La fin du jour (Lebensabend)

La fin du jour shifts effortlessly between parodic and melancholic storytelling. The plot revolves around resigned actors, some of whom dwell on long-ago triumphs and others who refuse to stop licking the wounds of still painful failures. The once celebrated star and cynical heartbreaker Raphaël Saint-Clair (Louis Jouvet) arrives, completely destitute, at a retirement home for actors. Alongside many former lovers, he meets the strict mime Gilles Marny (Victor Francen), who has always suffered from a lack of recognition and whose wife once committed suicide because of an affair with Saint-Clair, as well as the owlish Cabrissade (Michel Simon), who makes everyone without exception, but preferably Marny and Saint-Clair, the target of his crude mockery. The central conflict between the three main characters is enriched by a whole guard of brilliant leading and supporting actors from the French cinema of the time, and the whole film seems like a stage that was set up first and foremost to weave a wreath of honor for the diversity of acting. (Ralph Eue)

Photo: Austrian Film Museum