Le Jour Se Leve (1939) One of the Original French Noir

Directed by Marcel Carné (Port of Shadows, Hotel Du Nord, Les portes de la nuit, Thérèse Raquin).  

Written by Jacques Viot with dialogue written by songwriter and poet Jacques Prévert. 

Cinematography was by Philippe Agostini, André Bac, Albert Viguier, and Curt Courant and Music by Maurice Jaubert.

It was among the first of films that used the flashback. The producers insisted on adding the title card.

RKO remade this film as The Long Night (1947) and Floyd Bostwick Odlum the head of the studio, and his minions tried to have all this film's original prints destroyed. What a bunch of slime balls.

Stars the King of Noir - Jean Gabin (easily over 30 French and one American Noir) as François, Jacqueline Laurent (11 credits all French, except, get this, an Andy Hardy  / Mickey Rooney film as Françoise.

Jean Gabin as François

Jacqueline Laurent as Françoise

Arletty as Clara

Jules Berry as Valentin

Jules Berry (The Devil's Envoys) as Valentin, Arletty (Hotel Du Nord, Children of the Paradise) as Clara, Arthur Devère as Gerbois, Bernard Blier (French Noir Vet) as Gaston, François's co worker, Fra, Marcel Pérès as Paulo, Germaine Lix as singer, Georges Douking as blind man neighbor (uncredited).

Story 

"Noirsville," an undisclosed city in France. (aside from a foundry establishing shot it's all the fantastic / magical reality of elaborate studio sets.  A six story walkup with a windowless side wall of chimneys. Various painted advertisements are festooning its bricks. The garret apartments at the top have dormer windows puncturing a steep mansard roof. 

It sits like a sentinel, fronting on a small brick paved square with trolley tracks. A watchmaker / repair shop occupies part of the ground floor. The building is surrounded by lower buildings with other shops on their ground floors. 

In the square's center is a lattice tower mast that has four arms with street lights. It just reaches to the fourth floor of the walkup.

We cut to the stairwell of the apartment house. A blind man with a white cane is making his way up. At the top on the sixth floor we see two apartments with "french" doors. They have their knobs in the middle. We focus on the right hand apartment. 

As we zoom on the door, we hear the end of a argument between two men. 

Valentin: Like to hear more?

François: Shut your trap! Shut up!

Bang! A shot rings out.

Valentin: You did yourself a lot of good

François: You did too

The door opens and Valentin staggers out. He stumbles to the banister at the top of the stair and grips it while clutching his belly. He looses balance and somersaults down to the next landing. He pulls himself up using the banister and then rolls down to the fifth floor dead.  

He pulls himself up using the banister. While this is going on the blind man hears the crashes and is calling out asking if somebody fell. Valentin is clutching the banister, he winces lets go and then rolls down to the fifth floor dead.

The blind man is still yelling out asking if someone fell. He makes the fifth floor, and his cane makes contact with Valentin's body. He yells Help! Someone fell.

We cut to the square outside and see two gendarmes approaching. There's a crowd of rubberneckers  spreading false rumors.  

Inside the two policemen question the landlady and her husband. The blind man in shock, is babbling to himself "he fell, he fell. While stretched out on the bed behind him is the dead man.

The police are tossing out questions, Why did he shoot? Who is the dead man? Obviously how could they know. The police head up to the 6th floor. We follow their progress from a stairwell POV. The heads of all the tenants are gawking over the railings. 

The police, getting to the sixth floor, knock on the door. "Open! It's the police!" François tells them to go to hell. They tell him to open up immediately, he tells them he doesn't want to talk with anyone. He threatens to shoot. The police back away to the side. François puts three rounds through the door. The two officers head back down stairs. 

The police back away to the side. François puts three rounds through the door. The two officers head back down stairs.

François opens the door, comes out, and watches the police depart down the stairwell. His next door neighbor comes out and asks "what's wrong?" When he sees the automatic in François hand he quietly goes back into his apartment. 

François also goes back inside his flop and when he shuts the door a distant drum is heard pounding, lightly like the ticks of a monstrous clock. Marking time. It increases as we build to the climax.

François puts the automatic on the mantel above his stove. On the mantel sits a one eared teddy bear, a paper bag, and woman's broach. He pulls a tie out of the bag, takes off the sales tag and hangs it in his armoire sitting beside the door.

More cops show up outside, an ambulance to pick up the body, a couple of detectives in an open car. Inside a police man is asking if François is a brawler?, if he's an alcoholic? The chief in charge walks in and it breaks up the questioning. The cops head up to the 6th floor to figure out their options. 

Night falls. The streetlights are on. We watch, as what ever was the equivalent of a French swat team in nineteen 30's France, climb up on the roof of the tallest nearby building. 

Inside his flop François is chain smoking cigarettes, when the cops let loose a fusillade of gunshots into his window. The shoots put holes in the glass and in the mirror over the stove mantel. One shot takes out the lamp, shrouding the room in shadows thrown from the squares streetlight. 

François, in the darkness, slides along to wall to the window and peers down at the crowd. 

Flashback

And here is when we go into our first flashback. The crowd dissolves away and we see and empty square. Its daybreak, a million years ago it must seem, we see François rolling his bike out of the apartment house. We hear a factory whistle blast as he rids his bike across the square. 

François works as a sand blaster at probably a Chappée iron foundry. All day long he blasts motor block and other fittings. Sandblasting prepares cast iron for powder coating, galvanizing, or other processes, incase you're curious. 

It all started the day a young girl named Françoise, wanders into the work area with a bouquet of flowers. She is lost and François notices her. He stops sandblasting, and takes off his protective gear. 

He stops sandblasting, and takes off his protective gear. He gives her directions and when he is about to return to work he notices that she is still there. He tells her she looks like a beautiful tree standing there. They start chatting, they are named the same, they are from the same area of France and they are both orphans. 

Brenard Blier as Gaston on lt.

We pick up the flashback about three weeks later. François bicycles over to where Françoise lives along a rail yard. 

She asks him in. François is in love. He already wants to get married. They make small talk until she remembers about her iron. She picks it up off the stove and irons a white collar for a dress. 

She shows it to François and tells him she'll show him how it looks on her dress. When he sees it he's impressed. When François notices his photo on her mirror he remakes that its nice to see some one he knows in her room. 

She yells him he reminds her of her one eared bear he loos in the mirror to compare.

Then he notices her postcards from the various palaces. She tells him there are of places she's heard about. She tells him that the Riviera is the sea and big red rocks. 

When he asks if he could stay the night and leave early in the morning she tells him not tonight because she has an appointment. WTF? An appointment at this time of night? he says ok and departs.

François says ok, but when he is about to hop on his bike, he has a change of mind and wheels the bike into a pathway alongside the house and waits. Soon Françoise comes out and walks away down the alley. François follows behind her. 

Her appointment is at a small music hall / theater with Valentin and his dog act. Françoise sits in the audience while François sits at the bar. The bartender tells him that Valentin was very popular three months ago when he was here and was booked back.  

Valentin

And his assistant Clara

Clara quits the show in the middle of the act Valentin is not happy

The quitting Clara heads to the bar.

Standing at the bar François meets Clara, she tells him she's had it with Valentin. Tells him she just quit the act.   

François is somewhat surprised at her forwardness. Clara is very attracted to François. She tells him she just really needs somebody to talk to.

They shoot the breeze and while Valentin does the rest of his act, Clara fills François in on Valentin. Tells him that Valentin can train a dog in three days by burning the hair off the bottom of their feet. Nice guy right? 

She tells him Valentin is a great talker and with the way he moves his hands its almost as if he has you under a spell. She mentions that when he describes the Riviera it feels like you are there. She's put up with him for three years but tonight, she just had it. 

When the dog act does ends Françoise gets out of her seat and heads back stage. She soon comes out with Valentin. 

As they approach the bar François turns away so that Françoise does not see him. Outside the theater, Valentin tells Françoise suddenly, that he just remembered something he has to do. He apologizes to Françoise telling her he can't walk her home. 

She leaves but Valentin goes back in the theater and confronts Clara at the bar. They have words but François injects himself into their quarrel and Valentin takes off. 

End of the first flashback. 

Back in reality François is now looking at an empty square. The police have cordoned it off. He moves away from the window and by the door flips on a the overhead light. On the table is a paper. He reads the page that lists ships departing from Boulogne. 

Out at the police line Gaston and another of his friends from work ask if they could talk with François. They might have done some good but the police turn them away. The police are looking bad so far. The people are thinking of François as a defiant hero. 

The police with armor shields fire another fusillade of automatic fire this time at the door lock from the stairway. The round splinter the wood around the lock. François pushes the heavy oak armoire in front of the door just before its' about to swing open. 

The police with armor shields fire another fusillade of automatic fire at the door from the stairway the round splinter the wood around the lock. François pushes the heavy oak armoire in front of the door just before its' about to swing open. 

While he stares at the armoire we get another flashback. 

Flashback number two. 

Here is where it really starts going Noirsville. François is screwing Clara. She is living across the square at the Moderne Cafe Hotel. But he is still in love with Françoise and is still seeing her. How Noir is this?

While François is laying on the bed "visiting" Clara, she hears an auto drive up and dogs barking outside. Its Valentin and his rolling kennel.  

There goes the afternoon. When Valentin gets up to her room François and Valentin start arguing. Clara tells them both to get out. 

They head downstairs to the Moderne Cafe, there Valentin bullshits François telling him that Françoise is his long lost daughter who looks just like his late wife. 

This new wrinkle keeps François a bay until on a visit to Françoise she tells him it's not true and that he's not her father.

François tells Françoise that he loves her and asks if she loves him? She tells him yes and removes an Italian brooch from her dress and tells François that this is from me and I love you. Looking good right? Naaaah!

François goes to see Clara, she remarks that he looks glum. Clara knows something is up.  

When François tells Clara that he can't see her anymore she gives him the very same brooch that he got from Françoise earlier.  She explains to François that Valentin gives all his mistresses the brooch. She stole his supply, lol.  So, what does that make him?

When François goes to tell Clara that he can't see her anymore she gives him the very same brooch telling François that Valentin gives all his mistresses the brooch. So, what does that make him?

Noirsville 

One of the interesting things to ponder about Le Jour Se Leve is the nature of François' flashbacks. Are they actual occurrences or, especially when dealing with Françoise, slightly fairytale-ishly unreliable, especially after you watch the film. She's in his mind his dream girl is he conveniently omitting things that don't fit that ideal?

It's a masterpiece of original Film Noir. 10/10

The title card explaining about those new fangled "flashbacks."

From IMDb 

Truth, lies, society: realistic and symbolic masterpiece

TeyssMar 24, 2016

<Spoiler>

"Le Jour se lève" is a French cinema major classic and more specifically the lead title of "poetic realism" genre of the 1930s. Apparently simple in its form, it is an elaborate movie about hidden truth and apparent lies, with social background.

STRUCTURE

The movie is not the first one with flashbacks, but probably the first to use them so consistently and skilfully, two years before "Citizen Kane". There are three of them, surrounded by four "present" sequences. Interestingly, the latter are relatively consistent in duration and space: they all last between 6 and 11 minutes, occur between evening and dawn of the following day and happen in François' building or around. (As such, the movie follows the rules of classic tragedy: unity of time, place and action.)

This contrasts with the flashbacks, which progressively condense time and space, building up dramatic intensity:

Flashback 1 (22 minutes). Duration: three weeks. Locations: road to the factory, factory, outside Françoise's house (twice), Françoise's house, café.

Flashback 2 (24 minutes). Duration: at most a few days. Locations: François' building, Clara's room (twice), café, greenhouse.

Flashback 3 (7 minutes). Duration: real time. Location: François' room only.

As we see, the condensation is threefold: length of the flashback itself, duration of the action, space where it happens. While the first and second flashbacks represent some mental escape (duration, exteriors, love, future plans), the third one loops back with the opening scene in terms of action, location and length. All this creates a sense of increasing pressure and inevitable tragedy, reinforced by the fact the "present" sequences also move progressively from exteriors to interiors and notably to François' room: there is no escaping the reduced environment and limited time; we are increasingly confined with François in his room during his last night. "It is a small world. It turns around, we meet again", Valentin says. Indeed: smaller and smaller, faster and faster.

Additionally, to augur the tragic ending, the movie constantly hints references to death.

François and Françoise both are orphans.

François tells her: "It would be nice if everybody were dead and there were just the two of us".

Valentin says: "I am coming back like a ghost".

Clara tells François: "It seems you are informing me someone died".

François shouts at the end: "François is gone!"

The teddy bear that looks like him is shot.

François is seen through his window and his mirror riddled with bullet holes.

APPARENT VERSUS HIDDEN

The contrast between present and past reveals another opposition: apparent versus hidden.

The mystery of the murder at the beginning, behind a closed door, is only explained at the end.

François looks healthy but his lungs are filled with sand.

He is considered a nice fellow but will eventually commit murder.

He has a happy eye and a sad eye, as pointed out by Françoise.

The deputy director has a nice garden close by the factory which inside looks like a nightmare.

Valentin's show is a success but he tortures his dogs to achieve it.

Françoise gives François her allegedly personal brooch that is actually Valentin's.

Clara is understanding but cruelly hurts François on purpose by revealing the secret of Valentin's brooches.

François says at the end: "Everybody kills, but secretly, little by little so it doesn't show."

In a revealing scene, Valentin tells François he is Françoise's father. It is moving and we feel sorry for him. However, we later on discover it was a lie. But where is the truth? Does Valentin just want to manipulate François and Françoise? Or does he genuinely love her so much that he is willing to do anything? He is an ignoble yet complex character, magnificently played by Jules Berry.

The apparent/hidden antagonism is visually illustrated by lights and shadows that frequently divide faces and bodies. Also, many shots through mirrors and windows show us reality is double-sided. And the recurring apparitions of the blind man (a cliché feature introduced with second-degree humour) tell us truth is not what we see.

Characters also are antagonised: François (simple, frank, honest) versus Valentin (intelligent, manipulative, sleazy); Françoise (young, shy, apparently chaste) versus Clara (experienced, outspoken, flirty). So is society: opposition between workers and "artists", "simple" people and intellectuals, people and policemen, hard work and pleasure, living conditions and plans for a better life. François is a strong character but denied a proper existence: he dresses like a monster without a body and a face in the factory; he is dominated by Valentin's rhetoric; he lives isolated at the top of the town's tallest building; the police do not negotiate with him, they simply shoot; he shouts at the end, in a memorable monologue, "There is no François any more!"

As a result, the movie manages to be both symbolic and realistic: working conditions, living conditions, social context just before WWII, close shots on important details (brooch, gun, burning cigarette). Ironically, at the end when François is dead, his alarm rings so he can wake up to go to work.

A DREAM TEAM

A last note about the crew. The three main actors (Jean Gabin, Jules Berry, Arletty) are among the greatest ever in French cinema and it is their only common appearance. Notably, it is the only movie featuring all-famous Gabin and Berry together, which makes the contrast between their styles even more striking.

Dialogues by Jacques Prévert (a major French poet) are simple, powerful and somewhat poetic. Scenery is the work of the master Alexandre Trauner: efficient reconstitution of the whole quarter, impressive usage of the building (e.g. fabulous travelling shot from top to bottom), minute reconstitution of François' room condensing his past. Cinematography is from another master, Philippe Agostini, and lightings from yet another, Curt Courant. A true dream team.

Last but not least, Carné is an acclaimed director and "Le Jour se lève" is considered by many as his masterpiece, ahead of other classics such as Port of Shadows (1938) and Children of Paradise (1945).