Fièvre

In the sweltering, salt-crusted confines of a Marseille harbor tavern, Louis Delluc’s Fièvre serves as a seminal exploration of French Impressionist cinema. The narrative pivots on the volatile equilibrium between Topinelli, the bar’s proprietor, and his wife, Sarah. This fragile peace is shattered by the arrival of a merchant sailor—a spectral figure from Sarah’s romantic past. As the two engage in a silent, evocative dance, the atmosphere thickens with suppressed longing and simmering jealousy, eventually erupting into a visceral confrontation that mirrors the turbulent Mediterranean outside. Delluc eschews traditional melodrama for a gritty, atmospheric realism, capturing the 'photogénie' of the working-class docks and the tragic inevitability of human desire.