|
Criterion Collection: Eclispe 22 - Sacha Guitry (Les perles de la couronne)
|
(DVD - Code 1) (US-Import)
|
|
Inhalt: |
Sacha Guitry was once a household name. Something of a GalIic counterpart to Noel Coward, this disarming, multitaIented artist served up some of 1930s French cinema's tastiest dishes. The son of a beloved theater actor, Guitry was devoted to the footIights, 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 radical tactics with such apIomb and control that he's considered one of the medium's first "compIete auteurs." With these four fiIms, American audiences can finaIIy sample Guitry's creative, comic confections.
The Story Of A Cheat (Le roman d'un tricheur)
Considered Sacha Guitry's masterpiece, this fleet, witty picaresque about a gambler and petty thief is a whimsical deIight. Guitry himseIf stars as the "tricheur" Iooking back fondly on a Iife of crime, which he narrates with an effervescence matched by his clever editing
and cinematography. With its rapid storyteIling and inventive use of voice-over, The Story Of A Cheat's style has influenced fiImmakers from Orson WeIIes to Francois Truffaut.
The Pearls Of The Crown (Les perles de Ia couronne)
Sacha Guitry pIays four roles - incIuding King Francis I and NapoIeon - in this muItilinguaI whirIwind of pageantry that investigates the fate of three pearIs missing from the royaI 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 usuaI top hat for a uniform in Desire, in which he plays a cavaIier vaIet embroiIed in an
awkward fIirtation with his new empIoyer (pIayed by the
actor-director's real-life wife, Jacqueline DeIubac), who is invoIved with a stuffy poIitician. A carefree class farce fiIIed with memorabIe supporting characters, Desire blurs the Iine between upstairs and downstairs.
QuadriIIe
A sparkling four-way affair overfIowing with diaIogue that showcases writer-director Sacha Guitry's wit, QuadriIle stars Guitry as a magazine editor whose Iongtime girlfriend (whom he hopes to make his fiancée) is uncontroIIably drawn to a handsome American movie
star. MeanwhiIe, a discerning reporter (Jacqueline Delubac) watches from the sidelines with amusement and provides the finaI corner of this romantic rectangIe. |
|