While recently searching for lesser known European fairy-tale films to discover and watch, I came across this 1951 effort by French director Marcel Carne. It appeared to be a neglected film with not a lot being written about it, and relatively few people having seen it. However, just looking at the stills that I was able to find from the film, I knew that it was one that I had to see and I was fairly certain that it was going to appeal to me, as it seemed to have a visual quality that was similar to Jean Cocteau's sublime “La Belle et la Bete” (the gold star of all fairy-tale films). Whilst it took me a little while to finally track down a copy of the film to watch, I am happy to report that I was successful in my search, but did the film live up to my “fairy-tale” expectations, lets take a look, shall we?
Michel lies awake and restless in his prison cell, haunted by the memory of his lost love Juliette, when his cellmate turns to him and tells him to escape his current situation via his dreams and to find freedom within them. Soon after, Michel awakens to find the door of his cell to be wide open and the sunlight from outside bursting through, inviting him to venture beyond the boundaries of his incarceration. Michel leaves the prison in search of Juliette, and soon comes across a small village. When he asks a nearby stranger the name of the village, the man laughs and says “that is something we would all like to know”, as Michel soon discovers that all the inhabitants of this quaint town all have no memory of their past lives. As one villager states “welcome to the city of lost memories”. Determined to find Juliette, Michel asks anyone who passes by him of news of his love, but is amused to find that either they claim Juliette to be of their own (be it either their daughter, wife or something else entirely), or they are the only person to know of such a girl. He soon discovers that Juliette is in the village, and continues searching for her within a beautiful forest. Meanwhile, upon hearing that a young man is searching for a beautiful maiden, a villainous Count decides to use this information to his advantage and pretend that it is he that is the one who is looking for Juliette (for remember, Juliette herself has no memory of the man who loves her), determined to claim her love for his own self. So Michel soon finds himself in a story that involves a hero, a villain and a quest to save a beautiful heroine, that is all situated in a village filled with enchanting forests and terrifying castles; Michel has found himself in the centre of a fairy-tale It all seems like a bizarre dream, but no one can dream forever.
When it comes to the career of Marcel Carne, most people remember him for the stunning sequence of films that he made between the years of 1936 (starting with “Jenny”) and 1946 (ending with “Les Portes de la Nuit”), in collaboration with writer Jacques Prevert. Between the two of them, they essentially pioneered the “poetic realism” movement of French cinema during this time. With bonafide classics like “Port of Shadows” (1938) and “Children of Paradise” (1945) to his name, Marcel Carne was once considered one of the great directors of French cinema, however his post-war output is rarely greeted with the same acclaim or reverence. “Juliette, or Key of Dreams” was the second film Carne made post-war, and personally I feel that it has been unjustly ignored in regards to the great films made by this fine director.
Interestingly, the way that “Juliette, or Key of Dreams” opens is almost like a nod to the poetic realism films of Carne's past, as it is set very much in the real world, with Michel (who is very obviously a proletariat worker) set for a future that appears dark and depressing. Visually, it is the same too, with the cell that he lives in being one with minimal light and the atmosphere within it to be one with little hope. However that all changes once Michel's cellmate tells him to escape through his dreams, as then the film becomes beautiful and bright, filled with light and space, and the anticipation of a future filled with optimism. The film looks exactly like a beautiful fairy-tale, with the depth of field quite incredible. However it is when Juliette first enters the film that you really sit up and take notice. She looks like the perfect princess, and you are instantly reminded of Belle in Cocteau's “La Belle et la Bete”. In fact the similarities between that film, and the dream segment of “Juliette, or Key of Dreams”, are hard to ignore, at least from a visual perspective. No doubt this is deliberate too, as Carne uses Henri Alekan as his cinematographer on this film, who also had the same duties on the Cocteau masterpiece. Alekan does an expert job of creating a sense of magic and whimsy via the visuals, and when the film does get a little darker, like when the figure of Bluebeard is introduced to the story, he finds interesting angles to shot from and uses shadows to give the picture a menace that didn't exist prior. I should also mention, that Alekan does an excellent job at differentiating between the scenes set in reality and those in the dreamworld. The real world scenes are all lit very darkly, and give a feeling of hopelessness and oppression; the complete opposite feeling that we feel in the fairy-tale dream.
What I loved so much about “Juliette, or Key of Dreams” is the imagination of it all especially during the scenes set in the City of Lost Memories. Because everyone in the village has no memories of their own, they will do anything to possess someone else's memories and claim them as theirs. The first instance of this is actually when Michel is walking past a woman and she exclaims “so you finally come home then!”, to which he replies “you are mistaken madam, this is my first time here”, and she follows up with “oh, I guess you aren't my husband then”. When Michel asks if anyone knows where Juliette is, the name of the girl starts a pandemic of false memories amongst the villagers with one person claiming she is his daughter, another his wife, whilst another says she is a name on a tombstone he visits daily, whilst another still claims it is a variety of rose that he sells. However what impressed me so much was the fortune teller who only tells people of their pasts (never their future), and the travelling salesman who offers souvenirs from holidays never taken, or mementos of moments that never happened, like for instance, a handkerchief stained with tears after a sad goodbye. What I found so interesting was that these characters did not care if the memory was really theirs, as long as they had a memory to hold onto, so they did not feel lost.
One thing that I should quickly mention is the fact that it is no spoiler that Michel is dreaming. It is not some third act twist where we find out that everything we have watched previous was only a dream, rather Carne sets it up right from the beginning so the viewer is not left confused that what is going on during the fairy-tale is anything but real. That said, the fairy-tale leaves clues throughout it about Michel's predicament in real life. The film has an odd structure in that the first ten or so minutes are set in reality, with the following hour then in the dreamworld, before we return to reality for the final fifteen minutes. It is during these final fifteen minutes where we see the truth of Michel's situation and why he so much wants to stay in that dream. Similar to “The Wizard of Oz”, once Michel awakens, we see a number of characters from his dream wearing a different visage in real life. But it also highlights just how different Michel's dream is from his reality as the one thing he wants more than anything in his life, is impossible to get. In fact, it gets even worse than he could imagine after he has woken up, to the point that Michel will do anything to find his way back into his dream, but no one can dream forever; you eventually have to wake up and face reality head-on. I must admit that I was initially shocked by the ending of the film which, from my reading of it, was very cynical and pessimistic. After spending the majority of the film in a fairy-tale consciousness, I kind of expected a happy ending, but after consideration and contemplation after the fact, I came to the conclusion that this is the right ending for the story and that it actually works extremely well too. I also felt a little foolish in my initial shock, as if taken in the context of Marcel Carne's “poetic realism” films (which I am sure the bookends of this film are meant to resemble), there could almost be no other ending than a tragic one.
Overall, whilst this was not a “true” fairy-tale film like I was initially expecting, I ended up liking “Juliette, or Key of Dreams” a great deal. Visually the film is outstanding, and feels close to the splendour of Cocteau's “La Belle et la Bete”. Ironically, in regards to me wanting the film to be closer to a real fairy-tale, I felt the inclusion of elements from the Bluebeard fairy-tale to be a little ham-fisted and didn't work as well as if they came up with their own villain of the piece. Other than that, I found the film a delight and after some initial shock, I also liked the film's cynical ending. While not a masterpiece from director Marcel Carne, it is a film that has been unjustly ignored, and I hope it gets rediscovered in the near future, as more people really need to see this very good film.
3.5 Stars.
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