Derrière la façade (1939) Online

The casual observer checking out this title may find it odd that the only two reviews are diametrically opposed but that casual observer probably doesn't realize that the negative review was posted by a native and resident of France, a country where it's possible to view vintage French films on TV every night of the week and the positive review (this one) was posted by a native and resident of England where it is unusual to find half a dozen vintage French films screened in a YEAR, or, to put it another way one review is the work of a jaded Frenchman, the other penned by an Englishman starved of vintage French films. Even that doesn't really cover it because to me Derriere la facade represents the 'bread-and-butter' domestic French film of the time. In other words I'm distinguishing between vintage French films that transcended the domestic market and enjoyed International success, titles like La Kermesse Heroique, Pepe Le Moko, Boudu, La Grande Illusion, Quai des Brumes, Le Jour se leve, Marius, Fanny, Cesar, La Femme du boulanger, etc (and I've confined my list to the same decade, the 1930s, as Derriere la facade) and the bulk of French films of the time which were, of course, very much like Derriere la facade, i.e. solid technical and acting credits married to run-of-the-mill plots (here, for example, the owner of an Apartment building runs out of breath and in the subsequent investigation it transpires that virtually all the tenants had something to hide). Any movie that wheels out Julien Carette inside the first five minutes can't be bad but Carette is only the hors d'ouevres for the likes of Erich Von Stroheim, Jules Berry, Gaby Morlay, Michel Simon, Gabrielle Dorziat and Marguerite Moreno. Co-writer/director Yves Mirande also had a hand in the screenplay of Un Carnet de bal, one of several masterpieces directed by Julien Duvivier, and can also be seen briefly as a tramp in this film whilst the other co-director, Georges Lacombe, went straight from this to La Musiciens du ciel, another 'bread-and-butter' effort top-lining Michele Morgan and a film I have loved since first I saw it a couple of years ago. So there you have it; two reviews, two different opinions; you (can't say 'yer', IMDb doesn't recognize it) pays your money and you take your choice.

The two meanings are displayed in the movies;everything happens behind the façade of an apartment building,and every tenant has got something to hide after the owner's murder.

What's definitely lacking is unity:it resembles Julien Duvivier's movies made up of sketches ,but without Pepe le Moko's director's genius.EVerything that made Duvivier one of the greatest names of the French cinema(strong screenplays,evil characters,film noir atmosphere) is desperately nowhere to be found here.Scene follows another ,without sustaining any dramatic progression,bringing almost all the big names of the era ,waiting for being in the front of the stage and eager to put on their usual act:Eric Von Stroheim,Michel Simon,Jules Berry,Elvire Popesco,Marguerite Moreno ,Gaby Morlay and many more do exactly what the audience is waiting for.The whodunit is devoid of interest -we do not care a little bit about the murderer's identity- and it's not offset by a solid psychological study à la Simenon because all the characters but the two cops -the human one and the hard one:for that matter,the movie was ahead of its time- hardly stay five minutes on the screen.

About Georges Lacombe ,the director:his best movies were "le dernier des six" ,which he made two years later with a big help from great director HG Clouzot who wrote the screenplay,and "Le Pays Sans Etoiles";Also worthy of investigation is "la lumière d'en face" which revealed one year before Vadim's mediocre "Et Dieu créa la femme" ,Brigitte Bardot's sensuality.