Le paquebot Tenacity

"Le Paquebot Tenacity" took historian Patrick Brion much time to search.He first found a copy in Portugal but its quality was awful;so the copy he finally broadcast was a Japanese one.There was just one problem:there were Japanese subtitles on the right of the picture.And it was impossible to erase them since he wanted to show the film as Duvivier had conceived it.

"Le Paquebot Tenacity" is not a major work in Duvivier's brilliant career.But if you are a fan ,it deserves a watch.

It's almost a sacrilege to write it but it almost makes me think of....what the Nouvelle Vague -who,as anyone past infancy knows,used to despise JD-would do in the late fifties/early sixties:the plot is very thin (two man want to to emigrate to Canada on the Tenacity liner-,the cinematography simple and casual whereas the director's style is generally polished .As the ship is leaving the FRench coast,a technical hitch occurs and...back to France again and the two future pioneers will have to wait .It's essentially a chronicle of these days of waiting since there is no real plot instead of a vague love interest....which will lead to broken male friendship like in "la Belle Equipe".

A private joke:the star of the movie ,Albert Préjean was also a singer.

-You sing better than Albert Préjean! someone tells the hero.

-It's not difficult!

Duvivier sometimes confuses reality and fiction:in "Allo Berlin ici Paris" he mentions his own name in the dialog;in "l'homme du jour" ,Maurice Chevalier portrays a man who tries to emulate Maurice Chevalier.