Cœur de Lilas (1932)

Title: Lilac

Original Title: Cœur de Lilas

Release Date: 1932-03-13

Status: Released

Rating: 5.7/10 (from 9 votes)

Language: FR

Genres: Crime

Production Companies: Fifra

Also known as Lilac, this early Anatole Litvak-directed talkie was based on a play by Tristan Bernard and Charles Henry Hirsch. The story bears traces of the Bertold Brecht-Weill piece The Threepenny Opera, with heroine Lilac (Marcelle Romeo) consorting with the criminal scum of Paris. Lilac falls in love with a handsome detective (Andre Luguet), but he doesn't let his emotions stand in the way of his duty, and in the end he reluctantly turns her over to the authorities. At $120,000, Coeur de Lilas was one of the most expensive movies to come out of France in 1931, but it more than made back its cost at the box-office.