Trois jours à vivre (1957)
Directed by Gilles Grangier

Film Review

Louis Malle's Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (1958) was the film that set Jeanne Moreau on the road to international stardom, but before this the actress had spent almost a decade appearing in less notable films, many of which deserve their place in obscurity.  Gas-oil (1955), a minor film noir directed by Gilles Grangier, was one of the first of Moreau's films to make effective use of her alluring mystique and unconventional sensuality, although their second collaboration - Trois jours à vivre - was somewhat less successful.  The most interesting aspect of this later film is its humorously derisive perspective on a repertory company consisting of second rate actors who have a laughably over-inflated opinion of their own abilities.

The thriller element of the film appears to have been tacked on as an after-thought and pretty well undermines what might otherwise have been a justly cruel satire on provincial theatre and all who sail in her.  The film's schizoid feel may in part be down to Jacques Deray's input as an assistant director.  A far more inspired director of thrillers than Grangier, Deray would later direct some of the most successful French policiers of the following decades, most notably his stylish collaborations with Alain Delon - Borsalino (1970), Flic Story (1975) and Trois hommes à abattre (1980).  The darker, more noir-realistic aspects of Trois jours à vivre carry Deray's distinctive signature, and Deray even gets to lend both his voice and his name as a news reporter on the radio in one scene.  If Deray had been in the driving seat there can be no doubt that this would have been a far more interesting film - at the least on a par with his early thrillers Rififi à Tokyo (1960) and Symphonie pour un massacre (1963).

Gilles Grangier may not have been as consistently impressive as Jacques Deray but he was nonetheless a highly accomplished journeyman filmmaker of remarkable versatility, as adept at turning out incredibly popular comedies like Poisson d'avril (1954) and Cuisine au beurre (1963), as classic French polars best represented by Le Désordre et la nuit (1958) and Le Cave se rebiffe (1961).  Trois jours à vivre is one of Grangier's mid-ranking thriller offerings, respectful of the classic film noir motifs but somewhat lacking in coherence and flair - a watchable but pretty humdrum example of its kind that is amply salvaged by its impressive cast list.

Needless to say, Jeanne Moreau is the star attraction in this fairly lacklustre Grangier offering, magnetically alluring as a wannabe star who achieves fame not by merit but by playing the femme fatale for real.  Daniel Gélin's character has the same ambitions as Moreau's but, being as spineless as he is talentless, he elicits no sympathy whatsoever when a butch Italian good-for-nothing named Lino shows up and threatens to kill him for denouncing him to the police.  Lino is of course Lino Ventura, well and truly cast according to type as a muscle-bound hoodlum with as much heart as a lump of concrete.  Risibly shallow as the characterisation is, Ventura succeeds where every other member of the cast fails, which is to make his archetypal character sympathetic and believable, although he would be far better served on Grangier's later thriller 125, rue Montmartre (1959).  Unevenly paced and saddled with a pedestrian, unconvincing B-movie plot, Trois jours à vivre is by no means the most memorable of Gilles Grangier's thrillers, but the few feisty scenes with Moreau and Ventura make watching it well worth the effort.

Film Synopsis

Simon Belin, a minor actor with a travelling theatre company, has dreams of one day become a great star.  He knows for certain that he has talent but for some reason the great roles have always eluded him.  As a result, he languishes in obscurity, jealous of his professional rival Alexandre Bérimont.  One day, he happens to witness a murder and knows he is morally obliged to bring this matter to the attention of the police.  His agent sees at once an opportunity to make Simon famous, so he puts pressure on the aspiring actor to go to the police immediately.  Simon identifies the killer as Lino Ferrari, a notorious gangster, not knowing that he is in fact completely innocent of the crime.  Simon's erroneous testimony leads to Ferrari being arrested, convicted and sent to prison for twenty years.  The gangster swears that when he gets free Simon will pay for his false testimony with his life.  With Ferrari safely behind bars Simon soon benefits from his new-found celebrity and replaces Bérimont as the lead actor of his company.  Things take a drastic turn for the worse when Ferrari escapes from prison and sets out to carry out his threat to kill Simon.  In three days, the actor who testified against the vengeful hoodlum will be a dead man...