Voici le temps des assassins... (1956)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Julien Duvivier

Writers:

Julien Duvivier (story) &
Charles Dorat (story) ...
(more)

Release Date:

13 April 1956 (France)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Plot:

André Chatelin is a restaurant owner in Les Halles in Paris. One morning, a girl named Catherine asks to see him...

Plot Keywords:

Paris

Cast

Jean Gabin	...	André Chatelin
Danièle Delorme	...	Catherine
Robert Arnoux	...	Bouvier
Liliane Bert	...	Antoinette
Gérard Blain	...	Gérard Delacroix
Lucienne Bogaert	...	Gabrielle
Aimé Clariond	...	Monsieur Prévost (as Aimé Clariond Sociétaire de la Comédie Française)
Gabrielle Fontan	...	Madame Jules
Germaine Kerjean	...	Madame Chatelin mère (as Germaine Kerjean de la Comédie Française)
Robert Manuel	...	Mario Bonnacorsi (as Robert Manuel Sociétaire de la Comédie Française)
Robert Pizani	...	Le Président
Jean-Paul Roussillon	...	Amédée (as Jean-Paul Roussillon de la Comédie Française)
Gaby Basset	...	La femme de charge de la guinguette
Paul Demange	...	Le client au régime
Olga Valéry	...	La duchesse
Betty Beckers	...	Une fille
Jane Morlet	...	Madame Aristide, la caissière (as Jane-Morlet)
Gérard Fallec	...	Gaston
Maxime Fabert	...	Le patron de l'hôtel du Charolais
Camille Guérini	...	Gégène, le clochard
Jacques Fayet	...	Le copain de Gérard
Colette Mareuil	...	Madame Coutoully, la lesbienne
Roger Saget	...	Le président du club
Catherine Fath	...	Une dîneuse
Alfred Goulin	...	Armand
Nadine Basile	...	Une dîneuse
André Philip
Liliane Ernout	...	La serveuse de la guiguette
Michel Seldow	...	Gentel, le ministre des finances
Valérie Vivin
Sophie St-Rapt
Monique Vita
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jacques Bertrand	...	Félix, le livreur de la laiterie
Robert Blome	...	L'homme de passage aux Halles
Raymond Bour	...	Un curieux
César	...	Gérard's dog
Henri Coutet	...	L'homme qui annonce l'accident
René Hell	...	Le garde-champêtre
René Lacourt	...	Un pêcheur à la ligne
Laura Lor
Albert Médina	...	M. Passart, marchand aux Halles
Eugène Stuber	...	Un consommateur
Georges Tat
Paul Barge	...	Le garçon d'étage (uncredited)
Max Dalban	...	Un travailleur des Halles, ami d'André (uncredited)
Jean-Louis Le Goff	...	Ernest, le gendarme (uncredited)

Directed by
Julien Duvivier

Writing credits
Julien Duvivier		story &
Charles Dorat		story &
Maurice Bessy		story &
Julien Duvivier		adaptation and dialogue &
Charles Dorat		adaptation and dialogue &
Pierre-Aristide Bréal		adaptation and dialogue (as P.A. Bréal)

Produced by
René Bezard	....	executive producer
Raymond Borderie	....	executive producer
Pierre Cabaud	....	executive producer
Georges Agiman	....	producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Jean Wiener

Cinematography by
Armand Thirard

Film Editing by
Marthe Poncin

Production Design by
Robert Gys

Set Decoration by
Alfred Marpaux		(as Fred Marpeaux)
Yves Olivier

Costume Design by
Jacques Cottin

Makeup Department
Georges Bouban	....	makeup supervisor
Yvonne Gaspernia	....	makeup artist (as Yvonne Gasperina)

Production Management
Charles Borderie	....	production manager
Robert Bossis	....	production manager
Georges Kougoucheff	....	unit manager: exteriors
Roger Morand	....	production supervisor
Tonio Suné	....	unit manager (as Tonio Sune)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Gerard Renateau	....	assistant director (as Gérard Renateau)
Michel Romanoff	....	assistant director

Art Department
René Albouze	....	property master (as Albouze)
Marcel Protat	....	property master (as Protat)

Sound Department
Antoine Archimbaud	....	sound recordist
Jacques Gérardot	....	assistant sound recordist

Camera and Electrical Department
Roger Corbeau	....	still photographer
Jean Dicop	....	assistant camera
Robert Florent	....	assistant camera
Louis Née	....	camera operator

Other crew
Pierre Duvivier	....	production assistant
Denise Morlot	....	script supervisor
Yvonne Rocques	....	production secretary

Production Companies

• Compagnie Industrielle et Commerciale Cinématographique (CICC)
• Société Nouvelle Pathé Cinéma
• Les Films Agiman

Distributors

• Continental Distributing (1957) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Internazionale Nembo Distribuzione Importazione Esportazione Film (INDIEF) (1958) (Italy) (theatrical)
• Pathé Consortium Cinéma (1956) (France) (theatrical)
• René Chateau Video (2004) (France) (DVD)

Special Effects

• LAX Lab.

Other Companies

• Enoch et Cie  music published by

Also Known As:

Deadlier Than the Male (USA)
Twelve Hours to Live (UK)
Der Engel, der ein Teufel war (West Germany) [de]
Ecco il tempo degli assassini (Italy) [it]
Hon kom från Marseilles (Sweden) [sv]
Nyt on murhaajien aika (Finland) [fi]

Runtime:

113 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Gare de Lyon, Paris 12, Paris, France

Company:

Compagnie Industrielle et Commerciale Cinématographique (CICC)

Trivia:

French censorship visa #17.767.

Soundtrack:

La complainte des assassins

Justice is finally meted out by a dog! Verging on horror !

This film, recently reissued on a René Château DVD ( subtitles missing yet again !) is a very good all-rounder cinematographically speaking. First we have the wailing theme song sung by Germaine Montero accompanied by a shivery solo accordion. The picture quality, though black and white, is excellent and the sets themselves are the epitomy, for the Paris region at least, of French popular culture.

First and foremost we have a long disappeared part of Paris, the Halles market, called "le ventre de Paris" or the belly of Paris due to its being the source of nourishment for most of the Parisians. The atmosphere of this area is extremely well rendered and we see various characters typical of the day, and notably a few "forts" or strong men, so called because they used to lug around day in and day out huge carcasses of meat upon their shoulders. Many years ago, Les Halles was transferred out of Paris to Rungis in the suburbs and the gaping hole that was left after the removal of the four "pavillons" or market buildings has today been filled with a shopping mall called the "Forum des Halles" but which has little to do with the original market building. One of the original pavillons was saved and re-erected at Nogent-sur-Marne in the suburbs, not far from the Marne river and is used for dances and other meetings.

The second aspect of parisian culture is the guingette or dance Hall on the banks of the Marne river owned by Gabin's mother. It is set quite a way out at Lagny-sur-Marne. We see various characters of the time and hear the accordion music to which millions danced the "java", "valse musette" and other typically parisian popular dances.

The third aspect is the seedy room in the Hôtel du Charolais in which lives the supposedly deceased mother of Danièle Delorme and where the final horror takes place.

The film was made by Julien Duvivier ( cf La Belle Equipe ) who was a master of a certain type of french film called "film noir", a pessimistic type of film with a gloomy unpromising ending, what the French call "une fin sans concession".

The film is extremely well acted. Gabin is between two ages, not the young impetuous character from La Belle Equipe nor the older patriarch character from "La Horse" ou "Le Clan des Siciliens". I think he is supposed to be in his mid fifties, perhaps as he was in real life and comes over EXCELLENTLY as a restaurant owner. Delorme, who had an angelic face but an evil character beyond all imagination turns up as the daughter of his estranged wife saying her mother is dead and asking Gabin to look after her. All this is a devilish plot fomented between her and her mother, who is still alive, to marry Gabin for his money and then dispose of him. Gabin is so good-natured that he doesn't see this at first and takes Delorme at face value to the point of even turning against his own adoptive sun. Delorme is extremely evil to the point of playing one off against the other - when you see her at it you want to wring her neck ! - but a certain number of fateful slip-ups will be made along the way and she will come a cropper in conformity with the outcome of this 'film noir". She not only precipitates one of her former lovers to his death but also kills Gabin's adopted sun with a coldness which can only be described as totally psychotic !!

Although Delorme and her mother are evil, they are not alone. Gabin's mother, who runs the guingette in Lagny is a cold domineering character who has an inventive way of killing chickens - with a whiplash - quite a nifty idea on the part of Duvivier I thought - and this same whiplash is used to good effect on Delorme at one moment in the film.

There is also a servant woman, extremely ugly and shrivelled-up who is poking her nose into everyone else's affairs. All this goes to show that, bar Gabin and his adoptive son, most of the other characters in the film are real scum and the spectator can have no sympathy with them at all. It's just a shame to see someone as nice as Gabin being taken in.

The final justice is meted out to Delorme not by Gabin as we might expect but by the dog belonging to his murdered son who no doubt "smelled" out his killer. An excellent way of getting Gabin off the hook, and in fact causing more panic in Delorme's eyes than if she had been threatened by a man !

I have no idea whether the film is known outside France ( like Les Diaboliques ) but it certainly merits the attention of anyone who is interested in good French cinema of the "Film Noir" type. More than that it is a living documentary of Paris in 1959 and is a must for those across the world who love that city !