Peu avant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, Jean Gabin devient le héros de toute une génération. Paré de toute une série de valeurs exemplaires, il devient l’emblème d’un cinéma français à la fois populaire et exigeant.
Aura-t-il suffi de quelques rencontres pour qu’un mythe naisse ? Sans doute pas. Il faut aussi pas mal de chance, la conjonction d’une époque et d’une personnalité et l’émergence d’une…
Michèle Morgan and Jean Gabin in Remorques (Jean Grémillon, 1941)
Cast: Jean Gabin, Madeleine Renaud, Michèle Morgan, Charles Blavette, Jean Marchat, Nane Germon, Jean Dasté, René Bergeron, Henri Poupon, Anne Laurens, Marcel Pérès, Marcel Duhamel. Screenplay: Jacques Prévert, André Cayatte, based on a novel by Roger Vercel. Cinematography: Armand Thirard. Production design: Alexandre Trauner. Film editing: Yvonne Martin. Music: Roland Manuel.
Remorques features Jean Gabin at his most effortlessly rugged and romantic, playing André Laurent, the captain of a tugboat that rescues distressed ships and is paid a percentage of the assessed value of their salvaged cargo. He's happily married to the delicate Yvonne (Madeleine Renaud), who longs for him to give up the hazardous work and retire to a less stormy port. Still, André is also devoted to his longtime crew and is reluctant to leave them to the mercies of the company's management. One stormy night they go out to rescue a ship whose captain, Marc (Jean Marchat), is a nasty piece of work. Among other things, he has a very unhappy wife, Catherine (Michèle Morgan), who manages to escape from the ship in a lifeboat that is picked up by André and his crew. When the storm begins to subside, Marc breaks the towline that is pulling his ship to shore and heads to the port of destination under his own steam, thereby depriving André's tug of its share of the rescue money. But André has salvaged something else from the rescue: Catherine, to whom he is attracted at the peril of his marriage. As their relationship heats up, however, Yvonne becomes seriously ill. Director Jean Grémillon makes the most of this blend of action and romance, keeping it from sinking into mush by leavening things with solid supporting performances and providing a piquant, bittersweet outcome. Remorques was made under difficult circumstances as France fell to the Germans, and was not released until after its stars, Gabin and Michèle Morgan, had left the country for Hollywood.
Starring: Madeleine Renaud, Charles Vanel, Jean Debucourt, Raymonde Vernay, Léonce Corne, Raoul Marco, Albert Rémy, Robert Le Fort, Anne-Marie Labaye, Michel François, Gaston Mauger, Paul Demange, Henry Houry, Anne Vandène