Le jour se lève

French cinema at its best. Ideas of freedom, entrapment, isolation and realism wound into a great film which is carried by Gabin from the opening scene of the murder, through flashbacks he has remembered to the amazingly brutal final shot. Gabin and Laurent in the factory near the beginning of the movie is poetic realism at its most involving.

Told in flashbacks, the story slowly enfolds to explain the death that started the movie. A very touching love story. The guy is just trying to find a little love in his daily struggle to work a dead end job and make ends meet. There is miscommunication between some couples. Characters are unsure about what it is they really want out of life. Events lead tragically to a death. Trapped in his room by the police, the crowd responds with varying degrees of sympathy and confusion. Was the death inevitable? Those are the questions. In the end, you understand how the situation could have ended differently. You will enjoy this movie.

A fantastic film, which plays with the emotions of the spectator while stunningly portraying the feelings of a pent-up man whose end echoes his pent-up life in the city. The film is beautifully shot in black and white and is a perfect example of French realism, with a modernist time disorientation tossed in for good measure. I found the performances by Jean Gabin and a showgirl with whom he gets involved (played by Arletty)to be strong, portrayed with a kind of hopeless, clutching pathos. Worth it simply for the beautifully constructed final shot.

sentimental, far to be great, almost common. but seductive under the science of Carne to give delicate nuances to flash backs, to transform scenes in little gems. and, in same measure, the art of Prevert to transform each detail in a precise piece of puzzle. a film about love and innocence. about a kind of Mephisto - remarkable performance of Berry - and delicate lights of role in Jacqueline Laurent performance. but, in many aspects, a film of Arletty and Jean Gabin. not a surprise. the names of director and scriptwriter are basic guarantees for a remarkable work. but, after so many years, like many other films," Le jour se leve" has more seductive sparkles and great profound value.

We see a man shot; who he is and why we don't know. The murderer has locked himself inside his room. Police are forced to shoot in, trying to get him to surrender. The story then proceeds in flashback.

Marcel Carné directs this famous French film starring Jean Gabin. The two had worked together the previous year on "Le quai des brumes", a film well known then and now. If you are unfamiliar with Gabin, he was to the late 1930's in France what Bogey would be shortly in America, only Bogey with a soupçon of Cagney. More animated than Bogart, but less than Cagney with his agile song-and-dance-man side. A tough guy who's actually a good guy.

Now, a soft-hearted tough guy who's surrounded by police -- that could also describe Bogart's breakthrough film, "High Sierra", from 1941, and perhaps there is some superficial similarity.

However, this story is mostly a tale of love affairs and working class life -- that's really where its interest lies. There's a real sympathy here for the common man, when even a modest house on a rutted street would seem beyond his reach.

This film's original reputation may have been based at least in part on its Gallic openness about sexual matters. It's quite outré by the Anglo-Saxon standards of 1939. Regardless, the justly celebrated "Le jour se lève" has a poetic quality overall, and a memorably ironic final shot of the kind we don't seem to see quite often enough anymore.