Sur un paquebot de luxe où elle accompagne son mari, Daïnah la métisse use de son charme étrange et de son exotisme troublant. Un soir, sur le pont désert, elle s’amuse à attirer un mécanicien qu’elle repousse en le mordant cruellement. Le lendemain, Daïnah disparaît par dessus bord. L’enquête piétine mais le mari, devinant la vérité, s’érige en justicier.

mit | estrelado | starring | avec
Charles Vanel, Habib Benglia, Laurence Clavius, Gaston Dubosc, Gabrielle Fontan, Lucien Gérard

ein film von | um filme de | a film by | un film de
Jean Grémillon

France | 1931 | Long métrage Fiction | 55 mins | Drame

Titles | Titres :

Country | Pays : France
Year | Année de production : 1931
Runtime | Durée : 55 mins
Genre : Drame
Language | VO : َFrench | Français
Tags : Feature, African, North African + Middle Eastern, Mediterranean



CAST | ACTRICES – ACTEURS :
Dainah Smith………………………………… Laurence Clavius
Le mari……………………………………….. Habib Benglia
Le mecanicien Michaux……………………… Charles Vanel
Berthe…………………………………………. Gabrielle Fontan
Le Commandant…………………………….. Gaston Dubosc
Le Docteur…………………………………….. Lucien Gérard
Alice…………………………………………….. Maryanne



REGISSEUR / REALIZADOR / DIRECTOR / RÉALISATEUR :
Jean Grémillon

Screenwriter | Scénariste :
Charles Spaak
D’après la nouvelle de Pierre Daye

Dialog | Dialoguiste
Charles Spaak

Assistant Director | Assistants réalisateurs :
Jacques Brillouin
Henri Storck

Release (Theatrical) | Sortie en salle : 01/01/1931
DVD Release | Sortie en DVD : 07/12/2011



FESTIVALS – PROJECÇÕES / FESTIVALS – SCREENINGS / PROJECTIONS (selection) :
/// 2017 | Selection – Venice Classics | 74ème Mostra de Venise | Venise (Italie) | Screening-Projection: 8 September 2017, 17:30, Sala Casinò


Fuente / Fontes / Our Source / Quelle / Nos Sources (MAIS INFORMAÇÕES / READ MORE / PLUS D’INFOS) :
– Africiné Magazine (Dakar)
– www.cinematheque.fr/film/48984.html
– www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2017/program-cinema-2017/jean-gr%C3%A9millon-da%C3%AFnah-la-m%C3%A9tisse-0
– https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Da%C3%AFnah_la_m%C3%A9tisse
Updated by Thierno DIA, 15 April 2025

Aboard a luxury transatlantic liner on which she has set sail with her husband, the mixed-race Daïnah flaunts her exotic and provocative charms. One evening, on the deserted deck, she amuses herself by flirting with one of the ship’s engineers and then pushes him away, biting him ferociously. The following day, Daïnah is found to have disappeared overboard. The inquiry progresses very slowly but the husband, guessing at the truth of what happened, takes justice into his own hands.

A film by Jean Grémillon

France, 1931, Fiction, 44′, language French

cast Laurence Clavius, Habib Benglia, Charles Vanel, Gaston Dubosc, Lucien Guérard, Gabrielle Fontane Maryanne

from the short story with the same name by
 Pierre Daye


screenplay: Charles Spaak
screenplay: Jacques Lafitte

cinemtaographer: Louis Page
, Georges Périnal
sound: R. Bocquel

first assistant director: Jacques Brillouin
, Henri Storck


CRITIC’S NOTES

At first sight the subject of Daïnah la métisse, its pretext, has nothing that might cause concerns for its producers. But in the way it was conceived by its director and the screenwriter Charles Spaak, the film set out to achieve an objective that went well beyond the bare bones of a melodrama centered on racial jealousy and exoticism, as was the fashion of the times. It aimed to present a « marine, » a typical term in painting, in which a luxury liner sailing towards remote shores, the mildness of the South Seas, the night and the contrast between the scorching hold and the grand saloons in which the privileged passengers lead an existence ignorant of contemptible human passions, are blended to the syncopated notes of jazz, composing a sort of poem rather than a strictly dramatic work. The boldness is tangible and in step with the long shots of the sea at night, the theft of a white shoe that symbolizes an unavowable crime of passion, and the use of surreal masks in a magic show dominated by the presence of a dagger and the killing of a dove. Once again, distributors and producers detested a film that would be taken to pieces after it was made and reduced to less than an hour in length.

To get a better understanding of the difficulties faced by the great French directors of the time in creating their works in the early years of sound the rushes of Jean Vigo’s Zéro de conduite (1933, 15′) will be given their world première: fascinating rediscovered images (with Vigo on set), that allow us to identify new details of another film heavily influenced by the worries of the production.


restoration (in 2017) curated by Gaumont
with the support of Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée
film laboratory L’Immagine Ritrovata (Parigi e Bologna)


2017 | 74th Venice FilmFest, Italy
* Selection – Venice Classics
* Projection / Screening: 8 September 2017, 17:30, Sala Casinò
www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2017/program-cinema-2017/jean-gr%C3%A9millon-da%C3%AFnah-la-m%C3%A9tisse-0