Ce soir ou jamais (1961)
Directed by Michel Deville

Film Review

Ce soir ou jamais is where Michel Deville's film directing career began proper, the first in a series of four light but sophisticated comedies that were as much appreciated by the critics as they were by the cinema-going public.  Before this, Deville had co-directed one film with Charles Gérard of an altogether different kind - Une balle dans le canon (1958), a lazy pastiche of the American gangster film.  It was with Ce soir ou jamais, the first film he made for the production company Éléfilm he founded in 1961, that Deville found his voice and succeeded in making a name for himself in the heady days of the French New Wave.  It was also the start of his fruitful collaboration with Nina Companeez, who scripted all of his films from this one until Raphaël ou le Débauché (1971).

In common with the three films that followed it - Adorable Menteuse (1962), À cause, à cause d'une femme (1963) and L'Appartement des filles (1963) - Ce soir ou jamais is an engaging romantic comedy that starts out looking like so much whimsical fluff but proves to be an astute and somewhat cruel dissection of the amorous expectations of young people.  The term Marivaudage applies as much to these early films of Michel Deville as it does to the literary works of Pierre de Marivaux, implying a characteristic lightness of tone and intense preoccupation with matters of the heart.  It is not hard to see why Ce soir ou jamais was such a popular film - it operates at many different levels and can equally be enjoyed as a frivolous comedy of manners or as something more profound, a bitter assertion that human beings can never fully satisfy their emotional needs.

Ce soir ou jamais is a well-scripted piece which Deville stages almost as a piece of theatre.  Most of the action takes place in one set, with the actors occasionally talking to camera in a way that makes the spectator feel that he or she is part of the youthful ensemble.  The cast includes several talented performers at the start of their careers, some of whom would become emblematic of the French New Wave.  Most striking is Anna Karina, her performance here surpassing practically every one she gave in Jean-Luc Godard's films (Une femme est une femme, Vivre sa vie, etc.), perhaps because she was given more freedom to express herself rather than play the subordinate role of the auteur's muse.  Another Nouvelle Vague diva, Françoise Dorléac (the star of Truffaut's La Peau douce and sister of Catherine Deneuve) makes her mark, in the company of two other rising stars, Claude Rich and Guy Bedos.

It's a devilishly wordy film (forgive the pun) but as the words are spoken by such compelling actors you are more likely to be hypnotised than bored by the endless stream of dialogue.  Some outrageous bursts of drama and comedy revive the spectator's attention just when it is in danger of wavering, although some of the shocks Deville has in store for us are so O.T.T. that you sometimes feel as though a hand grenade has gone off in your lap.  Even more barking mad than Karina's teasing moves towards grisly self-mutilation with a meat cleaver (Psycho was clearly in Deville's mind) is her frenzied dance with Georges Descrières.  Looking more like a cross-between a bullfight and a mating ritual involving two wild animals in heat than anything you would expect to see on a respectable dance floor, Karina's outlandish turn with Descrières is the showstopper to end all showstoppers.

Film Synopsis

Laurent is a poster designer who is about to begin rehearsals for his first stage play, a musical comedy.  To celebrate this auspicious event, he holds a party at his apartment, to which his best friends are all invited.  News that the lead actress in Laurent's play has been run over by a bus laden with Dutch tourists puts a damper on the evening, but Laurent wastes no time looking for a replacement, not knowing that his girlfriend Valérie covets the part.  As Valérie's dreams of stardom are crushed she realises that her relationship with Laurent is over - or so she thinks.  Either way, the evening will prove decisive for them both...