Daybreak

1939, Movie, 1h 33min

One of the defining works of 1930s poetic-realist cinema, the fourth collaboration between director Marcel Carné and screenwriter and poet Jacques Prévert is a gripping story of obsessive sexuality and murder starring the great Jean Gabin as an honest laborer who resorts to killing in order to free the woman he loves from the controlling influence of another man. Unfolding through flashbacks that bristle with a sense of inexorable doom, LE JOUR SE LÈVE (a.k.a. DAYBREAK) is a searing working-class tragedy that anticipates the dark themes and shadow-laden visual style that would come to be known as film noir.

Country: France

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Ratings

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IMDb rating

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7.7

Critic rating

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10.0

Reviews

Kasper Løvborg

rated

Simple and effective. Whatever you want to classify it as, poetic realism or pre-noir, this is up there as one of the stronger entries.

5 years ago

Critic Ian Freer

rated

...it has Gabin’s immense performance, muscular, sensitive and effortlessly cool, a clutch of great supporting turns (Jules Berry is a particularly slimy love rival), terrific set design by the legendary Alexandre Trauner...

Read full review at Empire