Sous le ciel de Paris coule la Seine (Unter dem Himmel von Paris)

Julien Duvivier forms loosely interwoven events into a panorama of a day in the life of the city of Paris and its people. Seven people who, without knowing it, will be decisive for each other on this day, act like living symbols of an artfully composed whole, in which the tragic leads the sceptre on an equal footing with the comic and the absurd. Certainly, the many arbitrary coincidences stem from the mind of a screenwriter and director (and the costumes from Christian Dior). But precisely because omniscience seems to be taken to extremes here, the despotic nature of the narrative maneuvers also shines through clearly. In this film, Duvivier balances between absolute hermeticism and boundless openness with somnambulistic certainty. (Ralph Eue)

Photo: Austrian Film Museum