Based on a novel by Georges Simenon, Panic is Julien Duvivier’s first film in France after his brief stay in America during World War II. Michel Simon, the cashier-turned-murderer in La Chienne and scruffy-seaman/cat-lover in L’Atalante, plays a recluse with a fondness for photography, which ultimately gets him in a lot of hot water after he accidentally photographs a murder. Only adding to his troubles is the fact that he is in love with the murderer’s girlfriend. As she tries to hold him off from revealing his evidence to the police, the townspeople are struck by paranoia and choose Simon as their scapegoat. Duvivier’s finale is a clear influence on Alfred Hitchcock, particularly the rooftop chase which bears a striking resemblance to the opening of Vertigo, and the closing shot of the killer hiding on a carousel predicts Hitchcock’s own conclusion to Strangers on a Train four years later.
by Cullen Gallagher | Source: 16mm Print
30 Oct 2008 11:32 AM | Submit Comment
