Expect the Unexpected

The French film poster for EVERYONE WANTS TO KILL ME (1957), directed by Henri Decoin.

When a movie refuses to fit snugly into a specific genre, that could be a sign that the filmmakers were either unable to capture the desired approach and tone or that the story/screenplay dictated a less conventional approach to the narrative. I suspect that the latter reason is why Tous Peuvent Me Tuer (English title, Everyone Wants to Kill Me, 1957), directed by Henri Decoin, is hard to place into any specific film category. If you were to watch the movie with the sound turned off, you would probably classify it as a brooding French noir. Yet, if you add in the music score and the animated performances, it comes across as an almost lighthearted crime caper flick. Add to this a segue into prison melodrama which soon becomes a whodunit murder mystery. And just to keep things off balance, stir in a romance, some comic relief and a wrap-up that positions the entire affair as a morality play. 

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What a Piece of Work is Man

John Claudius, a professor of philosophy at Harvard, returns to his home in Germany after 20 years. As a young boy, he was sent to live with his mother’s relatives in Pittsburgh before World War II broke out. In his absence, his father built a financial empire with his munitions plant and became a respected member of the Nazi party. After Claudius senior was killed in a bombing raid, John’s mother Gertrud married Paul Claudius, the younger brother of her husband. The reason for John’s unexpected visit after 20 years is motivated by suspicions that his father was murdered by Paul and he is determined to learn the truth. Sound familiar? It should because The Rest is Silence (1959, German title: Der Rest ist Schweigen) is a loose adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet set in a post-WW2 Germany.

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