Talking to a fellow IMdber on the Classic Film board about movies made during the Occupation of France,I got told about an excellent sounding title written by auteur film maker Jean Cocteau that I have never heard of before.Deciding to watch 5 French films related to the Occupation era,I decided to find out if this is burning an eternal flame.

View on the film:

Accused at the time of germanophilia,director Jean Delannoy & cinematographer Roger Hubert give Nathalie la blonde (talk about a subtle last name!) and Patrice an almost alien appearance,due to Delannoy and Hubert covering Nathalie and Patrice in an elegant light,which whilst originally seen as giving them a "pure"/Aryan look,actually show Nathalie & Patrice's love to be a fairy tale romance.

Contrasting the ultra-stylised appearance of the lovers,Delannoy give Patrice's household a murky,gritty atmosphere,with Delannoy keeping any bright lights to a minimum,which allows for the dark,deceitful shadows of the Frossin's world to be revealed,as Delannoy shows the darkness from the Frossin's slowly "poison" Nathalie and Patrice fairy tale world.

Bringing the Tristan and Isolde legend to Vichy France,the screenplay by Jean Cocteau takes a sly allegorical shot,with Nathalie and Patrice households being shown on two different islands,with one being wealthy and prosperous,whilst the other has almost returned to the Medieval ages.

Keeping away from focusing too much on the allegorical elements,Cocteau keeps modern machinery to its lowest possible levels (such as people having cars,but no phones at all) in order to tell a fantastic fairy tale,with Cocteau delicately building a real sense of love between Nathalie & Patrice,which the Frossin household tries to tear away from reaching its happy ending.

Running across the screen like Satan's little helper, Piéral gives a wickedly evil performance as Achille Frossin,with Piéral stealing every scene he is in with a wide devilish smirk which contains a deadly relish,as Achille sets his sights on turning Patrice & Nathalie's love into a doomed romance.

Blocking their love, Jean Murat gives a great performance as Marc,who Murat shows has an initially playfulness towards Patrice,which slowly turns into an uncompromising sternness,as Marc finds himself having to force Nathalie and Patrice love apart.

Looking absolutely radiant, Madeleine Sologne gives an extraordinary performance as Nathalie la blonde.Being separated from Patrice,Sologne gives Nathalie a raw vulnerability ,by covering her face with a naked soulfulness that perfectly shows the sorrow that Nathalie is carrying for her love.

Aching to see his love again, Jean Marais gives a brilliant performance as Patrice which balances the light fairy tale atmosphere with the allegorical undertones,thanks to Marais giving Patrice a real passion in his voice,whilst turning his face into a "pure" shell,which finally cracks as the film shows Patrice & Nathalie la blonde love to enter an eternal return.

If I put my mind to it I could probably get a reasonable Term Paper out of poets during the Occupation but on the other hand I wouldn't want to put the Academic-Pseud axis out of work. What brought this on, you ask. Well you might. Fact is I've just watched Jean Delannoy's L'Eternal Retour for the first time and was struck by the resemblance to Marcel Carne's Les Visiteurs du soir which was released one year earlier in 1942. Both films were written by poets (although Jean Cocteau was a poet more in his mind than mine whilst Jacques Prevert was the real McCoy. Prevert ended Les Visiteurs du soir with a stunning poetic image; the Devil, slightly miffed that the envoys he sent to earth to screw up the mortals plans had actually fallen for the mortals in question, duly petrified two of the lovers but as we gaze on the two statues we hear their hearts continuing to beat. Cocteau, being a lesser poet, settles for a more pedestrian ending leaving the two lovers lying side by side a la Romeo and Julient and, just in case we don't get it, having the husband of the woman intone solemnly 'now no one can come between them'. Although he didn't direct his take of Tristan and Isolde Cocteau ensured that the lead went to his life-long lover Jean Marais, a graduate of the Forestry Commission School of Acting and perhaps for his own pleasure he has Marais 'pose' a couple of times for no apparent reason. By coincidence Carne was himself homosexual as were Cocteau and Marais, which has no bearing on either film yet you can see how that old Academic-Pseud axis would be standing in line to book sabbaticals and write this up. Delannoy was a pretty good filmmaker as it happens and the records show that this was one of the most popular films released during the Occupation. I have no quarrel with that and I'm pleased to have finally seen it.

This movie was written by Jean Cocteau and it's pretty obvious due to the odd plot twists, romantic tone and mythological roots to the plot. Just a few years later, he was to BOTH write and direct Beauty and the Beast and Orpheus. These two are better films than The Eternal Return, though this movie is still worth watching--particularly as it shows and evolution of Cocteau's ideas. So, this movie is sort of like and unpolished version of these two later movies in many ways--particularly Orpheus. Absent from this film are the odd camera tricks but the story elements are all here.

The love between the two main characters is best described as a combination of the tragic stories of Orpheus and Eurydice along with Romeo and Juliet, but I have recently been informed that the story is ACTUALLY a reworking of the story of Tristan and Isolde. Thrown in for good measure are a malevolent dwarf, the dwarf's detestable parents and a lot of cool plot twists.

However, there were a few things that just didn't work out well in the movie. First, when it was obvious that the crazed dwarf had tried to kill the lovers by offering them what he thought was poison, nothing was done to punish him or place him in an institute for the criminally insane. This is pretty prudent considering what the dwarf does LATER in the story! Second, I hate movies that feature ladies fainting. Unless there is a blow to the head or they've gone without eating for a very extended period of time, people DON'T just faint. This is such a stupid cliché and I'm a little surprised that anyone as innovative and intelligent as Cocteau would resort to this device.

Other than that, it's a nice film.

FYI--An IMPORTANT warning: The video I watched was from The International Collection from Nelson Entertainment. If there are any OTHER companies that make this video, try them first!!!! The captioning was absolutely horrible!! Often, much of the dialog was not subtitled or very long statements were boiled down to one or two words!!! They showed very little respect for the integrity of the movie!