SUCH A PRETTY LITTLE BEACH

France | 1949 | DCP | 91 min. | French with English subtitles
Director: Yves Allégret
Cast: Gérard Philipe, Madeleine Robinson, Jean Servais
Awash in a desolate atmosphere of intense portent, few films summon a mood of misery quite like Such a Pretty Little Beach. In postwar France, a man (Philipe) on the run returns to the seaside enclave of his tragic war-torn youth during the town’s rain-drenched off-season. Classically expressionistic, the inhospitable nature of the climate reflects our protagonist’s own fraught psychological torment and a newfound guilty conscience, spurred on by an unspeakable act committed in Paris. An immersive character study, a new restoration of Allégret’s long-undersung noir will be screened. (JM)