Manon

My first contact with MANON was at age 11 when it played many weeks at the small PLAZA in Washington, DC. The ads said, "Cecile Aubry's gift to the world --- Her body!" To which my older brother said, "What body? She doesn't have one!" Hmm! My poor brother; what does he know? Anyway, I didn't see MANON in 1949, but 56 years later, thanks to eBay, I caught up on this classic, and without disappointment. This film has the authentic feel of classics like Italy's "Bicycle Thief" and "Paisan" --- having the ravages of World War II right there and everywhere you look in 1949, neither war-torn Europe nor attitudes needed to be re-created. The story is involving from the first moments and never lets up. Manon and her soul-mate Robert meet when he helps save her from the collaborator-head-shave she's sentenced to endure as punishment for her attentions to German soldiers. They will remain together throughout her numerous and shameless infidelities, each of which serves both of them, and never with any loss of love for Robert. Cecile Aubry's femme-innocent was a rare thing to see in 1949. Truly experienced men know that getting and holding a young woman like Manon is a never-ending challenge that no real man would ever quit. While traditional "built like a brick you-know-what" sexpots wait in vain for the phone to ring, the femme-innocents are fighting men off like flies. This film will show the viewer many of the dark sides of the pre- and post- liberation era which history might like to have buried. I'll skip over most of the compelling story and just say that the final scenes, when the couple arrive in Palestine along with the Jewish refugees --- these are scenes that define classic movies. Amen!

This is a directional shift for Clouzot. His first three directed films were mystery/suspense films, but here he chose to make an updated version of the novel Manon Lescaut by Antoine François Prévost, updating the setting from the 18th century to the mid-20th and that later portions from Louisiana to Israel. It's more of a literary drama, one that includes scenes for Clouzot to insert his strong command of suspense, but it stands out from the overall perception of his work in retrospect and what he had created so far. It works. It's solidly good, proving that Clouzot was more than a magician of suspense.

A ship carrying Jewish refugees clandestinely to Israel discovers that it has two stowaways on board: Robert Degriuex (Michel Auclair) and Manon (Cecile Aubry). They are on the run because Robert is accused of murder, and the captain (Henri Vilbert) hears their story. It begins at the tail end of WWII when Robert was helping clear a French town of German soldiers when he found Manon about to have her head shaved by the locals for being a collaborator. She insists that it's not true. The two immediately fall in love and run off to Paris together. They get set up with Manon's brother, Leon (Serge Reggiani), who works for a local pimp and gangster. With dreams of making a happy, middle class life, Robert lives it big on his father's money for a time before finally looking for work when he gets cut off. It's here where the divide between Robert's and Manon's visions of life become evident.

Manon wants to live well, no matter the cost. So, she is perfectly willing to prostitute herself out for the cash. That starts with the gangster, which then becomes her working in a high-class brothel in Marseille as Robert makes pennies (or, sous, I guess). He really doesn't like this, and they keep erupting into huge fights about it, coming back together in fits of passion because they love each other.

Now, this feels extremely French, and I buy it. He loves her. She loves him. She wants a better life, and she wants it with him. However, she'll do anything to get it, even if it means hurting him. He'll do anything to keep her, including working himself to the bone to get it. It's a conflict of character, rooted in storytelling, that gives the film its grounding to tell its story. Clouzot's second greatest strength across his first three films (the first being the suspense) was his approach to character, prioritizing character over things like plot to provide the kind of foundation on which to place the suspense. It's what makes his films work. Here, it's almost all character, with the murder that Robert ends up running from being the only real source of concentrated tension and suspense in the whole film.

The couple end up on the Israeli shore with the refugees, and I really wondered what the film was doing. There was almost half an hour left in the film, and it felt like the happy ending was happening. And then, the moralist aspect of the whole thing became increasingly apparent. These two people are not good people. Them finding paradise, like they do for a moment at an oasis in the desert, is not where they should end up, and a roving pack of Bedouins provides that kind of closure.

It's melodrama through and through with solid performances that always edge perhaps a little too closely to over-the-top but never fully get there. Auclair and Aubry are the focus, from beginning to end, and they get their big moments together, playing off each other as they go from sullen to angry and back, alternatively, in scene after scene. It's a portrait of a deeply unhealthy relationship, and one that Clouzot makes surprisingly compelling as information gets discovered and revealed, all leading to the first ending we know about (their escape onto the boat) and then a second ending that feels inevitable and, one might say, just.

So, it's something of an aberration in Clouzot's body of work (we all know he'll be back to pure suspense soon enough), but he demonstrates his general cinematic acumen well with this adaptation of classic (if controversial at its publishing) piece of French literature. It's not the top of the stack of his filmography. It's kind of an unusual entry. But it's a solid piece of melodrama.

Even after listening to director, Clouzot talking about the making of this film, it is difficult to understand quite why he made it. Loosely based upon an 18th century tale this has been changed around to fit a 2nd World War situation and must have something to do with the virtual ban he had after the accusations following the release of his brilliant Le Corbeau. In any event, this is a mess and for a man of intellect and literary allusions, a serious misjudgment. Even the structure with the constant flashbacks is unhelpful but the central tale of the young girl out for money and fun and men, leaves the central male and intended saviour looking more like a misguided young fool. The final scenes in the desert are as if from another movie with beautifully shot skies and lines of escaped but doomed Jewish refugees. Almost dreamlike the finale has a surreal quality to it and as the inevitable ending looms so the swirling sands seem destined to envelope both our so called hero and heroine.

I have seen this film a long time ago, perhaps in 1958 at Prague Film School (FAMU). It still haunts me, unlike many, many other entirely forgettable "movies", I would love to have a copy. The film has an essence of what my generation lived, what my children have forgotten, and what we are powerless to remind them of.

"Manon" might well be Clouzot's masterpiece ,surpassing even "diabolique " " le salaire de la peur" or "le corbeau".

It's an adaptation of "l'histoire de Manon Lescault et du chevalier des Grieux" by L'Abbé Prévost, a novel from the XVIIIth century ,but never mind.When HGC Clouzot takes a novel,he makes it his very own .He would do the same for detective story " celle qui n'était plus " which he completely rewrote for "les diaboliques"

Clouzot's misanthropy has never been so omnipresent that in this opus.He became an outcast after the liberation in 1945 because of his "collaboration" -"le corbeau " was produced by a German firm-and one cannot help but think that his painting of the end of WW2 seems a settling of scores:the cropped women -they say it happened to the star of "le corbeau " Ginette Leclerc who had a lot of problems too-,the black market ,the war profiteers ,no one is spared in this wholesale massacre.Serge Regianni epitomizes the scumbag ,in a part which sometimes recalls that of Carné's "les portes de la nuit".But evil is not only inside him,it's everywhere :Clouzot's world is noir ,noir ,noir and leaves absolutely no hope to the audience .

And however the way he films his lovers is stunning:on the ship, Manon under the pouring rain,trying to spend her last hours with Robert;Manon ,in the confessional,in a church in ruins ,explaining to Robert she did not do any harm to anyone and that, had the American come first ,she would not have played around with the Germans ;the first night of love where the lovers become shadows in the dark;Robert finding Manon in a brothel;Manon desperately searching for her lover in the overcrowded carriage ;and mainly mainly the extraordinary final scenes the romanticism of which surpassing even the frenzied passion of "Colorado territory" or "duel in the sun".Actually ,Clouzot's extravaganza is not unlike Von Stroheim's "greed" 's madness.

The male lead ,Michel Auclair,is absolutely extraordinary :the last ten minutes are his and he 's so moving that he carries these sequences in the desert single -handedly as much as he carries Manon' s dead body.But Clouzot's directing will leave you on the edge of your seat as well:the long walk under a blistering sun ,the cactuses which become ghosts from the past ,Robert burying Manon in the sand and screaming that now she's his at last.

Cécile Aubry (debut) portrays Manon . Seven years before Carroll Baker in "baby doll", she is a femme enfant -much more than a femme fatale-.She's not evil,but she lives in a hostile world and she does not want to live like her mother,she needs luxury;it's a sensitive character who feels remorse ,pain and loves Robert dearly even when she cheats on him outrageously.Her good-natured sexuality and her absence of hypocrisy predates that of Brigitte Bardot by seven years too.

Their problem is the world outside :that's why the key of the movie is the sequence in the oasis "why couldn't we stay here forever? " Manon asks.As they leave this haven of peace -the only minutes of happiness in the whole movie" ,Clouzot films their reflections in the cool clear water.And the fact that Manon and Robert are looking for a promise land in the desert in the company of Jews ,what a symbol!"paradise is too far away"she says.

The rest of the cast features some of the best actors of the era:Serge Regianni,Manon's dirty brother;Gabrielle Dorziat ,a madam ,screaming "quel bordel!" ; Helena Manson,the nurse in "le corbeau" who wants to punish the whore who sleeps with the enemy;and more and more and more..

Another permanent feature in Clouzot's work is the sordidness of the places:the crummy boarding-school of "les diaboliques" ,the seedy apartments in "quai des orfèvres" ,the poor hospital in "les espions" ,and here the ship where they pack Jews on their way to Palestine ,not to mention the desert with its animal skeletons -soon to be joined by those of the Jews-

The action of this movie is remarkably dense ,and its construction very subtle :the film begins with the illegal embarkation of the Jews ,and then ,at the least expected moment,the lovers appear for the first time and shortly afterwards tell the captain their sad story .

Did French cinema need the nouvelle vague so bad when it had a genius like Clouzot?"Manon" is an absolute must.

N.B.1.Another modern "Manon" "Manon 70" (sic) was made in the sixties with Catherine Deneuve ,but it was laughable.

2.Cécile Aubry's actress career was short-lived;in the sixties ,she moved into the -rather bland- serial for children ,the likes of "Belle et Sebastien" featuring her own son;she was very successful.