L'Espoir

original title:
L'Espoir
other titles:
Espoir - Sierra de Teruel, Man's Hope, Days of Hope, Sierra De Teruel
country / year of production:
France , Spain / 1938
original length:
88 min. , black/white
premiere:
1939 im "Le Paris" an den Champs Elysées.
genre:
melodrama
based on:
André Malraux. L´Éspoir. Paris: Gallimard. 1937.
director:
André Malraux , Boris Peskin
film script:
Antonio del Amo , Max Aub , André Malraux , Boris Peskin
producer:
Edouard Corniglion-Molinier , Roland Tual
cinematographer:
Louis Page
editor:
Georges Grace , André Malraux
composer:
Darius Milhaud
cast (role):
Andrés Mejuto (Captain Munoz) , José María Lado (Peasant Attignies) , José María Lado , Andrés Mejuto
more:
plot synopsis:
A Loyalist aerial squadron, whose enthusiasm and determination easily outstrip the weapons at their disposal, need to take control of a strategically crucial bridge. To achieve this goal, they must wipe out a Republican air field, but their reconnaissance teams have been unable to locate it. The Loyalist air aces meet a peasant who knows where the targeted airstrip can be found, but there's a catch: he's illiterate and can't use a map, so he has to be taken along on bombing raids to show the men their target.
(Mark Deming for www.allmovie.com)
keywords:
war:
Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
literature:
John J. Michalczyk. „Malraux’s Film Espoir. The aesthetic mind and political context“. In: Kathleen Vernon (ed.). The Spanish Civil War and the Visual Arts. Itheca: Center for Internat. Studies, Cornell University, 1990, 7-13.
remarks:
The shooting began Barcelone on July 20th 1938 with the explicit permission of the republican government. But when in January 1939 the city was conquered by nationalist troops under general Yaguë the shooting had to be interrupted. The production of the film that Malraux now entitled „Sierra de Turuel“ was continued in the studios of Joinville. After a preview in the cinema Le Paris on the Champs Elysées Malraux had planned an official presentation for September. But the break-out of the Second World War prevented the showing. It was after the liberation of France in 1945 that the film entered the screen under its new title “L`Espoir”.
The film immediately received triumphant acclaim, earning the nation's highest cinematic honor, the Louis Delluc Award.
availability: