Ranked.

1. Drôle de drame ou L’étrange aventure de Docteur Molyneux/Bizarre, Bizarre (1937)

2. Thérèse Raquin (1953)
3. Hôtel du Nord (1938) Round One: Directors’ Cup
4. Jenny (1936) Round Two: Directors’ Cup
5. Le Quai des brumes/Port of Shadows (1938) Round Three: Directors’ Cup
6. Les Tricheurs / The Cheaters
6. Les visiteurs du soir/The Devil’s Envoys (1942)
7. Les Enfants du paradis/Children of Paradise (1945)
8. Terrain vague (1960)
9. Air de Paris/Air of Paris (1954)
10. Le Jour se lève/Daybreak (1939)
11. Les Assassins de l’ordre (1971) not in database
12. La Merveilleuse visite (1974) not in database

To see:
Juliette ou La clef des songes (1951)

Director Introduction

Marcel Carné was born August 18, 1906. He got his start as a film critic and a director’s assistant to Jacques Feyder and René Clair. His first film was entitled Jenny. The WIKI article states that he took this film over from Alexander Korda. The film is beautiful and explores the relationship of a mother and daughter who have been separated long enough to have no idea what is going on in each other’s lives.

He continued his career with Drole de Drame a.k.a. Bizarre, Bizarre which is my personal favorite, only by a small margin. He was quite adept and directed many great films. The film takes place in England, but is in French. That in itself is “bizarre”, but it is extremely hysterical and highly recommended.

In 1938, he directed Le Quai des brumes a.k.a. Port of Shadows. Strangely, Godard’s ending to A bout de souffle a.k.a. Breathless is quite similar. Almost too similar. The moodiness of this film makes it a hidden classic. However, it has a great Criterion release and is sometimes shown on TCM.

Next came Hôtel du Nord, a masterpiece. There are multiple characters and I find it to be charming, albeit sinister.

Most people enjoy Le Jour se lève aka Daybreak. Although, while Le Quai des brumes was a film that Godard most likely lifted from, I found Daybreak a little too similar to a Fritz Lang movie called Fury (1936) and came out three years later in 1939.

Les Enfants du paradis a.k.a Children of Paradise came out in 1945. It was anti-Nazi and is perhaps his most famous and well-loved film. Fast-forward to 1953, when his film Thérèse Raquin was released: a beautiful and intense thriller.

As Wiki states, he was gay. He did not hide his sexuality or flaunt it either. His partner was Roland Lesaffre, an actor who appeared in many of his films. He explored the sexuality issue in a couple of his films (mainly L’Air de Paris and Les Tricheurs), but was ambiguous about it.

Carné died the 31st of October in 1996.

WIKI
IMDB

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