Film Review
Le Roman d'un tricheur was the
first feature film that Sacha Guitry directed which was not based on
one of his earlier stage plays. In fact, it is adapted from the
one and only novel that he wrote,
Les
Mémoires d'un tricheur, first published in 1935.
This immediately sets the film apart from Guitry's other film work and
it stands out as one of the director's quirkier, more inventive films,
and it is not hard to see why it is widely regarded as his
masterpiece. Just as he retained the theatrical feel of his
adapted stage plays in his other films, Guitry holds onto the narrative
form of his novel for his fourth feature, with the bulk of the story
told in flashback, recounted by its author, who voices all of his
protagonists' dialogue. Apart from a few scenes set in the
present,
Le Roman d'un tricheur
looks like a silent film that has been given a voiceover
narration. You'd think this would make the film appear unbearably
stuffy and dated, but far from it. This is one of Sacha Guitry's
punchiest and most involving films - indeed, it feels more modern and
livelier than much of his subsequent work.
Those familiar with Guitry's later films - notably
La
Poison (1951) and
La Vie d'un honnête homme
(1953) - will be accustomed to the director's cynical view of life, his
habit of seeing the worst in human nature and mantra that only the bad,
the deceitful and downright dishonest prevail, whilst virtue goes
unrecognised and unrewarded. Guitry had good reason to be
pessimistic in his later years (unjustly branded a collaborator after
the Liberation he was disowned by many of his supposed friends), but in
his glory years of the 1930s it looks as if he was just as scathing of
human frailty, as his novel and its film adaptation patently bear
out. The hero is a decent sort who wants more than anything to
lead a virtuous life, but he is what the French might call a
bon homme manqué - every
good deed he performs brings grief, whilst every act of criminality
enriches him. Not only does honesty not pay, it actually
impoverishes him, whereas cunning and deceit bring wealth and
self-esteem. Guitry's mocking assessment of his fellow man is
cruel but astute, as he would discover for himself in later years.
As in most of his films, Guitry dominates the proceedings in the lead
role, although his younger self in the early party of the narrative are
played by younger actors (not even a thespian as talented and
ego-centric as Guitry could get away with playing a
twelve-year-old). His wife of the time, Jacqueline Delubac,
appears in the role of the woman the Cheat briefly marries (the
couple's real life divorce came just a few years after their fictitious
divorce in the film) and Guitry's friend and long-term associate
Pauline Carton lent her support both as an actress and contributor to
the screenplay. Fréhel, one of the most popular French
chansonniers of the era, provides the film with a quaint musical
interlude, and Marguerite Moreno unleashes her indomitable personality
in two memorable scenes - mercifully she is just about the one person
in the film that Guitry doesn't dub with his own voice (as if he would
dare). Roger Duchesne, the future lead in Jean-Pierre Melville's
Bob
le flambeur (1956), crops up in one flashback with a
distinctly noir edge, playing a Russian dishwasher-turned-would
be-assassin. As he often did in his films, Guitry pays tribute to
his cast and crew by introducing them 'in the flesh' at the start of
the film.
The simple narrative approach that Guitry adopts for
Le Roman d'un tricheur (a story
told in flashback as a series of personal recollections) is one that
has been emulated many times since but rarely with Guitry's
flair. It is the director's penchant for invention and
observation - to say nothing of his unflagging sense of humour - that
makes the film so enjoyable. In only one other film would its
author employ a similar narrative construction,
Le Trésor de Cantenac
(1950). It is with a typically Gallic shrug of the shoulders that
Guitry comments on the injustices of life, using wit (of the distinctly
barbed variety) rather than pathos to make his counsel of despair more
palatable. Released at a time of national optimism in France (in
September 1936, just four months after the Front Populaire came to
power), the film was not well-received. Since,
Le Roman d'un tricheur has grown
considerably in stature and is now considered not only one of Sacha
Guitry's best films, but also one of the landmarks of French cinema.
© James Travers 2015
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Sacha Guitry film:
Désiré (1937)
Film Synopsis
A man in his mid-fifties sits alone in a café writing his
memoirs which he intends titling
The
Story of a Cheat. His tale begins when, at the age of 12,
he is denied a meal of tasty mushrooms as a punishment for stealing
money from the till of his family's grocery shop. The mushrooms
turn out to be poisonous and the boy's entire family are dead within a
day. He ends up in the care of a cousin, who is more interested
in the boy's inheritance than his well-being. After running away
from his new home, the youngster finds work as a hotel doorman and
bellboy, and has a brief liaison with a rich countess whilst employed
as a lift operator in Monaco. After the war, he teams up with a
professional jewel thief before deciding to opt for an honest life as a
croupier in a casino. Believing our hero can control the roulette
wheel, a woman gambler marries him, offering in return a share of her
winnings. Not only can the croupier not control the wheel, he
does so at his wife's expense - she loses all of her money and a quick
divorce ensues. He also loses his job. Now convinced that
dishonesty is the only way to succeed in life, our hero embarks on a
new career as a professional card cheat. Over the next few years,
the cheat makes a small fortune, but then he meets the man who saved
his life during the war and once again the lure of honesty proves too
strong to resist...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.