WHITE PAWS

also known as WHITE LEGS

Theme :

In the fishing village of Saint-Brieuc in Britanny, a spat-wearing aristocrat Julien de Keriadec is in a feud with his half-brother, Maurice, owner of a saloon bar. Jealous of his half-brother’s wealth, Maurice decides to use a young woman, Odette, to ruin him…

 

Summary :

The “white paws” of this noirish melodrama are the gaudy white spats sported by a reclusive French aristocrat in a fishing village on the coast of Normandy. Scripted by French playwrights Jean Anouilh and Jean Bernard-Luc, who was originally to have directed it, Pattes blanches was ultimately brought to the screen by Grémillon . The moody plot concerns the relationship of the aristocrat (Bernard) and his vengeful half-brother (Bouquet) and their rivalry over a promiscuous flirt from the city (Delair) who has married the local innkeeper. Although produced within the framework of the commercial cinema, Grémillon’s film manages to imbue the melodrama with a sharp sense of class divisions and his characteristic visual harmonies.

 

Jean Anouilh

ERQUY