Typhon Sur Nagasaki is one of the most surprising masterpieces of the '50s.I wasn't expecting something so good,and so tasty.This is the actor that was Marais!This is the actress that Mrs. Darrieux was!
Incandescent and hurtful love,intensity,sharp and realist psychology,typhoon,exoticism,intentness.Nothing has aged;everything is perfectly up to date.
Shocking,original,unconventional,lucid,without illusions,surprising.
Typhon Sur Nagasaki denotes perspicacity,shows intelligence,brio and taste.It has much gusto.
The colors of this fruity movie are marvelous.
The way Typhon Sur Nagasaki uses the spectacular (the typhoon) is intelligent,far-reaching and fascinating.The movie also makes some use of embellishments:cheap tricks of touristic advertising,ready-made "exoticism",facile lures (a Japanese dinner,ceremonies at a temple,a Golliwog show,etc.,everything that pleases the ordinary tourist).It is stupefying the very intelligent and creative way all these are used.
The high level is kept up constantly.Yves Ciampi makes a vivid and suspenseful work of intensity and psychology and acute observations and truth, out of ordinary exotic and touristic ingredients. The skilled director does not dodge the ingredients of banal, ungrateful touristic advertising exoticism; on the contrary,this courageous man builds with such ordinary ingredients,he uses them amazingly.This is a shocking aesthetic defiance.
The debonair engineer is a lordly,sinewy man,always well-dressed (Marais looked good with his red shirts and leather jacket).His ex-mistress,who arrives from France,wants to gain him back.She eats humble pie.Marsac hopes,at first,to be able to get off lightly.But little by little,he actually slides in her arms again.Things begin to look squally.
As Marsac,Marais outstrips by far Bogart's acting in "Casablanca".
Mrs. Darrieux's role ,as a selfish,self-assertive,full-length woman in heats,and a good-looker,is surpassing,and outweighs the "bitches in heats" roles made by Mrs. Taylor or Mrs. Leigh.
All the actors give knock-out performances (Keiko Kishi,Fröbe).
The scriptwriter,the director,the actors (Mrs. Darrieux,Mrs. Keiko Kishi),the music are jewelery.
Typhon Sur Nagasaki gave me what I wished,and fully.
The movie has also a strange dimension,alluded to by Typhon Sur Nagasaki 's lapidary motto taken from Kipling.
"House of Bamboo ","Sayonara","Hiroshima...","Typhon Sur Nagasaki".
Seeing "Nagasaki",I also understood why I didn't like "Casablanca":I was awaiting for something else,and this something else is "Nagasaki",I was waiting for Marais and Mrs. Darrieux.
I already was very fond of Marais;since "Nagasaki",I am a fan of Mrs. Darrieux,also.
It is unfair that the man who did Typhon Sur Nagasaki came to be known for ...Fantomas and ...Le Bossu.
(Prior to seeing "Typhon Sur Nagasaki ",my favorite Marais show was,since I was 13 years old,in '92,"Balsamo",that was so much fun.)
