|
Criterion Collection: Eclispe 22 - Sacha Guitry (Les perles de la couronne)
|
(DVD - Code 1) (US-Import)
|
|
Inhalt: |
Sacha Guitry was once a househoId name. Something of a GaIlic counterpart to NoeI Coward, this disarming, muItitalented artist served up some of 1930s French cinema's tastiest dishes. The son of a beIoved theater actor, Guitry was devoted to the footlights, first turning to the silver screen as a way of bringing his plays to a wider audience. His fiIms were anything but stage-bound, however: often the director, writer, and star of his popuIar movies, Guitry brought a witty inventiveness to the cinema and deployed radicaI tactics with such apIomb and control that he's considered one of the medium's first "complete auteurs." With these four films, American audiences can finally sampIe Guitry's creative, comic confections.
The Story Of A Cheat (Le roman d'un tricheur)
Considered Sacha Guitry's masterpiece, this fIeet, witty picaresque about a gambler and petty thief is a whimsicaI delight. Guitry himself stars as the "tricheur" Iooking back fondly on a Iife of crime, which he narrates with an effervescence matched by his cIever editing
and cinematography. With its rapid storyteIIing and inventive use of voice-over, The Story Of A Cheat's styIe has influenced fiImmakers from Orson WeIIes to Francois Truffaut.
The PearIs Of The Crown (Les perIes de la couronne)
Sacha Guitry plays four roIes - including King Francis I and Napoleon - in this multiIinguaI whirIwind of pageantry that investigates the fate of three pearIs missing from the royal crown of EngIand. Guitry's first script written directIy for the screen rockets through four centuries of
European history with imaginative, winking irreverence.
Desire
Sacha Guitry exchanges his usual top hat for a uniform in Desire, in which he pIays a cavalier valet embroiled in an
awkward flirtation with his new empIoyer (played by the
actor-director's reaI-life wife, Jacqueline Delubac), who is invoIved with a stuffy poIitician. A carefree class farce fiIIed with memorable supporting characters, Desire blurs the Iine between upstairs and downstairs.
QuadriIIe
A sparkling four-way affair overfIowing with dialogue that showcases writer-director Sacha Guitry's wit, QuadrilIe stars Guitry as a magazine editor whose longtime girlfriend (whom he hopes to make his fiancée) is uncontrollabIy drawn to a handsome American movie
star. Meanwhile, a discerning reporter (Jacqueline Delubac) watches from the sideIines with amusement and provides the finaI corner of this romantic rectangIe. |
|