Sous les yeux d'occident (1936)
Directed by Marc Allégret

Film Review

Marc Allégret was by no means an exceptional filmmaker but he did, from time to time, make some exceptional films.  Early in his career, before he became content with turning out routine melodramas and comedies for undiscerning audiences, Allégret showed an auteur's flair for his art and directed a number of films that are distinguished by their artistry, character depth and modernity.  Foremost of these are Lac aux dames (1934) and Entrée des artistes (1938), two of the most outstanding French films of the 1930s.  Another of Allégret's early triumphs is Sous les yeux d'occident, a compelling and intensely atmospheric adaptation of Joseph Conrad's 1911 novel Under Western Eyes.

Like the book on which it is based, Allégret's film offers a sour critique of the failure of revolutions to achieve any lasting good in the world.  At a time when Fascism was sweeping across Europe like a plague, leaving left-leaning countries like France isolated and vulnerable, Sous les yeux d'occident would have been seen as deeply pessimistic, and it seems, with hindsight, to anticipate the grim historical events that would overtake France within a few years - the failure of the Popular Front government, the submission to Nazi Germany and four long years of Occupation.  In tone and style, Sous les yeux d'occident has more than a hint of film noir about it - it is far more typical of the work of Marc Allégret's younger brother Yves, who worked as an assistant on the film.

This film is not only well-directed, it is well-scripted and admirably well performed by a cast of exceptional calibre.  It is worth noting that one of the contributors on the screenplay was a young Hungarian émigré named Emeric Pressburger, who would soon go on to forge a fruitful partnership with the English director Michael Powell, conjuring up such inspired masterpieces as A Matter of Life and Death (1946) and The Red Shoes (1948).  Rising star Pierre Fresnay heads a distinguished cast that includes such acting giants as Michel Simon, Jean-Louis Barrault, Pierre Renoir and Gabriel Gabrio.  Fresnay's tragic air of innocence makes him ideally suited for the part of the anti-idealist Razumov, a complex personality that is rendered totally convincing by an actor of rare talent.  Jacques Copeau is equally superb as the thoroughly venal police chief, who is supported in his villainy by an even more loathsome Pierre Renoir.  Jean-Louis Barrault was a natural casting choice for the part of the fanatical idealist Haldin and the captivating Danièle Parola provides a very welcome feminine presence in an almost exclusively male cast.

The fact that Sous les yeux d'occident was shot entirely within the confines of a studio prevents it from having the realism and cinematic quality of Allégret's grander films, but this does help to confer on the film a stifling sense of claustrophobia.  At the heart of the story is one man's struggle with his conscience and his inability to assume the mantle of hero that fate appears so determined to throw around his shoulders.  Razumov's inner conflict is starkly conveyed by the world into which he is thrust, a film noir dreamscape where menace and suspicion lurk in every corner and intimidating shadows haunt his every move.  The lighting and camerawork - some of the finest of any of Allégret's films - create an unrelenting mood of entrapment and inescapable doom.  Throughout, there is a sense that the hero is at the mercy of events, a mere fly caught in the fiercest of hurricanes - as France would be just a few years later as Nazi Germany embarked on its conquest of Europe.  There is something grimly prophetic about this film.

Film Synopsis

In Russia during the early 1900s, Razumov is a brilliant student with a dazzling career ahead of him.  He has no interest in politics and is unmoved when he learns that the Prime Minister has just been shot dead.  By contrast, his fellow students, all supporters of the revolutionary cause, are thrown into a frenzy by the news. When the assassin, Haldin, takes refuge in his lodgings, Razumov reluctantly offers his support in evading capture.  The student turns to the only person who can help him: the Prince, who, unknown to the world, is his biological father.  The latter tips off Mikulin, the chief of police, and Haldin is duly arrested and executed.   When Mikulin threatens to expose him as Haldin's accomplice, Razumov has no choice but to infiltrate a group of revolutionaries living in exile in Switzerland.  Here, he is welcomed as a hero, especially by Lespara, the group's leader, and Nathalie, Haldin's sister...