This was on TV last night. I read that Julien Duvivier was one of the most underrated French director. The movie was enjoyable, although sometimes the look in the lead actor seemed scary (and wrong, in my opinion). Perhaps he was tired of doing the same scene again and again.
Georges (Jean-Pierre Léaud) lives in an attic room in Pigalle. He leaves his father, who owns a bar, because he doesn't like his new step-mother. His happiest time is perhaps when he is on the roof, for he can see all over Pigalle, and for a while he can pretend to be the king of the world. In the same building, lives a striptease dancer, Jenny Dorr (Magali Noël), whom he is trying to attract; and an Italian family who has a nice daughter (Monique Brienne) who likes him. Another important character is Dicky the boxer (Pierre Mondy), who later will win the heart of Jenny. The movie centers in the struggle of Georges to survive. He is too proud to ask his own father some food, but when he drops by, he eats all the croissants. There is a strong scene when her step mother asks her father to choose between her and his son. Georges works anything available: selling newspapers for the young, posing as Narcissus, ...so he can have money to take his girlfriend to a movie and buy ice cream. The clock is ticking, it's time to take her to cinema, and he hasn't got the money. Maybe he would have, if he were a little kinder to Dicky. He has to swallow his pride and goes to his father for the money, but his girlfriend betrays him. In his attempt to commit suicide, Georges begins to see that actually the world is not as cruel as he thought it to be.
My favourite scene is the boxing match. Very funny. It's obvious he must beat Dicky at any cost. And the old woman whose courage is as strong as the young, shouts "Commencez!"
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