Frequently Bought Together
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Reviews
Product Description
A marvellous rediscovery from the golden age of French cinema, Jacques Feyder's Le Grand jeu is a tragic doppelgänger romance, steered by the fate of the tarot card, and set against the dizzying exoticism of 1930s Morocco. When scandalous Parisian playboy Pierre Martel is forced by his family to leave France and his adored lover Florence (Marie Bell), he begins a new life in the Foreign Legion as Pierre Muller. Drowning his regrets in camaraderie, whores, and hell-raising, he is astonished at meeting Irma (also Marie Bell), a prostitute with an uncanny resemblance to his beloved, and begins a fitful scheme to allow her escape. An early benchmark of poetic realism and a fascinating precursor to both Duvivier's Pépé le Mokoand Hitchcock's Vertigo, Feyder's fluid, masterful storytelling make this a unique classic of the screen: vividly forceful yet subtle, acutely observed yet fantastic, world-weary yet tender. SPECIAL FEATURES: - Beautiful digital transfer, officially licensed from Pathé s film restoration - New English subtitle translation - PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by French cinema scholar Ginette Vincendeau, newly translated writings by Feyder, reminiscences by his collaborators and production stills
Product Description
United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: LANGUAGES: French ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), English ( Subtitles ), SPECIAL FEATURES: Black & White, Booklet, Interactive Menu, Remastered, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: A marvellous rediscovery from the golden age of French cinema, Jacques Feyder's Le Grand jeu is a tragic doppelgänger romance, steered by the fate of the tarot card, and set against the dizzying exoticism of 1930s Morocco. When scandalous Parisian playboy Pierre Martel is forced by his family to leave France and his adored lover Florence (Marie Bell), he begins a new life in the Foreign Legion as Pierre Muller. Drowning his regrets in camaraderie, whores, and hell-raising, he is astonished at meeting Irma (also Marie Bell), a prostitute with an uncanny resemblance to his beloved, and begins a fitful scheme to allow her escape. An early benchmark of poetic realism and a fascinating precursor to both Duvivier's Pépé le Mokoand Hitchcock's Vertigo, Feyder's fluid, masterful storytelling make this a unique classic of the screen: vividly forceful yet subtle, acutely observed yet fantastic, world-weary yet tender. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Venice Film Festival, ...Le grand jeu
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By schumann_bg
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:DVD
Le Grand Jeu is a highly atmospheric 1934 film that really leaves a mark. It conveys the heat of Morocco in wonderfully fluid cinematography, and brings an intimate feel to material that was usually treated with more distance; in a sense it seems more intimate than, say, Casablanca, more improvised in its stitching together of the scenes. The camera often glides into the frame in a very striking way, and visually the film is superb, with all sorts of unexpected shots and interludes, including one of the most playful scenes with a dog under a grand piano that I have seen on film! The story fascinates with its parallel with the much later Vertigo; here the symmetries are woven around the double character like beautiful, sad arabesques. The lead actress, Marie Bell, gives a brilliant performance - it's hard to believe it's the same actress playing both parts - but it is the director's wife, Francoise Rosay, who perhaps makes the deepest impression as the card-reader who sees and feels everything from the captivity of her own life. She has a wonderful lucidity and soulfulness in her face ... These readings are what gives the film its title and are quite brilliantly filmed and acted, ultimately almost goose bump-inducing in the way they draw together fate and emotion. Another key aspect of the film is Hans Eisler's fantastic score, all ambiguous wind marches whose German worker association is set fascinatingly in the North African context of the Foreign Legion with the threat of Nazism looming at the end. The atmosphere of the whole film seems to capture the sense of foreboding of that decade, with characters caught both by society and the intractability of their own emotions.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By Mr. P. Baker
Format:DVD
This is a fabulous old movie, available now in a remastered version for the first time in many years. Very atmospheric b/w filming takes place in colonial Morocco and art deco Paris. A real treat from Films de France in one of their first 'talkie' productions.
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
