Alternate Best Actor 1963: Maurice Ronet in The Fire Within

Maurice Ronet did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Alain Leroy in The Fire Within.

The Fire Within is a rather effective film following a depressed man as he tries to find a reason for living through a single day.

Maurice Ronet's performance is at the center of this unusual film, for the period, as it takes on its potentially melodramatic setup with this calm mostly naturalistic approach. Ronet's work in turn is essential to the film's approach. This is in the realization of Alain who initially appears as though he may be your typical romantic lead. This is as we see Ronet with a quiet passion as he shows affection to his apparent paramour who leaves for New York. Ronet portrays a somber ponderer, as we see a man prepared for a descent. The film actually skips over the traditional more extreme of the alcoholic, as we jump ahead to Alain as he is prepared to leave a treatment facility, though more of forced out in a way, and is told essentially he must face his life as is. Ronet's performance evokes most vividly this most unbearable state of mind in Alain. This as this quiet anxiety of Alain as he looks off with a distant fear it seems as he is given his supposedly positive prognosis. Ronet effectively underplays this, and naturally creates this internalized agony as the man seems to look inward even as he listens. This creating a most difficult state when within his mind is the last place the man ought to look given his situation.

Ronet's performance sets up initially this terrible state, that does not hide its intention, as Alain decides that he will commit suicide the following day in thought. This thought granted as just a quiet statement within Ronet's work which captures a quietly harrowing certainty regarding this intention. This will contrast with the rest of Alain's life, however in this aspect Ronet shows a man who has already mentally prepared for this action, not even decision, requiring some shattering change to change him from this course. Ronet's work powerfully establishes an atypical lead with this thought as a central element to the character. This element that is an overarching facet of the man. Ronet captures this as this underlying weight within his work, as this understood fact within the man's mind that propels him forward. This in this internalized depression that doesn't reveal itself as open sobs, but rather is this painful constant. This detachment that Ronet so effectively portrays, not from emotion, but rather this certain detachment form the world. This as Ronet reflects this position nearly as the observer combined with this sense of withdrawn sadness that compels his search for essentially a meaning for his life.

The rest of the film then is following Alain around Paris he checks in with his old friends, and just some random people in this quest for meaning. Although as much as this could sound like a directorial exercise, and in some ways it is, Ronet's performance is always an essential element within the success of this approach. This is as Ronet grants a real texture to every situation in creating the man's pointed yet also aimless state. This is as no scene that is merely taken for granted within Ronet's work which captures this act of searching beautifully. There's a brief moment in particular where he grants a ride with some workers where he mentions his state of illness to which they are a bit incredulous towards. Ronet is fantastic in this scene portraying this certain shame and awkwardness in this interaction with people he doesn't really know. This is as Ronet delivers this right stilted quality in Alain as he can't really explain his situation to those who don't know him, as they wouldn't know how, and he may no garner the sympathy from those who have no sense of the fragility of the man's ego. Ronet doesn't undercut the journey in these moments, but rather makes it all the more vivid in granting this honest alternative perspective of sorts.

Alain's quest though is really to attempt to find meaning from his friends, who are all sympathetic to him, to a point. One of his stops is with a friend who is now a family man who tries to essentially convince him there is much to be enjoyed in maturation. Ronet captures this blithe attitude in this scene where he still carries this distance that grows all the stronger as the man essentially tells him he needs to grow up. Ronet's reactions are that of a man who cannot accept this, as this would destroy his idea of life and happiness, even though such a path is the destructive one he is now on. He finds a potential alternative in regression towards a life again towards mind altering substances, which are encouraged by old friends. Ronet is excellent in creating this initial greeting with the smile of an old friend, however this too shifts as he spends more time with these "old friends". This life of meaningless pleasure though is equally worthless in Alain's eyes, as reflected in Ronet's performance which delivers this uneasiness of the one sober man in a room. Ronet delivers this physical discontent as he wanders around the room of the intoxicated. He creates the sense of a pent up energy against this thin contentment that again is a failure in his personal quest. Alain ends up at a dinner party of caring friends who too suggest he try to seek happiness in his past loves. Ronet's performance again is so captivating as a man out of place though this time differently than among the workers, the family or the rakes. This is as Ronet becomes less the reactor and more so the active party. Ronet's performance creates this swell of discontent know as he effectively creates these rather fascinating understated emotional outbursts. This is as again Ronet maintains the state of depression, and fitting to this downtrodden state. He has his moments of anger though of this festering withdrawn bitterness to the one man who outwardly looks down at him. He also though has a wistful moment of trying to express love to his friend's wife. This being not some grand plan but rather this near whimper of a man just trying to grasp onto anything at all. This too is denied, though again with suggestion he can find happiness in his past, to where Ronet returns to a state of resignation. A state all the more certain in a way within its conviction to sorrow. Ronet's work crafting such a unusual power in his portrayal of a man's hopeless crusade, that manages to still lead to the same end, but with a change in the complexity of the final choice.