Manon

Even after listening to director, Clouzot talking about the making of this film, it is difficult to understand quite why he made it. Loosely based upon an 18th century tale this has been changed around to fit a 2nd World War situation and must have something to do with the virtual ban he had after the accusations following the release of his brilliant Le Corbeau. In any event, this is a mess and for a man of intellect and literary allusions, a serious misjudgment. Even the structure with the constant flashbacks is unhelpful but the central tale of the young girl out for money and fun and men, leaves the central male and intended saviour looking more like a misguided young fool. The final scenes in the desert are as if from another movie with beautifully shot skies and lines of escaped but doomed Jewish refugees. Almost dreamlike the finale has a surreal quality to it and as the inevitable ending looms so the swirling sands seem destined to envelope both our so called hero and heroine.

Henri-Georges Clouzot's Manon deserves a 10+ for its breathtaking ambition, and only a slightly lower rating for the film overall. Clouzot had made the magnificent Quai des Orfevres as his first post-war movie, right after his release from a multi-year ban from filmmaking due to accusations of Nazi collaboration. Clouzot chose to base his second film on the 1731 novel Manon Lescaut, one of France's most well-known, important, and enduring literary works, never out of print, and the subject of several previous films and many operas, the most famous being by Puccini. It's an epic melodrama, the story of a young nobleman, Robert, who loses everything, several times over, for his passionate love of Manon, a young woman with a taste for the high life and an ability to manipulate nearly every man she meets. While the original story took place in France and Louisiana, Clouzot transposes it to the very rough world of contemporary postwar France and Palestine, making the story immediately relevant to everyone when shown in theaters.

In addition to giving Manon all the attributes from the original novel - beauty, guile, passion, a lust for wealth and security, and an intense sexuality - he also has her accused of collaboration with the Germans, as he himself had been. And when Robert rescues Manon from the rough "justice" meted out by locals to collaborators, they have no choice but to run away. At first, they struggle on the fringes of the Paris underworld, but when the temptations of prostitution win over Manon, Robert rebels. Manon ultimately does as well, choosing her love for Robert over an easy life, and this leads them eventually to become stowaways with Holocaust survivors, Jews being taken clandestinely to Palestine and their new home in Israel.

Clouzot chose two debutants as his stars, and they delivered great performances. Michel Auclair is Robert, strong and determined, but completely overcome by his passion for Manon. Cecile Aubry is Manon, a wisp of a very young woman, and she is equally believable as a vixen and as a doomed lover. Serge Reggiani is outstanding in a smaller role, as her brother. He acts as the film's moral compass in reverse. The film's dialogue and scenes are bold, provocative, unsettling for the time.

The cinematography is excellent and there are many moving, evocative shots throughout the film, both interiors and exteriors. And the final, audacious, melodramatic scene reproduces one of France's most famous paintings to be inspired by the novel.

Throughout the film Clouzot seems to be telling us that the world is a dirty, rough, unforgiving place, where good and evil do not exist in black and white, where compromise can keep you alive but tragedy looms for those who love too intensely.

Manon is directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot and Clouzot co-adapts the screenplay with Jean Ferry from the novel "Manon Lescaut" written by Abbe Prevost. It stars Serge Reggiani, Michel Auclair, Cécile Aubry, Andrex and Raymond Souplex. Music is by Paul Misraki and cinematography by Armand Thirard.

Clouzot, still smarting from the hysterical fall out from his brilliant "Le Corbeau", realigns the Prevost novel to post war France right after the liberation from Nazi occupancy. With his muse set alight, Clouzot set about putting on film the dark venality of the human condition, to show that post war France was hardly a joyous new world. Right here with "Manon" he lets rip, thrusting to the forefront black market racketeers and prostitution, people who inhabit a morally corrupt city in serious decay.

The central narrative concerns Robert Dégrieux (Auclair a splendid dope) and Manon Lescaut (Aubry cunningly adorable), where the former quickly falls in love with the latter and finds himself spun into a vortex of mistrust and misjudgements, becoming more compulsive and foolish by the day. The pursuit of a dream life by both Robert and Manon, runs concurrently with that of the Jewish people attempting to reach Israel, it is here where Clouzot is building towards a quite outstanding last quarter of film.

As the pic pulses away with film noir character beats, these are matched by the visual astuteness of the director and his cinematographer, who use high contrasts and canted angles for narrative embracement. A number of striking sequences grab the attention, be it the portentous meeting of Robert and Manon in the war torn ruins of a church (hello Christ imagery), or a mass trek through the desert beneath ominously low night time clouds, the makers ensure the mood is constantly foreboding.

Superbly performed by the cast, "Manon" is further evidence of what a true great of cinema Clouzot was. 9/10

With his short CV, Henri-George Clouzot is known only for his international hits, WAGES OF FEAR and DIABOLIQUE, yet every newfound title turns out to be a near masterpiece. This updated take on the infamous Prevost tale (operatic versions include Auber, Massenet & Puccini) is a notch below breathtaking 'finds' like QUAI DES ORFEVRES, LE CORBEAU and his striking film of the Verdi REQUIEM. But on its own terms it's ingenious & effective, perfectly fitting the story into the morally ambiguous climate of post WWII France.

As the heedless young beauty who loves the rich life when she should love her besotted spouse (and vice versa), Cecile Aubry makes an appalling & devastating French sex-kitten, admittedly, an acquired taste. Michel Auclair, in Gerard Philipe mode, is very fine as her tormented husband and Serge Reggiani as Manon's amoral brother is beyond praise. And who but Clouzot would have the chutzpah to merge Manon's exile to a group of Jewish refugees trying to smuggle themselves into Israel.

NOTE: This title is currently unavailable in ANY video format. Is there no justice?!

I can imagine that Clouzot took on the task of filming this classic with a lot of trepidation: it's just not his kind of story. A picaresque novel of 1734, with aristocratic ideals in conflict with a sordid story was not going to be well-handled by a director who pioneered the noir form in France. His forte was telling a gritty story with characters stretched to the breaking point (as Montand and Vanel were in Wages of Fear). It required a great deal of updating and tinkering with the basic story before Clouzot could feel comfortable with it.

Cecile Aubry does not impress me with her acting skills; she mainly pouts and sighs her way through the picture. How much more could Danielle Darrieux or Micheline Presle have brought to the film! Michel Auclair was a superb leading man who made many films, this is one of his best (see him also in Maigret et l'affaire Saint-Fiacre). Here he manages to convey desire, murderous rage and exasperation with Manon's whims. Dora Doll and her big toothy grin, as well as Gabrielle Dorziat as the prim madam of Manon's brothel were good, but Serge Reggiani as Manon's brother stole every scene he was in.