El minuto de la verdad

The postwar years were not the greatest for Jean Gabin but his renaissance eventually came courtesy of Jacques Becker. During those years, whatever the material or script Gabin was such a consummate professional that he never once turned in, as far as I am aware, a 'couldn't care less' performance. Here he is reunited with Michele Morgan with whom he had previously worked on three films. By all accounts they 'clicked' whilst making the iconic 'Quai des Brumes' and their obvious fondness for each other is evident here. He plays a dedicated doctor and she the 'neglected' wife who seeks solace in the arms of a painter, superbly played by Daniel Gélin. His character in most walks of life would be considered unhinged but being an artist he is of course just 'temperamental'. Whilst in his studio she notices on the wall a photograph of the poet Apollinaire and they proceed to recite together his beautiful 'Under the Mirabeau Bridge'.

This scene is wonderfully done and is probably the highlight of the film. In the final scene husband and wife part with the words 'See you soon' and she watches from the window as he takes their son to school. A reconciliation is imminent but things can things never again be quite the same. Delannoy's direction is immaculate and the three leads so effective that the fates of their characters concern us.

Morgan and Gabin where the mythical heroes of Marcel Carné's "quai des brumes"paragon of the pre-war poetic movies..(-you have beautiful eyes you know....-kiss me)..15 years later they're back...Morgan is 35 and one of the most beautiful Women of Paris..Gabin is 50 and plays a doctor..we are far from the lost souls of the 1939 movie...he discovers that she's untrue to him (with Daniel Gelin,the french answer to early Brando)...will she ruin her cosy "bourgeois" life to escape with a pennyless artist ?.....Everything is fautless..the direction of actors,the scenario,their actings,the settings....its the "qualite francaise" that dominates the 50s and which will be blown off by Resnais and the "Novelle Vague" in 59.

Bourgeois doctor discovers his wife has (or might have) a lover.A domestic quarrel begins during which they go back in the past.The screenplay is pretty trite but the three leads (Gavin,Morgan and Gélin) are convincing,Henri Jeanson's dialogue rather witty(evoking sometimes Jacques Prévert,mainly Gélin's lines)and the directing is OK.

That said,"la minute de vérité" is not among Delannoy's most interesting movies (you'd better choose "Dieu a besoin des hommes " "Maigret et l'affaire Saint-Fiacre " or "la symphonie pastorale" for that matter;"l'éternel retour" being mainly Jean Cocteau's work).

Watchable,but not particularly memorable.

after the final credits, the only real significant memory are the actors. Michele Morgan, Jean Gabin, Daniel Gelin. and, maybe, the church. not because the film is far by expectations of the viewer. but because it is well known. so French, so "50 s. a sentimental adventure. the wife and the husband conflict. words, crumbs from past, explanations. gestures, forms of romanticism. and the final solution. it is not exactly Who is afraid of Virginia Woolf ? not a war. only a duel. and this detail transforms all. because it is a part from a long tradition in French cinema , basis for styles and scripts and acting. a cinema of contemplation. cinema of escape. a cinema of dream in clothes of reality.bitter but fragile. convincing but like a snowflake. the actors. that is it.