Un amour désespéré

This is a curious little sleeper from 1952, a grim, objective look at the upward mobility of a country girl who first adapts to the needs of the men around her, and then moves on to a successful stage career on her own, leaving one of the men in abject poverty.

Today Carrie succeeds not only because of it's splendid recreation of a time, but as one of the few American vehicles where the legendary Laurence Olivier, (who often walked through a character role for the paycheck) performs to his best advantage, evolving from an assured man of the world to a pathetic morsel at the bottom of the heap, a restrained and beautifully measured performance given 13 years later than his dynamic Heathcliff for the same directer in 1939's Wuthering Heights.

Jennifer Jones, too, is a good deal less hysterical and florid than usual; the music score by David Raksin underscores without bombast, and the supporting cast provide excellent contrast. This is definitely not a cheerer-upper, but a picture neatly tuning into it's original author's concerns. It deserves another look, and as time goes by, will be considered one of Wyler's significant contributions.

I read the book at 17 and picked it up again. I remember seeing the film many years ago and decided to buy the video. What a find. I had never realized how romantic Sir Olivier could be. Talk about how desperate love can destroy a life at any age. When George Hurstwood, a wealthy manager of a prominent drinking establishment meets naive, trusting Carrie Meeber from Columbia City he is smitten. Right from the moment he spies her entering the men's bar entrance you know from his eyes he is hooked. When he attempts to seduce her away from Charles Drouet I believe he plans to just keep her as a mistress to satisfy his need for love. When he finds she is not to be won over he must sacrifice everything to have her, including forfeiting his property and assets to a shrew of a wife, played unmercifully by Miriam Hopkins.

Olivier's eyes are captivating in every scene with Jennifer Jones, his manners are impeccable the chemistry between them is dazzling. Watch his eyes especially when Carrie declares her love for him in the park. I love this film and it is much more idealistic than the book which describes Carrie as disillusioned when Hurstwood can't support her and thinks him old and useless. In the film her love endures even in poverty. When Hurstwood's son surfaces Carrie encourages him to seek him out for help and decides to leave only for his benefit.

Carrie is not portrayed in the film as the selfish character in Dreiser's novel. You truly believe her love for Hurstwood but at what cost. Hurstwood has the class and wealth Carrie is looking for. Problem is she loves nice things and her respectability is compromised when thinking Hurstwood unmarried chooses him. Jennifer Jones is marvelous going from a poor young, innocent girl with an education but it's her looks that help her along. Eddie Albert is fine as the self assured drummer who wins her over with his charm. I also picked up on the "green acres" bit. It's Olivier who steals the film, going from a respectable gentleman to a tragic figure who holds onto his dignity to the end. For all you romantics see this film. It's fifty years old and Olivier and Jones can still burn up the screen.

Lawrence Olivier plays a man that's comfortably off in the high society of Chicago at the end of the 19th century. He'll risk everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) for the love of a young lady. Of course, if the young lady is Jennifer Jones then it really makes some sense. The family, the money, the social status... that's nothing compare with that angel face and the ingenuity of a country girl.

"Carrie" is a big time melodrama. If you think that Scarlett O'Hara had a rough time, wait and see the descent into hell of Olivier's character. The journey of Sir Laurence from the days of wine and roses to the misery and the wandering is just overwhelming... (what can you expect of one of the best actors ever??).

Don't you forget your handkerchief!

*My rate: 8/10

This is a superb film, directed with great style by William Wyler. A tough film for romantics, it's about how following your heart will not always lead to living "happily ever after". A very mature film about becoming middle-aged but still yearning for romance - and a very uncompromising film in which love and forgiveness are sometimes just not enough. An unusual film to come out of Hollywood in the Fifties, it now emerges as one of the finest American films of that period.

Jennifer Jones, Eddie Albert and Miriam Hopkins all deliver top-notch performances - subtle, believable, multi-dimensional and real. Hopkins remains one of the most under-rated of all Hollywood stars - her reputation sadly damaged by her real-life feud with Bette Davis. But she was a brilliant actress. Jones looks stunning, and portrays her character's development from naivety to worldliness with intelligence and strength. Albert is likeable, but also quite menacing, as her salesman lover.

But towering above all is the great Laurence Olivier, in what I venture to say is his best screen performance. As the ageing restauranter who finds true love too late, he gives an unbearably moving performance. His astonishing physical transformations match perfectly his character's downward fortunes - but there is also a complete truth to his emotion here. One wonders how much he was drawing on his own tragic marriage to Vivien Leigh to find that truth.

This is a ten star film.

At a time when many cineasts are beginning to respond to the beauties of Powell and Pressburger's "Gone to Earth", Wyler's "Carrie", that other most underrated masterpiece, continues to attract too little appreciative attention. It is not difficult to see why insofar that its depressing subject material is incompatible with audience expectations of its genre, Hollywood studio romanticism. It has a hero who slides into despair and degradation whilst the heroine succeeds in her chosen profession as an aspiring actress. Women who take their handkerchiefs to the cinema have always seemed indifferent to the film: indeed the only admirers I have personally found have been male, possibly identifying with the debonaire restaurateur, Hurstwood (magnificently played by Laurence Olivier), sowing the seeds of his downfall through human weakness which destroys everything except his innate dignity. Had the film been set in its own period (mid 20th century) and directed by, say, a De Sica or Kurosawa, we might still be talking about it. Instead it is set shortly after the beginning of the century, a transitional period when the romantic past was rapidly being overcome by the grainy realism of a new mechanised age. However, far from being weakened by the genre conventions of a highly romantic approach,the superbly crafted direction by William Wyler, photography perfectly composed by Victor Milner and a wonderfully lyrical score by David Raksin are elements that serve to enhance the material. They never sentimentalise it, somehow proving that when as here the Hollywood romantic cinema was given a really mature theme and text, it could, in the hands of some of its greatest craftsmen, be responsible for producing a work of the highest cinematic art.