Seulement 5 "reviews"...au moins elles ont l'air bonnes
Saw it in my youth
I saw Porte des Lilas, called The Gates of Paris in English, back in 1957 - fresh out of high school fascinated with foreign films, especially of the French and Italians. Maybe because I was an awkward and romantic teenager myself, I must have related to the awkward and romantic Juju, the oafish man in love with the beautiful girl, frustrated by her mis-directed love for the deceitful but charismatic hoodlum. Clair was a wonderful filmmaker, and I have always remembered this film vividly. It was Paris and romance and danger to me.
I've seen this movie in my teens, still going to school. Enjoyed it tremendously. For the romance, the atmosphere, but above all for the appearance of Georges Brassens with his songs. And all this happened in this end of nowhere neighborhood Port Des Lilas, of all places. It was then that I started buying French records and mostly Brassens, but also Ferre, Brel etc. That scene where they climb the garden wall, I can still see that happening for my inner eye. This movie gave me a similar impression and experience as movies like Le Notti di Cabiria and La Strada. I suppose my age had something to do with that, but I long to see it again.
At the time of the movie's American release (as Gates of Paris), I had just discovered the songs of Georges Brassens, and I went to see it strictly because he was in it. The original novel was written by a close friend of his, and L'Artiste, the taciturn, solitary bard he plays, seems to have been based very much on Brassens himself. The film turned out to be a delightful, warmhearted work, holding up remarkably well on repeated viewings, and Brassens makes an excellent deadpan foil for the great Pierre Brasseur. And the songs he wrote for the film remain among the best of his classic repertoire. It's a hard movie to find these days, but I recommend it highly.
Author: writers_reign from London, England
30 July 2006
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
It was reasonable to suppose that poetic realism had had its day by 1957 but clearly Rene Clair thought otherwise and turned out a masterpiece to prove it. In some ways it is reminiscent of a pre-kitchen-sink English film of about ten years earlier called It Always Rains On Sunday; the English movie was set in the East End of London and featured as a catalyst an escaped convict. Clair's film is set in the East of Paris and features as a catalyst a convict on the run but that's where the comedy ends as Howard Dietz once wrote. If seen today It Always Rains On Sunday would be risible and embarrassing whilst Porte des Lilas WAS seen today and proved more than durable.
Its great strength is that NOTHING seems to be happening; life humdrums its way to the grave in a down-at-heel quartier, two or three people hang out in a bar, one of them strums a guitar and sings timeless songs; a convict breaks out of the slammer and holes up in the singer's house, the neighborhood bum saves his life, the daughter of the saloon-keeper falls for the gangster, he fills her heart with misplaced love and her ears with lies about a new life together requiring only the takings from the cash register to kick-start it, the bum, in love with the girl himself, kills the hood when he realizes he's merely been stringing the girl along. Life in ten reels, but WHAT life. Brilliant.
Author: msroz from United States
2 May 2013
What a beautiful movie this is! It's a shame that some New Wavers felt that they had to criticize the work of the director, Rene Clair. There is room for any movie of any school and style if it has merit and qualities that viewers appreciate. And this is the case with "Gates of Paris" which has warmth, depth, and insights into the frailties of human character.
Juju (Pierre Brasseur) is a kind of community middle-aged bum who pals around with Artist (Georges Brassens), who sings several entertaining songs that he wrote. Artist lives in a shacky place with a basement. Juju likes drink, and he drinks at the local bar whose proprietor has a young and beautiful daughter, Maria (Dany Carrel), with whom he gets along well. In fact, he is in love with her, and she is on good terms with him. They even go to a dance together.
Into this little neighborhood, often shown in dark tones, comes Pierre (Henri Vidal), who is fleeing from police. Juju is good-hearted and gets Artist to hide him in his basement. His stay is longer than expected. Vidal is a brutish, suspicious man who is out for himself. Juju is the opposite, really a Christian man. Can he smooth out Vidal's very rough edges, his readiness to do violence, or will he fail in this effort, which comes natural to him? Brassens doesn't like Vidal. Vidal eventually attracts the innocent Maria, raising many more questions, for he is a wanted man.
The acting is flawless, under Clair's direction. Ms. Carrel and Brasseur play several sequences beautifully together. The script is tight and meaningful. All the action is on sound stages that lend a degree of staginess to the movie. With a minimum of effort on the viewer's part, this negative fades into the background and is outweighed by the production design and control over the lighting.
Although I'd call this film noir, it is subtly done noir. It doesn't hit you over the head with gunplay and violence. For much of the film, the major events are internal emotions and states of mind, combined with continual suspense over the discovery of the secret hiding place of Vidal.
