• Duvivier directs with such cinematic energy – it is almost a bonus to have a narrative this strong
  • This is a story of a murder -opening short tracking shot showing the body and Michel Simon as witness. It has elements of Hitchcock (it could easily be called Rear Window– though this is eight years before that film of course) and mob violence like The Ox-Box Incident (1942) or Fury (1936 from Lang). It is quite a compliment to say that both Lang and Hitchcock could have made this movie (and if they were aware of it- I’m sure they admired it)
  • The great Michel Simon plays Monsieur Hire (he’s changed his name—which is a Jewish name—for a pretty clear political reading of the film in 1946 especially)—an aloof loner
  • Duvivier’s camera pushes forward going from balcony to balcony over seeing over the courtyard second floor

At 19-minutes- a great deep focus frame with character blocking– the investigator is in the front right of the screen parallel—with Simon center background

  • Another shot floating to their window at the 34-minute mark
  • Duvivier obstructs the frame with the prongs of the trident in Simon’s room at 49-minutes
  • At the 62-minute mark—the camera is in the butcher’s kitchen—and Duvivier swings it and tracks up to the window again to the shop obstructed by hanging meat—like Renoir- Duvivier’s camera has lyrical movement, and he’s constantly starting a shot with a frame, moving the camera, then reframing within the same shot
  • Again, the narrative momentum is intense and top-notch—I supposed it is asking you to suspend your disbelief a little that Simon’s character (who does seem intelligent) is so naïve being wooed by the femme fatale here
  • At the 69-minute mark there is a perfect arrangement of faces blocking each other just right- (like the children in the chorus in Lydia)—here it is filed with the angry faces of the mob in the bar
  • Duvivier’s active camera going from gossiper to gossipier like a game of telephone without cutting
  • Ends with the dramatic climbing of the roof with the carnival set-piece as background—again, Hitchcock
  • Highly Recommend- top 10 of the year quality