#430: MALLE, Louis: The Fire Within (1963)

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MALLE, Louis (France)
The Fire Within [1963]
Spine #430
DVD


After garnering international acclaim for such seminal crowd-pleasers as The Lovers and Zazie dans le métro, Louis Malle gave his fans a shock with The Fire Within, a penetrating study of individual and social inertia. Maurice Ronet (Elevator to the Gallows), in an implosive, haunted performance, plays Alain Leroy, a self-destructive writer who resolves to kill himself and spends the next twenty-four hours trying to reconnect with a host of wayward friends. Unsparing in its portrait of Alain's inner turmoil and shot with remarkable clarity, The Fire Within is one of Malle's darkest and most personal films.

108 minutes
Black & White
Monaural
in French
1:66:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2008
Director/Writers


Based on the book Le feu follet by Pierre Drieu la Rochelle.

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Twenty-four page booklet featuring essays by critic Michel Ciment and film historian Peter Cowie.

Commentary

None.

Archival interviews

With director Malle and actor Ronet.
Malle’s Fire Within

A video program featuring interviews with actor Stewart and filmmakers Phillippe Collin and Volker Schlödorff.
Jusqu’au 23 juillet

A 2005 documentary short about the film and its source novel, Le feu follet, by la Rochelle, featuring actor  Mathieu Amalric, writer Didier Daenickx, and Cannes festival curator Pierre-Henri Deleau.
Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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