Remorques

Jean Gremillon's Remorques, from 1941, is a nice yarn about a tugboat captain getting ensnared in a love triangle. Gremillon has the good fortune to have Jean Gabin, the epitome of mid-century Gallic masculinity, and the very sexy Michele Morgan as his adulterous lovers. They glow like embers. Madeleine Renaud is not exactly chopped liver, but has to make do with the thankless role of Gabin's long-suffering wife. She is on the verge of dying from an undisclosed malady, so Gabin must forsake his new beloved to come back to his wife's deathbed. After which, in a superbly wrought ending, he returns to his true mistress: the sea.

Remorques has some minor flaws, particularly the miniatures used for the nautical sequences. I am reminded of Andrew Sarris' criticism of William Wellman for using fake looking backdrops in The Ox-Bow Incident. Sarris did not mind fakery per se, just when it occurred in a film that aspired to be realistic. In Remorques, the miniatures don't really jibe with the other nautical shots. Gremillon utilizes a tilting camera and set for verisimilitude, but that effort is undermined by repeated shots roiled in a tank. Preminger's In Harm's Way has a similar problem with fake little boats, but, in both cases, the negative effect on the film is negligible.

Gremillon is coming back into fashion after his reputation fell due to the French auteurist reaction against the tradition of quality represented by Carne, Clair, Delannoy, and the like. I can't say I found Remorques to be up to the level of Renoir or Vigo, but it has whet my appetite for more Gremillon. The opening wedding sequence alone makes Remorques a worthy viewing experience.