The Devil's Envoys

Two travelling minstrels arrive at a castle in the fifteenth century. Both are the devil's envoys, sent to seduce the people preparing for a wedding and corrupt their hearts. The plan works until one of the envoys genuinely falls in love. When the devil learns of it, he comes himself. The subject is not the fairy tale but the single point at which evil cannot control everything. At the end the devil succeeds in turning the two lovers to stone, and a heartbeat is still heard from inside it. That image carries all of the film's political meaning. The form is slow and ceremonial. Costumes, castle and dances are arranged to resemble period painting; the camera is unhurried and the speech is poetic. Jacques Prévert's text is written directly in the language of fable. It was made in France under German occupation. Alexandre Trauner, who designed the sets, and Joseph Kosma, who wrote the music, worked in secret; both were Jewish and could not be credited. Other names were put in their place. Those conditions explain why the stone heart at the end is read as an allegory of resistance. Arletty and Alain Cuny play the envoys and Jules Berry the devil. Marcel Carné directs. Who it is for: viewers who like classical French cinema and fable structure. Who it is not for: anyone with no patience for slow tempo; the narration is deliberately unhurried and distanced.