Based on a film by the director and starring Odette Joyeux that we saw several weeks ago (Lettres d'Amour), I chose the 3 remaining films by the director now showing on Criterion for my weekend film festival. The films are neither light nor weighty, and often very witty. Taken from French novels, these 3 films are all concerned with a girl of 16 years trying to come to terms with the end of her childhood and her sudden entrance into adulthood, with new feelings and ideas bombarding her senses.
The earliest of the three is from 1942, and the one that I enjoyed the most. For a woman of 28 to nail down the flutterances of a young girl is not an easy acting assignment, but Joyeux is a delight to watch and hear at every turn. She captures nuances that would convince a teenager that they are watching a young girl deal with strong feelings of love and isolation from the world she will soon be a part of. All of the acting in all of Autant-Lara's films is top notch, and the newly restored prints are a joy to behold. The uncle's relationship with his young niece is fun to watch, as he has known her since she was six, and sometimes she still wants him to treat her like that, but at other times....
Though it gets harder and harder to watch movies where very young women choose much older male partners, and vice versa, the film is still fun and enjoyable. Based around France's first attempts to fly (the uncle), and with noisy motor cars interacting with horse and buggy transport, there is a lot to watch here besides the romance angle. What makes me cringe much more than the age difference romances is Autant-Lara's later year, when he briefly became a European member of parliament, and made a speech denying the holocaust. It makes a person mighty suspicious of how closely he worked with the Nazis in 1940s France. He was certainly able to make a lot of movies during that time, of very high budgets and quality. The writer, "Gyp", whose novel became the basis for the film, was a fanatical anti-Semite. Good grief.
From 1942, now showing on Criterion.
The 2nd film was Douce, about a young girl in love with the man who managed the estate for her grandmother and father. Her fantasies are interrupted since her governess is also in love with him. Not as enjoyable as the first film, nevertheless it features some great writing and acting, and period sets (1887) that are jaw dropping. The finale, with a theatre fire, is very well done. Only the stupidity of Douce is in question. I would not be likely to watch this one again, mainly because of a botched ending. Not the fact that Douce dies in the fire, but the fact that she keeps running upstairs, pushing her way past hysterical patrons running out of the theatre. She more or less deserves her death, which I don't think was intended. Joyeux is pensive and moody in this film, again being 16 and ready for something besides childhood. She gets it, both barrels.
From 1943, now showing on Criterion.
The third and final film of our month-end festival was a light-hearted comedy, starring Odette Joyeux again, with Jacques Tati miming his way through as a friendly and not very efficient ghost. The ghost special effects are actually quite awesome, and even scary in a few places. Wonderful acting, the story drags in a few places and becomes unnecessarily complicated, but it is good fun and worth a look. Odette as the 16 year old is very dreamy, impressionable, and sombre. At least she ends up with someone not too much older than herself in this one.
Now showing on Criterion.
In other news, I enjoyed a final clear night of the April lunar session. It was the best one of them all, with no wind and tolerable temperatures. I lasted 3 1/2 hours before my eyes refused to cooperate any longer. So I managed four outings in April, which certainly helped keep me sane.
Today's painting from the DIA is by John Brett, and is a favourite landscape. Detroit has an entire wing of British art, most of it of very high quality. This is one of the finest landscapes, displaying a tonal palette that is amazingly fluid and striking. The viewer is swept away by the sunset at the seashore. When I first saw the painting, many years ago, I thought it the Arctic! The sands are as white as the gypsum dunes at White Sands, NM. These dunes are in Cornwall. The painting could easily grace the cover of a SF novel, front and back.
Bude Sands at Sunset, 1874, John Brett, English (1831-1902). Oil on canvas, 30" x 50". Collection Detroit Institute of Arts.
Detail of left side, showing part of the amazingly rendered sky.
Detail of central area. I love the perspective, with the idea of great distance being expressed by the clouds.
Detail of right side.
Next up is Beltane, the Celtic holiday that is on the opposite side of Samhain. Hard to believe it's been 6 months since we lit our pumpkin! If time is going by so fast, we must be having fun.
Mapman Mike
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