Panique is a French film directed by Julien Duvivier

Julien Duvivier

Julien Duvivier was a French film director. He was prominent in French cinema in the years 1930-1960...

, made in 1946 and released in 1947, starring Michel Simon

Michel Simon

Michel Simon , was a Swiss actor. The actor François Simon is his son.-Early years:...

 and Viviane Romance. In 1989 Patrice Leconte

Patrice Leconte

Patrice Leconte is a French film director, actor, comic strip writer, and screenwriter.-Biography:...

 remade the film as Monsieur Hire

Monsieur Hire

Monsieur Hire is a 1989 French film directed by Patrice Leconte and starring Michel Blanc in the title role and Sandrine Bonnaire as the object of his affection. The film received numerous accolades as well as a glowing review from popular American movie commentator Roger Ebert. The film is based...

, with the title rôle played by Michel Blanc

Michel Blanc

Michel Blanc is a French actor and director who is noted for his roles of losers and hypochondriacs...

.

Plot

The strange and slightly unsettling Monsieur Hire is suspected of a crime. A crowd tracks the man down, who seeks escape on the roof of a building.

Comment

"After the war [many] narratives were spent on some kind of revenge. 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...

's Les portes de la nuit, Robert Bresson

Robert Bresson

-Life and career:Bresson was born at Bromont-Lamothe, Puy-de-Dôme, the son of Marie-Élisabeth and Léon Bresson. Little is known of his early life and the year of his birth, 1901 or 1907, varies depending on the source. He was educated at Lycée Lakanal in Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine, close to Paris, and...

's Les dames du Bois de Boulogne

Les dames du Bois de Boulogne

Les dames du Bois de Boulogne is a 1945 French film directed by Robert Bresson. It is a modern adaptation of a section of Denis Diderot's Jacques le fataliste , telling the story of a man who is tricked into marrying a former prostitute.Les Dames was Bresson's second feature...

, Georges Lacombe

Georges Lacombe (film director)

-Filmography:* 1928 : La Zone * 1931 : Boule de gomme* 1932 : La Femme invisible* 1933 : Un jour d'été* 1933 : Ce cochon de Morin* 1934 : Jeunesse* 1935 : Épousez ma femme* 1935 : La Route heureuse...

's Martin Roumagnac

Martin Roumagnac

Martin Roumagnac , is a 1946 French crime film made by Alcina and distributed by Lopert Film. It was directed by Georges Lacombe....

, - the harrying of a Jew to his death in Duvivier's Panique, and a number of Simenon and Steeman thriller adaptations rife with violence and revenge - all of these films attest to a need to project the immediate past on to a different set of narratives that are removed from the immediate arena of guilt (although Panique comes uncomfortably close). Dark social realism is to be found in a considerable number of films during the five-year period after the end of the war. The films of Henri-Georges Clouzot

Henri-Georges Clouzot

Henri-Georges Clouzot was a French film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best remembered for his work in the thriller film genre, having directed The Wages of Fear and Les Diaboliques, which are critically recognized to be among the greatest films from the 1950s...

 and Henri Decoin

Henri Decoin

Henri Decoin was a French film director and screenwriter. He directed 50 films between 1933 and 1964. He was also a swimmer who competed for France in the men's 400 metre freestyle event at the 1908 Summer Olympics and the water polo tournament at the 1912 Summer Olympics.-Selected filmography:*...

 are the most remarkable in this context in their fierce, almost cynical pessimism, but the works of Yves Allégret

Yves Allégret

Yves Allégret was a French film director in the film noir genre.He is noted as having been the husband of actress Simone Signoret between the years 1944–1949.-Selected filmography:...

and Julien Duvivier in that period come close on their heels."