User:Themaddarcher/La Maternelle (film)

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La Maternelle (International title: Children of Montmartre) is a 1933 French film directed and written by Jean Benoît-Lévy and Marie Epstein. It was adapted from Léon Frapié's Prix Goncourt winning novel La Maternelle (1904). '''This film was a remake of a less successful, silent version made in 1925 by Gaston Roudès. ''' In 1935, it was ranked as the 6th best foreign film by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, and has received a 7.3 ranking (out of 10) by 127 reviewers at the Internet Movie Database.

Novel
The novel of the same name was written by Léon Frapié in 1904, and received the French Literature prize known as the Prix Goncourt (The Goncourt Prize). The film was a loose adaptation from the novel, transforming it into a more psychological look into the experience of children in Parisian slums.

Cinematography and Style
The realistic approach to the film is supported by the utilization of working-class children as schoolchildren and location shooting. With the cinematography, this documentary style is furthered. Using exploratory shots and breaks in the fourth wall, the film establishes this style and the setting. There are short scenes within the film that do not drive the narrative forward and instead serve to strengthen the realism within the setting. Additionally, the film relies on a spirit of improvisation, especially for the children involved. However, there is influence from the European avant-garde film genre. The camera transforms into Marie's gaze in order to show her trauma and the lead up to her suicide attempt. By fusing elements of these two styles, the film is notable and serves as an early, defining example of Poetic Realism in cinema.

Epstein and Benoît-Lévy
Acting as directors and screenwriters, La Maternelle was one of the films that emerged from the collaboration between Epstein and Benoît-Lévy that lasted more than a decade. Although screenwriting was commonly open to women with film, few women were directors. Epstein was the only female director of French cinema at the time, and despite her role, she is always listed after Benoît-Lévy. As research for the film, they both spent months visiting schools in the lower-class areas of Paris in order to understand how to integrate schoolchildren into the film and how to best construct the set.

Child Acting
Paul Rotha in the journal, “Sight and Sound” praises “La Maternelle” and other pictures of the time for its use of child actors to contribute to child-psychology. Calling it “one of the best films to come from France for many months.” From its directors, Benoit-Levy and Marie Epstein, the film’s natural acting by child actors is praised for its realism and portrayal of child-welfare. Additionally, the acting performance, specifically by Paulette Elambert who plays Marie is noted by many as some of the best cinema has seen. The New York Times goes on to describe the performance as “memorable”. In his Sept 7, 1933 review Lucien Wahl continues Elambert’s acting praising her emotional range and performative ability to bring to life feelings of friendship, affection, and jealousy in her character Marie (Lucien Wahl, Pour Vous 25). She is often regarded as the star of this film.

Music
Though simple, the score in this film aids in the feeling of its real-life setting. The French Journal “Pour Vous” in its October 5, 1933, publication the work of the film’s composer is praised. Edouard Flamant, the films composer, composed a simple score to go along with the film. The start of the film begins with an almost folk themed score. The middle with a “milieu” choice of song with verses from Alice Verlay, a novelist, and finishes with a dramatic sequence that plays during Marie’s suicide attempt in an effort to create a feeling of anxiety in the viewer. Lastly, with classic sounds played throughout the films score that are inspired by realistic sounds of the period, Auscher says the film is “worthy of the book that inspired it”. (Janine Auscher, Pour Vous 255)

Reflection-
'''Marie sees the reflection of Rose and her new potential lover in the same window in which she saw her mother with the man she left with at the beginning of the film. This theme is continued when Marie looks in the water and sees the reflection of two lovers, prompting her subsequent suicide attempt in an effort to erase these images that haunt her'''.

Vision-
Throughout the film, there is a focus on the eyes of characters and different ways of looking. Specifically, Marie's gaze and trauma is central to the film. In the scene in the bar, there is an interplay of shots showing snippets of lust between Marie's mother and the man she is with and Marie angrily staring them down. After this, when Marie's mother brings her home, Marie is seen looking through the bars of her bed at her mother in an embrace with the man. Although she cannot be actually looking at her mother (because she is inside while her mother is outside), the camera serves as a way for the audience, and Marie, into seeing. Marie overhears Dr. Libois proposing to Rose, and once they know that she has overheard, there is an exchange of close up shots - focused on the eyes - between the three characters. These scenes serve to place the viewer in Marie's perspective and establish the trauma and relationships between Marie and her maternal figures - her mother and Rose. In the climax of the film, in which Marie attempts suicide, her gaze reflects in the water and shows her the view of an embracing couple nearby, earlier snippets of her mother and Rose, and a reflection of herself.

Femme Moderne-
'''This film is one which portrays a more modern woman who is bending the gender norms of the time. In this film, Rose was an educated woman who acquired a full time job before pursuing marriage and a family. Eventually, she found both love and a family, but the film maintained that both love and work can be successfully kept by women, an idea not so common during its time.'''

Maternal Relationships
There is a juxtaposition throughout the film between two characters - Marie's mother and Rose - and their maternal status. Marie's mother functions as a "bad mother," who is a prostitute, neglects Marie, and abandons her child to run off with a man. In the scene in which she tucks Marie in and leaves her, Marie's mother places a lipstick kiss on her forehead, demonstrating the metaphorical scars she has left on her daughter through her immorality. In contrast, Rose epitomizes what a "good mother" should be. Rose adopts Marie and becomes a maternal figure to all the children, consistently showing her love and devotion to them throughout the film.

Critical reviews[edit]
In 1935, the New York Times called it "a film of extraordinary insight, tenderness and tragic beauty", adding "Mr. Benoit-Levy presents a heart-breaking cross-section of this tatterdemalion kindergarten in such minor portraits as the little boy who has never learned how to smile."

'1934's Sight and Sound journal claims that La Maternelle'' is the "best film to come from France in many months". This being due to the direction and "natural acting" from the many children who were a part of this film. This article commends the perspective of the "children's mind" and the adults who are in charge of them, which was an infrequent theme of the time.'''

'Pour Vous'' describes the directors as skilled and displaying great "skill" and "heart" in the film and expressed compliments towards the directors' execution. However, it sees Marie's suicide attempt as nonessential, claiming that although it has excellent imagery, it does not elevate the film. At the same time the "sincerity of the subject" is highlighted and the author of the article, Lucien Wahl, compliments the child actors for "serving the truth". '''

'In a later issue of Pour Vous,'' director Benoît-Levy is stated to be "one of the best in French production" by author Janine Auscher and offers her praise to him. Specifically complimenting the simplicity of the music used in the film, this review claims that the score used in each part of the film matches the action and mirrors the mood felt by the audience.'''

'In 1933, Ciné Magazine'' states that this film is one of the first in which the audience can see a film "interpreted by young children". It compliments directors Jean Benoît-Levy and Marie Epstein for getting many intelligent children together and producing a touching film conveying "discreet emotions".'''

Cinema Quarterly published a particularly mixed review for the film in 1933, with about as many praises as reproaches. It stated that "the picture is notable for its brilliant treatment of the child mind", and described the final scene as "being among the high spots of the year's cinema", but was not shy to say the film is "the child-picture to end chid-pictures for the time being".

Awards
1935 National Board of Review, USA Award Winner- Top Foreign Films

2016 Boston Society of Film Critics Awards Winner- Best Rediscoveries