Trois jours à vivre (1957)
Directed by Gilles Grangier

Film Review

Louis Malle's Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (1958) was the film that set Jeanne Moreau on the road to international stardom, but before this the actress has spent almost a decade appearing in less notable films, many of which deserve their place in obscurity.  Gas-oil (1955), a minor film noir directed by Gilles Grangier, was one of the first of Moreau's films to make effective use of her mystique and unconventional sensuality, although their second collaboration - Trois jours à vivre - was somewhat less successful.  The most interesting aspect of this later film is its humorously derisive perspective on a repertory company consisting of third rate actors who have an over-inflated opinion of their own talents.

The thriller element of the film appears to have been added as an after thought and pretty well undermines what might otherwise have been a cruel satire on provincial theatre and all who sail in her.  The film's schizoid feel may in part be down to Jacques Deray's input as an assistant director.  A far more talented director of thrillers than Grangier, Deray would later direct some of the most successful French policiers of the following decades, including Borsalino (1970) and Flic Story (1975).  The darker, more noirish aspects of Trois jours à vivre carry Deray's distinctive signature, and Deray even gets to lend both his voice and his name as a news reporter on the radio in one scene.

Needless to say, Moreau is the one bright spot in this otherwise lacklustre Grangier offering, alluring as a wannabe star who achieves fame not by merit but by playing the femme fatale for real.  Daniel Gélin has the same ambitions as Moreau but, being as spineless as he is talentless, he elicits no sympathy whatsoever when a butch Italian good-for-nothing named Lino shows up and threatens to kill him for denouncing him to the police.  Lino is of course Lino Ventura, well and truly cast according to type as a muscle-bound hoodlum with as much heart as a lump of concrete.  Risibly shallow as the characterisation is, Ventura succeeds where every other member of the cast fails, which is to make his archetypal character sympathetic and believable, although he would be far better served on Grangier's later thriller 125, rue Montmartre (1959).  Unevenly paced and saddled with a dull, unconvincing B-movie plot, Trois jours à vivre is by no means the most memorable of Gilles Grangier's thrillers but the few feisty scenes with Moreau and Ventura make it worth the effort.

Film Synopsis

Simon Belin, a minor actor with a travelling theatre company, witnesses a murder.  Hoping that the publicity he will gain will help his career, Simon identifies the killer as Lino Ferrari, a notorious gangster who, in reality, is innocent of the crime.  As a result of Simon's testimony, Ferrari is arrested and given a twenty year prison sentence.  The gangster swears that when he gets free, Simon will have only three days to live...