Quai Des Orfevres

1947 crime movie from Henri-Georges Clouzot.
This is a good film, that on this first viewing we were not completely able to engage with. The set up is strong, with the theatre worlds and the general mood strongly evoked. Clouzot's trademark uses of shadows, and his uses of mirrors and photographs predominate. The intention is to create a mood that things are always seen through a lens, an angle, not quite right.
A problem with this film is that the characters are difficult to care about. The analysis of bourgeois versus proletarian childhoods is interesting and surely important, but difficult to 'get one's head around'. Perhaps this is a case of us being ignorant. Either way, none of the character's are particularly likeable.
As for the crime itself, this is a bit of a MacGuffin, as shown by the frnakly pathetic ending. The plot is interesting enough, though we do not have the tension we had in 'Les Diaboliques', more of a curiosity that is left rather unsatisfied.
The character of the detective is the most interesting one, and well evoked (the husband is also particularly well acted). It is through him that we get the best view of the gritty, dirty streets of wartime Paris that Clouzot wants us to have.
However, this message just doesn't carry too strongly. Perhaps we were not concentrating hard enough, but a lot of the time this appears as just a tradition cop drama with an atrocious ending. Clouzot's camerawork isn't a point of huge interest, so perhaps more consideration of the settings and background contexts would have helped.
This led us to consider what it is to watch a film, whether one 'reads' it for the themes and settings or tries to 'watch' it for the images (some of which Clouzot does excellently, incidentally, the shadows above mentioned). Maybe we need to concentrate harder, and get the balance better. On further viewing, maybe this Clouzot film will 'come to light' as more than the police drama we watched.
From this viewing however, we saw a decent enough stroy that failed to really excite the mind.