Thérèse Raquin - Du sollst nicht ehebrechen

'Thérèse Raquin' (1953) (English title - 'The Adultress') is Marcel Carné's third post-Prévert film. Connoisseur film fans consider it his latest remarkable film. It was produced by the famous Hakim brothers. Even though Jacques Prévert no longer wrote his screenplays and dialogues, Marcel Carné did not give up good literature for this film, and took as inspiration the novel 'Thérèse Raquin', Émile Zola's first great success, a story about passion, crime and punishment in France in the second half of the 19th century. From Zola's (suspenseful in my opinion) story of guilty love and remorse, this adaptation turns into a thriller with elements of film noir. Still suspenseful, of course, but in a completely different genre. It's not a bad movie, but it's a different movie, different from Zola and different from other Marcel Carné movies.

We learn about Therese's fate from dialogues, quite late in the film. The story begins when she is already unhappily married to her cousin Camille, a hypochondriac feeble man caressed by her mother (played by an exceptionally well-composed actress named Sylvie), who terrorizes his young wife. Frustrated from all points of view, Therese seeks refuge in a love affair with a trucker dressed in a leather jacket played by Raf Vallone. The passion of the two inevitably leads to murder, and the murder leads to complications when they are blackmailed by an unexpected witness. It can be said that the film is built of two distinct parts separated by the crime itself committed on the train (here we are dealing again with a change of place, in the novel the deed takes place on water): in the first we witness the suffocating atmosphere in the house the bourgeois family, which builds the premises of the violent act and in the second we follow the consequences of the act filmed in thriller style.

The production is uneven, but it has some beautiful cinematic moments. Simone Signoret is gorgeous both physically and as an actress. Most of us know her from her mature roles and after that - here she is young and fascinating, with eyes whose deep blue we 'see' even though it is a black and white film. The scene of the confrontation with the tyrannical mother-in-law, played only by eyesights (her mother-in-law was paralyzed) is intense and memorable. Raf Vallone, however, is not, in my opinion, up to his partner. The psychological shortcuts of the plot are not sufficiently offset by the elements of suspense in the second part of the film. Paradoxically, Marcel Carné seems more at ease when filming outside, on the streets of post-war Lyon or on the banks of the Rhône. The director, who was to be pushed aside by the younger newcomers of Nouvelle Vague and included in the category of 'cinema du papa', shows that he mastered a few years before them mobility of the camera, framing of the characters on the streets or in nature and direct sound recording. 'Thérèse Raquin' is an interesting film that deserves to be watched or re-watched as a cinematic document, for Simone Signoret, and as a more than acceptable thriller noir. Less, perhaps, for Zola's novel that inspired it.

Therese Raquin (1953)

You may be familiar with the lead actress, Simone Signoret, from Les Diaboliques, made a year after this film, and she plays a similar conflicted or complex, strong type of woman in a sordid world. She plays the title character, based on a Zola story, who is swept into a romance she doesn't completely expect and then a murder that she doesn't completely abhor.

And she is rather brilliant, a slightly different type than American actresses of the time, but commanding in her stoic intelligence. The two men are both first rate, one a foreign (Italian) charmer and the other a sharper fellow who is only slightly over his head. In fact, everyone is just slightly extended into decisions they don't quite know how to make. The fact that things go wrong is just part of great drama, and part of life, too.

The filming (photography and editing) is totally gorgeous here, The plot progresses slowly enough it might seem to drag, but I think it works in the long run, setting a deliberate and inevitable pace to events. What is maybe weakest is the ending, where things get a little spectacular, perhaps in a fascinating way, but certainly no longer believable.

Director Marcel Carne is no household name in this country, but the strength of this film alone makes me want to find others and get a feel for his style. Recommended for those who like drama, melodrama, and a sort of Euro-noir style, and who don't mind reading subtitles.

Thérèse Raquin (AKA: The Adultress) is directed by Marcel Carné and Carné co-adapts the screenplay with Charles Spaak from the Émile Zola novel. It stars Simone Signoret, Raf Vallone, Jacques Duby, Maria Pia Casilio and Roland Lesaffre. Music is by Maurice Thiriet and cinematography by Roger Hubert.

Carné reworks Zola's novel to be set in post-war Lyon and slips into a film noir gear. Plot essentially finds Signoret as Raquin, a severely repressed woman stuck in a marriage to her wimpy weasel of a cousin, not only that but she also has to share a home with his domineering mother. Then one day the strapping Laurent LeClaire (Vallone) enters her life, sparking a fiery affair, but as plans for the future are plotted, a turn of events drastically changes everything.

The characterisations are strongly performed, the five principals (Lesaffre arrives late in the play as a key character) giving performances that really draw you into their respective worlds, for better or worse as regards the human condition. Carné skillfully blends the beautiful side of Lyon, such as the quaint cobbled streets and the River Rhone, with a dull bleakness that fogs Thérèse, a woman who has forgotten how to smile, sexual fulfilment a non entity. Hubert also brings his photographic skills to the show, providing some blisteringly gorgeous night shots that offer hope for the new found lovers. But there is a sign post up ahead and it says that the next stop is noirville, and after having spent half the film building his characters, Carné dashes hope and replaces it with misery. Fate plays a big part in the crux aspects of the film, a film noir staple of course, right up to the clinical finale that comes with a thunderous fait accompli.

It's a bit draggy in parts as the director is at pains to show the humdrum side of life, but the change of gear at the mid-point - and the brilliant last quarter, make this a worthy addition for collectors of Frenchie noir. 8/10

Emile Zola wrote page turners. He focused on the injustices of the great unwashed of France, from miners to prostitutes. His books were incredibly naturalistic and moralistic. His characters seldom came through unscathed but made a statement about the cultural milieu of the time. This is a story about passion. Therese Raquin is the wife of a tiresome mama's boy hypochondriac. She is beautiful and is married to this childish wimp. Along comes the handsome truck driver after she has spent six empty years with this guy. They have tryst and even let the husband know that he is going to lose his wife. Everything changes when, on a train trip to Paris, fate takes over. Granted, there are lots of plot contrivances, but that's the literary style of the period. Also, in the naturalist tradition, the characters often lose control of their destinies. There is a broader moral sense that trumps the likable ending that people are used to in movies made at this time. The writer and the director can't turn their backs on issues like these and so life goes on and the impulsive and evil are punished alike.

A riveting modernization of the eponymous Emile Zola novel, THÉRÈSE RAQUIN chronicles the adulterous infatuation between a burly truck-driver and the beautiful, badgered wife of his feeble colleague that results in murder, blackmail and psychological-damnation. Marcel Carné deftly taps into the mechanics of American film-noir of the 1940s with conspicuous blending of plots of two celebrated James M. Cain classics: "DOUBLE INDEMNITY" & "THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE" and skilfully harmonizes it with the drab and monotonous lifestyle of the French bourgeoisie. There are subtle nods to Hitchcock's "BLACKMAIL" and uncanny parallels with Park Chan-Wook's "THIRST" (which in retrospect make perfect sense as Park also borrowed significantly from the Zola novel.)

Simone Signoret is phenomenal as the titular lead and her transformation from a browbeaten wife trapped in a loveless marriage to a sympathetic femme-fatale is adroitly handled. Her restrained turn might seem too stoic at first but she exudes volumes through her apathetic veneer. Raf Vallone (reminiscent of a brooding Burt Lancaster) is convincing as the impulsive truck driver who's determined on unshackling Thérèse from her oppressive, wretched existence. Roland Lesaffre's addition as the greasy, opportunistic sailor further strengthens the elements of suspense in the story. The naturalistic B+W photography is excellent and maintains a healthy balance between carefully choreographed claustrophobic scenarios and exquisite exterior compositions.

Thérèse Raquin represents French film-making of the old school where storytelling was paramount and is recommended to connoisseurs of classic film-noir