MANON (1949)

 

Made in 1949, this was only Henri-Georges Clouzot’s fourth film, and his second since his two year ban from filmmaking.  The film is about the doomed love affair between a young girl named Manon and a soldier named Robert in post-war France. The couple first met when Robert saves Manon from having her head shaved by a mob of women, as punishment for her “collaborating” with the Germans.  Although he saves Manon from the head shaving, Robert is still disgusted in her and with her dealings with the enemy and arrests her, explaining that she will have a fair trial for her crimes.  Manon does what she knows best and proceeds to flirt with the soldier in an attempt to be released, but Robert will have nothing of it.  However when his superior comes looking for Manon to take her away, he finds himself hiding her, claiming that he let her go.  Knowing he will be in serious trouble for this act, both Robert and Manon flee and end up falling in love.

All this is told in flashback, as the film begins aboard a boat which is smuggling Jews into Palestine.  While hiding the Jews on a lower level of the boat, the sailors come across an extra two stowaways, Manon and Robert.  The captain of the ship quickly realizes that Robert is a wanted man for murder and detains him.  However, with nothing to do until the boat docks, he listens to the lover’s sad story.

The story continues with the couple living in Paris, working low paying jobs and barely surviving.  Manon refuses to live in poverty and as such, cheats on Robert constantly with rich men in return for money or gifts.  She is still in love in Robert, but she convinces herself that this is survival, and she continues down the same path as when France was occupied by the Germans, doing the same thing now as she did back then to survive.  Initially, Robert seems to be oblivious to all of this, when one night Manon comes home with a huge ring on her finger, obviously worth more than they could ever afford.  This arouses his suspicions which only get stronger when he goes to visit Manon at her workplace one day, only to be told that she hasn’t worked there for two months.  Not knowing how Manon spends her days anymore, Robert decides to follow her (in a scene very reminiscent to one in Clouzot’s aborted project “L’Enfer”).  He follows her all the way to her new workplace – a brothel.  He is furious and wants to kill her, but ultimately his love is stronger than his hate, and the couple stays together.  However, this becomes a regular cycle in their lives with Manon cheating and Robert forgiving her, just so he doesn’t lose her, but when Manon finally decides that she has had enough and attempts to leave, it results in Robert murdering a man who is trying to detain him long enough for Manon to be able to escape.  After this brutal act, Manon actually sees this as a symbol of just how much Robert loves her and finally gives herself over to him completely, once and for all.  From here on in, the couple is doomed.

It goes without saying that Henri-Georges Clouzot is one of my favourite French directors (very close with Jean-Pierre Melville) and prior to seeing this film I had heard a lot about it, with some people claiming it to be Clouzot’s masterpiece (a bold statement of a director who has both “Les Diaboliques” and “Wages Of Fear” on his resume), so my expectations were high.  Unfortunately these expectations were not fully met, although the problem has nothing to do with Clouzot himself.  His direction, as usual, is superb, it just looks and feels like a Clouzot film, and the story of this bleak post-war world where no-one is truly innocent anymore, suits his style perfectly.  His use of shadows and strange camera angles create an amazing sense of doom, where you know that this story is not going to end happily, and it is dark to the very end.  Even the scenes of love have the over-riding feel of dread looking down upon them.  The main problem with the film is Cecile Aubrey’s performance of the title character.  She just doesn’t impress at all, as she makes the character seem a far too lightweight.  She needed to portray Manon a little stronger, especially in the scenes when she is cheating on Robert.  As mentioned earlier, Manon is engaging in these sexual acts as a way to survive, and in a sense she has to create a wall around herself and not let the real world (or emotions) in or the reality of what she is doing will break her.  This is why I feel Cecile Aubrey needed to harden up Manon in these scenes, but unfortunately she comes across very airy-fairy, and almost innocent.  Once Manon lets that wall down, and lets Robert in (as well as the rest of the world, thus sealing the couple’s fate), I feel that Aubrey’s performance is more in line with the character.  However, considering that all of the other performances around her (Michel Auclair, Serge Reggiani, etc) are so well done, it is a shame that she stands out so much.

What also stands out in “Manon”, and this time in the positive (and what may be the reason it has such a good reputation), is the amazing final ten minutes of this film, which is where Michel Auclair is giving his opportunity to shine. (BEWARE THAT FROM HERE ON, I WILL BE TALKING ABOUT THE ENDING OF “MANON” SO IF YOU WANT TO EXPERIENCE IT YOURSELF, PLEASE SKIP TO THE NEXT PARAGRAPH).  After reaching Palestine with the smuggled Jews and having to cross the desert to freedom, Manon and Robert share their only moment of happiness together when they come across an oasis, where they separate from the group and spend a quiet five minutes together.  It is such a beautiful moment and one Manon wants to last forever, however it is not to be, as they must continue their trek across the desert, which ends very quickly when they are attacked by marauding Arabs.  Through all the gunfire, while attempting to flee, Manon is hit in the back and dies.  A shattered Robert picks up his wife’s lifeless body and continues to carry it through the desert.  It is here where the film is absolutely amazing and Clouzot is at the top of his game.  The finale of “Manon definitely ranks as some of the best work he would ever do in his career.  As Robert gets more and more distressed, as well as thirsty and exhausted, he starts to see the cactuses as ghosts from his past.  It is like they are looking down on him and taunting him.  He eventually starts to imagine that his wife’s corpse is talking to him, which is both so romantic and heartbreaking.  Eventually, he faces facts and realizes that he cannot go on and survive while carrying Manon on his back, and he decides to bury her.  The way that Clouzot shoots this scene is so gorgeous and emotional, as Robert cannot bring himself to cover her face.  The image of Cecile Aubrey totally buried in the sand, with the exception of her face, is forever burned into my brain, it is such a stunning and beautiful image.  It is also at this moment that Robert realizes that this is the only time that he has had Manon to himself.  It is the perfect finale to this tale.

As I mentioned earlier, this was Clouzot’s second film since he was banned for making films for two years.  The reason behind this ban, was because of his “collaboration” with the Germans, when he made the film “Le Corbeau” which was funded by a German company during the time of the occupation.  It appears that because of his own persecutions, “Manon” is a very personal film to Clouzot and he wanted to show the world how during and after the war, no-one is innocent.  Overall, while I did not love this film, I did like it and as is the norm with Clouzot’s films, it is expertly put together.  The end of “Manon” is one of his greatest achievements and it is a shame that I didn’t feel the same about the film as a whole.  Still this is a Clouzot film, so it is definitely worth checking out.

3 Stars.