Sacha Guitry Movies
The son of Parisian stage star Lucien Guitry, Sacha Guitry was born and raised in pre-Czarist Russia. A restless youth, Guitry attended some dozen schools before finally completing his education at 17. That same year, Guitry wrote the first of his 120 plays, most of them vehicles for his own considerable performing skills. In 1915, Guitry wrote, directed and photographed an obscure silent-movie short subject, Ceux de chez Nous; three years later, he acted before the cameras for the first time. Throughout the 1920s, Guitry resisted films, feeling that they could not do full justice to his gift for dialogue and characterization. Though he would act in and write a brace of early talkies, he did not direct his first feature, Bonne chance, until 1935. Guitry was so much the renaissance man that one is tempted to label him the French Orson Welles; in truth, he was more the French Preston Sturges, exhibiting a firmer grasp of dialogue than a flair for visuals. Remaining in Paris during the occupation, Guitry was forbidden by the Nazis to act on stage; ironically, once the Germans were booted from Paris, Guitry spent two months in prison on a collaboration charge. Guitry devoted his last decade to turning out some rather ponderous historical spectacles, few of which exhibited the wit or sophistication of his best plays. Sacha Guitry was married four times; each of his wives was an actress, but only wife #2, Yvonne Printemps, became a star in her own right. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1957
Assassins et Voleurs (Killers and Thieves) was the penultimate offering from French filmmaker Sacha Guitry. Though seriously ill and confined to a wheelchair, Guitry was still able to invest a great deal of energy in the project. Surprised by a burglar (Michel Serrault), the doleful Philippe (Jean Poiret) regains his composure, then asks the thief for his assistance. It seems that Philippe wants to commit suicide but hasn't the nerve to pull off the deed himself. In flashback, Philippe recounts the events that led up to this critical and anxious moment. As it turns out, our "hero" is a bigger criminal, both actual and moral, than the nonplused burglar could ever be. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Serrault, Jean Poiret, (more)
- 1996
This sumptuous French drama offers episodes from the notorious life of 18th century socialite and playwright Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais. The story begins in the 1770s with a rehearsal of his "The Barber of Seville." Young friend of Voltaire, Philipp Gudin introduces himself to the great playwright and offers to become his personal secretary. He then becomes the adventurous Beaumarchais' keeper as the author gets involved in a variety of situations including a duel with an angry husband, his battle with the corrupt French government and a serious long-term affair with Marie-Theres de Willer. It all comes to a climax when King Louis XV assigns the playwright a secret mission to London. There he must find and retrieve a damning document from transvestite aristocrat Chevalier D'Eon. Unfortunately, Beaumarchais gets tangled up with supporting American rebels and ends up tossed in jail. Louis XVI sees that he is finally released and then the writer becomes an arms smuggler for American revolutionaries. All of his activities bankrupt him and so Beaumarchais must return to writing plays. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fabrice Luchini, Manuel Blanc, (more)
- 1938
The great Ernst Lubitsch directed this farce (written by Charles M. Brackett and Billy Wilder) about a free-wheeling millionaire, Michael Brandon (Gary Cooper), who enjoys getting married but has a hard time staying married: he's had seven wives and is looking for number eight. He thinks he may have found her in the person of Nicole de Loiselle (Claudette Colbert), whom he meets in a shop on the French Riviera. Unfortunately for Michael, Nicole doesn't like him very much and keeps rebuffing his advances, even though most women would be only too happy to marry him for his money. For just that reason, Nicole's father (Edward Everett Horton), a financially embarrassed French nobleman, strongly suggests that matrimony with Michael would be a good idea, especially since Michael doesn't want to take no for an answer. Nicole eventually relents and weds Michael, but when she tries to get him to change a few of his habits during the honeymoon, he makes plans to divorce her. But Nicole has finally decided that she loves Michael after all, and, as he tries to flee from her, she gives chase, determined to win his heart once and for all. The same story was previously filmed as a silent picture in 1923. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claudette Colbert, Gary Cooper, (more)
- 1935
"Renaissance man" filmmaker Sacha Guitry had only two films under his belt when he directed the capricious Bonne Chance (Good Luck). Guitry stars as Claude, an artist who splits a national lottery ticket with the gorgeous Marie (Jacqueline Delubac). Miracle of miracles, the couple wins a million francs, which they decide to lavish on a vacation. Since Marie is engaged to be married, Claude suggests that they pose as brother and sister for propriety's sake. Meanwhile, the girl's fiancé undergoes all sorts of hardships in the army, so he's hardly in a receptive mood when he discovers that Marie and Claude have been enjoying themselves -- and that they've fallen in love with each other. Setting a precedent for all Guitry films to follow, Bonne Chance was heavily censored in the U.S., robbing the film of much of its charm and satiric bite. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jacqueline Delubac, Pauline Carton, (more)
- 1943
Sacha Guitry starred in, and pseudonymously directed, the French romantic melodrama My Last Mistress. Guitry plays sculptor Francoise Bressoles, who falls madly in love with his model Catherine (portrayed by Guitry's real-life wive Genevieve). When his eyesight fails him, Bressoles begins to feel unworthy of Catherine, so he tells her to get out of his life. Love conquers all, but it takes ten reels to do so. Filmed in 1943 as Donne-moi Tes Yeux, My Last Mistress was not released in the U.S. until long after WWII had ended. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sacha Guitry, Aimé Clariond, (more)
- 1996
- R
Based on a play by Sacha Guitry this romantic French comedy of manners sparkles and bubbles like freshly uncorked champagne. Set in Paris before the dawn of the Jazz Age and centers on the exploits of sexy, womanizing butler Désiré after he begins working for former actress and current mistress of noted local politico Montignac. For the summer, Désiré and the rest of the staff move the entire household to the seaside town of Deauville. Désiré inadvertently provides his colleagues with much mid-night entertainment with his loudly-voiced dreams of having sexual congress with the comely Odette. Unbeknownst to him, Odette has similarly enacted dreams about him, something Montignac finds more disturbing than funny. Both sides begin looking to a book that explains erotic dreams and the more they learn, the more uncomfortable they become in each other's presence until at last they decide to see if dreams can indeed become reality. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Paul Belmondo, Fanny Ardant, (more)
- 1939
Filmmaker Sacha Guitry's only cinematic contribution for 1939 was Ils Etaient Neuf Celibataires, released stateside as There Were Nine Bachelors. Set sometime in the past, the story gets under way when a new law calls for the expulsion of certain foreigners from Paris. Among those slated for deportation is Polish stage star Elvire Popesco. Guitry plays an opportunist who offers to help Popesco remain in France in exchange for her help in a highly suspicious "lonely hearts" scam. Our so-called hero intends to marry off nine elderly bachelors with an equal number of female foreign aliens, so that the latter will be able to declare themselves as French citizens. Naturally, most of the financial proceeds of this venture are to remain in Guitry's possession -- not to mention any female "fringe benefits" picked up along the way. With so complicated and convoluted a plotline, it is little wonder that Sacha Guitry's films seldom imported well, especially when decked out with inadequate English-language subtitles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sacha Guitry, Elvire Popesco, (more)
- 1952
Few American theatres in 1952 would have run Je T'ai ete Trois Fois under its highly suggestive original title, which translates as I Did it Three Times. The film was directed by the inimitable Sacha Guity, who also co-wrote the script and played the leading role of elderly actor Jean Renneval. A notorious roue, Renneval is currently making time with the wife (Lana Marconi) of a ripe-for-cuckolding merchant named Henri (Bernard Blier). Having already been married twice to cheating spouses, Henri isn't psychologically prepared to find his third wife in the arms of Renneval. Fortunately, the aging actor is dressed as a clergyman (the part he's playing in his latest production), and thus is able to wriggle out of an uncomfortable situation by preaching an impromptu sermon about trust and fidelity! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sacha Guitry, Lana Marconi, (more)
- 1951
Sacha Guitry both wrote and directed the witty black comedy La Poison. This time, however, Guitry does not star in the film, relinquishing that honor to Michel Simon. Through a series of circumstances and plot twists too numerous to mention, an enterprising man (Simon) manages to get away with murdering his wife, even though he cheerfully admits his guilt in court. The murderer's defense strategy is targeted towards every man who has ever wished that his wife would simply disappear. If this notion seems familiar, it is because La Poison was loosely remade in 1966 as the Jack Lemmon comedy How to Murder Your Wife. While the original is more clever, the remake has more popular appeal. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Simon, Jean Debucourt, (more)
- 1958
French filmmaker Sacha Guitry had intended to direct as well as write 3DLa Vie a Deux3D (3DLife as a Couple3D), but death claimed him before he could bring his plan to fruition. Adapted from Guitry's original by Jean Martin and directed by Clement Duhor, the film offers an all-star cast in a series of seriocomic anecdotes. The narrative is tied together by a millionaire novelist (based on Guitry himself), who on his deathbed wants to bequeath his fortune to several married couples upon whom he'd based one of his books. The proviso is that the couples must have remained happily wed to claim their money. The millionaire's family anxiously hire private detectives to prove that the couples in question are not only unhappy, but shameless philanderers in the bargain. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierre Brasseur, Danielle Darrieux, (more)
- 1952
La Vie d'un Honnette Homme was the sole 1953 contribution from indefatigable French filmmaker Sacha Guitry, who scripted and directed. Surprisingly, Guitry does not play the film's titular "honest man." Michel Simon essays that role -- or rather, "roles," since Simon plays twin brothers, ant-and-grasshopper types. Secretly, the wealthy and industrious Albert has always envied his carefree brother's lifestyle. When his brother dies, Albert takes his sibling's place, experiencing true happiness for the first time in his life. Despite Albert's duplicity, the film's title is still appropriate: Guitry argues that it's possible to lie to the world so long as you're honest with yourself. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marguerite Pierry, Michel Simon, (more)
- 1931
Sacha Guitry wrote the play on which Le Blanc et le Noir was based, but it was Hollywood-trained Robert Florey who officially handled the directorial reins. While vacationing in the mountains, child-hating Raimu leaves his wife Suzanne Dantes alone in their hotel room while he dallies with the local maidens. Feeling neglected, Dantes accepts the invitation of her neighbor, a celebrated tenor, for a nocturnal rendezvous. She enters the tenor's darkened room, whereupon she enjoys an evening of purple passion with a man whom she assumes is her host. Nine months later, however, Dantes gives birth to a black child -- her lover of the evening had been the tenor's capricious servant! The flustered Raimu scurries about trying to set things right, and in so doing finds out that he genuinely loves children -- whereupon he declares he'd like to become a daddy himself (one can only imagine that Dantes by this time has developed quite a headache). Though racy and risque, Le Blanc et le Noir remains firmly within the bounds of good taste. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1947
The Private Life of an Actor was the English-language title bestowed upon Sacha Guitry's first postwar feature, Le Comédien. The film recounts the life and loves of Guitry's actor/father Lucien, with Guitry playing both himself and his dad. Most of the story takes place either on-stage or in the dressing room, satirically emphasizing the wide schism between an actor's public and private life. Adding to the Pirandellian ambience of the project is Guitry's wife, Catherine (Lana Marconi), cast as one of Lucien's various mistresses. To fully appreciate the wit and wisdom of Private Life of an Actor, one must be conversant in French. The English-language subtitles don't even try to match the excellence of Guitry's original screenplay. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sacha Guitry, Lana Marconi, (more)
- 1941
Released in 1942 as Les Destin Fabuleux de Desiree Clary, this Sacha Guitry production made it to America six years later as Mlle. Desiree. Based on the romance between Napoleon Bonaparte and merchant's daughter Desiree, the film is divided into two parts. In part one, the younger Napoleon (Jean-Louis Barrault) pledges eternal fidelity to Desiree (Genevieve Guitry), but destiny dictates that he marry the much-older Josephine. Part Two takes place several years later, as Napoleon, now Emperor of France and now played by Sacha Guitry himself, renews his romance with the older-but-wiser Desiree (now portrayed by Gaby Morlay). Mlle. Desiree was later remade, sort of, as Desiree, with Marlon Brando and Jean Simmons. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gaby Morlay, Sacha Guitry, (more)
- 1936
The first of actor- writer-director Sacha Guitry's four 1936 productions was Nouveau Testament (New Testament), in which he wrote himself the meaty role of Jean Marcelin. Based on Guitry's own stage play, the story concerns a sanctimonious fellow who eventually is victimized by his own hypocrisy. Little effort is made to "cinematize" the property, which is filmed just as it appeared on stage. Audiences didn't seem to mind, and in fact some of them were known to applaud each of Guitry's bon mots as if they were attending a live performance. Nouveau Testament was entertaining enough, but would be eclipsed within a few months by Guitry's best 1936 effort, Story of a Cheat. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sacha Guitry, Jacqueline Delubac, (more)
- 1936
The Story of a Cheat (Le Roman d'un Tricheur) is widely regarded as one of French writer/director Sacha Guitry's best and most personal films. Guitry himself stars as a charismatic cardsharp who survives solely through the auspices of Lady Luck. The story is told almost completely in pantomime; the only voice heard is the narrator's (Guitry, but of course). Among the film's many highlights is the opening sequence, in which the young Guitry misbehaves and is banned from a family picnic--where his parents and siblings all die from eating toadstools. This segues into a side-splitting "black" gag in which an exhausted priest huffs and puffs as he tries to keep pace with the long line of coffins! It has sometimes been suggested that Sacha Guitry was telling his own life story in Story of a Cheat, equating the ins and outs of the film industry with the chicanery of the cardsharp. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sacha Guitry, Pierre Assy, (more)
- 1950
The second of Sacha Guitry's four 1950 offerings was Le Tresor de Cantenac. Once again, Guitry not only wrote and directed the film, but reserved himself a leading role, in this case Baron de Cantenac. Set in a rundown French village where everyone is related to everyone else (sometimes at the expense of chromosomes and brain matter!), the film is a series of vignettes illustrating the foibles of the human condition. The Baron de Cantenac, on the verge of suicide after losing his fortune, decides to take one last journey through the crumbling town. While ambling about, the baron is befriended by the town's oldest citizen, who reveals a royal treasure that he has been jealously guarding for years. The money enables the town to get back on its feet, and also has some very surprising effects on the citizenry. Amazingly, this fully realized paean to the recuperative powers of wealth was made on a skin-tight budget, even by French standards. Le Tresor de Cantenac was produced by Boris Morros, the former Hollywood musical director who'd previously produced Laurel & Hardy's Flying Deuces and Fred Astaire's Second Chorus, and who soon would figure in a real-life espionage adventure. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sacha Guitry, Lana Marconi, (more)
- 1937
Originally titled Les Perles de Couronne, this Sacha Guitry historical extravaganza stars both Guitry and his wife Jacqueline Delubac. The plotline hinges on four valuable pearls, which pass from hand to hand over a period of several centuries, from the time of Britain's Henry VIII to the present. All of this is offered in flashback form, as a group of modern-day treasure hunters try to locate three of the missing pearls by tracing them back to their previous owners. Guitry shows up as King Francis I, Barras and Napoleon III, in addition to his contemporary persona of Jean Martin; Debulac is seen as Mary Queen of Scots and Empress Josephine. There isn't a scintilla of historical accuracy in the film, nor did Guitry have the slightest intention of including any; his sole purpose was to entertain the audience and serve up a superbly ironic denoument. The supporting cast is a polyglot of French, English and Italian actors, each speaking in his or her own language. The screenplay for Pearls of the Crown was cowritten by Guitry and another immensely talented filmmaker, Christian-Jaque. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sacha Guitry, Jacqueline Delubac, (more)
