Watching Michel Simon, moviegoers have always felt that they were not just watching an actor play a role, but watching the actor himself. His best roles were double roles: Boudu [in Boudu sauvé des eaux] is both a vagrant and a child discovering life; Pére Jules in Vigo’s L’Atalante is a frustrated barge captain and a refined collector; Irwin Molyneux, the businessman of Drôle de Drame, secretly writes bloody novels; and to come back to [Jean] Renoir, Maurice Legrand in La Chienne is an insignificant and docile cashier but also, without knowing it, a great painter. I am persuaded that filmmakers entrusted Simon with these difficult double roles – which he always played magnificently even when the films were weak – because they felt that this great actor incarnated life and the secret of life. Jean Renoir was the first to make this truth evident. When Michel Simon acts for us, we penetrate to the core of the human heart.
— From The Films In My Life
, by François Truffaut
Saw Michel Simon in Le Quai Des Brumes (1938) – what a wonderful actor. All these years later I still remember that character – going from convenient cynic to creepy evil. He was also Papa Boule in John Frankenheimerâs âThe Trainâ. What an unforgettable face and corpse.
George – totally unforgettable face! Almost burlesque and yet never anything other than totally real.
Weird that you should quote Francois Truffaut. I just finished Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami and two characters were sort of connected by their love of Truffaut.
De – really? Wild! I’m kind of on a Truffaut kick right now (his writing). Not much time these days to read, with all the writing I’m doing – but his film criticism has been great for when I do feel like reading.
I think I’m gonna have to place a request for this book at the library. Sounds awesome.
I absolutely love the way Truffaut writes about movies. His “review” of Twelve Angry Men still makes me smile. He barely wrote a thing. Just something about how Sidney Lumet was going to become a very important director. He was right, even if Lumet never found a signature of any kind, he’s made a lot of great movies since then.
Have you seen this, Sheila? That folder Truffaut’s got, with all his little notes and scribbles – jokes written on the back of bills and any random scrap of paper he could get his hands on when this stuff came to him – I just LOVE it. Especially when you consider that all those tiny jottings came together in the end to make a movie. It’s a largely overlooked part of the process. I’m always glad when I get to see it.
Oops, didn’t mean to close comments. The spammers are KILLING ME RIGHT NOW.
Emily – yes yes his blunt brief review of 12 Angry Men is just wonderful! I love his piece on Fritz Lang too. I’ve been on a Fritz Lang kick lately – Peter Bogdonavich’s lengthy interview with him is just fascinating, but Truffaut’s take on Lang’s mercilessness – coming, as he did from Nazi Germany, is just fantastic. A great filter through which to watch Lang’s amazing films.
I love Truffaut’s writing because it’s so EMOTIONAL – and I also love how defensive he gets for the directors he adores. Like Hitchcock. He is unapologetically a fan – also unafraid to say if something doesn’t work – but he looks at Hitchcock through an admiring lens, and nothing can shake it. I really relate to that – being the kind of fan that I am.
I’ll check out that Youtube clip when I have a chance – looks great!
I love that emotion, too. It’s even right there in the title of the book. These aren’t movies he just digs or wants to praise or critique. They are pieces of his life, as if they were living, breathing creatures with souls. That’s literally how he thought of movies. It’s spectacular to read someone with that much passion.
William Holden:
He had a drinking problem…but then hit an Italian while driving in Italy, and that compounded his drinking much more so…guilt etc.
This is why he drank more after that accident.
Just thought you all should know.
Great Site!!!
Emily