Chair de poule

Locksmith Daniel Boisett (Robert Hossein) and his co-worker Paul Genest (Jean Sorel), friends since childhood, supplement their income with the occasional burglary until life spins wildly out of control one rainy night after Paul kills a man who catches them robbing his apartment. Paul manages to escape but Daniel's wounded by police and, taking the fall alone, is later sentenced to 20 years in prison but, enroute to the big house, he escapes and hitches a ride with the middle-aged Thomas (Georges Wilson) who offers him a job at his roadside restaurant. Daniel quickly accepts but soon finds out that Thomas' sexy young wife, Maria (Catherine Rouvel), has had her eye on the nest egg in her husband's safe for a long time and could use a man like him...

Julien Duvivier's classic French noir, based on a ripe piece of pulp fiction by James Hadley Chase ("Come Easy -Go Easy"), careens into THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE territory at this point but the story takes so many breathless twists and turns, any comparisons are ultimately unfair. All kinds of complications ensue when Maria's husband ends up dead and Paul pops up again but "no good deed goes unpunished" in this perverse universe where greed, lust, and self-preservation trump decent human emotions like love and friendship every time. Daniel's the quintessential noir anti-hero, caught in a vortex of nightmarish cause and effect, and the femme fatale's a feral sex kitten who double-crosses anyone who crosses her path. Like MGM's version of THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE, much of HIGHWAY PICKUP takes place in broad daylight, giving the film an "evil under the sun" aura and even though a stylistic shadow world, hallmark of the American Film Noir, is absent here, thematically the film's as bleak and as black as they come. The bitterly ironic ending, reminiscent of both Robert Siodmak's CRISS CROSS and Stanley Kubrick's THE KILLING, is a memorable one.

I re read the Chase's novel ten days ago, so I will be able to compare. I rememeber that, back in 1978, I already read the book whilst watching the film, then aired on a French channel. I read in real time, in front of the TV set and the film, scene after scene. I got great and strange feeling to match the book and the movie...I never tried the same experience again. Anyway I did not do it during the whole ninety nine minutes. That said, this is my second or third viewing and an still satisfied, very close to the book atmosphere. Robert Hossein was hired for another Chase's novel adaptation: MEFIEZ VOUS FILLETTES. Bleak, downbeat, as in many Chase's novels. My favorite's Julien Duvivier's film.

A job goes wrong for two safe-crackers and a security guard is murdered. The thief who committed the murder escapes punishment and his partner is convicted for the crime he was responsible for. After being sentenced to twenty years, he uses his skills to escape and winds up befriending a man who owns a cafe/filling station in the mountains. When his young wife discovers the safe-cracker's past, she blackmails him into opening her husband's safe. Needless to say, the husband catches them in the act and is accidentally killed in the process. Not long after the ex-partner hooks up with his colleague on the run and the plot thickens further.

This French crime-drama is an example of a very dark neo-noir. Every character we encounter in the cast is bad on at least some level. It's a world populated with people of different shades of dark grey, with greed and lust the main emotions of motivation. At the centre of the drama is an anti-hero who is caught in a web spun by a femme fatale, who is out to get all she can. But these are no one dimensional characters, for example the gold digging young wife acts very selfishly, yet you do sort of sympathise with her powerless position in life as a possession of her old and unattractive husband; while at the same time we understand the reasons why everyone does what they do, they all seem to be caught in traps of some kind or other. Acting is very good with Robert Hossein leading the piece and Jean Sorel his partner in crime, but perhaps it is Catherine Rouvel who is most memorable as the femme fatale whose actions propel the drama into tragedy.

In France ,nobody did film noirs like Duvivier.They say he invented the genre with his "Pepe le Moko" (1937).Duvivier's films noirs are as pessimistic as it can be.His characters are pitiful at best or evil.All along his brilliant career,from "Poil de Carotte" to "La fin du Jour" to "voici le temps des assassins",Duvivier was the poet of the blackness of the human soul,he used to paint the inmost depths of greed and perversity.Chabrol has sometimes equaled him ,never surpassed.Along with Clouzot,he reigns over the French film noir.

"Chair de poule " :those were the days of the Nouvelle Vague and Duvivier's work was dismissed as cheesy "cinema de qualité".Those were the days.But Duvivier's work survived.Hadley Chase's book resembles "the postman always rings twice" but Duvivier manages to take its noir side to new limits.In Cain's work,love did exist between the two leads.Here greed ,rapaciousness.Nothing else.Welcome to Duvivier's world.

As I wrote above ,Duvivier's characters are either pitiful and meek (Daniel,Thomas) or pure evil(Maria,the old man and his ugly offspring ,Paul).The odd couple (the not-so-handsome hubby and his sexy wife) was already in "Voici le temps des assassins"(1956).The only living being we can trust seems to be a dog ,an animal that plays an important part in both movies.Maria (Catherine Rouvel) recalls often Catherine (Danielle Delorme) but her sensuality is more aggressive .

Duvivier 's directing is perfect :he treats one of his scenes like a true western:"this is the Wild West" Paul says while entering the eating-house.And Rouvel ,trying to learn the combination of the safe from a wounded Hossein,reminds me of Von Stroheim's "greed". Duvivier avoids all the easy way outs ,all the Hollywood tricks, and his movies are among the few we can call "genuine" film noirs.The last part,which drags all the characters towards doom,culminates in an apocalyptic scene ,with the final pictures depicting Hell's antechamber.

Although not looked upon as one of Duvivier's best,"Chair de poule " was great ,coming from a sixty-something who had perhaps never made a truly bad film.

A remake was filmed in Thailand.

A plot thickens in the middle of nowhere in the south of France in the 60s.

The atmosphere is thrilling, with humorous scenes, moments of sexual tension and gangster action.

The soundtrack is astonishing, creating a tension on the edge of your skin through exaggerated sound effects or underlining surreal situations with crazy music.

The actors are just perfect.

A Duvivier masterpiece worth rediscovering, notice his sense of drama staging the American night, framing these lost places: a garage-restaurant night and day, chases on a mountainside... In short, a zigzag story full of twists and turns!