Thu 19 Jan 2012
Movie Review: PLEINS FEUX SUR L’ASSASSIN (1961).
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews[11] Comments
PLEINS FEUX SUR L’ASSASSIN. Champs-Élysées Productions, France, 1961. English title: Spotlight on a Murderer. Pierre Brasseur, Pascale Audret, Marianne Koch, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Dany Saval, Philippe Leroy. Screenplay: Pierre Boileau & Thomas Narcejac. Director: Georges Franju.
Boileau and Narejac are to me the most recognizable names in the credits above, but truthfully I know very little about either, except for the fact they wrote the novels on which the films Diabolique and Vertigo were based. They have a long list of other credits on IMDB (here or here ) but the two mentioned will probably catch your eye right away too.
Georges Franju, the director, may be known to those who have been following the French film industry longer than I have. His most famous film may be Eyes Without a Face (1960), known in the US as The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus. I assume that if anyone knows more about him, they will tell us more in the comments. (Please do!)
As for the players themselves, I shall embarrass myself even further, and say that only the name of Dany Saval is familiar. She made one or two films in the US, but no more than that. The one that came to mind right away was Boeing Boeing, a sexy comedy from 1965 with Tony Curtis and Jerry Lewis in the two leading roles.
Moving on to the story. When an aging French aristocrat realizes that he’s dying, he hides away in small room behind a one-way mirror, the better to watch his befuddled heirs after his death. His motive is not clear, but perhaps he holds a grudge against all of them, as they cannot inherit until his body is found.
There are six or perhaps eight of them at first, their number gradually begins to dwindle, their deaths occurring in mysterious ways, perhaps of accidents or natural causes, but more likely not. Strangely enough, the police do not seem to be suspicious, as there is no investigation to speak of.
To obtain the funds they need to maintain the castle where they are now living, their plan is to produce a spectacular Son et Lumière show based on an old legend of a cuckolded husband and lord of the estate hundreds of years before.
The story line itself, as described above, is fragmented and difficult to follow. Neither the screenwriters nor the director care to give any of the players any personality. They are only players in a game. If this were all the film had to offer there is no way I could recommend it to anyone — even those who have read this far!
But the setting, the black and white photography, the atmosphere: all splendid, indeed. A spooky old castle filled with large and well-appointed rooms, staircases spiraling upward in the gloom, a sound and light show without parallel — including a suicidal fall from the highest tower at the climactic moment — hidden motives and fearful, wary eyes, that’s what I will remember, not the very basic story line — not even who the killer is, not at all.
NOTE: A short three-minute clip can be found on YouTube here.
January 20th, 2012 at 12:41 am
I like EYES WITHOUT A FACE, excellent mad scientist film. JUDEX is of interest also. The most famous name in the cast has to be Jean-Louis Trintignant, an excellent world class actor.
January 20th, 2012 at 2:40 am
Like PLEINS FEUX SUR L’ASSASSIN, JUDEX (based on a silent series) is an exercise in atmosphere and camera-work done to order.
THOMAS L’IMPOSTE, based on a Cocteau novel and set in WWI, is another fine work. His shorts, especially LA SANG DES BETES and HOTEL D’INVALIDES are well-worth seeing too.
He also co-founded the Cinematheque Française and so has a very important place in film history.
January 20th, 2012 at 10:38 am
I’m a big Boileau & Narcejac fan. Where did you see this, Steve? At a a film festival or revival movie house? I looked for it at Netflix expecting nothing but EYES WITHOUT A FACE was the only Franju movie available there. I’ve seen that and it’s one of the most remarkable French horror movies of all time. Paradoxically, beautiful and grotesque all at once. Wish I could find a DVD copy of this movie you review. Is it available for purchase through one of the indie dealers?
January 20th, 2012 at 11:03 am
JUDEX (1963) is a superb quasi-superhero movie, light-years better than the bloated Batman films. Where Lucas and Spielberg took the conventions of the old U.S. serials as the basis for RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, Franju went one better (and almost 20 years earlier) by fondly remaking Louis Feuillade’s 1916 French serial in feature form, as Roger notes.
The 1916 serial is available on DVD in the U.S. in a fine Flicker Alley restoration(and has played on TCM). Sinister Cinema offers the 1963 film on DVD; assuming it’s the same print they used for an earlier VHS release in the ’80s, the print quality probably varies from ok to eye-straining. For those with all-region DVD players, the better bet is a U.K. release from three or so years ago that paired JUDEX with a later and lesser Franju film about costumed characters, SHADOWMAN.
Both versions of JUDEX have their own charms: the 1916 serial is an astonishing time capsule of WWI-era France, and the 1963 remake cleverly digests Feuillade’s three-hour chapter play into 90 minutes, retaining the 1916 Art Nouveau setting. In some cases, Franju suddenly introduces characters who seem to come out of nowhere; the serial provides more backstory for them and introduces them less jarringly.
For those who think that running, jumping, and fighting female action characters are a modern Hollywood invention, it’s eye-opening to see that Feuillade and his leading actress Musidora used this convention nearly a century ago in the form of JUDEX’s nemesis Diana Monti. Francine Berge plays the role in the remake, wearing a black body suit that maybe provided an inspriration for Emma Peel’s body-hugging outfit on THE AVENGERS).
January 20th, 2012 at 11:53 am
I’ve never seen any Franju films. The only one easily available is EYES WITHOUT A FACE – and that is supposed to be so terrifying that I’m afraid to watch it. Grown men regularly fainted during it’s opening run…
I’ve wanted to see PLEINS FEUX SUR L’ASSASSIN, JUDEX and the others for decades. Raymond Durgnat wrote a 1967 book about Franju that is a good read. Read it back in 1972, and patiently started to wait for his films to be made available in the USA. Still waiting…
I have seen the wonderful silent serial JUDEX (1916). It is just fascinating, and so is the even better serial by Louis Feuillade, LES VAMPIRES.
JUDEX is about a noble avenger, who targets a wealthy financier who has cheated thousands of ordinary people out of their life savings. You can see how dated the plot is. Today all Wall Street financiers are noble and pure, right, and this sort of thing could never happen today.
January 20th, 2012 at 11:55 am
EYES WITHOUT A FACE is a marvellous film. I can say that even though I’ve seen it only with Swedish texts (I’m from Finland myself) and severely cut. It’s frightening, all right, but also full of surrealist beauty. Also wonderful music. It’s also the only Franju film I’ve seen, apart from some of his short documentaries, which are great (especially the slaughter-house film THE BLOOD OF ANIMALS, which makes everyone a vegetarian).
January 20th, 2012 at 1:54 pm
Some critics put EYES WITHOUT A FACE in the running for best horror film. I have my copy in the Criterion edition which also has the 1949 horror documentary, BLOOD OF THE BEASTS. As Juri says, this will make you swear off meat!
In Trenton, NJ I sometimes pass a dirty looking store called THE HOUSE OF MEAT. It always looks deserted but every now and then I see someone slink out with a bloody brown bag.
January 20th, 2012 at 3:32 pm
When EYES WITHOUT A FACE was released in 1959, it caused a sensation because one scene dramatized an operation in which the skin was peeled off a woman’s face. The film is in black and white, so the gore factor that you’d have with technicolor was minimal, but still, strong stuff for the time. I’m not sure today’s audience — which is accustomed to graphic scenes of real surgery on the cable medical channels, not to mention the extreme FX of the slasher movies — would be affected that strongly. As Juri says, it’s an excellent movie.
January 20th, 2012 at 4:42 pm
Thank you all for the wealth of information you’ve provided. I learn something from every article or review I post, and this time more than most!
I think JUDEX will be the next film by Georges Franju I will obtain and watch. I’m greatly tempted by the earlier sound version also.
I will probably pass on EYES WITHOUT A FACE but only in the sense that I won’t push myself to obtain a copy. I don’t watch many horror films, but this may prove to be the exception.
Walker mentioned Jean-Louis Trintignant as a well-known actor who might be the most famous name among those in the cast. He’s right. Checking his IMDB credits, he was in several movies I’ve seen, starting with And God Created Woman, but until now I never put a name to his face.
I meant to add a warning to that YouTube clip that the scene has little or nothing to do with the rest of the film. It’s Marianne Koch who plays the sexy vamp — she’s the one with the riding crop in the fourth image down.
My copy of the DVD came from the collector-to-collector market. I do not usually list such sources on this blog, as they often go in and out of business at a moment’s notice, but I will inquire if copies are still available. This particular film seems to have attracted more inquiries in this regard than most!
January 20th, 2012 at 5:25 pm
Walker, I would give that House of Meat a shot- quite probably, the stuff is excellent.
The Doc
June 26th, 2014 at 9:08 am
As of June 2014 the entire film is now available with English subtitles at YouTube. Act fast though — it may be deleted due to copyright infringement. The account owner has had several uploaded films removed since the start of 2014.
I watched PLEINS FEUX… but didn’t like it. Everything Steve says in his review is spot on. If style over substance is your thing in cinema this has a lot to offer. If fine acting and clearly told stories are what you prefer then I’d skip this movie. It’s confusing how the narrative is handled. Some scenes make absolutely no sense at all. The plot is very odd with a disjointed episodic structure that works against coherence. The whole thing reminded me of the incomprehensible and often nonsensical giallo movies that came out of Italy during the 1960s.