Motion Picture Review Digest (Jan-Dec 1938)

MOTION PICTURE REVIEW DIGEST 47 "[It] has all the panoply and poohbah of a Hollywood super-colossal. . . What distinguishes 'Nina Petrovna' is that Nina is Junoesque Isa Miranda, whose gaunt loveliness combines the allure of Marlene Dietrich with the expressiveness of Greta Garbo." \ Time p24 Ap 11 '38 Trade Paper Reviews "The first portion of this French production has all the makings of a sprightly, romantic farce but along toward the end dovetails into heavy drama. It is no fault of the principals that the film indulges in emotional histrionics for both Isa Miranda and Fernand Gravet, now under contract in Hollywood, perform in an admirable manner. Adults." h Boxoffice p29 Ap 23 '38 "With a top notch cast and clever direction, this new French picture ranks high among the foreigns. Well plotted story has romance, gaiety and tragedy neatly interwoven." + Film Daily p5 Ap 9 '38 + Motion Pict Daily p5 Ap 5 '38 "As a whole, the film is just a programmer for the art house." + — Phila Exhibitor pll7 Ap 15 '38 "Presence of the already familiar Fernand Gravet and Isa Miranda should help this finely produced importation. Much of the clever dialog is lost in the French tongue, despite excellent titling which retains much of the sparkle. Although average American audiences do not go for this type of romantic intrigue of strictly Continental flavor, the basic love motivation and presence of two known lookerperformers should help. It will definitely please the arty audiences." + Variety pl5 Ap 6 '38 100-105min Mr LIFE DANCES ON. AFE 25 '38 Cast: Harry Baur. Marie Bell. Pierre Blanchar. Fernandel. Louis Jouvet. Raimu. Francoise Rosay. Pierre-Richard Willm. Robert Lynen Director: Julien Duvivier Screen writers: Henri Jeanson. Jean Sarment. Bernard Zimmer French dialogue film with English subtitles. French title: Un Carnet de Bal. Voted the world's best film at the 1937 Venice Biennial Film Exposition. A middle-aged French widow finds the formal dance program of her first ball and after musing over her partners starts on a perilous quest to find out what has happened to them. Then start a series of episodes: one has become a hairdresser; one killed himself because of his love for her; one who hoped to be President of France has become mayor of a small town and husband of his cook, and one an epileptic doctor kills his shrewish mistress after the widow visits him. So the ball which was elegant in memory becomes a tawdry dance hall in a provincial town in reality. Audience Suitability Ratings "Adults." Nat Legion of Decency Ap 14 '38 Newspaper and Magazine Reviews "The statement, treatment and resolution of the idea have been brilliantly handled by Julien Duvivier, the writer-director, and the acting is of high order. Adults and mature young people." + Christian Science Monitor pl5 Ap 30 '38 "None of the incidents would be particularly memorable were it not for the characterizations that quicken them. . . In French, the dialogue is direct and the diction pure delight, but never were words worse mutilated in translation. As the story relies much more than other foreign films have usually done upon words, it is seen here at distinct disadvantage. The framework of scenario and photography are below American standards. . . As a museum piece of the French stage, 'Life Dances On' should be seen." E. V. Wyatt -1 Commonweal p692 Ap 15 '38 "Though destined, we fear, to appeal to a limited audience, there is no question but that 'Life Dances On' is one of the great films of all time — a beautiful, unforgetable, poignant, and deeply moving motion picture experience. Its disquieting theme . . . makes it a depressing picture, nostalgic, and exquisitely painful." Jesse Zunser + + Cue p38 Ap 2 '38 " 'Life Dances On' is not so much one film as seven. . . It is a foolish fable, and one would weary of it if it were the reasons for the film. Clearly it is but a device whereby seven French stars can be exhibited in a row, each of them in the orbit of his familiar style. The stars as such are brilliant, for they are the best French actors, and they have been presented with an appropriate variety. . . They are without exception brilliant, these stars, and the fragments of sky which they adorn are among the things most worth going to any theater and seeing. . . M. Duvivier may wish to. try it again; in which case I hope he can persuade his seven headliners to collaborate in the telling of a single credible tale." Mark Van Doren H Nation p421 Ap 9 '38 "[It] has more acting talent under one roof than you can remember. Julien Duvivier's problem in writing and direction was how to make so many sound character studies into something more than a French 'Big Broadcast of 1938'; and his story is more an ingenuity than any solution in film terms. . . It is a book of short stories for the screen, some of them unusually fine." Otis Ferguson New Repub p333 Ap 20 '3S "There have been no exaggerations in the advance reports that 'Life Dances On' was not only one of the finest films ever made in France, but a truly great motion picture. Not since 'La Kermesse Heroique' came to town, have local film-goers been privileged to see a screen work from abroad of such breadth, power and exquisite artistry as the new offering. . . It affords one of those rare emotional experiences which fortify one's faith in the screen, in spite of all the cinema's banalities." Howard Barnes + + N Y Herald Tribune p8 Mr 26 '38 "I have a slight, mean suspicion that, for all its triumphs abroad, this movie won't enjoy quite the general success in town that 'Mayerling' has had. There is just a point or two where it wanders beyond our simple experience of living, and seems strange or unreal just when it is meant to be most actual and plausible." John Mosher New Yorker p64 Ap 2 '38 "[It is] an episodic narrative which, if it has its defects, offers an actors' field day to some of France's greatest stage and screen stars. . . For its superb acting alone, this film will appeal to even casual movie-goers." + -f Newsweek p24 Ap 4 '38 "It is a sordid, unwholesome legend, with spots of brilliant, cynical humor to liven it, and fine etching of character by each of the lost partners. As a dramatic whole, though, the picture has a cheap, theatrical quality that makes it seem more a cinema paste-up job than a panorama of life. . . Tawdry as a story; superb as an exhibition of histrionic technique." -j Stage p50 My '38 "[It] is as expertly designed and executed a piece of dramatic tapestry as the cinema has woven in many a year. . . The result, satisfying to the last photographic and histrionic detail, richly deserves the prize it won abroad." + + Time p29 Ap 4 '38 Trade Paper Reviews "A truly magnificent film — comparable to some of the best this or any country has ever produced — this needs the intelligent selling of respectful showmen. That it is done in French detracts not a whit from its appeal to all classes. Family." + + Boxoffice p29 Ap 23 '38 "Excellent picture with fine cast makes powerful entertainment for foreign fans." + + Film Daily p7 Mr 31 '38 + Motion Pict Daily plO N 12 '37 "Estimate: excellent art." + + Phila Exhibitor pll7 Ap 15 '38