MovieChat Forums > La main du diable (1947) Discussion > Time and place of production

Time and place of production

posted 11 years ago by ozziemaland
2 replies | jump to latest

The film does not evidence any awareness of WWII going on, even though France was partly occupied in 1943 by Germany, and the unoccupied part ("Vichy France") was collaborative with Germany. My guess is that the movie was made in the occupied part with financial and distribution backing from the German government which may have desired entertainment to boost morale following the example of the Roman circuses in ancient times. Possibly Leni Riefenstahl was involved in a big way, because the film has cinematic qualities of very high standard and one wonders how many great film makers were then walking around France. Inquiring minds would like more information about the time and place of production.

[–] notmtwain 9 years ago

Possibly Leni Riefenstahl was involved in a big way, because the film has cinematic qualities of very high standard and one wonders how many great film makers were then walking around France.

I have no idea if Riefenstahl was involved but I googled the French name of the film ("La Main Du Diable") and the director's name and came up with a book called "Fearing the Dark" that said that the director Maurice Tourneur was actually a very famous director who had worked in Hollywood for many years before returning to France in 1927. The book says that in 1917, Tourneur was one of the two premier directors in America, the other being D.W. Griffith.

link to the book: https://books.google.com/books?id=Tla20AU48uMC&lpg=PA420&dq=%22La%20main%20du%20diable%22%20tourneur&pg=PA419#v=onepage&q=%22La%20main%20du%20diable%22%20tourneur&f=false

[–] Ithilfaen 7 years ago

The film does not evidence any awareness of WWII going on,

Because it would never have been made or released if it did.
The whole movie is about selling your soul to the devil and paying the price. Vichy, anyone?

Scifi and fantasy were literally created to disguise political and social criticism as something unreal and innocent.

My guess is that the movie was made in the occupied part with financial and distribution backing from the German government which may have desired entertainment to boost morale following the example of the Roman circuses in ancient times

It's hardly a fun morale-boosting movie. The Germans tended to be more obvious in their propaganda. And they were the ones holding the money so it's not really surprising the movie was funded by German funds.
They just made a movie about the occupation without talking about it, and let the Germans foot the bill. Brilliant.

For every lie I unlearn I learn something new - Ani Difranco