They Were Five

La belle équipe
Film poster
Directed by Julien Duvivier
Written by Julien Duvivier
Charles Spaak
Starring Jean Gabin
Charles Vanel
Raymond Aimos
Viviane Romance
Music by Maurice Yvain
Release date
  • September 1936 (1936-09)
Running time
 101 minutes
Country France

La belle équipe is a 1936 French film directed by Julien Duvivier, also known as "They Were Five". Starring Jean Gabin and Charles Vanel, it tells the story of five unemployed workers who win the jackpot in the national lottery but their solidarity then proves fragile.

Plot

Five unemployed men in Paris are friends: Jeannot, Jacques and Tintin are bachelors, Charlot (though the rest do not know) has left his faithless wife Gina, while Mario is an illegal immigrant from Spain who has got engaged to Huguette. Suddenly their lives are transformed when their syndicate wins the jackpot in the national lottery.

After much discussion, which Jeannot tends to lead, they agree to pool the money. Rowing up the river Marne, they see a ruined laundry and agree to convert it themselves into a guinguette, a riverside restaurant and dance hall. Living on site and working all day, there is much bonding between the five but fissures also appear.

Tintin plays the fool while on the roof and falls fatally. Jacques disappears with his share of the money. Mario gets notice of expulsion and hastily marries Huguette before complying. This leaves Jeannot and Charlot, who proceed to fall out over Gina, still legally married to Charlot, who not only wants to get her hands on Charlot's share of the winnings but easily seduces the willing Jeannot.

In the original pessimistic ending, Jeannot's jealousy leads him to shoot Charlot dead, while in the re-shot optimistic ending the two men unite as friends against the woman's wiles.

Selected cast

Production

The script was written by Duvivier and Charles Spaak, with Maurice Yvain provided the score. Jean Gabin's song Quand on s'promène au bord de l'eau was written by Duvivier, Yvain and Louis Poterat. Interiors were shot at the Studios de Joinville in Joinville-le-Pont, Val-de-Marne, with exteriors at Chennevières-sur-Marne.[1]

Critical reception

Critics have associated the film with the rise and demise of the Popular Front. The film was made in June and July 1936 and coincided with the early days of the Léon Blum government and the strikes for better conditions. Duvivier was certainly not a Leftist. It should be pointed out nonetheless that Duvivier's portrayal of male friendship gradually being eroded by a woman and by desire for that woman was canonical by 1936, so the film does not limit itself to that reading. If the men in Duvivier's film do not get to fulfil their dream of setting up their guinguette it is because, while economically they can be solidaires—as one, sexually they cannot.On a first level of reading, therefore, it is sex before politics that drives the narrative." [2]

References

  1. ↑ "They Were Five". unifrance.org. Retrieved 2015-02-12.
  2. ↑ Susan Hayward French National Cinema ISBN 0-415-30783-X
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