Lilac

The film is set in Paris. At its centre is a woman called Lilac. Lilac lives inside the criminal world of the city. She falls in love with a handsome detective. But the detective does not let his feelings get in the way of his duty. In the end he reluctantly turns her over to the authorities. The work was adapted from a play by Tristan Bernard and Charles Henry Hirsch. It is one of Anatole Litvak’s early talkies. The account is put together as a crime film. The tension between duty and feeling is at its centre. Marcelle Romee and André Luguet take the leads, with Fréhel and Jean Gabin also in the cast, in this French film of 1932.