Lady Paname (1950)

Lady Paname is a French film comedy-drama first released in 1950, directed by Henri Jeanson.  The film stars Louis Jouvet, Suzy Delair and Henri Guisol.  Our overall rating for this film is: good.


Paris, 1925.  A young woman, Caprice, has great ambitions of becoming a famous music hall singer, but she needs a song she can claim as her own.  She approaches the song-writer Jeff, and he gives her a song which brought only bad luck to previous performers who tried to adopt the song.  The song brings nothing but good luck to Caprice, however, and she gets top billing at the Olympia, becoming an instant hit as Lady Paname.  The one thing that eludes her though is Jeff, whom she is madly in love with.  A philosopher and unorthodox photographer, Bagnolet, contrives to bring the two lovers together...

Henri Jeanson is best known as a screenwriter, contributing to some of the finest and most enduring films in French cinema of the 1930s and 1940s, including Hôtel du nord.  Lady Paname is the only film he directed and was made towards the latter part of his career.  The things which are most noticeable in a Jeanson script are much more noticeable in his own film, and Lady Paname captures vividly the essence of Jeanson’s unique style, which is fundamentally that of the auteur.

The film sparkles with wit and vitality, aided by some entertaining performances from some of leading lights of French cinema at the time, including Louis Jouvet and Suzy Delair.  Most strikingly is how Jeanson is able to evoke the feel of 1920s Paris in this film - almost to the extent that it really does seem that the film was made in the 1920s.  The jaunty songs contribute largely to this impression, but the cinematography and the slightly melodramatic style of acting also manage to persuade the film was made at least twenty years earlier than it actually was.

The film does however lack depth and some of the serious story strands are bungled, most notably the unconvincing romance between Jeff and Caprice.  Despite that, this remains an entertaining diversion, painting a colourful portrait of music hall culture in 1920s Paris.

Suzy Delair is unceasingly delightful as the aspiring singer Caprice, clearly relishing her slightly comic role.  Louis Jouvet’s eccentric photographer also has great entertainment value, although, sadly, it was to mark the final chapter in his remarkable career (the actor died shortly after the film was released).

© James Travers 2001

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