Anna, a modest flower seller, is in love with Jean, a Paris taxi driver. They plan to spend the evening of the 14th of July in each other’s arms, dancing the night away at an open air ball. Unfortunately, cruel Fate has other ideas. Retuning to his lodgings, Jean is surprised and appalled to find his ex-lover Pola waiting for him. Jean’s passion for Pola has long since cooled but she, a seductive manipulator, is confident she can win him back. When Anna learns that another woman is staying in Jean’s room, she is devastated and refuses to have anything more to do with Jean. Rejected by the only woman he loves, Jean goes off with Pola and falls in with a band of petty criminals. Anna’s woes are compounded by the sudden death of her mother, her only relative. It seems that the storm clouds will never pass… —filmsdefrance.com
Born under the name of René Chomette in 1898, René Clair René Clair started life as a journalist and then turned to the cinema in 1920. At first an actor and assistant director, he started making films with Paris qui dort and Entr’acte (1924), a pearl of the surrealist cinema.
Commercial success and critical acclaim came with the brilliant farce comedy, An Italian Straw Hat (1927) followed by his famous early musical talkies, Le Million (1931) and A nous la liberté (1932). He continued his career in Hollywood during the war and came back to France to make the films of his mature years, Le Silence est d’or (1947) et Les Grandes manœuvres (1955). René Clair was elected to the Académie Française in 1960 and died in 1981. —Octuor de France
