Susan Wool

This is a sensitive, beautiful, haunting and poetic film set in Paris at the end of the war in a working-class neighborhood. Although the war is ended and the Germans defeated, people are still suffering from food shortages and lack of fuel to heat their homes. The story is melodramatic rather than neo-realistic in the style of some Italian movies of the same period. For me the theme of fate and destiny portrayed by the homeless prophet, though a bit overdone at times, still works somehow along with the haunting theme of Les feuilles mortes and the vision of the elevated metro station that carries people to their destinations that begins and ends the movie. A young, very young Yves Montand, Serge Reggiani as a fascist collaborationist, the wonderful children and their secret hideaway with a cat and newvorn kittens, it is all mysterious and haunting and will stay in the memory forever.

Tragic and beautiful, glorious religious music, dark but redemptive, a hymn to the power of love and solidarity.

I found the story of the Senegalese workers and their plight very moving and enjoyed seeing the details of their life. The love story of Ada and Soleiman was moving. However, I found myself confused by the ghost story plot and was not clear as to whether the men had drowned or not, whether it was their ghosts who returned and only after reading other people's reviews did I understand that the women were possessed by the spirits of their lovers. Still I believe that these elements are characteristic of the culture from which they emerge; the mix of realism and the fantastic are very powerful.