Le combat dans lile (1962)

Synopsis: Romy Schneider’s marriage to rich factory owner’s son Jean-Louis Trintignant has its rough side: his frequent absences for unexplained reasons, frightening outbursts of insane jealousy, and — her... Romy Schneider’s marriage to rich factory owner’s son Jean-Louis Trintignant has its rough side: his frequent absences for unexplained reasons, frightening outbursts of insane jealousy, and — her latest shocking discovery — a carefully wrapped anti-tank bazooka in the hall closet. However, there’s his friend to confide in, that warm and friendly pacifist, artisanal printer Henri Serre (Jim of Jules and Jim). All too little known today, Le Combat Dans L’île subtly evokes a divided marriage -- not unusual in French films -- and a divided nation -- but not estranged as seen in the then-dominant Nouvelle Vague. Addressing political assassinations (at the time, the attempts on Charles de Gaulle reached double figures), underground extreme right-wing groups, even international, right-wing fugitives — producer Louis Malle was clearly making a political statement distinct from that of his New Wave confrčres.

Cavalier’s first major film (he’d previously been a Malle assistant) exhibits an assurance of tone and pacing that make this a uniquely gripping, intricate triangle-drama/thriller, as the camera of Pierre Lhomme (DP of Melville’s Army of Shadows -- he also personally supervised this new 35mm print) illuminates striking locations from industrial parks to road diners to Serre’s rural island refuge (you can almost smell the crisp winter air), while providing a surprisingly fresh look at that most-filmed of subjects -- particularly during this period -- Paris itself, both inside and out.

Le Combat Dans L’île also spotlights Romy Schneider’s (“the best actress of her generation” -- Visconti) first starring part in French, the language and cinema she would make her own: her breakthrough performance would be a major leap from the saccharine biopics of her Austrian youth. Trintignant, already a mid-range star at home, would break out internationally later the same year in Dino Risi’s Il Sorpasso, and become world-famous a few years later with A Man and a Woman and Costa-Gavras’ Z. --© Film Forum [More]

Starring: Romy Schneider, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Henri Serre

Starring: Romy Schneider, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Henri Serre

Director: Alain Cavalier

Director: Alain Cavalier
Screenwriter: Alain Cavalier, Jean-Paul Rappeneau

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