Life Dances On

Life Dances On
Directed by	Julien Duvivier
Written by	Julien Duvivier Henri Jeanson Yves Mirande Jean Sarment Pierre Wolff Bernard Zimmer
Produced by	Jean-Pierre Frogerais
Starring	Marie Bell Françoise Rosay Louis Jouvet
Cinematography	Philippe Agostini Michel Kelber Pierre Levent
Edited by	André Versein
Music by	Maurice Jaubert
Production company	Productions Sigma
Distributed by	Les Films Vog
Release date	9 September 1937
Running time	144 minutes
Country	France
Language	French

Life Dances On or Christine or Dance Program (French: Un carnet de bal) is a 1937 French drama film directed by Julien Duvivier and starring Marie Bell, Françoise Rosay and Louis Jouvet.

The film's art direction was by Jean Douarinou.

Plot

Twenty years after her debut ball, recently-widowed Christine tracks down her former dance partners to see how time has treated them. Her beaux have not fared well: one killed himself over Christine and his doting mother haunts his room in a perpetual state of denial. Promising lawyer and poet Pierre became a cynical nightclub owner and mob boss. An older composer took monastic vows and now teaches music to choirboys. The relatively fit and well-adjusted bachelor Eric has secluded himself on a mountain. Francois is a petit-bourgeois mayor marrying his henpecked maid in a small village. A former medical student is now a world-weary, drug-addicted wreck performing illegal abortions in the dockyard district. And optimistic card-trick-loving Fabien is a hair-dresser well-contented with his domestic life (though perhaps closeted) and frequenting the same old dance circuit.

Christine indulges in the melancholy of regret, remaining non-judgmental, but nevertheless disturbed by the profound effect she had on these men, their loss of innocence, and the ravages of time.

Cast

• Harry Baur as Alain Regnault
• Marie Bell as Christine Surgère
• Pierre Blanchar as Thierry Raynal
• Fernandel as Fabien Coutissol
• Louis Jouvet as Pierre Verdier, dit Jo
• Raimu as Francois Patusset
• Françoise Rosay as Marguerite Audié
• Pierre Richard-Willm as Eric Irvin
• Maurice Bénard as Brémond
• Robert Lynen as Jacques Dambreval
• Milly Mathis as Cécile Galtéry
• Sylvie as La maîtresse de Thierry
• Andrex as Paul
• Jeanne Fusier-Gir as La marchande de journaux
• Alfred Adam as Fred
• Pierre Alcover as Teddy Mélanco
• Jacques Beauvais as Le maître d'hôtel
• Peggy Bonny as L'entraîneuse
• Serge de Landauer
• Georges Dorival as Le baron
• Crista Dorra
• Marguerite Ducouret as La mère de la jeune fille au bal
• Agnès Duval as La serveuse du repas de noces
• Gabrielle Fontan as Rose, la bonne de Mme Audié
• Simone Gauthier as La jeune fille au bal
• René Génin as L'adjoint du maire
• Roger Legris as Un complice de Jo
• Raymond Narlay as Un dîneur chez Jo
• Henri Nassiet as Un policier
• Henri Niel as Un invité chez Patusset
• Les Petits Chanteurs à la Croix de Bois as Les petits chanteurs de la manécanterie
• Sylvain as Un danseur
• Janine Zorelli

Bibliography

• Moeller, Felix. The Film Minister: Goebbels and the Cinema in the Third Reich. Axel Menges, 2000.

External links

• Life Dances On at IMDb