The Light Across the Street (1955)

The Light Across the Street (1955). 1h 40m

“Georges Lacombe u0026#39;s most famous works are certainly u0026quot;le dernier des sixu0026quot; (1941)which owes a lot to HG Clouzot,u0026quot;Martin Roumagnacu0026quot; where Gabin teamed with Marlene Dietrich -but as a seed merchant ,she was miscast!- and u0026quot;le pays sans étoile which has become very hard to see.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026quot;La lumière du0026#39;en faceu0026#39; is one of these little gems which should not be missed.Crazy it certainly is ,as the precedent user says ,but not crazier than u0026quot;the postman always rings twiceu0026quot; which it sometimes recalls.Brigitte Bardot and her impotent(!)husband run a small restaurant:across the road,two men run a gas station.Most of the time,and because of a diversion/detour,this quartet is on his own.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eMore than Roger Vadim and his mediocre u0026quot; et Dieu créa la femmeu0026quot; itu0026#39;s actually Georges Lacombe who revealed Brigitte Bardotu0026#39;s sensuality and intense erotic potential.BB brought a new form of erotism,with her spontaneity,her absence of hypocrisy and she managed to stay very natural because of Lacombeu0026#39;s excellent direction.Things were to get wrong afterwards with Vadimu0026#39;s disastrous turkeys.But it emrged again,notably in HG Clouzotu0026#39;s u0026quot;la véritéu0026quot; and Louis Malleu0026#39;s u0026quot;vie privéeu0026quot; and u0026quot;Viva Mariau0026quot;.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe film has a very good male cast too.Raymond Pellegrin -who was the hero of the first (and best ) version of u0026quot;Manon des sourcesu0026quot;- ,in a thankless part ,plays a neurotic man eaten with desire,sometimes recalling Van Heflin;Roger Pigault plays the handsome gas station man who of course covets the wife.But more than the story ,itu0026#39;s the atmosphere that matters :a sultry place,with the insects noise and four human beings about to explode.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe movie has a prologue and an epilogue which are downright embarrassing:it was obviously intended to lecture,to edify the audience .It was probably imposed on Lacombe by his producers for fear the censorship may be infuriated ,because this is a rather risky movie.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSPOILER: If we forget these ridiculous u0026quot;warnings u0026quot; which frame the movie,the first sequence shows Pellegrinu0026#39;s shadow on the wall :heu0026#39;s got a gun and heu0026#39;s about to fire.Then a long flashback .Then a stunning finale during which Pellegrin goes off his nut.It was intended to be an absolute film noir.”