Porte des Lilas

France, Italy

1957

95 Min

Black and White

1.37:1

French

Currently 3.2/5 Stars.
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SCR René Clair, René Fallet, Jean Aurel

DP Robert Lefebvre, Albert Militon

CAST Pierre Brasseur, Georges Brassens, Henri Vidal, Dany Carrel, Raymond Bussières, Gabrielle Fontan, Amédée, Annette Poivre, Alain Bouvette, Alice Tissot, Charles Bouillaud, Bugette, Gérard Buhr, Paul Faivre, Jacques Marin, Albert Michel, Sylvain, Paul Préboist

Juju, a drunken oaf who feels the need of being important to someone—-anyone—-and his friend, an artist, are forced at gunpoint to care for a fugitive, Peirre Barbier, in Juju’s broken-down home. The urge for being needed is such in Juju that he gives up drinking and takes care of Pierre, even after he learns that Pierre has been making love to Maria, the girl Juju loves. Plans are made for Pierre’s escape, and Maria is to join him over her father’s protests. Marua steals money from her father and begs Juju to take it to Pierre. When Juju finds that Pierre plans to double-cross Maria, he kills him. Juju takes the money to his artist-friend, he tells him to return it to Maria, as coming from Pierre, so she won’t think she has been betrayed. Juju returns to drinking and being a drunk. —IMDb

Director

René Clair

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