Spiel der Erinnerung (1937)

Spiel der Erinnerung: Directed by Julien Duvivier. With Harry Baur, Marie Bell, Pierre Blanchar, Fernandel. Christine, newly widowed and consumed by the memory of a ball she attended age 16, decides to track down the men she danced with that night and discover their fates.

“Ju0026#39;adore Ce film! But u0026quot;Christineu0026quot;? Where did that come from? Iu0026#39;ve only ever known it as Un Carnet DE Bal, with Valse Gris permanently etched into my mind.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI saw it first around 1941 when I was 14, during the war, at the long lamented Academy cinema on Londonu0026#39;s Oxford Street. It turned up there periodically, along with La Femme Du Boulanger, Le Jour SE Leve, The Strange Case of David Gray (a renamed Vampyr), La Fin Du Jour, and some other prewar classics. Great stuff for a schoolboy! Previously Iu0026#39;ve had it on a censored Korean DVD (the Marseilles sequence had been removed) but now,happily,itu0026#39;s available complete as a gloriously restored Bluray. Gaumont,you have our huge thanks!u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eItu0026#39;s a magnificent film, a bit wordy perhaps here and there but theyu0026#39;re good French words. Itu0026#39;s a lasting achievement by a superb cast and crew at the top of their game.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnd with great respect letu0026#39;s give thought to Harry Baur and Robert Lynen (Duvivieru0026#39;s Poil de Carotte), both murdered by the Nazis during the occupation.”