Michel Deville
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domino harvey
- Dot Com Dom
- Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 6:42 pm
Re: Michel Deville
Just discovered that Andrew Sarris named Le dossier 51 as the second best film of 1978 in his year end list. Granted, number three was California Suite, so, I don’t know how much weight you want to give this endorsement…
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domino harvey
- Dot Com Dom
- Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 6:42 pm
Re: Michel Deville
The film is alas still functionally lost, but here's two pieces of music from Deville's Zärtliche Haie: "Tausend Sterne" and "Anna Karina"
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Calvin
- Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 3:12 pm
Re: Michel Deville
According to a poster on the other forum, Gaumont are prepping a Blu-Ray release of La Petite Bande
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domino harvey
- Dot Com Dom
- Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 6:42 pm
Re: Michel Deville
Excellent! As a reminder, this film needs no subs, so it’s safe to import, and will immediately be the best Deville film available in an English friendly release. If you want to start understanding the hype, this is a great chance to dive in
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domino harvey
- Dot Com Dom
- Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 6:42 pm
Re: Michel Deville
Learned from Fouchet’s book on the MacMahonists that their favorite New Wave director was Deville and that Deville in kind produced one of the first shorts directed by the staff of Presence du cinema. Literally never heard this come up once in discussion/veneration of this critical bloc, the whole universe is just dead set on keeping Deville a secret these days
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TechnicolorAcid
- Joined: Wed Oct 11, 2023 11:43 pm
Re: Michel Deville
Just getting into Deville and I figured I'd give some quick little thoughts on them as I go through them:
The Bear and the Doll is exactly as wonderful as people have been hyping it up to be. Obvious thing out of the way first, the core dynamic here is wonderful to watch play out as Bardot and Cassel keep sparring wits while both of them try to prove to the other person and themselves that they have the dominant hand in this dynamic even as it becomes clearer and clearer that both of them are completely losing the battle against their own emotions. Bardot is a knockout here and deserves every bit of praise, especially for how she leans into her public persona with enough warmth and prose to allow the audience to slowly develop more and more sympathy for her throughout the course of the movie. One of my favorite moments is a small one but I found the way Bardot puts on her eyeglasses strangely beautiful, as if she's allowing some vulnerability to slip in just a bit through that simple action. The supporting cast here is also wonderful with the children being one of the highlights of the picture but I also really love Xavier Gelin and Daniel Ceccaldi as Bardot's lovers, who provide a lot of the biggest laughs for me in the first half. Lastly, I really want to highlight the excellent editing of the film, especially in the beginning where Deville plays around the editing to not only establish a breezy, playful energy building up to the moment ours leads finally meet but to help connect motions or sounds that bridge these two characters' worlds, as different as they may initially seem, together. Overall, this is a wonderful romp and I hope to God that someone releases this one soon (*cough* Radiance *cough*).
From there I was recommended to continue with L'Apprenti Salaud and even with the high expectations I had for this one, I was still bowled over by it. There's a near consistently maniac energy to everything at a gag-a-second speed while still remaining grounded through it's warm, cozy central relationship between our two leading con artists and Deville's technical skills are fired off like machine guns. I know I just highlighted the use of precise edits for The Bear and the Doll but the editing here is pitch perfect, adding to the already absurd happenings as it moves through space and time with every cut slowing transforming the film into what I can only describe as Godard's Breathless on speed. I think my own maniac viewing of constantly having to look back and forth at the subtitle files and the film while a million different gags were happening, since it was the only way I was able to deal with the fact that there were no subtitles on my copy, also really accented the frantic tone of the whole film and added a lot to the whole experience. There's been a couple comparisons to Zazie dans le Metro and while this one never achieves the level of pure unadulterated insanity that Zazie does (what can?), they definitely share that same sense of pure childlike energy invading a corrupted world and breaking it down until it becomes nothing more than the farce that it is. But there really is no comparison for this one, I think the closest ones I can think of are either a less cynical version of Leonid Gaidai's adaptation of 12 Chairs or a more madcap reconstruction of Paper Moon but this one really is it's own beast and it just baffles me how this doesn't even a total Letterboxd view count surpassing 100 (per the moment of me writing this of course). If anyone is reading this and has an hour and a half to spare, please send it watching this.
Next up was Une balle dans le canon and my streak of Deville masterpieces has ended because while this is definitely not bad, in fact in a lot of ways it's a very competent and perfectly acceptable film, its strengths lie more with the bits of Deville's strengths that begin to emerge rather than the otherwise predictable noir story structure. The opening is probably one of the stronger moments to me simply because of how funny the bouncy jazz music contrasts so excellently with these two characters just patiently waiting for their buddy to come back and I just wish there more moments with that kind of dry humor because when they do pop up, they're wonderful. But that's not to say there isn't other things I liked about the movie, Deville and co-director Charles Gerard, whose career of noirs and spy films leads me to believe this was his film more than Deville's, bring a good amount of energy to the material and the pacing here is fast & quick with barely a second going by without something interesting happening. Plus, the acting and cinematography here is also pretty good, especially for what I can only assume was a cheap, low-budget noir. But ultimately, if you're doing a Deville marathon like me, then my best advice is not to place this as a priority, especially when you could be using that time to find subbed versions of his other films (watch this one be the film that gets a high quality boutique blu-ray).
Ce soir ou jamais is probably the biggest surprise to me out of my watches so far because in the wrong hands this could easily become a very tiring and pretentious look at interpersonal backstage drama. But it doesn't and a major reason why is because Deville makes the audience a part of the story itself and making us feel welcome into this environment, gliding us through the action or positioning the camera in a way where we feel like we're right next to his wonderful cast of characters (at points even putting us in the POVs of the characters themselves) and in turn, Deville then seems to commenting on the nature of performance and how we can see ourselves in a character through him literally putting us into the characters' heads. I think the nature of performance and how people use it here also makes this an interesting double feature to L'Apprenti Salaud; both very much interested in how people use their acts to get what they want because while L'Apprenti Salaud emphasizes the fantasy of performance in its anarchic tone and Ce soir ou jamais chooses to blurs the lines between performance & reality as the actors in the film find themselves wrapped up in what is essentially a comedy of errors type situation, the use of the facades in both films are often paired with a sense of control and power of a situation. Probably the most fascinating scene for me is Daniele's audition because slowly over the course of the scene, as it becomes clear that she isn't going to get the part, her performance beginning to give away to genuine emotion as though the artifice of her act slowly becomes stripped away from her with her ability to control the situation as she becomes subject to unexpected suggestions or moments that she didn't plan for, least of which being Karina's unanticipated woo (something that also later reveals a crack in Nicole's performance when it happens again during her audition), all wonderfully conveyed by Francoise Dorleac's show-stopping performance. I think this scene is also important because it also conveys a crucial aspect of Deville with his sense of humanization where even characters that don't even appear get treated to a sense of understanding and hints of a larger story in their lives that makes their lives feel more complete outside of the film itself and I love how some character journeys in the film are left purposefully incomplete with enough pieces still present for us to picture a complete story with what we have. Lastly, one final obvious thing out of the way, Anna Karina as Valerie and Claude Rich as Laurent are just so excellent as the film's leading duo and easily the standouts in an already stellar lineup of performances, adding a great sense of emotion to what is otherwise a very French take on the screwball film; the look Laurent gives as Valerie heads upstairs with Guillaume is seared into my brain now, such an excellent piece of acting in such an excellent film.
Adorable Menteuse enters predictable patterns of a Deville film (or as predictable as a Deville film can be) but it has just such an excellent sense of pure and genuine fun that I could easily find myself wanting a two or three hour cut of this but I think the value of Deville, as has already been firmly established is his sense of precision, finding just the right amount of time to dwell on a moment before immediately jumping to the next. Starting off like a less slightly less anarchic version of Daisies before jumping into a delightful romp in the picnic to delving into everything from a spy film to a musical for a scene. Once again, Deville's actors are pitch perfect, Marina Vlady perfectly balancing the dramatic and comedic sides of her character while Macha Meril as her sister (who marks the third Godard actor to appear in a Deville film before Godard got to them and I think fourth overall in Godard's casts) is just wonderful to watch on screen. Of course, shoutouts to all the supporting roles here, chief among them being Michel Vitold as Antonie who strangely reminded me a lot of Charles Boyer in Cluny Brown here. Ultimately, I just really liked this one and I really wish that I could get ahold of a copy that's better than the 480p resolution I saw it with. I always thought that Deville was someone who's value would be overhyped because of how hard his films are to find but I think these 5 show that he not only had a lot of talent but was also just an excellent craftsman who could adapt to any setup, be it a romantic comedy or a noir, and bring his own idiosyncratic touches to them that elevate and subvert the material to new height (HOW THE FUCK HAS RADIANCE NOT RELEASED A DEVILLE TITLE YET!!!). Very excited to see where the next Devilles take me!
The Bear and the Doll is exactly as wonderful as people have been hyping it up to be. Obvious thing out of the way first, the core dynamic here is wonderful to watch play out as Bardot and Cassel keep sparring wits while both of them try to prove to the other person and themselves that they have the dominant hand in this dynamic even as it becomes clearer and clearer that both of them are completely losing the battle against their own emotions. Bardot is a knockout here and deserves every bit of praise, especially for how she leans into her public persona with enough warmth and prose to allow the audience to slowly develop more and more sympathy for her throughout the course of the movie. One of my favorite moments is a small one but I found the way Bardot puts on her eyeglasses strangely beautiful, as if she's allowing some vulnerability to slip in just a bit through that simple action. The supporting cast here is also wonderful with the children being one of the highlights of the picture but I also really love Xavier Gelin and Daniel Ceccaldi as Bardot's lovers, who provide a lot of the biggest laughs for me in the first half. Lastly, I really want to highlight the excellent editing of the film, especially in the beginning where Deville plays around the editing to not only establish a breezy, playful energy building up to the moment ours leads finally meet but to help connect motions or sounds that bridge these two characters' worlds, as different as they may initially seem, together. Overall, this is a wonderful romp and I hope to God that someone releases this one soon (*cough* Radiance *cough*).
From there I was recommended to continue with L'Apprenti Salaud and even with the high expectations I had for this one, I was still bowled over by it. There's a near consistently maniac energy to everything at a gag-a-second speed while still remaining grounded through it's warm, cozy central relationship between our two leading con artists and Deville's technical skills are fired off like machine guns. I know I just highlighted the use of precise edits for The Bear and the Doll but the editing here is pitch perfect, adding to the already absurd happenings as it moves through space and time with every cut slowing transforming the film into what I can only describe as Godard's Breathless on speed. I think my own maniac viewing of constantly having to look back and forth at the subtitle files and the film while a million different gags were happening, since it was the only way I was able to deal with the fact that there were no subtitles on my copy, also really accented the frantic tone of the whole film and added a lot to the whole experience. There's been a couple comparisons to Zazie dans le Metro and while this one never achieves the level of pure unadulterated insanity that Zazie does (what can?), they definitely share that same sense of pure childlike energy invading a corrupted world and breaking it down until it becomes nothing more than the farce that it is. But there really is no comparison for this one, I think the closest ones I can think of are either a less cynical version of Leonid Gaidai's adaptation of 12 Chairs or a more madcap reconstruction of Paper Moon but this one really is it's own beast and it just baffles me how this doesn't even a total Letterboxd view count surpassing 100 (per the moment of me writing this of course). If anyone is reading this and has an hour and a half to spare, please send it watching this.
Next up was Une balle dans le canon and my streak of Deville masterpieces has ended because while this is definitely not bad, in fact in a lot of ways it's a very competent and perfectly acceptable film, its strengths lie more with the bits of Deville's strengths that begin to emerge rather than the otherwise predictable noir story structure. The opening is probably one of the stronger moments to me simply because of how funny the bouncy jazz music contrasts so excellently with these two characters just patiently waiting for their buddy to come back and I just wish there more moments with that kind of dry humor because when they do pop up, they're wonderful. But that's not to say there isn't other things I liked about the movie, Deville and co-director Charles Gerard, whose career of noirs and spy films leads me to believe this was his film more than Deville's, bring a good amount of energy to the material and the pacing here is fast & quick with barely a second going by without something interesting happening. Plus, the acting and cinematography here is also pretty good, especially for what I can only assume was a cheap, low-budget noir. But ultimately, if you're doing a Deville marathon like me, then my best advice is not to place this as a priority, especially when you could be using that time to find subbed versions of his other films (watch this one be the film that gets a high quality boutique blu-ray).
Ce soir ou jamais is probably the biggest surprise to me out of my watches so far because in the wrong hands this could easily become a very tiring and pretentious look at interpersonal backstage drama. But it doesn't and a major reason why is because Deville makes the audience a part of the story itself and making us feel welcome into this environment, gliding us through the action or positioning the camera in a way where we feel like we're right next to his wonderful cast of characters (at points even putting us in the POVs of the characters themselves) and in turn, Deville then seems to commenting on the nature of performance and how we can see ourselves in a character through him literally putting us into the characters' heads. I think the nature of performance and how people use it here also makes this an interesting double feature to L'Apprenti Salaud; both very much interested in how people use their acts to get what they want because while L'Apprenti Salaud emphasizes the fantasy of performance in its anarchic tone and Ce soir ou jamais chooses to blurs the lines between performance & reality as the actors in the film find themselves wrapped up in what is essentially a comedy of errors type situation, the use of the facades in both films are often paired with a sense of control and power of a situation. Probably the most fascinating scene for me is Daniele's audition because slowly over the course of the scene, as it becomes clear that she isn't going to get the part, her performance beginning to give away to genuine emotion as though the artifice of her act slowly becomes stripped away from her with her ability to control the situation as she becomes subject to unexpected suggestions or moments that she didn't plan for, least of which being Karina's unanticipated woo (something that also later reveals a crack in Nicole's performance when it happens again during her audition), all wonderfully conveyed by Francoise Dorleac's show-stopping performance. I think this scene is also important because it also conveys a crucial aspect of Deville with his sense of humanization where even characters that don't even appear get treated to a sense of understanding and hints of a larger story in their lives that makes their lives feel more complete outside of the film itself and I love how some character journeys in the film are left purposefully incomplete with enough pieces still present for us to picture a complete story with what we have. Lastly, one final obvious thing out of the way, Anna Karina as Valerie and Claude Rich as Laurent are just so excellent as the film's leading duo and easily the standouts in an already stellar lineup of performances, adding a great sense of emotion to what is otherwise a very French take on the screwball film; the look Laurent gives as Valerie heads upstairs with Guillaume is seared into my brain now, such an excellent piece of acting in such an excellent film.
Adorable Menteuse enters predictable patterns of a Deville film (or as predictable as a Deville film can be) but it has just such an excellent sense of pure and genuine fun that I could easily find myself wanting a two or three hour cut of this but I think the value of Deville, as has already been firmly established is his sense of precision, finding just the right amount of time to dwell on a moment before immediately jumping to the next. Starting off like a less slightly less anarchic version of Daisies before jumping into a delightful romp in the picnic to delving into everything from a spy film to a musical for a scene. Once again, Deville's actors are pitch perfect, Marina Vlady perfectly balancing the dramatic and comedic sides of her character while Macha Meril as her sister (who marks the third Godard actor to appear in a Deville film before Godard got to them and I think fourth overall in Godard's casts) is just wonderful to watch on screen. Of course, shoutouts to all the supporting roles here, chief among them being Michel Vitold as Antonie who strangely reminded me a lot of Charles Boyer in Cluny Brown here. Ultimately, I just really liked this one and I really wish that I could get ahold of a copy that's better than the 480p resolution I saw it with. I always thought that Deville was someone who's value would be overhyped because of how hard his films are to find but I think these 5 show that he not only had a lot of talent but was also just an excellent craftsman who could adapt to any setup, be it a romantic comedy or a noir, and bring his own idiosyncratic touches to them that elevate and subvert the material to new height (HOW THE FUCK HAS RADIANCE NOT RELEASED A DEVILLE TITLE YET!!!). Very excited to see where the next Devilles take me!
Last edited by TechnicolorAcid on Tue Jan 13, 2026 4:23 am, edited 1 time in total.
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domino harvey
- Dot Com Dom
- Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 6:42 pm
Re: Michel Deville
Welcome to the club. I think the problem with all of these particular titles is that there’s no restoration available for Blu-ray release and no label is going to license them for a DVD release. So they’re just going to disappear completely while French movies with eight Blu-rays get new restorations funded