Before the credits, the following title is shown in white letters on a black screen, in complete silence:
A murder has been committed . . . As he sits alone, shut inside a small room, a man tries to reconstruct the events that led to his becoming a murderer . . .
This title card did not appear in the film when it was first shown. It was added at a later stage in view of the puzzlement of the audiences, who were unused to the technique of flashbacks.
François knocking: Come in!
Shot 216. Medium close-up of François coming through the door on the other side. He grins and closes it behind him. Pan with him in medium close-up as he walks across the room towards a shower curtain in the corner. Clara's head appears and she holds the curtains together to hide the rest of her body.
François smiling: Am I disturbing you? Ironic, as he glances round the room. Are you alone?
Clara: Idiot! Of course, I'm alone, because you always leave me alone . . .
François looking at her carefully: Hey, hey, hey, gently. Today's Sunday. The Complaints Department is closed . . . He laughs and looks at her admiringly. You look lovely like that, you know. You look like Truth rising out of the well.
Clara: Truth! You'd better keep quiet! She disappears behind the curtain. Off : I might tell you a few home truths. Pan with François as he goes back to sit down.
François: No point. I'm not interested this morning. Clara comes into shot wearing a dressing gown I'm in love!
She sits down beside him. They are now both in medium shot. As she is talking she pulls on her stockings, revealing her legs.
Clara: Love! The things I have to listen to! When I think I've spent more than two months rotting here! And why? Who for? A brute like you!
François correcting her: A nice brute, all the same.
Clara: Yes, a nice brute . . .
Clara: . . . who drops in to see me just like that -when he feels like it ... from time to time ... like a tourist!
François : For a tourist, you must admit I travel light.
Clara: That's exactly what I'm complaining about . . . you should have brought your baggage.
Francois : You know perfectly well, Clara, that I was never going to do that.
Shot 218. Medium shot, as François gets up and moves away out of shot.
Clara pretending to be disillusioned: I know, I know you promised nothing and I didn't ask for anything. Sitting up straight. But all the same . . .
Shot 219. Medium shot of François stretching himself out comfortably on the bed.
François: All the same what? Clara comes into shot and hangs her clothes on the bedstead.
Clara : I get bored at night.François : Don't you sleep well?
Clara: Yes, but I have nightmares ... She lies down beside him and rests her head on his chest . . . [The Production Code forbade a man and a woman--especially two who were not married--from lying in bed together. Most of the following dialogue is not translated.]
Clara: I dream that you aren't there. Then I wake with a jump, and you still aren't there, so that doesn't make things any better. If that's what you call nights of love . . .
Shot 220. Close-up of their two heads on the pillow.
François : Oh, nights of love . . . that's in books, and that's for lazybones who lie around doing nothing all day. Who knows? As for me, I work, you see, Clara. I slave away all day. And when you work your guts out all day, the night's for sleeping - see? While the day -well, in the daytime it depends . . . and, funny thing . . .
Shot 221. Big close-up of Clara looking at him tenderly.
François off: ... Sunday morning, for instance ... Don't you think, Clara, that there's a bit too much light in here? [Another Production Code taboo: François here implies that they should make love, during the day!]
Clara: Oh, the winter sun isn't harmful, you know.
François tender, off : Harmful or not, I don't give a damn. What I want is a little bit of shade.
Shot 222. Medium close-up of them both on the bed. Clara smiles, and camera tracks backwards in front of her as she gets up to go over to the window.
When she gets there she exclaims in surprise. Clara: Well, for goodness sake!
François getting up: What's the matter?
Clara pointing out of the window: Look!
Shot 223. Low angle medium close-up of the window from outside. Clara is seen through it, holding back the curtain and looking down into the street. François comes up behind her and looks over her shoulder.
Shot 224. High angle medium long shot of what they can see: VALENTIN is getting out of a large black car which is parked just underneath. He walks out of shot into the cafe.
Excerpted from:
Carné, Marcel and Jacques Prévert. Le Jour Se Lève. Translated and with a description of the action by Dinah Brooke and Nicola Hayden. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1970.
