Stille dage i Clichy 4K 1970

Henry Miller's prose is an impregnable bastion for filmmakers. The most sophisticated cinematic language pales and seems empty in comparison to the lush imagery of one of the best writers of the last century. This adaptation, while the most digestible of Miller's films, is far from being a good adaptation.

Jens Jørgen Thorsen has based the screenplay on two short works by the writer: "Quiet Days in Clichy" and "Mara of Marignane", put the action 40 years in advance and illustrated the plot episodes with specially composed for the movie country ballads with overlapping text by Miller as the credits. Undoubtedly, this experimental brainchild is of some interest due to the camerawork and musical accompaniment, but it looks sluggish. An hour and a half turned out to be excessive for such an expressive picture with no plot or professionalism in the actors. The unparalleled monologues that make up the salt of Miller's books are inevitably thrown away in a film adaptation. Thorsen, realizing this, decided to resort to epathetic scenes and type acting. The erotic scenes, for all their frankness, seem puritanical in comparison with the screened prose, and the characters, who have nothing to offer but stingy facial expressions and naked bodies, soon become boring.

The film can only be of interest to those familiar with the literary source material, as the director did not try to motivate the behavior of the characters or explain the context, limiting himself to illustrating the text. This distinguishes this version from Shabrolev's, which turned out to be disgusting at all. However, this contextual disregard is unlikely to please even the few potential audiences for whom the work is intended.