Voyage sans espoir (1943) Classic French Noir

"WOW, one of the best French Noir you never saw."

Directed by Christian-Jaque (L’enfer des anges (1939), L’assassinat du père Noël  aka  Who killed Santa Claus ?, Un revenant (1946). Souvenirs perdus aka Lost souvenirs (1950). 

Written by Pierre Mac Orlan (Le quai des brumes aka Port of Shadows (1938)) from an adaptation by Christian-Jaque and Marc-Gilbert Sauvajon from a story by Georg C. Klaren and Maurice Krol, with additional dialogue by Marc-Gilbert Sauvajon.

The excellent cinematography was by Robert Lefebvre (Bonnes à tuer aka One Step to Eternity (1954)) with the music by Maurice-Paul Guillot and Jean Marion.  

 The film stars Simone Renant (Quai des Orfèvres, That Man from Rio) as Marie-Ange, Jean Marais (La Belle et la Bête) as Alain Ginestier, Paul Bernard (Panique) as Pierre Gohelle, Jean Brochard (Les diaboliques) as Inspector Chapelin, Louis Salou as Chief Inspector Sorbier, Ky Duyen as Li-Fang, Lucien Coëdel as Philippe Dejanin, Marcel Maupi as Le barman, Clary Monthal as Laura. 

Simone Renant as Marie-Ange

Jean Marais as Alain Ginestier

Paul Bernard as Pierre Gohelle

Lucien Coëdel as Philippe Dejanin

Jean Brochard as Inspector Chapelin lt. and  Louis Salou as Chief Inspector Sorbier, rt.

The opening credits are over a homage to La Bête Humaine with a wild montage of steam locomotive and rail travel footage that continues into the narrative of the story. Intercut with shots of a telegraph key, operator, and the old teleprinter type of message dispatch system.  The alarm is going out about Pierre Gohelle an escaped prisoner. 

At the three minute mark its now night. From the inside of the passenger car we see a dark figure on the outside of the moving train. Pierre Gohelle must have hopped aboard as the already moving train was pulling out of the last station. 

He opens the door, and steps into the car. We watch as he walks along the corridor looking into the darkened cabins. 

When he finds one with a single occupant he opens the cabin door, slides around the sleeping man who has his arm outstretched, and sits on the bench seat lighting a cigarette. 

A wallet full of money and a heavy wolf head signet ring.

Pierre scopes out his sleeping cabin mate. Fair haired. Well dressed in a heavy overcoat. On a finger an impressive signet ring . Sleeping on his side. The overcoat is laying flipped open. The top quarter of his billfold is exposed and it's bulging with enough money that's sticking out around it's fringes. 

The trains whistle shrieks, flying over a switch crossing jars the car, and Alain Ginestier awakens with a start. Pierre apologizes for surprising Alain but Alain tells him he was dreaming. Alain asks Pierre where are they? Just passed Yvetot. Close to Le Havre. They smoke and talk. Alain tells him he's never left Paris and he's sailing on the Saturnia for Argentina. A "land of dreams." Pierre answers, "Like every country you've never been to. As soon as you're there you're dreaming of another one." 

Pierre explains to Alain that he travels a lot on business. Alan tells Pierre that he's a bank manager. 

Alain: Two years of this life and you can't stand it. Your blood boils you want it to stop. And to get away to a nice place I feel like I escaped jail. You can't imagine what it's like. 

Pierre: And why not?

Alain: It seems to me like I'll be starting from scratch. Like nothings happened to me before tonight. 

Alain goes on about making a fortune in Argentina telling Pierre that it will be easy if you already have 300,000 thousand francs to begin with. Pierre counters that he's going to have to hand on to it. He tells Alain that he could see his wallet from the corridor, and that there's all kind of crooks on the train. 

Pierre asks Alain if he's boarding the boat tonight and when Alain says no, he'd like to see the city Pierre suggests that they meet later at the Fortuny nightclub around midnight. Pierre tells Alain that he will introduce him to a very pretty girl. 

Here we cut to a windy night. Marie-Ange (Simone Renant). Nightclub chanteuse. A 30 something blonde in a belted corduroy coat, holding a fedora style hat on her head, walking briskly along the freight railway that serves the docks. 

Following her is a tall thin man wearing a dark suit, glasses, and a bowler hat, and he's carrying an umbrella. He is smiling. He's giving off a Hercule Poirot / Dr. Watson vibe. He peers from behind a column, Marie-Ange goes up the gangway of a ship named the Marie-Ange. 

We meet some of the crew. Marie asks for Captain Dejanin. Li-Fang. takes her up to the captain's cabin. Philippe Dejanin is in love with Marie-Ange, he named his boat after her. Marie-Ange was involved with his best friend Pierre before he went to prison. 

Now that Pierre has escaped she comes to tell Phillipe that tonight is the night. Pierre is on the 10:20 train. Phillipe is not quite as legitimate as it may look. He refers to his crew as pirates.

Phillipe has agreed to hide Pierre on the ship for 48 hours until the full crew gets back and then sail him out of the country. Marie-Ange leaves for the station to meet Pierre. 

It all starts breaking bad after the train pulls into the Le Havre harbor station. 

Pierre tells Alain that he'll see him later and splits. Alain with his suitcase, goes to find a cab. We see Marie-Ange, her eyes searching faces, walking through the slew of exiting passengers. Looking for Pierre, followed again, by her bowler hat tail. There are other police already in place.

One of the policemen spots Pierre and grabs him but Pierre clocks him and slips loose and takes off across trains and tracks into the station railyard. It's raining hard.

Marie watched the commotion and decides better now to meet Pierre back at the ship. She hurries out the exit and spots a cab. 

Alain is putting in his suitcase into the same cab. Marie cries out that she is in a hurry and needs the taxi. Alain offers her a ride. It's a meet cute "noir style." Alain is already smitten with Marie, he makes small talk. 

The cab bumps a curb and gets a flat. The bump throws Marie into Alain's lap. The cab driver tells them to wait over at the bus stop kiosk. 

Alain gallantly takes off his coat and throws it over Marie's shoulders, he also has to carry Marie across a puddle. Alain makes Marie laugh. 

Back in the taxi Marie tell the driver to hurry. 

Alain: He must be very worried. I'd be worried if you were late. And I wouldn't like you going for a drive in a taxi with strangers. Will you tell him?

Marie-Ange: I don't know why? What does it matter?

Alain: I would like it very much if you hid it from him. That way there would be something between us a lie. I'd like to share a lie with you so much. 

Marie-Ange: We've already shared a lot tonight. A Taxi, an overcoat, A kiosk. It seems enough don't you think? besides we're almost there.

Alain: I'm about to loose you.

Marie-Ange: You'll go back to your night, I'll go back to mine. 

Alain: We'll never meet again. 

Marie-Ange: Why not?, Chance my friend, works in mysterious ways.

Alain: Especially if it's helped, You don't want to help it a little?

Marie-Ange: I have better things to do..., well other things. [to taxi driver] Stop, I'll get out here.

Alain: Wait. Listen to me. I'm leaving tomorrow forever.

Marie-Ange: They say it's a beautiful place. Goodbye! And thankyou!

Marie runs out into the rain. She passes the man in the bowler hat. He watches her pass then walks over to the cab and looks at the license number. 

When Marie gets to the boat Li-Fang tells her that the captain isn't on board but another man is waiting for the pretty lady in his cabin.

The meeting between Marie-Ange and Pierre doesn't go well. Pierre is tending to a scrape on his arm. He's like a cornered rat. Suspicious of everything. He's upset that Marie wasn't there to meet him. He even lets the thought that she may have ratted him out cross his mind. Philippe Dejanin returns and Marie to make it look like any normal night, goes as planned to the club to sing. 

He's upset that Marie wasn't there to meet him. He even lets the thought that she may have ratted him out cross his mind. 

Philippe Dejanin returns startling them. Marie to make it look like any normal night, goes as planned to the club to sing. 

Jumpy Pierre

Pierre and Phillipe discuss Marie. Pierre tells him that she's changed. Phillipe replies that it's probably you who's changed. Pierre asks him if he still loves her. Phillipe replies yes and that he saw her as much as he could while he was in stir. Pierre is jealous. 

The ship's crew threatens to mutiny unless they get some money for smuggling Pierre out of the country. The crew figures that if he doesn't pay they will turn in Pierre for the reward money. 

The crew wants 100,000 francs. The captain tells them that they may as well ask for a million. Pierre thinking of Alain's 300,000 wad, agrees to pay, surprising Phillippe. 

A police raid breaks things up. Phillipe has Pierre climb down a rope ladder and hang over the side while the police search the boat.

Pierre hanging over the side

When the police leave, Phillipe has Pierre climb all the way down the rope ladder to a rowboat, and then he rows Pierre out to the old lighthouse at the end of a harbor breakwater to hide. 

Pierre tells Phillipe that since the police are swarming around, he Phillipe, has to go to the Fortuny and have Marie-Ange bring his friend Mr, Ginestier out to the lighthouse. 

The man with the bowler hat shows up also at the Fortuny. 

He makes his way from the café down to the cellar where the nightclub is swinging to an African beat.

Alain is sitting at a floor show table. The man with the bowler hat walks over and after asking Alain if he's alone, sits down at the tablet. They both watch an exotic dancer. Alain waits for Pierre to show up.

 

Meanwhile, Phillipe is in Marie-Ange's dressing room filling her in on Pierre's instructions, i.e., Look for the tall blonde man with a wolf head signet ring who answers to the name Ginsetier, and then tell him that Pierre cannot come to the Fortuny but that she will bring him to Pierre out at the lighthouse.

When Marie-Ange the featured singer finally comes on Alain is pleasantly surprised to see who it is.

The 1940 high fashion bouffant

When Marie-Ange is done with her set, Alain maked his way back to visit her in her dressing room. It all goes Noirsville when Marie-Ange notices the wolf head signet ring and asks him if his name is Ginestier. 

Noirsville

This film has visuals reminiscent of La Bête Humaine, Out of the Fog, Moontide, and Mexican Cabaretera Noir. Some of the backgrounds are Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari surrealistic others suggest magic realism. The Saint-Maurice Studios in Paris artistry is on display. All the leads are great. Jean Marais I've seen before but Simone Renant was all new to me. She wears her hair in a huge pompadour for her torch song that to me isn't very flattering, and while we are discussing hair, at least one of the police officials sport an in vogue "Hitler" mustache. lol.

A heads up warning there's also a bit of (of the times} racism in a few sequences similar to those in a few Hollywood Classics. Ky Duyen as Li-Fang the Chinese pirate is great. It will be interesting to see if he did any similar parts in more French Noir.

This film also has a surprising an eye opening topless exotic dance number. Remember, this is 1943. It gives you an idea of what Hollywood films might have been able to do if the MPPC had never existed. 9/10

Journey To the End Of Night - (dbdumonteil IMDb)

It was 1943 in an occupied France. This desperate movie was probably not made to cheer up French people .Christian-Jaque 's work is noir, noir, noir in every sense of the term.

All the action takes place in darknes, in a runaway train where two mysterious men meet, on a boat at the dimming of the day where sinister-looking sailors are waiting for something which could get them out of their dump, in a nightclub where a chanteuse down on her luck takes comfort on the roof of her building by listening to the ships leaving for faraway lands.

This is par excellence Realisme Poetique. Based on a novel by Pierre McOrlan ,who wrote "Quai des Brumes" the movie which virtually invented the genre ,or at least rocketed it to fame.Alain (Jean Marais) wants to sail away and to start all over again in Argentina.The subject of the faraway land is a cliché from those bygone days ,but Christian-Jaque renews it ,and makes "Voyage Sans Espoir" ,some kind of "Quai des Brumes " in reverse.

In the darkest night of a harbor which means danger and death ,the faces are often filmed in close shot, with a ray of light on their eyes. Christian-Jaque makes the best of a hackneyed subject and he is helped by his cast who includes Marais, Simone Renant, Bernard, Louis Salou and Lucien Coédel.

There's some racism in the movie though, perhaps a sign of the times (the Occupation):the Asian sailor is the most hateful member of the crew. With his broken French ,he epitomizes evil. A character says something like "that race, you can't trust them.. ".Later ,in the nightclub where a black dancer is performing ,a guest says "black becomes her, but do not worry, the singer ain't black". Later Christian-Jaque would give the "imagine" equivalent of a movie with " Si Tous Les Gars Du Monde" a hymn to universal fraternity which left no doubt with his ideas. As I said it was a sign of the time.

Black Jacque

writers_reign13 October 2008

Christian-Jacque's previous film to this was Symphonie Fantastique, a period piece about Hector Berlioz and about as far away from this as it's possible to get. The film is visually stunning and it's not difficult to imagine it being influential on Orson Welles should he have happened to see it. Black and White, Light and Shade, that's what it's all about with scenes on a cluttered dockyard and shots through fishing nets recalling Joseph Von Sternberg. Clearly C-J had been influenced by the poetic-realism of the Jacques Prevert/Marcel Carne school and happy endings just aren't on the cards. With the possible exception of Jean Marais (and even he would only find recognition outside France a few years later) the cast are virtually unknown so that the excellence of the ensemble acting is a pleasant surprise. Arguably the highest profile on display is leading lady Simone Renant who worked consistently during the thirties and forties and she it is who becomes involved in the ending which is a neat reverse angle on the finale of Julien Duvivier's Pepe Le Moko; in the earlier film a dying Jean Gabin watched Mireille Balin sail away, a gate separating them; this time around a dying Renant watches Marais ride the train away from her unaware that she has been shot and, yes, there is a barrier between them. This is simply a terrific little known film and is ripe for rediscovery.