Du haut en bas (High and Low, or From Top to Bottom) is a 1933 French drama directed by G.W. Pabst. Perhaps most notable for featuring Jean Gabin, I include it here because of course: Peter Lorre!
While Lorre had only a bit part, he sparkles in it, making the most of his limited screen time. And he could speak French, so that’s his own voice in the clip above.
Lorre plays a beggar who is unsuccessful until he is advised that he doesn’t look shabby enough. So he rips up his trouser leg and presto, his luck changes and the handouts come in.
Until, that is, he begs at the door of a seamstress. She is poor herself, but she can still give him something: She hustles him behind a changing screen to take off his trousers - she’s going to mend them!
Horrified, Peter can only do one thing: He reaches for a pair of scissors and slices up his coat to compensate for her kindness.
"Je sais que vous avez trop de bénignité,
Et que vous ferez grâce à ma témérité
Que vous m'excuserez sur l'humaine faiblesse. Des violents transports d'un amour qui vous blesse,
Et considérerez, en regardant votre air,
Que l'on est pas aveugle, et qu'un homme est de chair." - Molière, Tartuffe
Stream It Or Skip It: ‘In His Shadow’ on Netflix, A Mythically-Tinged Tale of Brothers Battling in the Banlieues
Love isn’t the only thing that’s blind on Netflix – so is the protagonist of their new original movie In His Shadow. That’s about where any similarity between their glossy reality show and this gritty French drama ends. If all you know of France is the ritzy streets of Paris, this high-stakes showdown in a majority-minority community is here to correct any assumptions.
The Gist: Half-brothers…
Necessary questions one should be able to answer before they can (informedly) criticize the French revolution and/or Robespierre:
1. Why was Louis XVI executed?
2. What is the war of the First Coalition?
3. Most of the people who died in the French revolution were members of which social group?
4. What was the cause of death for most of the people who died in the French revolution? Was it guillotine?
5. Who is Joseph Fouché? Also: Who is Collot d'Herbois?
6. Who introduced the Terror and why? (Could also ask "what was the Terror" but that could be too tricky to answer).
7. (Bonus trick question) Who was the ruler of France during the Terror?
I don't even mean this sarcastically. I am totally cool with people criticizing frev (Robespierre, etc.) but some basic knowledge needs to be in place in order to do so.
"L'amour qui nous attache aux beautés éternelles
N'étouffe pas en nous l'amour des temporelles ;
Nos sens facilement peuvent être charmés
Des ouvrages parfaits que le Ciel a formés.
Ses attraits réfléchis brillent dans vos pareilles ;
Mais il étale en vous ses plus rares merveilles ;
Il a sur votre face épanch�� des beautés
Dont les yeux sont surpris, et les coeurs transportés" - Molière, Tartuffe