Coïncidences

This is the only movie by Serge Debecque ,and against all odds,it's a really worthwhile effort;too bad he did not continue .

A rich girl (Suzanne Bara) is in love with her father-in-law 's (Pierre Renoir) librarian (Serge Reggiani) .The wealthy man wants her to marry a military man but she's not prepared to accept it.So,in some kind of "love story" in reverse ,she marries the poor guy. This young man has a cousin (Andrée Clement), who seems secretly in love with him but in fact we 'll never know what she feels.

The movie smartly combines melodrama with fantasy film elements :there are hints at Nostradamus ,fate ,coincidences (check the title) and a box which seems to be a bad luck charm.Suzanne Bara was not much of an actress and her part of a romantic girl who thinks that money cannot buy happiness suffers accordingly.Serge Reggiani is as excellent as ever ,but , for the first and last time in his career ,he is eclipsed by his other female co-star Andrée Clément,whose performance is absolutely mind-boggling.Clement died well before her time at 36,and considering the talent she displays in this movie,one can't help regretting she passed away at such an early age.The audience never knows whether she is good or evil,if she loves the hero or she hates him,if she gave him the mysterious box because she had sworn to ruin him.

The actress is cold ,often dressed in black ,she has disturbing lines such as "It never happens anything to me" or " there's not enough room for my grief in your house" ."Coincidences" is ,along Decoin's "La Fille Du Diable" (another must for French cinema connoisseurs),her best role.

The last pictures compare favorably with works such as "Peter Ibbetson" or "Portrait of Jennie" .Good depictions of the garden party and the farandole around "Le Feu De La Saint Jean" (bonfire lit to celebrate the summer solstice).

Like this?try these......

"Le Pays Sans Etoiles" Georges Lacombe 1945

"La Foire Aux Chimères" Pierre Chenal 1946

"La Fille Du Diable" Henry Decoin 1945

"Les Amants du Pont Saint Jean " Henry Decoin,1947