Nez de cuir

"Nez de Cuir" is virtually forgotten in France today and it's really a pity,for it is probably Allégret's sleeper.

The black and white cinematography is dazzling :a lot of scenes take place in the forest and we really feel its atmosphere,hundred-year -old trees,brooks,where men go hunting with hounds or walk through the trees to hide their secret liaisons.When the characters venture into a dangerous place or when their suffering grows too hard ,Allégret films them in the middle of the night:Nez de Cuir helping Judith come into her mansion ,the hero in the monastery where hooded monks walk along the dark corridors.

A gentleman was disfigured during Napoleon's wars.

He does not believe in God anymore,and ,behind a mask,he multiplies his love affairs .Allégret's cynicism ,which was present in " Manèges", comes back tinged with romanticism.Jean Marais ,a thespian extraordinaire ,regains the desperate accents of "la Belle et la Bête" .

Cocteau's influence anyway hangs over the whole movie.There's something magic ,mysterious in the air:the ball where the aristocrats ,a social class which repeats its pathetic etiquette , are welcoming the "survivor" ; the meeting near the pond when Judith confesses her love to the hero;the dark bedroom where the doctor (Massimo Girotti) treats him ("It's only your face!You can walk ,ride a horse,me,says the doctor,War made me an eunuch!) Hunting with hounds becomes a transparent metaphor.Once a triumphant man who would seduce every woman in sight ,the hero was caught out at his own game like the deer tracked down by the dogs in the river.The score during the cast and credits is a fanfare of hunting horns.

Recommended.