Le grand jeu

This is a fine film from the golden age of french cinema, directed by the now nearly forgotten Feyder who was among other things the spiritual father of Marcel Carné (who contributed to several of his films). As usual, his wife Francoise Rosay has one of the leading roles. The somewhat melodramatic plot involves a yeuppie joining the foreign legion when he can no longer entertain the girl he loves. We get a femme fatale double as our hero meets a honky tonk temptress who reminds him of the girl he is trying to escape. The atmosphere is thick with sand, booze, sex, violence and Tarot cards. See this one if you have the chance, it is probably quite rare.

A lot of movie-goers will agree that Alfred Hitchcock's finest work is his seminal 1958 masterpiece Vertigo. But 20 years earlier French director Jacques Feyder, fleeing from Hollywood when he failed to come to an agreement with MGM on new projects, returned to his home country and made Le Grand Jeu, the tale of a broken man falling in love with the doppelgänger of his gold-digging former lover. It's certainly an inferior work to Vertigo, but the themes of obsession and the growing psychological torment of its lead must have surely been an inspiration to the Master of Suspense.

Playboy Pierre (Pierre Richard-Willm) has it all - fast cars, the finest clothes and a beautiful girl, Florence (Marie Bell), who shares his lust for the finer things in life. Their extravagances almost bring his family's business to ruin, so Pierre is exiled to avoid further embarrassment, minus Florence who cannot turn her back on the world of luxury she has become so accustomed to. Distraught, Pierre joins the Foreign Legion in North Africa, where he lives content though the work is hard. On leave, he stays at a hotel/brothel ran by the sleazy and unsavoury Clement (Charles Vanel), and his no-nonsense wife Blanche (Francoise Rosay), who reads Tarot cards in her spare time. One night, Pierre spots a prostitute who is a dead ringer for Florence, and so begins his obsession.

Le Grand Jeu is slow, slightly over-long and often remarkably depressing. It's also a beautifully filmed example of French poetic realism, with the African setting providing a sweaty, claustrophobic atmosphere. There's a naturalism to the performances that was way ahead of what they doing in Hollywood at the time. Feyder also employs the effective tactic of casting Marie Bell in separate roles with one of her character's being dubbed over, causing an unsettling effect when combined with Bell's impressive performances as both socialite seductress and down-beaten night-club singer/party girl. It's a shame that the plot is laid out early on when Pierre has his fortune told as main plot points naturally become inevitabilities, but Le Grand Jeu is often immaculately crafted cinema.

A playboy is forced to leave the country after plunging his father's business into financial problems after using company funds to support his lifestyle with his high maintenance girlfriend. He joins the Foreign Legion as a means of forgetting his past. When in North Africa he meets a woman who is a look-a-like for his former fiancé and so begins a romantic obsession.

This French movie could quite easily be described as a proto-noir given its early release year, yet unmistakable film-noir aspects. The story has a gloomy feel and atmosphere and it focuses on a down-on-his-luck anti-hero and femme fatale. Alfred Hitchcock's later revered movie Vertigo (1958) shares (or borrowed) the pretty specific idea of a man obsessed with a woman who closely resembles a past love, to the point that he treats her not as a person but as an ideal. I thought the film as a whole had a very daring and quite modern sensibility in its approach to sexual content which no doubt was a French characteristic and certainly isn't something you would associate with Hollywood films of the period. The film after all is set almost entirely within the confines of a brothel with a very sleazy owner overseeing events and who quite clearly sexually abuses the women who work there as his 'entitlement' as their boss. It's quite commendably difficult material and adds quite a bit to the depth the drama mines. The wife of this appalling individual is the one with the strength and personality to hold all the other characters together and has a skill in reading Tarot cards, which is referred to in the title. Her predictions come to bear in the story, an impressive tale of doomed characters and dark obsession.

The screenplay of Jacques Feyder is very modern:in its own way,it predates , by 25 and more than 40 years respectively Hitchcock's "Vertigo" and Bunuel's "object of desire" .

A man has to join the legion étrangere to avoid a scandal.He leaves his lover,a selfish spoiled woman he is always in love with and heads for the desert:there ,in the brothel,he meets a hooker who extremely resembles her former woman.Is she THE ONE?Sometimes it seems she is and sometimes she isn't.Marie Bell's voice was dubbed for the part of the prostitute,so there were actually two actresses almost like in Bunuel's last film.

However,it seems to me that when you watch the movie some 70 years after something is lacking and it is madness.The silent era could create it and whereas we would need folie à deux,amour fou,we're left with melodrama.Pierre Richard-Wilm was a rather bland handsome actor while Marie Bell had not enough presence,not enough ambiguity.Françoise Rosay ,the madam who draws cards ("the major arcana" is the meaning of the title)and discovers very strange things about the future,-which does nothing but accentuates the melodramatic side-,and Charles Vanel as the "house"'s owner easily outstrip both of them.There is one scene Luis Bunuel would not have disowned: Marie Bell,taking flypaper down with Vanel's lustful eye on her legs.

The Légion Etrangère as a way out when you were threatened in your native country was a permanent feature in the years before WW2:that was also the subjects of "Beau Geste" and Duvivier's "la bandera" .But whereas the two other works focus on every aspect of a Légionnaire's life,in Feyder's movie ,we almost never move out of the brothel.I hardly exaggerate.It's not surprising it was stigmatized by the Catholic Office of Cinema :what else could they do? Marcel Carné was influenced by Jacques Feyder.Not only he was his assistant,but he also met his favorite actress Arletty while they were making "pension mimosas".And Feyder's wife Françoise Rosay starred in Carné's first real movie "Jenny".

Robert Siodmak made a remake in 1954,Jean-Claude Pascal,Gina Lollobrigida and Arletty taking on Richard-Willm's ,Bell's and Rosay's parts.It was a disappointment.

Pierre Richard-Willm has gone through his money keeping mistress Marie Bell and himself happy. His family agrees to clear his debts, but only if he leaves the country. Mlle. Bell makes excuses, so he does what anyone else does. He joins the Foreign Legion. There he distinguishes himself, turning down a promotion to sergeant, he also meets a prostitute played by Mlle. Bell in a brunette wig. She has a wonky memory and falls for him. He slowly convinces himself she is the same woman.....

Jacques Feyder tries his hand at poetic realism, with all the standard tricks, but without Gabin or Duvivier's misogyny. The result is a far more straightforward movie, propelled by the director's skilled story tellin, about two people in love who torment each other.