Set in a working class Paris neighborhood, this delightful René Clair work follows a few hours in the life of a flower girl (played by Annabella) and her taxi-driver boyfriend (Georges Rigaud) on the eve of the French national holiday. But the real protagonist of Le Quatorze Juillet is the city that inspired it, Clair's beloved Paris, captured in its myriad detail and eccentricity. Clair's curious eye zeros in on the sidewalk life of the tradesman and the petty thief, investigates café corners and roominghouse interiors, and reveals the connecting links of communication that make a neighborhood a neighborhood, from the gossiping concierge to the taxi driver to the meandering inebriate. Clair's orchestration, in which he utilizes an ingenious mixture of sounds and images, Lazare Meerson's sets and, finally, the photography of Georges Périnal combine to elevate all the elements above their obvious potential for precious Parisianism; the “characters” in Le Quatorze Juillet rather suggest a teeming reality that continues just beyond the range of the film.
In a 1948 review, Gavin Lambert called Le Quatorze Juillet “A film of almost miraculous slightness, perfectly sustained in mood and atmosphere; in many ways Clair's most intimate and attractive work.... No more completely personal film about Paris has ever been made.”