La fin du jour

"You carry on like a child. For the last time, when will you be reasonable?" "Never! ... Being reasonable is being resigned. Which is being old. And I can't grow old. It's not in my nature."

In this film, Julien Duvivier serves up a sympathetic portrayal of growing old, especially as it relates to those whose profession was acting. There are three distinct male characters here: a callous lothario with a long trail of broken hearts behind him (Louis Jouvet), a serious guy who's been scarred personally and professionally (Victor Francen), and a playful imp who was never more than an understudy because he lacked talent (Michel Simon). There are female characters as well but they are less developed, beyond many of them having fond memories of the womanizer despite him not even remembering them, though one speaks for every ageing actress ever when she says of her roles "I began as Juliet, and ended as the nurse." There is also a delightful couple who have lived in bliss unmarried for 35 years and have a large family, something that wouldn't be possible in an American film during this period.

There is a painful connection between the first and second men which weaves some melodrama into the story: the wife of the latter ran away with the lothario, then died under mysterious circumstances. While that meant nothing to the womanizer, the other man was devastated, and he's been further scarred by how theater evolved over his career to move away from the more scholarly works he adored. Meanwhile, Jouvet's character is at it again, seducing a wide-eyed 17 year old despite a significant age gap (Madeleine Ozeray, who was actually 31). He's a maddening guy, as there are several instances where he shows he discarded women and doesn't even remember them, including a case where he remembers more about the horse he bet on in a race than a woman who's remembered him in her will (which was sad but amusing). This was a sharply drawn character, but the way his story worked out in the second half of the film felt a little contrived and overwrought, less satisfying than it could have been.

Simon's character is the one who brings the most life to the film, and who probably rounded my review score up. Early on we hear of his exploits in the old age home, including cooking herring in his room, sneaking out at night and crushing the gardener's flowers as he scales the walls, playing pranks on the more serious guy like using itching powder, and prancing around nude in the halls, which he claims the women don't mind. He's befriended a group of boy scouts over the years when he's outside the home, but then suffers when one of them tells him he's going away to get married and won't be scouting anymore, which was kind of like the pain parents feels when their children grow up and leave home. Similarly, his drafting a list of demands against the home at a time when unbeknownst to him and the others it's about to go bankrupt seemed like a mirror to a time of life when our days are numbered, and such brashness is futile.

In one of this man's pranks he gets a fake obituary printed of the serious actor, one that appears in small print well into the newspaper. There is melancholy and humiliation in having one's life summed up and shown for what it is, small in the big picture of the world, and soon to be forgotten. In a parallel to this, there is a fine eulogy at the end, which was stirring:

"Cabrissade, you never had talent! But we shall still miss you. You loved the theater, and it only rewarded you with setbacks and failure. But you remained loyal to it. Loyal to your first love, your obscure, marvelous dream. That's what moves us here today. My poor friend. Rest in peace, Cabrissade. Actors serve a noble cause, and when in the presence of something ennobling, we become noble ourselves."

As with his other films, Duvivier brings an emotional force to the film through moments like this, or when he puts together a montage of elderly faces at a wedding and a funeral, made more meaningful by the feeling of perspective in their eyes. This is one where the script wasn't perfect, but it had depth and he kept things moving with his editing, making it an enjoyable experience.

"One never touches something great without being grown up oneself". This melancholic praise of the theater, as if it had more reality than life, is superbly put in abyss by Duvivier, who has fun revealing to us its pretenses, its sad and pathetic narcissism. A tender, crepuscular and dark ode to a world that is unraveling at the same time as it is being filmed. A last tribute, an ultimate remorse.

A fabulous cast of actors (Jouvet, Simon and so on) for a bitter movie, with still some tenderness in it. It is a hard story about people loosing themselves in front or THE big issue of life. Remember this movie was shot a few month before WW2 started ? Even if not connected at all with the political/social context of that period, still it reflects the uncertainties of the period, through hard and changing characters. A must.

Well, it might have been one of the great French classics, to stand with Les enfants du paradis, Quai des brumes, La regle du jeu and so on. Instead we have Louis Jouvet who is really inspired as the great seducer Saint Clair; he was moving as the Baron in Les bas-fonds, and as Arletty's pimp in Hotel du nord, but here he is really vicious as a washed-up actor who doesn't get curtain calls anymore. He rereads old love letters from his flames of thirty years ago; this is an agreeable way to pass time.

Michel Simon as the understudy who can never get on stage because the star is never sick gives another fine performance. Think of a Boudu with more work ethic and a sense of humour and you've got him. The third male lead is Victor Francen, playing an actor who never realized his potential because his wife died (in a suspicious manner). He was born to play Racine and Corneille, but could not rise to any heights owing to the weight of grief. I am not convinced by anything Francen does here: there seems to be a hollow man behind the well-trimmed beard and elegant clothes. Gabrielle Dorziat is a pleasure to watch in anything (how great she was in Les parents terribles). She has a very affecting scene with Jouvet, one of her old loves.

Amazing, one of the best movies seen in years. Finding it was a total surprise, since I had never heard of it. Yet it should keep company alongside Renoir's "La Regle du Jeu" (also 1939) or Carne's "Hotel du Nord" (1938).

The story features the sharp edges of Wilder's "Sunset Boulevard" (1950) sanded down by the spirit of Leo McCarey. One of the rare, non-grating performances by Michel Simon. Also standouts from Victor Francen and Louis Jouvet. Francen in the 1930's already plays a senior citizen, yet he will appear in films of the 1960's looking hardly any different. Louis Jouvet, after starring in "Hotel du Nord" is at his best here as St.-Clair, an egotistical, sinister cad whose shortcomings are revealed with realism leavened by sympathy in the Duvivier-Charles Spaak script. Few actors have portrayed evil with the depth and complexity of Jouvet in this movie.

To describe any of the plot points would only detract from the experience of watching this movie. Relating just about any incident would amount to a sort of "spoiler", since I think I appreciated this film so much because I knew so little about it. Viewing should precede reading where this movie is concerned.

It is enough to say that "La Fin du Jour" belongs on any list of great movies.

The subject matter of the lively arts appears frequently on screen. If you like "La Fin du Jour", I could recommend "Floating Weeds" (1958) or "For Fun" (1993), members of the same family in spite of being many years and many miles away from Duvivier's world.