The casual observer checking out this title may find it odd that the only two reviews are diametrically opposed but that casual observer probably doesn't realize that the negative review was posted by a native and resident of France, a country where it's possible to view vintage French films on TV every night of the week and the positive review (this one) was posted by a native and resident of England where it is unusual to find half a dozen vintage French films screened in a YEAR, or, to put it another way one review is the work of a jaded Frenchman, the other penned by an Englishman starved of vintage French films. Even that doesn't really cover it because to me Derriere la facade represents the 'bread-and-butter' domestic French film of the time. In other words I'm distinguishing between vintage French films that transcended the domestic market and enjoyed International success, titles like La Kermesse Heroique, Pepe Le Moko, Boudu, La Grande Illusion, Quai des Brumes, Le Jour se leve, Marius, Fanny, Cesar, La Femme du boulanger, etc (and I've confined my list to the same decade, the 1930s, as Derriere la facade) and the bulk of French films of the time which were, of course, very much like Derriere la facade, i.e. solid technical and acting credits married to run-of-the-mill plots (here, for example, the owner of an Apartment building runs out of breath and in the subsequent investigation it transpires that virtually all the tenants had something to hide). Any movie that wheels out Julien Carette inside the first five minutes can't be bad but Carette is only the hors d'ouevres for the likes of Erich Von Stroheim, Jules Berry, Gaby Morlay, Michel Simon, Gabrielle Dorziat and Marguerite Moreno. Co-writer/director Yves Mirande also had a hand in the screenplay of Un Carnet de bal, one of several masterpieces directed by Julien Duvivier, and can also be seen briefly as a tramp in this film whilst the other co-director, Georges Lacombe, went straight from this to La Musiciens du ciel, another 'bread-and-butter' effort top-lining Michele Morgan and a film I have loved since first I saw it a couple of years ago. So there you have it; two reviews, two different opinions; you (can't say 'yer', IMDb doesn't recognize it) pays your money and you take your choice.
Review of Derrière la façade
