Ariane, jeune fille russe (1932)
Directed by Paul Czinner

Film Review

Paul Czinner's adaptation of Claude Anet's 1920 novel Ariane, jeune fille does it few favours and presents something of an endurance challenge even for those who are familiar with films of this era.  Judging by this film, and its equally ugly twin sister Mélo (1932), the limitations of early sound cinema were major creative blockers for Czinner, an Austro-Hungarian director who had previously distinguished himself in the silent era, with such films as Kammerspiel tel Nju (1924).  The lethargic pace and airless staginess of Ariane, jeune fille russe are typical of films of this era, but that doesn't excuse it for being so unremmitingly dull.

Such was the temperamental nature of the sound recording equipment at the time that the actors were forbidden to overlap their lines, so what we have are gaps between the dialogue exchanges through which you could pass not just a coach and horses but the entire US cavalry.  Add to this the horribly static camera set-ups and the impression you get is a film that is being played back at one quarter of its proper speed.  It doesn't help that the performances from the leads actors - Gaby Morlay and Victor Francen (both major stars of the time) - are stiff and colourless, so much so that they strangle the life out of whatever human feeling may have been lurking in the pages of the script.  Czinner made two other versions of the film at the time, one in German, another in English (which starred his wife Elisabeth Bergner), all equally forgettable.  Billy Wilder would have far more success with his 1957 adaptation, titled Love in the Afternoon.

Film Synopsis

Against the wishes of her family, Ariane, a naïve Russian girl, decides to study at Paris University.  Not long after her arrival in the French capital, she meets Constantin, a much older businessman who is looking for an amorous fling and nothing more.  Ariane cannot help herself falling in love with the older man and she is heartbroken when he leaves to resume his busy career abroad.  When they next meet in Paris, some time later, Constantin offers to resume their erstwhile romance.  Ariane hesitates and invents the fiction that she has had many lovers.  Appalled by this revelation, Constantin spurns his young mistress, but he is even more shocked when Ariane tells him the truth...