Film review: Le Jour Se Lève

Le Jour Se Lève
Director: Marcel Carné
Cert: PG Running time: 91 mins

To mark 75 years since it was released, Marcel Carné’s outright classic comes to DVD and Blu-Ray in all of its restored, uncut cinematic glory. This gorgeous essay in ‘poetic realism’ scripted by poet and screenwriter Jacques Prévost tells the story of a killer (the inimitable Jean Gabin) who’s holed up in a top-storey room with the police closing in – in fact they’re climbing the roof to get to him.

Thanks to a series of cinematically pioneering flashbacks, we discover how our hero got in this spot – he fell in love with the beautiful Françoise, a woman who was being messed around by a sleazy music hall artist. The end is a shocker and this film is well defined as a classic.

[mrb]

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