The Fire Within

Stars: Maurice Ronet (Beau Pere, La Balance), Jeanne Moreau (La Femme Nikita, Until the End of the World). This early film from French director Louis Malle (Atlantic City, My Dinner With Andre) is a powerful dissection of the thoughts and feelings of a man during the last 48 hours of his life. Maurice Ronet stars as Alain Leroy, a dissolute playboy who is a recovering alcoholic living in a Versailles sanatorium. His wife is in the U.S. and refuses to answer his letters, his doctor tells him that he is healthy and should re-enter society, and his friends boast about the happiness they've achieved with their families and their work. But from the moment, early on, when Alain takes out his gun and rests it pensively against the side of his cheek, the audience knows that he is one drowning man who will not be saved. Strangely, the foregone conclusion makes The Fire Within all the more interesting; we watch with morbid curiosity Alain's movements around his lavishly furnished room, and listen more carefully to his conversations. Not a cheerful film by any means, Malle's portrait of an alienated, semi-tragic soul is, nevertheless, compelling and insightful. Audience: Foreign film fans. (R. Pitman)DVD Review—May 13, 2008—Criterion, 108 min., in French w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $29.95—Making its first appearance on DVD, 1963's The Lovers boasts a great transfer. DVD extras include the 29-minute 2005 documentary short “Jusqu'au 23 juillet” about the film and its source novel by Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, a 28-minute “Malle's Fire Within” featurette containing interviews with costar Alexandra Stewart and filmmakers Philippe Collin and Volker Schlondorff, a selection of archival interviews with director Louis Malle (21 min.) and costar Maurice Ronet (6 min.), and new essays by critic Michel Ciment and film historian Peter Cowie. Bottom line: a fine extras package for a notable early film by Malle.]