Il mercante di Venezia

An overlooked director ,Pierre Billon had made several estimable works when he adapted Shakespeare 's famous play; collaborating with Jean Cocteau ,he had always turned Victor Hugo's "Ruy Blas" into a swashbuckling.

A co-production with Italy ,which makes sense ,for the characters live in Venice,it features two French actors :

Michel Simon ,one of the five best French thespians of all time,is ideally cast as Shylock the Jewish usurer : the actor is so strong he's not only the cruel pawnbroker ,but also a man who suffers ,because he's been an outcast all along his life, despised by everyone, a miscreant ; treated like a dog by Antonio ,it's only natural he demands a shattering redress for his insults .The scholars ' opinions differ ,anyway , as far as the playwright's anti-Semitism is concerned .Here thanks to peerless Simon, one "pities the poor immigrant who uses all his power to do evil and in the end is always left so alone"as Bob Dylan wrote.

Andrée Debar as Portia is also the ideal choice: her androgynous face was tailor made for this part where she's disguised as Balthazar,the young doctor of law who takes the audience to the court of prophet Daniel ;later Debar would be Jacqueline Audry's "le chevalier d'Eon " ,a male spy of the eighteenth century who dressed up as a woman .

The rest of the cast ,all Italian , rises to the occasion, which was difficult when you play opposite Michel Simon; the scenes of the carnival are well directed ,and the canals give an adequate romantic feel to the movie .The pawnbroker , surrounded by masked revellers , searching his escaping daughter, is a great moment.