La ligne d'ombre

I don't know if this French TV movie is faithful or not to the Joseph Conrad's book, but it is a very interesting analysis of the human soul through a sea adventure tale; Joseph Conrad's trademark. The atmosphere is the main character of this nearly eerie tale, which is close to the other Jo Conrad's adaptations. You can not tell this story just "like this"...You have to watch it to understand what the Joseph Conrad's world exactly was. There is no super hero here, just a man who struggles and refuses fate. I did not know this movie from director George Franju, and I am so happy to have seen it. This is not an action film but who cares?

In his last active decade ,the seventies,Georges Franju exclusively worked for TV.His last theatrically released work was "La Faute De L'Abbé Mouret" (1970).Even "Les Nuits Rouges " was a TV episodes digest .

This Joseph Conrad's adaptation (the hero ,we are told,is the writer's avatar)shows some of Franju's best qualities: a sense of mystery and his natural ability to create strange atmospheres."La Ligne D'Ombre" looks like an adventures movie but it isn't cause almost nothing happens ,except for an epidemic and the discovery that there's no quinine aboard."Inner adventures" or " a voyage through one mind" best describes the film.

The scenes on the ship (which seems to be alive sometimes itself) display a strong influence of the Val Lewton productions ,particularly that of "Ghost ship" directed by Mark Robson (1943).The structures of the two works are almost identical:voyage,call,then back.

Alice belongs to Franju's gallery of women who live on the fringe of society:so were Stephanie (Anouk Aimée in "La Tete Contre Les Murs" ), Christiane (Edith Scob in the celebrated "Les Yeux Sans Visages" ) ,Therese Desqueyroux (Emmanuelle Riva in the eponymous movie) or Albine (Gillian Hills in "La Faute De L'Abbé Mouret" )