MONDAY, NOV 7 REHABILITATIONS 2: JEAN DELANNOY, "NEW WAVE WHIPPING BOY"

GAMBLING HELL / MACAO, L'ENFER DE JEU  7:15

We kick off our "rehabilitation" of exceptionally versatile director Jean Delannoy with the last of the great "exotic adventure noirs" that formed the third genre of classic French noir. Joseph von Sternberg was merely copying these films with The Shanghai Gesture…here we have the real thing, done up with a sweeping style that even Hollywood couldn't quite match. The battle of wits between von Stroheim and Sessue Hayakawa is as riveting as Mireille Balin (whose life would be ruined by her passionate love affair with a German office) is mysteriously alluring. It is "cinema de papa" at its most kinetic. With Erich von Stroheim, Mireille Balin, Sessue Hayakawa.

Dir. Jean Delannoy (1942, 91 min.) Adaptation & dialogue by Pierre-Gilles Veber & Roger Vitrac from the novel by Maurice Dekobra. Photography by Nicolas Hayer.

THE CHIPS ARE DOWN / LES JEUX SONT FAITS  9:00

THE FRENCH HAD A NAME FOR IT 3 comes to an end with a film that demonstrates that noir situations can even exist in Heaven. Eve (the elegant, dazzling Micheline Presle) and Pierre (the rough-hewn, dashing Marcel Pagliero) meet in heaven after their lives have been prematurely ended by familial and political intrigues. They fall in love, and discover that they are eligible for a second chance on Earth if their devotion does not waver over the course of their first day back among the living. But each is returned to poisonous situations that will test their love for each other—can they overcome the pitfalls that threaten earthly success, or are they doomed to return to Heaven as lonely, wandering souls? Delannoy and his scenarist (the eminent existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre) keep the philosophy in the background and the action in the forefront as the two lovers attempt to beat the odds. A beautiful, haunting, one-of-a-kind noir that you will not soon forget. With Micheline Presle, Marcel Pagliero, Marguerite Moreno, Marcel Mouloudji.

Dir. Jean Delannoy (1947, 105min.) Dialogue by Jean-Paul Sartre & Jacques-Laurent Bost from an original scenario by Jean-Paul Sartre. Photography by Christian Matras.