Film Review
Les Orgueilleux was an ambitious attempt to break with the conventional romantic
drama which dominated French cinema in the early 1950s. Filmed mainly on location
in Mexico and with some graphic depictions of human suffering, it has an hard-edged authenticity
which the Paris-bound studio dramas of the period lacked. Some of the images
in the film still retain their power to shock, particularly the seemingly interminable
shot where Michèle Morgan is injected with a syringe needle.
The only thing that mars the film is the traditional, overly cautious direction, which
gives the film a dated feel and partly undermines the wonderfully heavy doom-laden atmosphere.
If only its director Yves Allégret had been a little more daring and gone more
in the direction of all-out neo-realism this would have been an unequivocal masterpiece.
In spite of that, it remains an impressive work, which makes a perceptive and uncompromising
assessment of human nature.
Sublime performances from Michèle Morgan and Gérard Philipe makes this a
compelling and poignant film. Morgan is particularly impressive, playing (against
type) a slightly amoral character who has great difficulty showing her emotions.
She conveys the unspeakable hell of her character's predicament with great force and subtlety,
bringing a much needed humanity to what is pretty grim drama.
© James Travers 2002
The above content is owned by frenchfilms.org and must not be copied.
Next Yves Allégret film:
Mam'zelle Nitouche (1954)
Film Synopsis
In a remote Mexican town, a coach deposits two strangers, an attractive young
French woman Nelly and her visibly sick husband Tom. In a desperate
state, Nelly seeks the help of the local doctor but she is far from encouraged
by his diagnosis: Tom has contracted a deadly strain of meningitis that is
spreading through the region like wildfire. After her husband has breathed
his last gasp Nelly finds herself alone in a strange town, without money
and no way of getting back home. Far from being distressed by her present
situation, she finds herself irresistibly drawn to an unkempt Frenchman named
Georges who drowns his sorrows in alcohol, having failed to come to terms
with the loss of his own spouse. Georges has no interest in Nelly and
urges her to leave the town before she goes down with meningitis. But
Nelly cannot bring herself to leave the broken, solitary man and through
her influence he manages to put aside his grief and help to defeat the epidemic
that is ravaging the area...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by frenchfilms.org and must not be copied.