Le Ciel est à vous (1944) - film review

When their home is bought up to make way for an airfield, mechanic Pierre Gauthier and his wife Thérèse are forced to move, with their two children and elderly mother, to a nearby town.  Although Pierre makes a success of his new garage business, he soon begins to get bored and joins the local flying club.  When she hears of this, Thérèse is incensed but it isn’t long before she too is smitten by the flying bug.  Sacrificing everything they have, even their daughter’s piano, the couple devote themselves to building an aeroplane that will enable Thérèse to break a long distance flying record.  Shortly after take off, Pierre’s optimism soon turns to pessimism and he becomes convinced that he will never see his beloved wife again...

Considering that it was made during a bleak and distressing period for France, Le Ciel est à vous is an astonishingly uplifting film with a message of unfettered hope for the future.  It is not difficult to read director Jean Grémillon’s allegorical call to arms behind the rather anodyne tale about a Lindbergh-esque exploit, based on the real-life story of Andrée Dupeyron, the wife of a garage owner in Mont-de-Marsan.  Released in February 1944, a few months before the Liberation, the film was enormously popular in France, galvanising the efforts of the Resistance and their covert supporters with its inspiring subtext.  Although Jean Grémillon would go on to make three more notable films, Le Ciel est à vous was his last commercial success, the highpoint of his career before a rapid decline into obscurity.  

Le Ciel est à vous is significant for two reasons.  Firstly, it is a rare example of a French social drama, using a strikingly neo-realist approach, with real locations and down-to-Earth characters to convincingly depict a French community in the mid-1940s.  This makes a stark contrast with the contrived studio-bound melodramas which were far more prevalent at the time.  More significant is its distinctly feminist slant, which is unusual, if not unprecedented, for a film of this era.  As in many of Grémillon’s previous films, it is a woman who is the prime mover in the story whilst the main male character plays a lesser, more subservient role.  

This portrayal of women is in direct opposition to the opinion of the Vichy government, which insisted that the woman’s place was in the home, looking after the husband and children.  In this film, the woman, Thérèse Gauthier (magnificently portrayed by Madeleine Renaud), is a free spirit who dominates her husband and neglects her children in order to pursue her own dream.  Whilst this is perhaps not the most positive portrayal of female independence, it effectively makes the point that women have a right to be accorded equal status with men and, like their male counterparts, should be allowed to pursue their ambitions rather than feel obliged to tie themselves to the kitchen sink.  It’s a provocative statement when you consider that, in France, women were not eligible to vote until July 1944, some months after the film was released.

© James Travers 2009


Charles Vanel had not only one of the longest careers in French cinema (he made his first film in 1910 and his last in 1988) but also one of the most distinguished, including sterling performances in such classics as Le Salaire de la peur and Les Diaboliques.   However, I would argue that his finest performance was in this much more modest film in which unselfishly he took a back seat to Madeleine Renaud and very probably rejoiced in her outstanding performance just as we, the audience, do.  

Madeleine Renaud was by far Jean Grémillon’s favourite actress and he used her effectively time and again, always showcasing her exceptional talent.  Vanel had worked with Grémillon (but then he worked with just about everyone) as early as 1931 in Daïnah la métisse, but in a much showier part.  Here, he is brilliant as the husband and father, happy to take a back seat as his wife takes up a career as a pilot attempting a world flight record.  

At the time (1944), the film’s audience would have appreciated its subtext, on such issues as the role of women in the Vichy Government (clue: it involved words like housewife, homemaker...).  As anti-Nazi, pro-feminist propaganda this was a fine effort, but so consummate is the craftsmanship of Grémillon and the acting of Renaud and Vanel that it is possible not merely to enjoy it some sixty years later but to revel in it.  A true classic.

© Leon Nock (London, England) 2010 

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