Tu m’as sauvé la vie (1951) - film review

The baron de Saint-Rambert is a misanthropic old man who, despite his wealth, has no friends, and no apparent heir.  His servants hope to inherit a share of his fortune, as does the countess de Morhange, whose plan is to marry the old man.  Things take an unexpected turn when, one day, the baron’s life is saved by a tramp, Fortuné Richard.  To show his gratitude, the baron decides to make the tramp his sole heir, much to the chagrin of his servants...

By the time Sacha Guitry came to make Tu m’as sauvé la vie, a film adaptation of one of his later stage plays, he had become an object of contempt and ridicule in the eyes of many critics.   Certainly, some (not all) of Guitry’s work in his later years lacks the sparkle of his earlier successes, but the criticism was often over the top and veered towards personal abuse, which Guitry bitterly resented.   This probably had less to do with artistic judgement and more to do with unhealthy speculation over Guitry’s activities at the time of the Nazi Occupation (Guitry was arrested just after the Liberation in 1944, to be released two months later through lack of evidence).

One film which received more than its fair share of negative criticism was the 1950 comedy, Tu m’as sauvé la vie, which sees Guitry partnered with the legendary comic actor Fernandel (who was also coming in for some unfair criticism at this time).    Whilst it is certainly not a masterpiece, Tu m’as sauvé la vie has great entertainment value (hence its popular success) and, far from being the shallow comedy which some critics painted it, the film does make some more profound statements about human nature.  That Guitry cast himself as the vain and solitary lead character in the film is a poignant reflection of how Guitry saw himself at this difficult point in his career.

© James Travers 2003

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