Non coupable

Another movie which i expected it was gonna be good, but it turned out to be even better.

First of all, i don't necessarily agree with some viewers that it's a black comedy. At times, it plays out like that but overall, it is a psychological drama thriller, a tragedy -not in an Ancient Greek sense but more like Edgar Allan Poe maybe. If i had to find something in common with Ancient Greek tragedies, it's the way the protagonist thinks he/she avoided "the spider" (their fate) but with every step they take, they are entangled even more in the web.

Michel Simon is expectedly magnificent, Jany Holt the same. The whole movie feels "fresh", timeless and not dated at all. It's both entertaining and deep. Exciting and intense.

And the ending was great. Even if you can guess where it goes, it's still awe-inspiring.

From Henry Decoin, here is another of his noir masterpieces, just remember "la Fille du diable", "l'Homme de Londres", "Entre 11 heures et minuit", "Razzia sur la chnouf", "Maléfices" among his best (forgive me if I've forgotten titles). "Non coupable" is one of Michel Simon's best movie, I just can't imagine this movie with another actor, he's so brilliant as a desperate loser trying to be a criminal genius to find a reason of living, the exact opposite of Monsieur Hire in "Panique" (shot one year earlier) who is innocent. In "Non Coupable", like in some movies by Duvivier or Dassin, I just can't see any fine character. Really dark as the cinematography by Jacques Lemare. On location, it was shot around Chartres and as many movies shot in a town, it was first shown there (like "Pontcarral" in Angoulême, "le Loup des Malveneurs" in Aurillac, "Jour de Fête" in Sainte Sévère... ). The script by Marc-Gilbert Sauvajon is perfect. I forget the second happy ending, not really satisfying. Sauvajon also wrote the excellent "Vautrin" for Michel Simon (one of his great double character) and of course worked on "la Fille du Diable".

Michel Simon was a true genius, his presence on screen remains for me the toughest ever.

"Non Coupable" belongs to his most productive period with so many masterpieces ("Vautrin", "Un ami viendra ce soir", "Panique", "la Beauté du Diable", "la Poison", "la Vie d'un honnête homme", and I admire "Un certain Monsieur Jo" in which he's again so impressively tough). In 1947, Michel Simon and Henri Decoin worked together for another forgotten masterpiece, "les Amants du Pont Saint-Jean" (with Jacques Lemare again as cinematographer).

Michel Simon is a drunk doctor with a declining practice. One evening, driving home from a dive bar, he strikes and kills a motorcyclist. Thinking fast and clearly, he makes it look like the motorcyclist had an accident. When he gets away with it, he congratulates himself on his brilliant thinking, and goes back to tending his patients with the best skill he has.

Then he discovers his mistress, Jany Holt, has been cheating on him and selling his gifts to her to give to her lover.

If you want someone to play a pitiable monster, you could not do better than Simon, and that's what director Henri Decoin has done here. He keeps his camera on Simon, surrounds him with intelligible and not particularly memorable characters -- with the exception of Jean Wall, who plays the doctor who is stealing away Simon's practice as a cold, arrogant character -- and lets Simon stand out, as he simultaneously exults in his triumphs and finds despair in the destruction of the ideals he once held.

Most people in the town, and all of its circle of important men, see Dr Ancelin as a failure like Charles Bovary: a hopeless, provincial drudge who works twice as hard to achieve half as much. But Ancelin has no Emma at his side (indeed, he terrifies his mistress Madeline, who is also cheating on him). He relies on alcohol and self-pity to get through the day as he sinks ever lower in the esteem of most of his neighbors, and perhaps himself. A fatal accident caused by the inebriated doctor provides the catalyst for the film's plot, in the course of which the good doctor tries to rehabilitate himself, at least in his own eyes, by a series of murders.

The view of life and human nature is about as bleak as it gets. Michel Simon embodies Ancelin's unpredictable violence and loathing, both for himself and just about everyone around him. His style of acting, looser and more uninhibited, contrasts with the classical style of the rest of the cast and makes the point even more forcefully.

Like Henri-Georges Clouzot, Henri Decoin directed films in France during the occupation (though, unlike Clouzot, he was not prohibited from directing after the war). Films like Clouzot's 'The Raven' ('Le corbeau') and Decoin's 'Non coupable' explore the realities of life under occupation decades before France would begin to deal with them publicly. Things that try to stay hidden have a terrible cost.

"Non Coupable" is ahead of its time in tone and themes: I got both Claude Chabrol and Twilight Zone vibes from it. What begins as a dark thriller has evolved by the end into a profoundly (and amusingly) ironic black comedy; the ending is just about perfect. Very strong performance by Michel Simon in the lead. Avoid plot spoilers. *** out of 4.