Film Review: Daybreak (Le jour se lève , 1939)

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Many of the French films that belonged to the Poetic Realist movement became widely influential on world cinema. The likelihood of this was greater if they were directed by Marcel Carné. A year after Port of Shadows, the first film ever to be described as “film noir”, Carné directed Le jour se lève (“Day Rises”, also known under the English-language title Daybreak), a dark romantic drama credited with introducing the modern technique of the flashback.

The plot of the film begins when François (played by Jean Gabin), a foundry worker, shoots and kills a man named Valentin (played by Jules Berry). He locks himself in his apartment and refuses to surrender to the police. Over the next few hours of the siege, he reminisces about how he got himself into such a situation. A few months earlier, he met Françoise (played by Jacqueline Laurent), a young and beautiful florist’s assistant, by accident. The two soon discover they have things in common – similar names and both having been raised as orphans. Their friendship soon transforms into romance, and François even proposes to her. But one night, he sees her sneak out of her apartment. He secretly follows her to a night club, where she appears enthralled by the performance of Valentin, a dog trainer. There he meets Clara (played by Arletty), Valentin’s assistant and former lover, who wants to quit her job because she can’t stand him. After learning that Françoise sees Valentin, an older man who gives her money and entertains her with fantastical stories, he begins an affair with Clara. But he is still in love with Françoise, and the romantic rivalry between the two men will end in a violent and tragic way.

If Daybreak is to be compared with Port of Shadows, the earlier film looks significantly better. This can be explained by the script for Daybreak being much simpler, its characters more ordinary, its plot reduced to a romantic rivalry, and its setting for the most part limited to a single room. Despite those limitations, Carné directed the film very well, putting some of the best resources of French cinema to good use and, for the most part, finding the right balance between being “poetic” and being “realistic”. One such example can be found in his use of dissolves, which would later become common practice for flashbacks and be widely used in film noir. Another can be found in Carné actually building an entire street and buildings from cardboard sets for a sequence made to look as if it was shot at authentic locations.

An even better impression is given by the excellent cast. Jean Gabin, the greatest French star of the time, plays another doomed anti-hero, although this one is clearly associated with the working class and less with crime and other elements from the margins of society. His charisma is still intact, and he easily makes the audience forget that some of François’s actions aren’t morally acceptable (like having a romantic relationship with two women at the same time). Arletty, one of the grand icons of 1930s and 1940s French cinema, is also good in the role of a slightly older and world-weary, but still attractive, woman. She also appears in the film’s only nude scene, something that was quite rare for 1930s French cinema and was cut by censors in many countries. Jacqueline Laurent doesn’t have to go that far, but her charm and talent are compromised by some over-melodramatic plot developments near the end. Jules Berry, an actor specialised in playing villains, is very good here in the role of a manipulative sociopath who enjoys psychologically tormenting the protagonist.

Daybreak is, like many films of Poetic Realism, quite dark, which includes a very unhappy ending. This, in a way, corresponded with the general mood in France, which was just about to enter the Second World War and would soon be overrun by the Germans. During the occupation, the film was banned by the Vichy government because it was “demoralising”. A much bigger danger for Carné’s film, however, came from Hollywood immediately after the war. RKO Pictures bought the film rights and made its own, now mostly forgotten, remake, The Long Night, starring Henry Fonda. In order to prevent comparisons with the French original, RKO tried very hard to obtain and destroy every copy of Daybreak. The film was actually considered lost for a couple of years before being rediscovered and hailed as one of the finest French films of the interwar period.

RATING: 7/10 (+++)