Marcel Carné's The Devil's Envoys

The screening of The Devil's Envoys (Les Visiteurs du soir) during the Festival is a chance to pay tribute to major French director Marcel Carné, who also made Bizarre, Bizarre (Drôle de drame), Port of Shadows (Le Quai des brumes) and Daybreak (Le Jour se lève).

Born in Paris in 1906 (died 1996), Carnés started out as a film critic for magazines Hebdo-Film, Cinémonde and Film-Sonore.  After making a few advertising films, he directed his first documentary (with Michel Sanvoisin) in 1929, Nogent, Eldorado du dimanche, about Sunday day-trippers from Paris on the banks of the Marne river.

He then worked as an assistant to director René Clair on Under the Roofs of Paris (Sous les toits de Paris) (1930), and to Jacques Feyder on Le Grand Jeu (1934), Pension Mimosas (1935) and Carnival in Flanders (La Kermesse héroïque) (1935).  "I owe just about everything to Feyder," he said.  "He taught me what a film was from start to finish and also how to direct actors.  The best way to learn filmmaking is just to do it."

With Feyder's help, he made his first feature film, Jenny, in 1936.  Around the same time, he met scriptwriter Jacques Prévert and the pair showed how well they worked together with their first film, Drôle de drame.  Le Quai des brumes (1937) made their name.  It was a hit for Carné's outside shots and direction of the cast, and Prévert incorporated some of his trademark late-Surrealist elements creating a poetic, suspense-filled atmosphere that audiences loved.

Hôtel du Nord followed in 1938, the remarkable Le jour se lève in 1939, Les Visiteurs du soir in 1942 and their masterpiece, Les Enfants du paradis (The Children of Paradise) in 1945.

See Carné website

Marcel Carné

DR / Coll. Institut Lumière

Jean Gabin in Le Jour se lève and in Le Quai des brumes

© DR / Coll. Institut Lumière