The World Will Shake (1939)

Good concept, poorly executed.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Taking part in a poll on ICM for the best films of 1939,I started to search for movies that are overlooked from the year in French cinema. Finding his takes on Film Noir to be magnificent,I was excited to stumble on a Sci-Fi title co-written by Henri-Georges Clouzot,which led to me shaking the world.The plot:After having various people escape his grasp, (including a feisty prostitute)scientist Jean Durand gets a man on the run to test his machine,which has been created to correctly predict the day and time someone will die. Proved by the man dying that it does work,Durand puts his creation on the market,and at a high fee gives the public the chance to find out when they will die. Handing out future death dates,Durand finds this to have a greater effect on the public than he expected.View on the film:Taking a rare journey into Sci-Fi for this era of French cinema,the adaptation of Francis Didelot and Charles Robert-Dumas's novel by Henri-Georges Clouzot and (what appears to be a pseudonym) J. Villard combines man overstepping the mark in science,with a sharp allegorical horror. Whilst not a Film Noir, Clouzot wraps the characters in the pessimism of the genre, as the discovery of their "death date" causes the patient to lose the will to live,and Durand (somewhat) genuine vision for how the machine can be used, become engulfed in the commercial possibility of handing out death certificates. Turning the machine on when the government was becoming sticker on censorship as the horrors of WWII appeared, Clouzot and "Villard" give the Sci-Fi a harsh allegorical edge. Littering the screen in front pages on the recession of 1937- 1938,the writers reveal the vast wealth divide in Durand's treatment of the elite on the machine, which gets destroyed by the united workers fearing the machine is killing their livelihood. Keeping the Sci-Fi rooted in the present, director Richard Pottier & cinematographer Robert Lefebvre have infectious fun building the machine of tomorrow,with the flickering lights and bulky design giving the device a warm,old fashion Sci-Fi feel. Counting down the clock of death, Pottier gives Durand's creation a brooding atmosphere, as tightly held close-ups stylishly move aside into the shadows, as each customer meets the end of their countdown. Reuniting in the excellent 1946 Film Noir La foire aux chimères, Erich von Stroheim and the beautiful Madeleine Sologne both give marvellous performances as Emil Lasser and Marie-France Lasserre, with Stroheim filling Emil with a grave, concerned manner over the machine,whilst Sologne turns Lasserre's care-free love for Durand into lingering doubt,as the machine takes control of his life. Bringing the machine to life, Claude Dauphin gives a fantastic performance as Durand,which avoids "Mad Scientist" white hair by Dauphin giving Durand a simmering lack of empathy,which causes the world to shake.

On the net,there's a dubious site where ,provided you give some information about yourself,"they" can predate the day when you die .It's not free,mind you ,but for a couple of Euros or dollars you can know it.This is the very subject of "Le Monde Tremblera" aka "La Révolte Des Vivants " (revolt of the living);no internet but a machine a young doctor has invented :it can tell you how many years ,days,hours and minutes you have left to live.Some want to know ,some don't .This may be the only worthwhile French sci-fi movie of the era,in spite of the obvious lack of means and the rather laughable machine;another attempt at sci-fi called "Croisière Siderales" ,with the same female star ,Madeleine Sologne can't be taken seriously.If "Le Monde Tremblera" holds up quite well ,it's because his subject is timeless and anybody can relate to it: when you watch it,you can't help but wonder "and me? How many years ? months?" The screenplay ,based on an obscure forgotten book,was written by one of our genius ,Henri-Georges Clouzot,the only French director who enjoys two movies in the IMDb top 250.Clouzot's touch can be felt in the scientist character: from the first sequence we know he is a very cynical man ,in spite of his nice look:he tries to use a prostitute as a guinea pig to test the machine;as his friend ,the "good" doctor says :nothing can move you,friendship,love ,despair.The two characters can be seen as the two sides of the same person,which the last scene,with its unusually inventive use of light and shadows ,its dark faces and the symmetrical roles of the two characters,brings out :Clouzot would take this technique to its absolute perfection in his second work ,the celebrated "Le Corbeau".Jean Durand is evil,and his ambition knows no bounds ,he goes as far as to say that it's the 8th day of the creation;but his fiancée 's father (Erich Von Stroheim)is as cynical ^;his rapaciousness shows when he wants to use the machine to swindle the life assurances .An alternate title is " the revolt of the living" :when people know their days are numbered ,they want to drag the others with them .Another hint at the Bible mentions Samson destroying the temple ."I do not want to know" says a character "I couldn't go on living if I knew".Could you?