Marie-Octobre

Undoubtedly another great Duvivier's picture, this time touching in a neuralgic matter, due on occupied France many cooperating with the Germans invaders, this is the main point, after a fifteen years a hearsay came to Marie-Octobre's ears and his slavish admirer Léon Blanchet (Robert Dalban), thus they decided gathered all member of the French resistance at those time to find out the real traitor and thief, the meeting shall be in the same place where everything happened, that ends up with the Gestapo breaking out the meeting, also killing his leader, further the traitor also stolen three millions francs, they are eleven, a pressman, a priest, a tax collector, industrialist, a butcher, an attorney, a locksmith, a doctor, among others and the still young Lino Ventura as Carlo Bernardi as night club's owner, they faces each other, many things come up, suspicions on the air, in searching for the truth they reconstituting the final scene when his leader was killed, robust and valuable effort, displaying the human nature even on the worst wartime backdrop, Duvivier walks in a stony ground!!!

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First watch: 2020 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 8.5

Based on a novel by Jacques Robert, Julien Duvivier, Henri Jeanson and the author himself, wrote an original script for this film, which actually looks more like a play, as everything happens in the space of a few hours, and almost always in the same room.

The plot, despite focusing on the discovery of a traitor, among the group of old comrades in arms, of the resistance, almost seems like a long scene from Agatha Christie, in which Hercule Poirot unfolds hypothesis after hypothesis, until concluding with the discovery of the murderer.

The main attraction of the film is that it allows us to read between the lines of the police plot, to show a France that is both resistant and collaborative. They are all suspects because, despite being heroes of the resistance, they all collaborated, more or less, with the German invader and the Vichy government. And everyone accuses each other of these civic sins.

It is France settling accounts with history and clearing its guilty conscience of defeat and collaborationism, during the Nazi occupation.

In this sense, it is a provocative work, for its time. But subtly reading.

However, in general, it looks almost like a banal Cluedo game, despite a cast full of stars.

The plot of Jacques Robert's novel 'Marie-Octobre' of 1948 and Michael McCarthy's film 'The Traitor' from 1957 are too alike to be coincidental but there the similarity ends for when Robert adapted his work for the screen he had the services of one of the greatest directors Julien Duvivier, the superlative dialogue writer Henri Jeanson and a cast comprising some of France's finest.

The subject matter could not fail to strike a chord with Gallic audiences, dealing as it does with treachery and collaborationism during the German occupation. It also works as mystery thriller as suspicion falls upon each of the protagonists in turn until the traitor is finally unmasked. The question then arises as to the method of punishment......

Filmed in three weeks on a single set designed by Georges Wakhévitch and observing the Aristotelian unities of time, place and action, this could easily be filmed theatre but becomes much more thanks to the masterly manner in which the director moves and groups his players and the clever camerawork of Robert Lefebvre. Apparently it was shot in sequence so that none of the actors knew the identity of the culprit and what actors they are! Each possessing an unique persona but delivering ensemble playing of the highest order.

The only negatives are the sudden bursts of music at certain dramatic moments and the truly laughable sub-titling.

The post-war films of Monsieur Duvivier are variable but he remains one of the Big Five of France's Golden Age. He departed this life in 1967 and this finely executed, technically polished piece is arguably his dernier hourra.

This movie is more like a theater-play: very much talking and hardly any action. All talking is done in French, and deals with a very haunting issue: in 1959 a former French resistance group reunites to search themselves for a traitor who killed one of them back in 1944. In this way a real Agatha Christie-like plot develops, all set in the long dark shadows of World War II and its horrors. Leading female star Danielle Darrieux gives a glittering performance, both in her talking and in her presence. The male cast around her consists of some of the greatest French actors at the time. 'Marie-Octobre' is not an easy movie to watch: you have to concentrate on it. If you do so, you'll be swept along onto its climax and surprising end.

Resistance fighter Marie-Octobre (it's her former code name) gathers her mates after the war.There's a traitor among them and they've got to discover him and do away with him.The audience is induced to suspect one by one all the "guests",à la Agatha Christie.The film forgets the historical background very quick to focus on an efficient but rather artificial suspense.

The good cast (Danielle Darrieux,Serge reggiani,Bernard Blier,Paul Meurisse) makes up for the conventional side of this story.It' s a watchable work,but it's not representative of Julien Duvivier's greatness:he was in the last part of his brilliant career and time had begun to take its toll.But his touch is still here though.