This medieval parable about evil’s attempt to destroy love on Earth refers to the present, to the plight of Occupied France. Jacques Prévert, who co-wrote the script, intended the Devil as a stand-in for Hitler. Director Marcel Carné’s use of the past enabled him to get this film past Vichy censors. Les visiteurs du soir—literally, […]
Daily Archives: June 18, 2008
Vincente Minnelli’s glorious The Band Wagon is about preparations for a Broadway show. At least four of its characters refer to actual celebrities: Tony Hunter, a dancer back onstage following a long hiatus in Hollywood, suggests the actor who plays him brilliantly, Fred Astaire; Lily and Les Marton, who have written for Hunter a musical-comedy […]
Rejuvenation is the jubilant outcome of My Voice, a satirical musical-comedy from Guinea-Bissau and a trio of European countries. Vita’s initiative, after she finds her voice (where else?—in Paris), leads the port city of Bissau to this unexpected outcome. Flora Gomes, who studied filmmaking in Cuba, had made The Blue Eyes of Yonta (1992), whose […]
Dennis Grunes 