Sdicht

The black & white cinematography is extremely elegant and in some scenes the light points shine as stars. Fassbinder adopts styles similar to those from the films where Veronika Voss could have acted if she existed, and leads the film to the end without much of his forced pedantism. Among the best scenes is one of the final sequences, in which Veronika dreams being again the center of the attentions (singing "Dreams are made of this"), and the continuous takes in her attempt to reestabilish her acting. Near its half, the film starts to lose the cohesion and some ways of development of the plot are wasted to arrive in a stupid and complacent ending.

"Pot-Bouille is not a film d'auteur. On the contrary. It is quite clearly a literary work written by one person and filmed by someone diametrically the opposite. Nevertheless, Jeanson's ferocity and verve, multiplied by Duvivier's obstinate gentleness, result in something pleasant and unusual." - François Truffaut, Cahiers du Cinéma, Dec., 1957.