François vient d’assassiner Valentin. Au comble du désespoir, il s’est barricadé dans son appartement. Tandis que la police est à sa recherche, il repasse les évènements qui l’ont conduit au crime.

Received wisdom has it that film noir began with The Maltese Falcon. Yet the roots of noir stretch back even further. In late-30s France, a genre warm-up of doom and shadows was well underway. Le jour se lève is a canonic example, eking poetry from despair long before noir crossed the Atlantic.