La Belle Équipe

Five unemployed friends in Paris win a large sum on the lottery. Instead of dividing it they decide to do something together: buy a derelict building by the river and turn it into a dance hall and restaurant. During the construction everything goes well. Then a woman arrives. Julien Duvivier directs. Jean Gabin leads, with Charles Vanel and Viviane Romance. It was made in 1936, the year the Popular Front took office in France and paid holiday was won. The atmosphere of that moment is directly in the film: working together, common ownership, solidarity. The first half is almost a document of hope. It has two endings, one of the known arguments in film history. Duvivier's original was dark; when preview audiences reacted badly the studio had a happy ending shot and that is the version that was released. The original was recovered years later and most versions now use it. Gabin was at the centre of French cinema in this period, and the part here is one of those that established his type: working class, proud, and ending badly. Who it is for: viewers who like French poetic realism and thirties cinema. Who it is not for: the second half is far darker than the first and the tonal shift is abrupt, and the woman is written purely as an agent of disaster.