Considered one of Alfred Hitchcock's best films, 1958 "Vertigo," concerns a private eye who falls in love with his client's wife, only to see her doppelgänger appear in a city street after he had witnessed her jump to her death from a tower. The framework of Hitchcock's plot, although reportedly taken from a different source, contained strong elements from Jacques Feyder's May 1934 "Le Grand Jeu."
Feyder had just returned from a unsatisfying stint at Hollywood's MGM, where he had directed Greta Garbo's final silent film, 1929's "The Kiss." Before leaving, he felt Garbo would be perfect in 1932's 'As You Desire Me,' a similar storyline as his later "Le Grand Jeu," a title which means the reading of cards, or telling the entire story. Feyder felt the actress' double should have a different voice than her primary character. He never got a chance to direct the movie, but the idea stuck with him when he returned to France. Feyder and scriptwriter Charles Spaak composed the story of a Paris businessman, Pierre Martel (Pierre Richard-Willm), who is forced to leave the country after running up exorbitant debts through his expensive lifestyle. His financial backers pay his bills only if he agrees to leave France. He split from his girlfriend Florence (Marie Bell) and joined the French Foreign Legion, where he meets her look-alike, Irma (Bell), with the exception of having darker hair. Things get wild when Pierre finds out he's inherited a large fortune. So struck by the impact of "Le Grand Jeu," film reviewer Joseph Ewens wrote, "It's rare to find a film that is thought provoking without being challenging and comfortable without being banal. It's a delightful story of emotional cascades that considers the way we relate to other people."
Feyder dubbed Marie Bell's voice as Irma by off-screen actress, Claude Marcy. She also voiced all the Garbo films for French distribution. "Le Grand Jeu" contains elements of 'poetic realism,' the 1930's French film movement that focused on the characters rather than on the settings. Jean Vigo's 1933 "Zero de Conduite," is a prime example where the movie characters' fatalistic views were front and center. "Le Grand Jeu's" 'poetic realism' is represented in Blanche, the hotel manager's wife where Pierre is staying. Her reading of the cards unfolds his past life and his predictive future. Later French classics, such as Julien Duvivier's 1937 "Pepe le Moko," whose protagonist closely resembles Pierre's situation, Jean Renoir's 1939 "La Grande Illusion," and most of Marcel Carne's films, all derive from the country's popular movement, 'poetic realism.'
"Le Grand Jeu" was part of a number of continental movies that played a huge influence on the Italian Neorealism and the French New Wave films of the 1940s and 1950s. In their book on the History of the Film, authors Maurice Bardèche and Robert Brasillach claim "Le Grand Jeu" is "one of the few films made based on a new idea, since the invention of talkies."
Feyder had just returned from a unsatisfying stint at Hollywood's MGM, where he had directed Greta Garbo's final silent film, 1929's "The Kiss." Before leaving, he felt Garbo would be perfect in 1932's 'As You Desire Me,' a similar storyline as his later "Le Grand Jeu," a title which means the reading of cards, or telling the entire story. Feyder felt the actress' double should have a different voice than her primary character. He never got a chance to direct the movie, but the idea stuck with him when he returned to France. Feyder and scriptwriter Charles Spaak composed the story of a Paris businessman, Pierre Martel (Pierre Richard-Willm), who is forced to leave the country after running up exorbitant debts through his expensive lifestyle. His financial backers pay his bills only if he agrees to leave France. He split from his girlfriend Florence (Marie Bell) and joined the French Foreign Legion, where he meets her look-alike, Irma (Bell), with the exception of having darker hair. Things get wild when Pierre finds out he's inherited a large fortune. So struck by the impact of "Le Grand Jeu," film reviewer Joseph Ewens wrote, "It's rare to find a film that is thought provoking without being challenging and comfortable without being banal. It's a delightful story of emotional cascades that considers the way we relate to other people."
Feyder dubbed Marie Bell's voice as Irma by off-screen actress, Claude Marcy. She also voiced all the Garbo films for French distribution. "Le Grand Jeu" contains elements of 'poetic realism,' the 1930's French film movement that focused on the characters rather than on the settings. Jean Vigo's 1933 "Zero de Conduite," is a prime example where the movie characters' fatalistic views were front and center. "Le Grand Jeu's" 'poetic realism' is represented in Blanche, the hotel manager's wife where Pierre is staying. Her reading of the cards unfolds his past life and his predictive future. Later French classics, such as Julien Duvivier's 1937 "Pepe le Moko," whose protagonist closely resembles Pierre's situation, Jean Renoir's 1939 "La Grande Illusion," and most of Marcel Carne's films, all derive from the country's popular movement, 'poetic realism.'
"Le Grand Jeu" was part of a number of continental movies that played a huge influence on the Italian Neorealism and the French New Wave films of the 1940s and 1950s. In their book on the History of the Film, authors Maurice Bardèche and Robert Brasillach claim "Le Grand Jeu" is "one of the few films made based on a new idea, since the invention of talkies."