The Fire Within [Criterion Collection]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Maurice Ronet plays an alcoholic writer, Alain Leroy, who is on the verge of suicide (his character is based on writer Jacques Rigaut, who killed himself in 1929). The psychiatrist assigned to Leroy is no help, advising his patient to seek a reconciliation with his wife, who is still smarting from Leroy's recent liaison with Lydia (Lena Skerla). Still obsessed with the notion of taking his own life, Leroy plans to stage his demise on July 23. A last-ditch effort to jolly himself out of his doldrums fails, and Leroy, with a picture of Marilyn Monroe at his side, snuffs himself out. Though a case study of a man victimized by his own isolationism, The Fire Within has some surprising random optimistic moments. The French title for The Fire Within is Le Feu Follet, which was also the title of the novel by Pierre Drieu La Rochelle (another suicide!) from which this film was adapted. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 (Vistavision)
• Subtitle: Eng
• Features:
  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer
  • Archival interviews with director Louis Malle and actor Maurice Ronet
  • Malle's Fire Within, a new video program featuring interviews with actor Alexandra Stewart and filmmakers Philippe Collin and Volker Schlondorff
  • Jusqu'au 23 Juillet, a 2005 documentary short about the film and it's source novel, Le Feu Follet, by Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, featuring actor Mathieu Amalric, writer Didier Daeninckx, and Cannes festival curator Pierre-Henri Deleau
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • Plus: A booklet featuring new essays by critic Michel Ciment and film gistorian Peter Cowie

AWARDS

• Telluride Film Festival

•     Film Presented - 1998
•     Film Presented - 1976

• Venice International Film Festival

•     Won Special Jury Prize - 1963 (Louis Malle)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Maurice Ronet - Alain Leroy
       Lena Skerla - Lydia
       Jeanne Moreau - Eva
       Alexandra Stewart - Solange
       Yvonne Clech - Mademoiselle Farnoux
       Bernard Noel - Dubourg
       Mona Dol - Madame La Barbinais
       Ursula Kubler - Fanny
       Alain Mottet - Urcel
       Henri Serre - Frederic
       Romain Bouteille - Jerome Minville
       Bernard Tiphaine - Milou
       Jean - Paul Moulinot - Dr. La Barbinais
       Hubert Deschamps - D'Avereau
       Jacques Sereys - Cyrille Lavaud
       Francois Gragnon - Francois Minville
       Rene Dupre - Charlie
       Pierre Moncorbier - Moraine

• Director:

  Louis Malle

• Producer:

  Alain Queffelean

• Screenwriter:

  Louis Malle

• Book Author:

  Pierre Drieu La Rochelle

• Cinematographer:

  Ghislain Cloquet

• Featured Music:

  Erik Satie

• Editor:

  Suzanne Baron, Monique Nana

• Art Director:

  Bernard Evein

• First Assistant Director:

  Volker Schlöndorff

REVIEW:

• One of the most ingeniously conceived, directed, and performed feature films of early '60s Europe opened for around a week in the U.S. and faded into utter obscurity for the following decade; Pauline Kael heralded it as a masterpiece (and proof positive of Louis Malle's genius) in her 1971 New Yorker review of Le Souffle au Coeur, which temporarily lifted The Fire Within into the public mindset. In retrospect, the reasons for Le Feu Follet's lack of recognition are obvious: by conceptually forcing the viewer into the psyche of a suicide and thus eliminating all onscreen feeling (the film deliberately lacks an emotional subtext), Malle alienates half of his audience. Evidently, American viewers -- still recovering from the Kennedy assassination in February 1964 -- didn't particularly want to be drawn into a state of suicidal numbness. But this feature boasts one of the most dynamic aural-visual aesthetic complements in modern film. The stark, hi-con black-and-white cinematography and the Erik Satie music -- each perfectly evocative by itself -- not only accentuate but complete each other, and form an impeccable accessory to the thematic nihilism of the piece. In fact, Malle's aesthetic evocation of psychodrama was so groundbreaking at the time that it made a permanent stylistic impact on many less-inspired cinematic explorations of behavioral dysfunction -- such as Lady in a Cage, Seance on a Wet Afternoon, and In Cold Blood. Malle's narrative architecture is equally brilliant -- he structures the work like a piece of classical music, rich with recurrences and variations. And this overall demarche -- coupled with a chilling central performance in which Maurice Ronet literally becomes Alain Leroy -- enables the director to successfully craft an existential apologetic for suicide. Malle travels more deeply into the self-destructive mindset than any filmmaker before or since -- a decision that evinces boundless courage and humanistic empathy. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi