Highly Influential French Poetic Realism Film by Jacques Feyder

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in Top Hat (1935)

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in The Gay Divorcee (1934)

Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou, and Gail Patrick in Stage Door (1937)

Warner Baxter, George Brent, Lynn Browning, Bebe Daniels, June Glory, Evelyn Joice, Ruby Keeler, Guy Kibbee, Adele Lacy, Una Merkel, Ned Sparks, Alice Stombs, and Grace Tobin in 42nd Street (1933)

The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (1939)

Yûji Hori, Nobuko Otowa, and Kinuyo Tanaka in Miss Oyu (1951)

Glenda Farrell, Guy Kibbee, Barry Norton, Jean Parker, May Robson, and Warren William in Lady for a Day (1933)

Marie Bell and Pierre Richard-Willm in Le grand jeu (1934)

Françoise Rosay and Charles Vanel in Le grand jeu (1934)

Pierre Richard-Willm and Françoise Rosay in Le grand jeu (1934)

Pierre Richard-Willm in Le grand jeu (1934)

Marie Bell

Pierre Richard-Willm

Charles Vanel

Jacques Feyder

Charles Spaak

Pierre (Pierre Richard-Willm), a young lawyer, has enormous debts due to his mistress Florence (Marie Bell), and her whims of luxury life. Pierre has gone too far and put the family firm in jeopardy. They ask him to expatriate. To...

Le grand jeu

Considered one of Alfred Hitchcock&apos;s best films, 1958 &quot;Vertigo,&quot; concerns a private eye who falls in love with his client&apos;s wife, only to see her doppelgänger appear in a city street after he had witnessed her jump to her death from a tower. The framework of Hitchcock&apos;s plot, although reportedly taken from a different source, contained strong elements from Jacques Feyder&apos;s May 1934 &quot;Le Grand Jeu.&quot;

Feyder had just returned from a unsatisfying stint at Hollywood&apos;s MGM, where he had directed Greta Garbo&apos;s final silent film, 1929&apos;s &quot;The Kiss.&quot; Before leaving, he felt Garbo would be perfect in 1932&apos;s &apos;As You Desire Me,&apos; a similar storyline as his later &quot;Le Grand Jeu,&quot; a title which means the reading of cards, or telling the entire story. Feyder felt the actress&apos; double should have a different voice than her primary character. He never got a chance to direct the movie, but the idea stuck with him when he returned to France. Feyder and scriptwriter Charles Spaak composed the story of a Paris businessman, Pierre Martel (Pierre Richard-Willm), who is forced to leave the country after running up exorbitant debts through his expensive lifestyle. His financial backers pay his bills only if he agrees to leave France. He split from his girlfriend Florence (Marie Bell) and joined the French Foreign Legion, where he meets her look-alike, Irma (Bell), with the exception of having darker hair. Things get wild when Pierre finds out he&apos;s inherited a large fortune. So struck by the impact of &quot;Le Grand Jeu,&quot; film reviewer Joseph Ewens wrote, &quot;It&apos;s rare to find a film that is thought provoking without being challenging and comfortable without being banal. It&apos;s a delightful story of emotional cascades that considers the way we relate to other people.&quot;

Feyder dubbed Marie Bell&apos;s voice as Irma by off-screen actress, Claude Marcy. She also voiced all the Garbo films for French distribution. &quot;Le Grand Jeu&quot; contains elements of &apos;poetic realism,&apos; the 1930&apos;s French film movement that focused on the characters rather than on the settings. Jean Vigo&apos;s 1933 &quot;Zero de Conduite,&quot; is a prime example where the movie characters&apos; fatalistic views were front and center. &quot;Le Grand Jeu&apos;s&quot; &apos;poetic realism&apos; is represented in Blanche, the hotel manager&apos;s wife where Pierre is staying. Her reading of the cards unfolds his past life and his predictive future. Later French classics, such as Julien Duvivier&apos;s 1937 &quot;Pepe le Moko,&quot; whose protagonist closely resembles Pierre&apos;s situation, Jean Renoir&apos;s 1939 &quot;La Grande Illusion,&quot; and most of Marcel Carne&apos;s films, all derive from the country&apos;s popular movement, &apos;poetic realism.&apos;

&quot;Le Grand Jeu&quot; was part of a number of continental movies that played a huge influence on the Italian Neorealism and the French New Wave films of the 1940s and 1950s. In their book on the History of the Film, authors Maurice Bardèche and Robert Brasillach claim &quot;Le Grand Jeu&quot; is &quot;one of the few films made based on a new idea, since the invention of talkies.&quot;

Considered one of Alfred Hitchcock's best films, 1958 "Vertigo," concerns a private eye who falls in love with his client's wife, only to see her doppelgänger appear in a city street after he had witnessed her jump to her death from a tower. The framework of Hitchcock's plot, although reportedly taken from a different source, contained strong elements from Jacques Feyder's May 1934 "Le Grand Jeu."

Feyder had just returned from a unsatisfying stint at Hollywood's MGM, where he had directed Greta Garbo's final silent film, 1929's "The Kiss." Before leaving, he felt Garbo would be perfect in 1932's 'As You Desire Me,' a similar storyline as his later "Le Grand Jeu," a title which means the reading of cards, or telling the entire story. Feyder felt the actress' double should have a different voice than her primary character. He never got a chance to direct the movie, but the idea stuck with him when he returned to France. Feyder and scriptwriter Charles Spaak composed the story of a Paris businessman, Pierre Martel (Pierre Richard-Willm), who is forced to leave the country after running up exorbitant debts through his expensive lifestyle. His financial backers pay his bills only if he agrees to leave France. He split from his girlfriend Florence (Marie Bell) and joined the French Foreign Legion, where he meets her look-alike, Irma (Bell), with the exception of having darker hair. Things get wild when Pierre finds out he's inherited a large fortune. So struck by the impact of "Le Grand Jeu," film reviewer Joseph Ewens wrote, "It's rare to find a film that is thought provoking without being challenging and comfortable without being banal. It's a delightful story of emotional cascades that considers the way we relate to other people."

Feyder dubbed Marie Bell's voice as Irma by off-screen actress, Claude Marcy. She also voiced all the Garbo films for French distribution. "Le Grand Jeu" contains elements of 'poetic realism,' the 1930's French film movement that focused on the characters rather than on the settings. Jean Vigo's 1933 "Zero de Conduite," is a prime example where the movie characters' fatalistic views were front and center. "Le Grand Jeu's" 'poetic realism' is represented in Blanche, the hotel manager's wife where Pierre is staying. Her reading of the cards unfolds his past life and his predictive future. Later French classics, such as Julien Duvivier's 1937 "Pepe le Moko," whose protagonist closely resembles Pierre's situation, Jean Renoir's 1939 "La Grande Illusion," and most of Marcel Carne's films, all derive from the country's popular movement, 'poetic realism.'

"Le Grand Jeu" was part of a number of continental movies that played a huge influence on the Italian Neorealism and the French New Wave films of the 1940s and 1950s. In their book on the History of the Film, authors Maurice Bardèche and Robert Brasillach claim "Le Grand Jeu" is "one of the few films made based on a new idea, since the invention of talkies."

Pierre (Pierre Richard-Willm), a young lawyer, has enormous debts due to his mistress Florence (Marie Bell), and her whims of luxury life. Pierre has gone too far and put the family firm in jeopardy. They ask him to expatriate. To avoid scandal, Pierre joins the Foreign Legion. In Morocco, near the desert, Pierre goes with his comrades of the Legion to a bar-restaurant-brothel, owned by a shady character, Mr. Clement (Charles Vanel). Clement lives more or less with Ms.Blanche (Françoise Rosay) who is a fortune teller with cards, as a hobby. But Clement is also after his girls now and then. Pierre is still obsessed with Florence but he meets Irma (Marie Bell), one of Clement's girls, who is the double of Florence except for hair color. Irma has had an accident and has lost part of her memory at a certain point of her recent past, and Pierre slowly persuades himself she is Florence, but cannot remember it. Advised by Ms.Blanche, Irma finally accepts to act as if she was Florence because she is falling in love with Pierre. Near the end of his contract with the Legion, Pierre receives news from France. He has inherited a fortune. He asks Irma to come to France with him, and they make plans. But Clement tries to rape Irma and Pierre has to kill him.

bappamtv

Le grand jeu

🎭 Top Cast

🎬 Technical Specs

🏷️ Keywords

🎯 Categories

⭐ Featured Review

💡 Did You Know?

🎬 More Like This

📖 Synopsis