La belle %C3%A9quipe

La belle quipe is a 1936 French film directed by Julien Duvivier. The script was written by Duvivier and Charles Spaak. Maurice Yvain provided the score. Jean Gabins song Quand on spromne au bord de leau was written by Duvivier, Yvain and Louis Poterat. Interiors were shot at the Studios de Joinville in JoinvillelePont, ValdeMarne, with exteriors at ChenneviressurMarne. The film is also known as They Were Five.

Critics have associated the film with the rise and demise of the Popular Front. The film was made in June and July 1936 and coincided with the early days of the Lon Blum government and the strikes for better conditions. Duvivier was certainly not a Leftist. It should be pointed out nonetheless that Duviviers portrayal of male friendship gradually being eroded by a woman and by desire for that woman was canonical by 1936, so the film does not limit itself to that reading. If the men in Duviviers film do not get to fulfil their dream of setting up their guinguette it is because, while economically they can be solidairesas one, sexually they cannot.On a first level of reading, therefore, it is sex before politics that drives the narrative.

Source: Wikipedia