Marie-Martine (1943)

Marie-Martine: Directed by Albert Valentin. With Renée Saint-Cyr, Jules Berry, Saturnin Fabre, Bernard Blier. The story of Marie-Martine ,told backwards.

“This film has been called a masterpiece by none other than Jean Tulard, so I watched it with a great deal of expectation: I found some wonderful performances and an assurance from the director Valentin in the way he handled the scrambling of plot elements. It isnu0026#39;t an easy film to watch, even for modern audiences accustomed to Memento and Amores Perros, since the charactersu0026#39; motivations shift in the minds of the audience.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eJean Debucourt as the father of the spurned girl is excellent (heu0026#39;s ready to falsify evidence to exculpate his daughter). Bernard Blier still had hair in 1942 and heu0026#39;s good as the young idealist in love with Marie-Martine. Saturnin Fabre plays Blieru0026#39;s uncle and has some wonderful lines about candles, as dbdumonteil noted. Jeanne Fusier-Gir as the chubby bookseller interested in erotica provides some fun. Only Renee Saint-Cyr as the unlucky heroine acts badly–I couldnu0026#39;t decide whether it was her fault or that of the scriptwriter. That was the only sour note of the viewing.”