Preceded by: Rigadin et la baguette magique (1912) and Actualités féminine (women's newsreels, 1934). --------------------- "It was in seeing La Petite Lise of Jean Grémillon that I forgot Sous les Toits de Paris and stopped regretting the passing of silents."-Henri Langlois This little shown but crucial film ushered in the poetic realism movement that would make the thirties the Golden Age of French Cinema. Jean Grémillon, whose silent cinema already intuited poetic realism, was an accomplished musician and "La Petite Lise was remarkable chiefly for the masterful way in which he wove song, melody, words, and noises into a beautifully organized web of sound" (Richard Roud). The film, written by Charles Spaak (the scribe of poetic realism), was "more noir than noir," showing the French school's concern with fate in the lives of uncomprehending, marginal individuals. A man imprisoned for years for the murder of his wife is given early release for good behavior and goes to see his much-longed-for daughter in Paris. Left to take care of herself in childhood, she has become a prostitute and, with her lover, petty thief. The father is left to pick up the pieces of her crimes. Because of the film's commercial failure (itself fated-it was never given a solo run), Grémillon was forced to take technical jobs to support himself until 1937's Gueule d'amour reinstated him.