendary figure in French cinema...
), who passes the time by reading the cards to tell her customers their fortunes. When Pierre encounters Irma (Marie Bell
Marie Bell
Marie Bell , born Marie-Jeanne Bellon, was a French tragedian, comic actor and stage director. She was the director of the Théâtre du Gymnase in Paris from 1962 onwards, and this theatre now bears her name....
) working in a local bar as a singer and a prostitute, he finds her almost identical to his former lover Florence, except for her voice and the colour of her hair. Irma is vague about her past and Pierre becomes ever more obsessed with the apparent reincarnation of his old love. They live together at the hotel, and when Clément forces himself on Irma, Pierre kills him in a struggle; Blanche makes it appear to be an accident. When Pierre's term of service finishes, he and Irma plan a new life together back in France where he has now inherited some money. But on the eve of their embarkation in Casablanca, Pierre happens to meet again the real Florence, now mistress to a wealthy Arab, and his feelings for Irma are shattered. Having duped Irma into returning to France alone, he re-enlists in the Legion. Blanche's cards foretell a brave death for him in his next campaign.
Production
Jacques FeyderJacques Feyder
Jacques Feyder was a Belgian actor, screenwriter and film director who worked principally in France, but also in the USA, Britain and Germany. He was a leading director of silent films during the 1920s, and in the 1930s he became associated with the style of poetic realism in French cinema...
had been working in Hollywood since 1929. However, in 1932, when he and MGM failed to reach an agreement on any new projects, he returned to France. One of his last unrealized projects in Hollywood had been to direct Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo , born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, was a Swedish film actress. Garbo was an international star and icon during Hollywood's silent and classic periods. Many of Garbo's films were sensational hits, and all but three were profitable...
in an adaptation of Pirandello's Come tu mi vuoi (As You Desire Me
As You Desire Me (film)
As You Desire Me is a 1932 film adaptation of the play by Luigi Pirandello made by MGM. It was produced and directed by George Fitzmaurice with Irving Thalberg as co-producer. The adaptation was by Gene Markey, the cinematography byWilliam H...
), in which he proposed to give a different voice to Garbo for part of her role. He carried this same idea into the scenario for Le Grand Jeu, in which two different roles would be played by the same actress, but with one of them dubbed by a different voice to create a disconcerting dramatic effect.
With Charles Spaak
Charles Spaak
Charles Spaak was a Belgian screenwriter who was noted particularly for his work in the French cinema during the 1930s...
as his scenarist, Feyder developed a romantic drama set in the colonial world of French North Africa, which he had previously explored in his silent film L'Atlantide
L'Atlantide (1921 film)
L'Atlantide is a 1921 French-Belgian silent film directed by Jacques Feyder, and the first of several adaptations of the best-selling novel L'Atlantide by Pierre Benoit.-Plot:...
.
For the central character of Pierre, Feyder had originally wanted Charles Boyer
Charles Boyer
Charles Boyer was a French actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After receiving an education in drama, Boyer started on the stage, but he found success in movies during the 1930s. His memorable performances were among the era's most highly praised romantic dramas,...
, but after a disagreement between them he chose the popular film and theatre actor Pierre Richard-Willm
Pierre Richard-Willm
Pierre Richard-Willm was a French actor during the 1930s and 1940s.-Biography:Richard-Willm was born in south-western France in the city of Bayonne. His mother, Elisabeth-Fanny Willm, died at the age of thirty-one, and he was raised by his maternal grandmother...
.. The supporting cast included Charles Vanel
Charles Vanel
Charles-Marie Vanel, known as Charles Vanel was a French director and actor. He made his screen debut in 1912, in Robert Péguy's Jim Crow...
and Feyder's wife Françoise Rosay
Françoise Rosay
Françoise Rosay was a French opera singer, diseuse, and actress who enjoyed a film career of over sixty years and who became a legendary figure in French cinema...
.
Filming took place in the autumn of 1933, and the film was released in May 1934. In addition to the atmospheric set designs of Lazare Meerson
Lazare Meerson
Lazare Meerson was a Russian-born French and English film art director.-Filmography:* L'Argent * Sous les Toits de Paris * Quatorze Juillet * Le Grand Jeu* Pension Mimosas...
, Feyder wanted to film some scenes on location. When however he took his cast and crew to Morocco, he failed to obtain the cooperation of the Legion for his story, and he was obliged to film some scenes of legionnaires at work and on the march in real life as though he were making a documentary.
One of the assistant directors on this film (and others by Feyder) was Marcel Carné
Marcel Carné
-Biography:Born in Paris, France, the son of a cabinet maker whose wife died when their son was five, Carné began his career as a film critic, becoming editor of the weekly publication, Hebdo-Films, and working for Cinémagazine and Cinémonde between 1929 and 1933. In the same period he worked in...
, some of whose later films (Le Quai des brumes
Port of Shadows
Port of Shadows is a 1938 French film directed by Marcel Carné. It stars Jean Gabin, Michel Simon and Michèle Morgan. The screenplay was written by Jacques Prévert based on a novel by Pierre Mac Orlan. The music score was by Maurice Jaubert. It is a notable example of the poetic realism genre...
, Le Jour se lève
Le Jour se lève
Le Jour se lève is a 1939 French film directed by Marcel Carné and written by Jacques Prévert, based on a story by Jacques Viot. It is considered one of the principal examples of the French film movement known as poetic realism....
) would create a similar mood of romantic fatalism (and poetic realism
Poetic realism
Poetic realism was a film movement in France of the 1930s and through the war years. More a tendency than a movement, Poetic Realism is not strongly unified like Soviet Montage or French Impressionism. Its leading filmmakers were Jean Renoir, Pierre Chenal, Jean Vigo, Julien Duvivier, and Marcel...
).
Reception
On its release in France, the film enjoyed considerable success, and was rated one of the best French films of 1934 by both the public and the press. In addition to its superior production values, there was much interest in the technical device of the double role with a dubbed voice. A contemporary film historian wrote: "Le Grand Jeu is one of the few films to have made use of a new idea since talkies came in. This might not have been sufficient to hold our attention but for a certain vulgar brutality which sustained the interest of the plot. Though the film was overromantic, we had the impression of seeing real people. ...There is a rare quality of truthfulness which always saves Feyder, and his rather vulgar characters exude a strange atmosphere of destiny and death." The same author concluded that "out of this rather absurd plot, Feyder made a profoundly human film".Critics have subsequently tended to find weaknesses in the acting of the two principals, now overshadowed by the supporting contributions of the better-known Charles Vanel and Françoise Rosay, but the vivid portrayal of a colonial garrison has continued to impress.
Influence
Le Grand Jeu contributed to the series of flms which used the French Foreign Legion as a colourful background. It was followed in 1935 by Julien Duvivier's La BanderaLa Bandera (film)
La Bandera is a 1935 film directed by Julien Duvivier, based on a novel by Pierre Mac Orlan. -Plot:Curfew bells are ringing at night in Paris, while a man and his drunken girlfriend Jacqueline walk down the street. Pierre Gilieth comes out of house #25 looking very frightened, both Pierre Gilieth...
, also scripted by Charles Spaak, though actually about the Spanish Foreign Legion. Other French films with similar background were Un de la légion (1936, dir.Christian-Jaque
Christian-Jaque
Christian-Jaque was a French filmmaker. He was married to actress Martine Carol from 1954 to 1959.Christian-Jaque was born at Paris....
- a comedy with Fernandel) and Les Hommes sans nom (1937, dir.Jean Vallée
Jean Vallée
Jean Vallée is a Belgian song writer and performer. Vallée was made Knight in the Order of the Crown by HM Albert II in 1999.-Career:...
). Meanwhile, American cinema showed a continuing interest in the Foreign Legion with remakes of Beau Geste
Beau Geste (1939 film)
Beau Geste is a 1939 film produced by Paramount Pictures based on the novel of the same name by P. C. Wren. It was directed and produced by William A. Wellman from a screenplay by Robert Carson...
and Under Two Flags, among many others.
Le Grand Jeu was also one of the films which defined a characteristic mood of romantic despair in the French cinema of the 1930s, a mood shared by films such as Pépé le Moko
Pépé le Moko
Pépé le Moko is a 1937 French film directed by Julien Duvivier and starring Jean Gabin. It depicts an infamous gangster, Pépé le Moko who tries to escape the police by hiding in the casbah of the city of Algiers...
, Hôtel du Nord
Hôtel du Nord
Hôtel du Nord is a 1938 French drama film directed by Marcel Carné and starring Annabella.- Cast :* Annabella - Renée* Jean-Pierre Aumont - Pierre* Louis Jouvet - Monsieur Edmond* Arletty - Raymonde* Paulette Dubost - Ginette* Andrex - Kenel...
, Le Quai des brumes
Port of Shadows
Port of Shadows is a 1938 French film directed by Marcel Carné. It stars Jean Gabin, Michel Simon and Michèle Morgan. The screenplay was written by Jacques Prévert based on a novel by Pierre Mac Orlan. The music score was by Maurice Jaubert. It is a notable example of the poetic realism genre...
, and Le Jour se lève
Le Jour se lève
Le Jour se lève is a 1939 French film directed by Marcel Carné and written by Jacques Prévert, based on a story by Jacques Viot. It is considered one of the principal examples of the French film movement known as poetic realism....
.
Although there is no reason to claim a connection, the theme of a man re-inventing a new lover in the image of his old one was later explored by Alfred Hitchcock in Vertigo
Vertigo (film)
Vertigo is a 1958 psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring James Stewart, Kim Novak, and Barbara Bel Geddes. The screenplay was written by Alec Coppel and Samuel A...
.
A remake of Le Grand Jeu was directed by Robert Siodmak
Robert Siodmak
Robert Siodmak was a German born American film director. He is best remembered as a thriller specialist and for the series of Hollywood film noirs he made in the 1940s.-Early life:...
in 1954, featuring Gina Lollobrigida
Gina Lollobrigida
Gina Lollobrigida is an Italian actress, photojournalist and sculptress. She was one of the most popular European actresses of the 1950s and early 1960s. She was also an iconic sex symbol of the 1950s. Today, she remains an active supporter of Italian and Italian American causes, particularly the...
and Arletty
Arletty
Arletty was a French actress, singer, and fashion model.-Life and career:Arletty was born Léonie Marie Julie Bathiat in Courbevoie , to a working-class family. Her early career was dominated by the music hall, and she later appeared in plays and cabaret. Arletty was a stage performer for ten years...
.
External links
- Le Grand Jeu at DVDtoile.com