The End of the Day

A retirement home in France, founded for aged actors who can no longer work. Those inside spend their days telling the old days; some say they played great parts, some hide that they never played at all. One day Raphaël Saint Clair arrives: once a famous leading man, remembered for the women in his life. His arrival opens every old account in the house again. Julien Duvivier shot it right before the war; it is among the clearest examples of the pessimistic strand in French cinema of the period. Louis Jouvet and Michel Simon face each other, and both are playing their own profession. The film treats acting not as an art but as a dependency: nobody accepts leaving the stage, nobody knows how to exist without applause. The result is merciless but not sneering. It is counted among the most overlooked of Duvivier's works.