From French boulevard playwright (and sui generis filmmker) Sacha Guitry, this delectable three-hander (plus valet in the stage version, the film fleshed out with supporting roles) is a prime example of how to make real cinema from seemingly stagebound material not by opening up the action, but by ignoring conventional ideas as to what is (and what is not) filmic. The plot a mere excuse to cogitate the ways and means of starting up an affair in plain sight under the cover of high society. (In brief: Guitry spots lovely Jacqueline Delubac at a dinner party and decides he must tempt her away from husband Raimu.) , Guitry tacks on a prologue to his original stage production of 1916 to show them meeting, but it’s probably added to offer a whirlwind view of their social set (and to show off an all-star supporting cast) as the camera glides across well-heeled swells and a big serving staff. Guitry going for what might be called an aspirational single shot. It’s witty, gossipy fun. But his real cinematic personality only begins when Guitry stops trying to be cinematic and simply trusts his dialogue-heavy play to woo his audience and Mme Delubac at his tasteful apartment when husband Raimu grows tired of waiting for him. Turns out, Guitry wasn’t late, merely biding his time to get his new passion alone, move directly in for a kiss and arrange a return assignation for later that night. Curtain. The second act even more daring, largely a soliloquy (half an hour!) for Guitry to predict the course of the evening’s events. Bliss or disappointment in advance. And it’s Guitry’s lack of compromise in treating this rapid fire talk as a play that makes this turn into pure cinema in a way his prologue isn’t. Then, the lady enters for a consummation devoutly to be wished. Curtain. Act Three brings our unknowing cuckold to the apartment (Madame hiding in the next room) which leaves Guitry & Raimu to figure out a way to keep secrets and passion in perfect balance. If a mere bagatelle can be a profound statement of sexual desire (it’s certainly not love; Guitry recently married to Delubac . . . if not for long), then this paradoxically hard-working flâneur of a playwright is just the guy to do it.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: For the essence of Guitry, THE STORY OF A CHEAT/36 and LA POISON/’51 make up a fine starting point with this. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2019/04/la-poison-1951.html
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