Joaquim da Silva Fontes, Significação e Estabilidade do Género no ...

or an enemy their own versions of the colourful repartees and tender sentiments
Henri Jeanson had written so “naturally” for the cast. (Andrew 1995:5)
Marcel Carné’s films present a very personal version of film realism, even though
he never appreciated the term “Poetic Realism”. To him, his films constitute an
interpretation of the reality of his time, that is, he was well aware of a certain melodramatic
foundation to the realism in his films, he adapted his stories to show how much any
ordinary citizen of that period could feel trapped in depressingly squalid situations and end
up being subjugated by the social forces that condition their final expectation for
happiness. All the elements mentioned above are epochal of films made in France, and
they stand as hallmarks of a style. I believe that what made them so popular was the blend
they made with the music of the time (the well-known chanson réaliste made famous by
Edith Piaf or Damia), the dark narratives set in criminal contexts, and the authentic settings
involving working-class lives. These elements made these films realistic, not using the
conventional happy endings or rustic scenarios but rather evoking a world-weary attitude
and a balance between a sort of lyricism and the realism of the settings. In this regard,
André Bazin comments that Le Jour se Lève owes much to Carné’s ability to be faithful to
its décor:
Le décor de [Alexandre] Trauner contribue pour sa part, non seulement à la
compréhension du drame, mais plus encore à sa constitution. Comme Le Jour se
lève serait impensable sans la musique, le drame se viderait de toute crédibilité sans
le décor qui l'authentifie. (...) Le réalisme de Carné sait, tout en restant
minutieusement fidèle à la vraisemblance de son décor, le transposer poétiquement,
non pas en le modifiant par une transposition formelle et picturale comme le fit
l'expressionnisme allemand, mais en dégageant sa poésie immanente, en le
contraignant à révéler de secrets accords avec le drame. C'est en ce sens qu'on peut
parler du « réalisme poétique » de Marcel Carné, très différent du « néo-réalisme »
de l'après-guerre. En dépouillant presque totalement l'expressionnisme de ses
recours à des transpositions visibles du décor, Carné a su en intérioriser
intégralement l'enseignement poétique. (...) La perfection du Le Jour se lève, c'est
que la symbolique n'y précède jamais le réalisme, mais qu'elle l'accomplit comme
par surcroît. 34
34
Excerpt by André Bazin taken from Ciné-Club magazine, dated December 1949, and made available at
www.marcel-carne.com:
[Alexandre] Trauner’s décor itself contributes not only to the understanding of the drama, but even more to
its constitution. Le Jour se Lève would be unthinkable without the music, the drama would be emptied of any
credibility without the décor which authenticates it. (...) The realism of Carné, while thoroughly remaining
faithful to its décor likelihood, knows how to transpose it poetically, not by modifying it through a formal
and pictorial transposition as the German Expressionism did, but by releasing its poetry, by forcing it to
reveal secret agreements with the drama. It is in this sense that one can speak about the “poetic realism” of
Marcel Carné, very different from the “neo-realism” of the post-war period. By stripping almost completely
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