Marguerite de la nuit (1955) User Reviews

Jeunesse, c'est tout.

[brogmiller · 7/10 · 25 January 2023]

Before his sad cinematic decline, over which it is probably kinder to pass in silence, the consistent quality of Claude-Autant Lara's output from 'Douce' in 1943 to 'En cas de Malheur' in 1958 is truly remarkable. His take on the Faust legend made during that period however is undeniably one of his weakest and despite its unique concept is unable to justify its running time of two hours.

This director's trademark bitterness and cynicism are here encapsulated in the portrayal of Mephistopheles by Yves Montand as a drug-trafficking nightclub owner, complete with gammy leg. He is at once both monstrous and pitiable and although miscast on paper Montand's charisma and wry Gallic charm enable him to pull it off, just about.

The film really belongs to Michele Morgan, an artiste of the utmost sensibilty and grace whose performance as the title character exhibits the qualities that made her and kept her a star. One admires her even more here as she is obliged to rise above the ineffably naff acting of Jean-Francois Calvé as Georges Faust. She has compensations however in her scenes with Montand, Massimo Girotti and two stalwarts of French stage and screen, Louis Seigner and Jean Debucourt.

Autant-Lara's preferred composer Réne Cloerec supplies the score whilst the Art Déco settings of Max Douy are sensational. The final scene is stunning in its simplicity but it does take an age to get there.

Help me get Autant-Lara's Marguerite out of the night!

[dbdumonteil · 9/10 · 19 December 2005]

The rating at my time of writing is so low I cannot believe my eyes.Are people so blind?Why can't they see? "Marguerite de la nuit" is Autant-Lara's forgotten gem ;it tackles the well known story of Faust's damnation but it completely renews the subject.The one thing which gets in the way is that the film moves too slow ,its length is in excess of two hours ;but that's all.All that remains,except for the questionable performance of romantic young lead Jean-François Calvé -whose career in the movies was short-lived but made interesting made-for-TV works,notably an adaptation of Sue's "Mathilde" -,is splendid indeed.I'm not a Yves Montand fan,by a long shot,but I've got to acknowledge the extreme competence of his playing in "Marguerite".He is perfectly cast as the devil.Michèle MOrgan is equally good as Marguerite ; the couple that shines is Marguerite/Mephisto ,Faust is almost completely outstripped.It's interesting to note that the novel was written by Mac Orlan who also gave "Quai des Brumes" which put Morgan on the map.

More than "la Main du Diable" or René Clair's overrated "la Beauté du Diable" ,"Marguerite" recalls Fritz Lang 's silent movie "Der Mude Tod";like the heroine of that movie who was in search of a person willing to die ,Marguerite is looking for someone who could replace Faust in the maleficent pact.Expressionism is the keyword anyway:the settings are thoroughly disturbing from these streets (with no names) to the white surrealist church (and its incredible Christ) and a lugubrious graveyard where the only thing you can see is crosses,black crosses,which seem to have been painted on the landscape.The sublime metaphor of the railway station in a dreamlike train climaxes the movie.As Morgan's tears begin to flow,you cannot help but think of Powell/Pressburger 's "a matter of life and death" (the rose sequence) Autant-Lara 's movie is not a Christian movie:if a miracle happens ,it's because of Marguerite's love ,a human true pure love.Autant-Lara in the forties and in the fifties was anticlerical to a fault(see "l'Auberge Rouge" "Douce" and "le Diable au Corps").The scene with the man who treats Marguerite like a prostitute -Leon suggests us that she probably was one anyway-is revealing "I'm a believer,he says ,and I 'm afraid of Hell" Although Autant-Lara refuses christianism and religion,unlike Luis Bunuel,he puts in his movies positive figures of priests and believers: in the sixties,the hero of "Tu ne tueras point" would refuse the draft because of his beliefs and the "Nazi" Brother of "Le Franciscain de Bourges" would be a saint.Here Massimo Girotti's priest -Marguerite's brother is almost an anomaly in the fifties world of Autant-Lara;but when he holds his sister tenderly in his arms ,he heralds those characters to come.

The film opens with the opera final which an old descendant of Doctor Faust attends.The film was a colossal flop ,and Autant-Lara quickly made "la Traversée de Paris" which gave him the audience's acclaim again.

The Devil To Pay

[writers_reign · 8/10 · 14 January 2007]

This is yet one more nugget from the gem-encrusted Archives of French Cinema with lots more waiting to be mined principally from the thirties and forties and pre-Nouvelle Vague fifties. At the time of its release in the mid fifties the negative reaction from both critics and viewers impaired the CV of Claude Autant-Lara (who, incidentally, was educated about two miles from my home in London) taking as it did its place beside such delights as Fric-Frac, Ciboulette, L'Affaire du courier de Lyon, La Marriage de Chiffon, Douce, Sylvie et la fantome, Le Diable au corps, L'Auberge rouge, Le Ble en herbe to name only a few. Essentially what we have here is Life in the Faust lane which sees Yves Montand's Mephistopholes tracking down in the present day an elderly descendant of Dr. Faust and offering him the legendary contract. Once the dotted line has been utilised to bear his signature he becomes Jean-Francois Calve of which the less said the better - ironically within a couple of years in a musical version of the same story in Hollywood the same young Faust would be played by Tab Hunter: the only difference between these two walking timber yards is that one spoke French. Autant-Lara clearly spent some time on establishing a 'feel'. The streets and houses in them are uniformly white with the houses indistinguishable by street numbers. Symbolically the older Faust, almost against his will, follows Mephisto through a door and DOWN a flight of stairs enclosed by Red walls or, how can I put this, into Hell? A Hell personified in this case by a night club filled with hedonists/sinners doomed to carouse through eternity. One of these is, as you've surely guessed, the eponymous Marguerite, in the shape of Michele Morgan who, in a deliciously ironic touch, is first seen singing a ballad as Montand, the only male singer in the world fit to be mentioned in the same breath as Sinatra, looks on. Of course one look at Morgan and old Faust is ready to put his name where it will do the most good - as would I and from then on it's pretty much the old story. The two Ms, Montand and Morgan, act everyone else off the screen and even hold their own against the surreal sets not least the bizarre train station from which there are only one-way tickets available. Thanks again to our Norwegian correspondent I'm now the proud - and very grateful - of this DVD and I would urge distributors to make it available to everyone.

Unbearably bad

[chrisgreseque · 2/10 · 13 July 2022]

This is one of the worst films I have ever seen.

Totally unwatchable... I almost gave up after 25 minutes but kept hoping it would get better... but it didn't.

The dialogues are grotesque... The set decoration hideous... Poor Michèle Morgan looks bored as if she is thinking "What the hell, am I doing here?"...

But worst of all is Yves Montand... he is ABSOLUTELY dreadful, it's almost embarassing!

Never again.