LILIOM

Liliom Zadowsky (Charles Boyer) is a clever carnival barker. One evening he meets the beautiful young Julie (Madeleine Ozeray), seduces her and they soon move in together. But Liliom, having been fired by the jealous owner of the fairground and convinced that he is now an ‘artist’, refuses to look for a new job. Shortly afterwards, Julie confesses to Liliom that she is expecting a baby: the young man seems to come to his senses and welcomes the news. But after yet another clash with her mother, he realises that he will need money to raise a child. So he is persuaded by an accomplice to take part in a robbery. But the plan goes wrong: the police are after them and Liliom stabs himself to avoid being arrested. Agonizing, he is taken to Julie, who will stay with him until the end. Suddenly, two men dressed in black arrive to take Liliom away. His soul detaches from his body and flies up to heaven. After receiving an attractive offer from Goebbels, Fritz Lang abruptly fled Nazi Germany. Before arriving in the United States, he took refuge in France, where he made ‘Liliom’, from a play by Molnar that had already inspired a film in 1930 by Frank Borzage. Lang used a ‘witty and irreverent’ tone for a tragicomedy that disappointed audiences at the time, but which the director considered to be one of his best works.