Campement 13

Jacques Constant directed his first film Campement 13 in 1940, and he only directed another one 2 years later in Argentina. As a writer, he wrote Jenny with the master Jacques Prévert and the adaptation of Pépé Le Moko. That must have influenced him to write and direct Campement 13, the story of an area with workers building boats. A lovely woman named Greta arrives and men get mad about, lot of tension and fights between them and not on a melodramatic tone. Quite strong and sharp. There is even a reference to Marcel Carné.

The cast is all great : Gabriel Gabrio, Alice Field, Paul Azaïs, Sylvia Bataille. And as a camera operator, Monsieur Henri Alekan. Nice surprise.

"Campement 13 " is a small village ,almost cut off the world where working men fix barges ;it is an enclosed place ,where "they marry between them" ; the subject of the intruder will be resumed in Tourneur's excellent " le val d'enfer" and in Becker's masterpiece " Goupi-Mains-Rouges".

Greta (Alice Field) is the femme fatale ("but you ain't Garbo", the nephew tells her ) who drives all the men around crazy ;one does not know where she comes from ,probably from a poor milieu ,but she does not like men ,even though she tried to commit suicide because one of them has walked out on her (or is she simply putting an act?).

This is a melodrama ;after causing several men's death , Greta sets the uncle against the nephew , the young monsieur ,fresh from Paris where "gals like you -Greta- there're a dime a dozen ": to make the matter worse , the uncle's best friend is crazy about Greta ,and his daughter ,a good girl ,falls for the Parisian . That he wants to "change and settle down" is hardly plausible and Paul Azaîs 's redemption is not convincing at all.

The most interesting side is the depiction of this little community , with its own rules ,with its anthem ( the procession at night), and with these working men who trust their headman as soon as he behaves himself.