I watch this film once every couple of years. It ALWAYS seem to me that they went out of their way to make Julien Vercel a man who looks cold, distant and more importantly guilty. This makes Barbara's dilemma of trying to clear him all the more of a struggle. While she does harbor feeling for him, he just looked GUILTY on all front. Kind of a reversal from the casting from the American movie Jagged Edge.
shareI was even sure that he was the criminal when we see him in the beginning after the huntsman gets killed. I didn't even think we were meant to have doubts that he was the murderer until about three quarters into the movie. Which made the first half of the movie a little puzzling - we were meant to feel a sense of urgency (comedic of course, but the urgency was there), but why? We already knew the criminal (thought I). Making Vercel suspicious should have been a tad less noticeable.
there's a highway that is curling up like smoke above her shoulder
"I was even sure that he was the criminal when we see him in the beginning after the huntsman gets killed."
When I first saw the film, I too thought Vercel was the murderer. The way the sequence in the marshes is filmed certainly conveyed that impression to me, too.
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." (Matthew 7:12)
Well, if you thought so, it proves that Truffaut's stratagem worked and that the editing (absolutely brilluant!) accomplished its purpose.
Yes, "Vivement dimanche!" is a quirky little film noir and Truffaut deliberately wanted the movie look a lot like these French police/detective/ thriller comedies of the late 50s up to mid-60s (mostly). The humoristic elements were particularly important. As we learn in a short documentary on the making of the film (available with the original MK2 DVD anthology commented by Serge Toubiana (the definitive edition of Truffalt's opus, which surpasses in many ways the Criterion treatment of Truffaults filmography IMO )), Truffault's worked out each scene with the actors so as to look and sound exactly like the classic French policier with the likes of Ventura, Blier, Gabin, and the likes, which shared an unmistakable satiric tone that made them absolutely brilliant. This swan's song (unbeknownst so to Truffault I must add) must be taken with a helluva big grain of salt to be enjoyed to its fullest.
Watch it again and you'll see what I mean.... This is definitely tthe type of mystery thriller that does not take itself too seriously - ever!
I am a devoted fan of Truffault. I'm amazed at how resilient almost each of his 21 films (what a pity he had to die so young) is: unlike so many excellent movies from other directors, I find that I can't possibly grow tired of almost any of his movies, although some of his films have higher revisiting potential than others. And "Vivement dimanche", for some strange reason, remains the Truffault I watched the most. Isn't that strange? Almost a guilty pleasure, considering that I rank Jules et Jim, La nuit américaine and the Doinel tetralogy higher than it! The more I think about it, the more I think I understand it has so much appeal for me... Its utter lack of likelihood of any twist in the story line, the planned absurdity of all sorts of details.... Take for instance the second kissing scene berween Trintignant and Ardant, when they were contemplating the city lights from a hill top: The first scene was only meant to be a trick that Trintignant' s secretary (Ardant) played to turn the attention of the police away from the two of them, whereas when Trintignant goes for it a second time a short while later, Ardant naively asks : "Why did you do that? There was no police around!", to which Trintignant replies: " One bever knows!". Priceless!
Its that sublime craziness, that total absence of seriousness and consideration towards any convention or social mores that make Vivement Dimanche such a favorite of mine. Many of Truffault's movies may rank higher in the lust of aTruffault's most enduring contributions to cinema, but Truffault achieved one last feat before quitting the scene: he left us. with that monument to pure laughter and sublime satire, that hidden homage to Rabelais' take on life, such a typically French outlook on things, that Vivement Dimanche ends up being.
For the better .... and for the even better!
- But you can't have her again as costume designer, Mr. Hitchcock!
- Really, Peggy? Give me Head!