New Digital Restoration
Thursday, March 9 | 5:30 & 8 pm
Criticized for its bleak point of view at the time of its release, Julien Duvivier’s Panique (1947) is now regarded by many as the finest adaptation of novelist Georges Simenon’s work. Duvivier’s film, from Simenon’s Mr. Hire’s Engagement, tells the story of the despised, middle-aged Monsieur Hire (Michel Simon, L’Atalante), whose strange behavior arouses the suspicions of his neighbors following the murder of a local girl. When Alice (the splendidly named Viviane Romance) enters the scene, having been released from prison for a crime she didn’t commit, she initially finds herself the subject of Hire’s unwanted, leering attention—even as she tries to keep an old romance hidden from inquisitive police inspectors. The first film made by the veteran director of Pépé le Moko after the conclusion of World War II, Panique combines the cynicism and shadowy looks that were the hallmarks of the film noir genre with the consistent visual invention of a director working at the peak of his powers. Panique is screening in a vivid new digital restoration.
To read more from Director of Curatorial Affairs, Michael J. Anderson, PhD, click here.
Director Julien Duvivier 1947 France 91 minutes NR DCP
