Summary
When the owner of a factory is found dead, one of his employees is charged with his murder.
Detective André Lucot is not convinced of the accused man’s guilt and is persuaded
that the real culprit is an attractive 25 year old woman named Lilas. He gains the
confidence of the reticent young woman, who is living amongst hardened criminals and prostitutes
in a slum inn. As their friendship turns to love, Lucot becomes convinced that Lilas
is innocent. Then Lilas reveals her devastating secret...
Review
Coeur de lilas is an impressive early example of the French policier and was based
on a stage-play by Bernard and Hirsch. It is one of the earliest films to be directed
by the Russian émigré Anatole Litvak who later went on to make a successful
career as a film director in the United States. The film cost $120,000, making it
reputedly the most expensive film to be made in France up to this point. The plot
is admittedly somewhat unsophisticated, but it is easy to spot all the familiar film noir
elements which would recur in subsequent French crime thrillers over the following three
decades. The film was a popular commercial success, more than recouping its
high production cost.
Perhaps the most striking thing about this
film is how it captures the mood and feel of the early 1930s, thanks to some ambitious
exterior filming, convincing interior sets and – most noticeably – the popular musical
hall tunes which run the length of the film. The film exudes a sense of nostalgia
which makes watching it today a genuine treat, in spite of the dated production values
and the poor quality of the surviving film prints.
The film features a haunting performance from
Marcelle Romée, a young actress who is all but forgotten today. She plays
the film’s vulnerable heroine, Lilas, opposite lead actor André Luguet.
Romée’s promising film career was cut short when she committed suicide a year after
making this film, adding a tragic note to the film’s poignant conclusion. Legendary
actor Jean Gabin also stars in the film. Some years before he became immortalised
as the popular tragic hero in films such as Pépé-le-Moko and La
Belle équipe, Gabin appears here in an a very atypical role – a rather brutish
roughneck always looking for a fight.
Many early French sound films included musical
hall-style songs, presumably to make the new medium appeal to the wider public.
Coeur de lilas is no exception and includes no less than three numbers. The
first is sung by Fréhel, a popular singer of the 1930s, renowned for her rough
yet deeply emotional voice. Fréhel and Gabin sing the film’s main song, La
Môme caoutchouc (which Gabin subsequently recorded solo, with great success).
The final number is sung by a comparatively unknown actor named Fernandel...
© James Travers 2002
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