I giganti

Trucker Jean Gabin is doing as many hauls as possible. He's got a new, big rig to pay off. After an evening with his girlfriend, teacher Jeanne Moreau, it's off at 5 in the morning to pick up a load. Except he runs over a guy who's lying in the middle of the road. The police take his statement, impound his truck, and try to get him to confess he'd been drinking the night before. He goes mad for a while, but Mlle Moreau tells him she's resigned and is moving into his place, and he gets his rig back. And then some guys in a grey sedan start shadowing him, and the dead man's widow, Ginette Leclerc, asks him about a case with millions of francs in it her husband had been carrying.

One of the pleasures of watching Gabin act is that whatever he's playing, that's who he is. Here he's a trucker, and you don't doubt that Gabin could get into the cab of a heavy truck and drive it perfectly. He rarely gives a layered performance. He's just a guy, like Cagney, who plants his feet, looks the camera head on, and tells the truth.

It's one of the many movies Gabin made with Gilles Grangier in the decade, relying on Gabin's star power to attract a good cast and tell a simple story. Here, it's also about the community of the proleteriat, the truck drivers and the shippers, out against the liars and thieves, and the police have very little to do with it. It's not a great movie, but the cast, particularly Gabin, carries it quite easily.

Mrs. Moreau does,on her own,a lot to save this movie.(I like her more than ever.)Gabin does nothing.As a result,"Gas-Oil" is Mrs. Moreau's show,and not Gabin's.

Mrs. Moreau is one of the two best French movie artists.The other one may be Mrs. Signoret.So,two women are the two greatest French movie stars ever!

For an opposite case,check Mrs. Girardot's ridiculous,abominable acting in "Une robe ...".That's what a bad script can do out of an actress.

In fact,Gabin does nothing for the role,and much less for this movie;he does not help the movie,he does not assist it,he does not try to take it over or control it.Gabin was one of the most underused and undervalued actors."Gas ..." is another sample of underusing Gabin;Delon had a similar fate,he was constantly underused.

We sure get a lot of Gabin in this movie;but not a very good one,alas!He looks unsolicited,he does not seem to observe the misery of the movie.I think Gabin was a very selfish man and that he cared only about himself,in a very obtuse and rudimentary way.(If he would have done more for the movie as a whole,he would have done a lot more for his screen presence,also;but he doesn't seem to have thought this way!)

Gabin looks apathetic,limited,indifferent,and has a very self-satisfied,complacent,selfish,rude air.Vain and gross.

Mastroianni,who was a giant actor,NEVER indulged in self-complacent apathy and self-satisfaction.Mastroianni was always thinking about the movie,not about himself.Mastroianni was interested in constructing,in composing the movie as a whole.He was completely transitive and selfless,altruist;look at Kitano,at O'Toole,at Stamp:they are acting along this line,too:the selflessness.That is what makes them so great.

"Gas-Oil"'s script is silly,campy.Gabin seems to never have hesitated accepting these stupid scripts ("Gas-Oil","Des Gens ...",etc.,etc.,etc.!).It looks like he was endlessly mocking himself.

The same year,1955,Gabin made another six movies.With 7 movies,'55 is maybe Gabin's busiest year.(In '58,"only" 5 Gabin movies were released.'68 will be his final year with more than two movies released.)

I guess "Gas ..." is supposed to be a thriller.It is not.This also means that Gabin did not know how to make an adventure flick ,how to entertain the public when no script and no real director were available.

"Gas ..." is not a bad movie."Une robe "('81) is,indeed,a very bad movie;but "Gas ..." is not that bad.It addresses to an execrable taste.It lacks intelligence,resourcefulness,pace,ideas,creativity,originality.It stinks of suburb,promiscuity,coarseness,stupidity."Popular" cinema at its worst.Gabin's real fans chew rather well this stuff.It is a low-budget movie from the '50s,saved by Mrs. Moreau.Unfortunately,"Gas ..." targets the proletarians,the slum.

This film is badly written,but Mrs. Moreau gives it some dignity,some decency.She manages to give her own role density and charm."Gas-Oil" is important only as a Mrs. Moreau movie.I have watched it,and enjoyed it,as a Mrs. Moreau film.

I love writing about Mrs. Moreau.

Jean Gabin has been a farmer, a cop or a robber (sometimes both at the time), a sailor, a railroader, a doctor, a lawyer, and even an ex-President of France....

And in Gas-Oil, he is a trucker : I haven't seen all his movies, but I think it's the first one we see Gabin as a trucker. And that is the main quality of Gas-Oil, it is a road-movie in Paris and around and in Auvergne : and we can appreciate the narrow roads with much less car flow than today. There were also a lot of Michelin panels, especially in Auvergne because they were manufactured there. We even see a damaged four faced panel in a sequence at the end that was inaugurated by André Michelin the 27th of October, 1927.

Gabin is an ordinary and peaceful trucker threatened by robbers. And that was a mistake, robbers with guns in a car have no power face to truckers who own the road in their powerful trucks. Gabin and his trucker friends look strongly determined to trap those dirty robbers who attack their freedom, their solidarity is really touching. Just enjoy Gabin in a Willème LD 610 truck (and his shark nose), climbing slowly up and down wearing an overall (maybe for the first time in his career).

In his next movie, "Des Gens Sans Importance", Gabin is again a trucker in overall, but this time, it is a much more stronger and unforgettable story. We shall see again Gabin in overall as a proletarian in "Rue des Prairies", but in pure Audiard touch.

Gas-Oil is the first movie played by Jean Gabin with dialogues by Michel Audiard : imagine their meeting.

And it was shot in the most productive period of Jean Gabin.

Another film which shows how Gilles Grangier's career in the fifties was unfairly neglected.Perhaps the Gabin/Moreau pairing does not always work well ,in spite of the actors' talent.She could be his daughter and the fact she is a schoolteacher does not help.As the character says " I prefer tea with milk;and I do not go much for eggs and sausages" .

All that remains rings true: the atmosphere ,on the roads where rain keeps falling down or in dark rooms where Ginette Leclerc (who used to portray a bitch as no other French actress could)plays the tearful widow' s part ,is sticky and dirty.It is also a good depiction of the world of truck drivers and their loyal camaraderie.The ending predates "Duel" by twenty years.