Neige aka Snow (1981) A Very Atmospheric Pigalle Noir

Directed by Juliet Berto (Cap Canaille, ) and Jean-Henri Roger. 

Written by Juliet Berto, Jean Henri Roger, and Marc Villard, from a scenario of Marc Villard based on an idea of Juliet Berto. 

The beautiful atmospheric cinematography was by William Lubtchansky. Music was by François Bréant and Bernard Lavilliers. 

The film stars Juliet Berto (Celine and Julie Go Boating) as Anita, Jean-François Stévenin (Une chambre en ville) as Willy, Robert Liensol (West Indies) as Jocko, Paul Le Person (The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe) as Bruno Vallès, Patrick Chesnais (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) as The first Inspector, Jean-François Balmer (Dans la maison) as The second Inspector, Ras Paul Nephtali as Bobby, Nini Crépon as Betty, Dominique Collignon as Maurin The blond, Frédérique Jamet as Annie Vallès, Émilie Benoît as Boccador, Michel Lechat as  Lechat, Michel Berto as The blind man, Roger Delaporte as Borelli, Michel Nedjar [fr] as Menendez,  Frédérique Jamet as Annie Vallès, Raymond Bussières (Casque d'Or, The Murderer Lives at Number 21, The Gates of Night), as Pierrot, Eddie Constantine (5 Against The House, Poison Ivy, This Man Is Dangerous,  Passport to Shame)  - Eddie, Bernard Lavilliers - Franco.

This film is a fascinating capture of Pigalle in the 1980s. Juliet Breto was a Jean Luc Godard staple she also starred in  Jacques Rivette's Celine and Julie Go Boating.

Story 

Le Chat Noir a Pigalle nightclub. Pigalle, If your a New Yorker its like the French Times Square shithole, circa late 70's early 80s.

We hear a couple of electric guitars before we see a couple of band members tuning up on a stage with a green piano and a sparkly blue backdrop. The place is a ghost town.

Anita [V.O.]: There is this Blue color. This Color that makes everything change. Blue like the veins that bobby fills with a white liquid. White and empty,

We start to pan from the stage across the almost empty nightclub, past art deco floor lamps and painted murals, tables, with a few  wasted looking patrons.

Anita [V.O.]: Like a gaze fixed on this kid I raised, who keeps slipping through my fingers. His eyes turned to the distant islands.

We hear a sax and continue to pan to a small side bar with a bartender and three stools and a rotund-ish nude female sculpture. Our pan stops at a white tile lined stairway leading down to the toilets, where the subterranean sax player is emerging into view. The guy takes his sax to the shitter, how Noir is this?

Anita [V.O.]: Lou-Lou got his new musicians hired for Le Chat Noir. Good-bye to the has been's.

Anita is a bartender in the front bar. She serving a customer a beer telling him that it's party time outside, since the winter carnival people have set up shop on the traffic islands in the center of the Boulevard de Clichy.  

Juliet Berto as Anita

We cut to a strip show audience, we here a reggae beat, and we are also hear a talker, arouse the crowd introducing Blondie. 

We cut to the stage. Chase light incandescent bulbs form niches for the dancers, and we watch Blondie wiggling her assets. She's in a one piece black outfit, and has the front zipper almost down to her navel, but she is just displaying her cleavage. This is the hook, the real show is inside the tent.

 Next is Maggie she's in a see through top and a leather mini skirt. The talker also announces that two more girls Nadege and Murielle are waiting inside to do a full striptease for those interested, with money, of course.

Here we cut to Bobby, a wanna be Rastafarian with dreadlocks, he's graduated from grass to dealing coke. He gives Arlette the ticket taker something. money or coke, its not clear and he tells that he's going to be in the back to make his connections. She maybe a steerer. 

Ras Paul Nephtali as Bobby 

We watch a brunette stripper do some of her routine and Bobby do a deal, meanwhile Anita is pushing her way into the tent show crowd.  

Anita's searching for Bobby. When she finds him she warns that the flics are surrounding Pigalle. She tells him that they will find you eventually. Bobby assures her that God will protect him. 

Later, Anita joins Joko and tells him what Bobby told her. Joko replies that God is on the cops side too.

Anita and Robert Liensol as Joko

We cut to a one of those cheap lunch counters. This one has a Hungarian counterman Willy who is sweet on Anita. 

Jean-François Stévenin as Willy with Joko

Joko is arguing about the price telling Willy he's charging frog leg prices for french fries. Joko pays but tells Willy he expects him to sing in his choir. Tells he he even may meet some girls there and  create miracles. Willy excuses himself telling them he has to go spar.

When Willy is gone Joko asks Anita if Willy is in her heart. Anita replies that nothing is in her heart but fear of dying old (and alone no doubt). Anita shows Joko her switch blade to assure him she can take care of her self.

We cut to a gym. Willy is a kickboxer he's sparring with an opponent. 

When Joko and Anita arrive, Anita starts disrupting their bout. Later she teases Willy while he's working out. Joko is laughing at her antics.  He only takes so much before he flings her hands away violently enough to get her off balance. Willy goes into the shower room and Anita gives him the finger. 

Soon Anita and Joko also enter the shower, Anita asks Willy if he wants to go dance. He tells her he can't tonight. 

We segue to Willy talking to his manager / gym owner. Willy asks him what he though of the bout. He tells Willy that he made a mistake 3 years ago but he could make a comeback with some effort. 

We cut to Anita and Joko trying to talk Bruno Vallès a taxi driver into taking them to Montreuil.

Paul Le Person as Bruno Vallès

Pigalle to Montreuil is about ten miles. The neighborhood in the 1980s was a decaying factory / warehouse district. Our equivalent would be say asking a cabby to take you from Times Square to Maspeth, or Hunts Point, in the middle of the night where you'll never get a fare back to Times Square.  

They want to go the Le Main Bleue, The Blue Hand to dance. They finally talk Bruno into driving them. On the journey Bruno eavesdrops on Joko and Anita's conversation. 

Later we see Anita walking past le Moulin Rouge and then cutting down an alley to visit Pierrot who is a theater projectionist and a sort of father figure to Anita. 

She sits on his lap she tells him her problems. He tells her that things never seen to go well for her. She blames herself for Bobby, Pierrot replies that you may as well blame me. 

The next day back at  Le Chat Noir, Anita gets off work and heads with Joko to sort of combo arcade / lunch counter.  

We get vignettes of gritty Pigalle street life and its denizens throughout the film. While they are playing pinball, a pimp and Charlotte, his blonde hooker, are arguing. She's complaining she is tired of standing on the street. He forces her back to the street. 

Through the window outside the arcade Anita spots the Blonde, who is Bobby's biggest customer. She points him out to Joko. The blond is dressed in a fringe leather jacket and a plaid shirt, I guess a cowboy look.

We start following the Blonde now as he tries to make a connection for a fix. He's pulling coats looking for Bobby. 

When Bobby finally shows, Bobby tells the Blonde to get in line, in the usual spot at the back of the strip show tent. The Blonde makes the deal for two packets oblivious to the nude brunette gyrating up on the stage. 

When Bobby finally gets tapped out of coke, he exits the tent show and heads down into the metro to score more "snow." He is followed by Anita. 

A blue and white MF77 train on line 2

But Anita looses him when she gets distracted by a passenger who kisses her, and Bobby suddenly hops off the train at Barbès. We watch as Bobby then heads to an Arabic neighborhood where his supplier has a coffee house.

Meanwhile we cut to Bruno the taxi driver visiting his wife Annie in prison. She killed the pusher who sold her sister the overdose that killed her. 

Frédérique Jamet as Annie Vallès

On his way back to his cab Bruno is stopped by two inspectors from the narcotics squad. 

They propose a deal to Bruno, his wife will get an early parole if he he becomes a sort of snitch they want to track down the dealers, they give him a number to call if he has anything worth while to tell them.

Next we get various sequences with the various denizens of Pigalle, Bobby making his rounds Willy and Anita at Le Chat Noir, Joko being approached by two kids asking him if he can heal people, leading up to a shot of Bruno observing the neighborhood. It starts going Noirsville when he spots bobby. We cut to one of the Narcotics cops driving speedily through the streets, and then to Bruno with both of the narcs in an arcade. 

One of the inspectors is playing a shooting game. When Bobby comes back into view Bruno points him out. 

The narcs follow Bobby to the striptease tent and their when they try to grab him he squeezes out of their grasp and makes a run for it through Pigalle. 

Bobby gets gunned down when he tries to shoot one of the Narcs. This is roughly the 34 minute mark. Of course Anita is devastated, and the death of Bobby leaves his users without a supply. But now Anita now transfers her motherly instincts to another almost overnight, from dead Bobby to one of Bobby's users, Betty, a female impersonator. How Noir is this? Its a true Noir and it doesn't end well.

Noirsville 

Eddie Constantine as Eddie

This was Juliet Berto's first film as a director. It's not without faults. Its a film about the damaged denizens of Pigalle and the various coping mechanisms that they employ to get by. It's a simple plot with lots of unconnected vignettes that are there merely to illustrate the complicated forces constantly pulling things apart and pushing people together. 

For instance, Anita and Joko at one point go to a place called The Blue Hand, you think that something may happen there, but its the going in the taxi that is of importance and the fact the Bruno the taxi driver is about to become a police informant. 

Its akin to the U.S. Exploitation Noirs of the 1960s. If you need a good story to keep you entertained thsi is not for you. However if you are visually perceptive the images alone will phototropic-ly stimulate the story, and your imaginations. 

A simple story of losers that contains archival footage of a time and place long gone. That is what makes this a visual gem worth seeing. 8/10

Allocine Reviews

Velocio

When you're about to watch a film you loved 40 years ago, you can't help but wonder: how has it aged? Or rather: have you and the film aged well together?  Indeed, in 40 years, the world has changed, cinema has changed, and you have changed. With "Neige," you're quickly reassured: yes, many things have changed since May 17, 1981, the date it was screened in official competition at the Cannes Film Festival before its theatrical release three days later, but the emotional impact of the film remains, an emotion now tinged with a healthy dose of nostalgia. "Neige" is a portrayal that makes absolutely no attempt to pass judgment on a particular neighborhood at a particular time. 

Pigalle, Barbès, Place Blanche—a cosmopolitan neighborhood, some would say disreputable, with its bars, nightclubs, cabarets, illegal gambling dens, and cinemas where pornography rubbed shoulders with films from the Middle East and North Africa. A neighborhood where prostitutes, pimps, drug addicts, dealers, gamblers, transvestites, striptease artists, and police officers crossed paths, and perhaps still do. An era when, for another ten years, there were still first-class carriages on the Paris Metro.

chrischambers86

Attention, never-before-seen images of nocturnal Paris from the early 80s! A territory, a ghetto that is almost the star of the film by the late Juliet Berto, who tried her hand at directing with this captivating first feature film! It's a very personal vision of a neighborhood (Pigalle) and some of its inhabitants, revealed through a crime story! The actress-director pulls off a masterstroke here, creating a vibrant and accurate portrayal of a neighborhood where gambling, prostitution, drugs, and entertainment coexist. The cast is quite surprising, even featuring veterans like Eddie Constantine and Raymond Bussières!  Between Pigalle and Barbès, and without any judgment, Juliet Berto delivers a sensitive work, complete with the beautiful song "Pigalle la blanche" by Bernard Lavilliers.

Frankck T

Snow is a journey through time, a neighborhood story like the ones we discovered in the 1980s. A solid cast for a powerful film that you'll want to watch again and again

Un visiteur

Nostalgia, nostalgia... The 80s in the world of friendly petty criminals in Pigalle, with its seedy strip clubs. The cops were setting up ambushes in droves for small-time dealers over a few grams of white powder. The snow was already sad under the black sun of the night. Seeing Jean-François Stevenin and Juliet Berto again, what a joy. And remembering that Patrick Chesnais and Jean-François Balmer were once young, that's a nice feeling. The cops were quick on the trigger back then. Without remorse and without warning. But there was no racism behind it all: they gunned down the little West Indian street urchin just as readily as the former white boxer, white as "snow"... What a time! And a small role for Lavilliers in a three-piece suit, dressed like a dandy. He did well to trade that costume later for a leather jacket and an earring.

They're clever at the Louxor cinema. They only turn the lights back on at the end of the credits. So you're forced to listen to Lavilliers' song until the very last notes. And what a beautiful song it is...10.

Bertie Quincampoix

A little-known gem of 1980s French cinema, Neige takes us to the heart of the Pigalle district at the beginning of that decade, painting a portrait of its marginalized characters (drug addicts, prostitutes, dealers, transvestites, con artists, fairground workers, preachers, etc.), all with diverse aspirations but all consumed by the scourge of drugs. Bathed in stunning light and featuring dazzling sets, this first film by the directing duo Juliet Berto and Jean-Henri Roger is a striking and unsettling immersion into a vibrant and seedy Pigalle, a world that has long since given way to trendy bars and tourist shops.  It boasts a unique atmosphere, complemented by a superb original score by Bernard Lavilliers

mickael l.

This film is amazing. Filmed in Paris at night in the early 80s. The viewing experience is perfect. The actors are fabulous. The direction is spot-on. I thoroughly enjoyed it. A must-see and worth watching again. One of my favorite films. And all of this with a sublime soundtrack by Lavilliers.

Pascal

I saw this film when it was released in 1981 and I had fond memories of it. Forty years later, it's being re-released in theaters, and as I settled into a seat in a cinema on Rue Champollion, I wondered what I would think of it now.  It's worth remembering that "Neige" (Snow) was quite successful with audiences and won a César Award for Best First Film. 

Unfortunately, Juliet Berto would succumb to illness a little over a decade later, and she, who was Jack Rivette's muse, would only direct one more film after "Neige": "Cap Canaille." In my eyes, Berto is a blend of Dany and Bulle Ogier, and perhaps even Bernadette Lafont. "Neige" is captivating both in its form and its content. Jean-Pierre Jeunet undoubtedly drew some inspiration from Berto's work in her own films.

This film uses a story as a pretext to show us a neighborhood – Pigalle, Barbès, Anvers, and Place Blanche in the 18th arrondissement of Paris – a kind of microcosm of our current society. Berto wanted to pay tribute to the neighborhood of her childhood through the story of a drug dealer whose death causes a shortage of drugs. The drug trade is then taken over by the character played by Berto, leading to the final tragedy. The cast is very moving (Jean-François Stevenin, Jean-François Balmer, and Patrick Chesnais were relatively unknown to the general public at the time).  

There's also the music of Bernard Lavilliers. It's not a masterpiece, but a very respectable film, somewhat dreamlike and, above all, imbued with a great deal of nostalgia. That was forty years ago already...

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