''Porte des Lilas'' (
English: ''Gate of Lilacs'') is a 1957 French-Italian
dramatic film directed by
René Clair, based on
René Fallet's novel ''
La Grande Ceinture
The Grande Ceinture line (French - ''Ligne de Grande Ceinture'') is a railway line round Paris 15 km from the Boulevard Périphérique. The decision to build it was taken at the end of the 19th century, to connect the radial lines linking ...
''. The film is known as both ''Gates of Lilacs'' and ''The Gates of Paris'', but was released under the latter title in the United States.
[According to Ronald Bergan and ]Robyn Karney
Robyn Karney (4 January 1940 – 7 December 2017) was a South African-born London-based film writer and critic.
Karney was born in Cape Town, but raised in Johannesburg. A stage manager for the theatre companies of Brian Brooke and Leonard Schach ...
in the ''Bloomsbury Foreign Film Guide'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1988, p. 224) and Melissa E. Biggs (''French Films, 1945–1993'', Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1996, p. 221) the film has these two alternate English titles. The English title used on the original British release is unclear.
Plot
Artiste is an unemployed impoverished man who dwells in his own, derelict house with his likewise unemployed best friend Juju. One day they come across the wanted criminal Barbier hiding in their home. Juju admires the threefold murderer, yet when he witnesses him bragging about having compromised a girl for financial benefit, his feelings turn straight into the opposite and he shoots Barbier dead.
Cast
*
Pierre Brasseur as Juju
*
Georges Brassens as Artiste
*
Henri Vidal
Henri Vidal (26 November 1919 – 10 December 1959) was a French film actor.
Film career
Henri Lucien Raymond VidalSource Les Gens du cinéma/ref> was first noticed after he won the "Apollo of 1939" contest in Paris. He was spotted by Éd ...
as Pierre Barbier
*
Dany Carrel
Yvonne Suzanne Chazelles de Chaxel, better known as Dany Carrel, (born 20 September 1932 or 20 September 1935) is a French actress. She was born in Vietnam - then French Indochina - to French father Aimé Chazelles de Chaxel and his Vietnamese mi ...
as Maria
*
Raymond Bussières as Alphonse
*
Gabrielle Fontan as Madame Sabatier
*
Amédée
Amédée is a French masculine forename. Notable people with the forename include:
Persons
* Amédée, stage name of Philippe de Chérisey (1923-1985), French writer, radio humorist, surrealist and actor
*Amédée Artus (1815-1892), French condu ...
as Paulo - a regular at the café
*
Annette Poivre
Annette Poivre (24 June 1917 – 2 June 1988) was a French stage and film actress.Hayward p.241 She was married to the actor Raymond Bussières with whom she sometimes co-starred. Poivre was noted for her comic performances.
Selected filmography
...
as Nénette
* as Paulo's friend
*
Alice Tissot
Alice Tissot (1 January 1890 – 5 May 1971) was a French actress.
Partial filmography
* ''Poum à la chasse'' (1908)
* ''Le devoir'' (1908)
* ' (1909)
* ' (1909)
* '' The Two Girls'' (1921)
* '' A Son from America'' (1924)
* '' Captain Rasca ...
as the concierge
*
Paul Préboist
Awards
The film was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to a ...
and a
BAFTA Award in 1958 and won the
Bodil Award
The Bodil Awards are the major Danish film awards given by the Danish Film Critics Association. The awards are presented annually at a ceremony in Copenhagen. Established in 1948, it is one of the oldest film awards in Europe. The awards are given ...
for Best European Film.
See also
*
*
References
External links
*
1957 films
1957 drama films
French black-and-white films
French drama films
Italian drama films
1950s French-language films
Films directed by René Clair
Unemployment in fiction
1950s French films
1950s Italian films
{{1950s-France-film-stub