La Part de l'ombre (1945)
Directed by Jean Delannoy

Film Review

Between two of his most highly regarded films - L'Éternel retour (1943) and La Symphonie pastorale (1946) - Jean Delannoy directed this tepid melodrama which fails to take off, despite the presence of two of France's most highly regarded actors in the lead roles.  Jean-Louis Barrault and Edwige Feuillère each has a compelling screen presence but their obvious lack of on-screen chemistry makes their pairing as romantic leads a pretty pointless venture.  Even though Barrault's character is something of a self-absorbed narcissist, you feel that there should be something to account for Feuillère's fatal attraction to him, but whatever this mysterious something is is singularly hard to fathom.  Owing presumably to the privations of the time, La Part de l'ombre lacks the polish of Delannoy's other films of this decade, and some parts of it look positively shoddy.  Made a time when dramatic events were unfolding in France, indeed across the world, the cast and crew could be forgiven for having their minds on other things, and this might explain why this mid-period Delannoy rates so lowly and deserves its obscurity.

Film Synopsis

A retired violist lives in self-enforced seclusion at his château with his daughter Agnès.  He does nothing to encourage the hoards of aspiring young musicians who turn up on his doorstep asking for his patronage and advice.  When Agnès takes an interest in one of these musicians, a young man named Michel Kremer, the old violist agrees to listen to him play, but he is so struck by the hidden torment in Michel's violin playing that he sends him away and insists that he stays away from his daughter.  He then gives Agnès three rings, insisting that she must offer each ring to a man she falls in love with in the spring, summer and autumn of her life.  Despite herself, Agnès finds herself drawn to Michel and resolves to help him fulfil his potential as a composer and musician.  Her three rings are destined for the same man...