Roman eines Schwindlers

This was such an enjoyable experience and a surprise considering its vintage of 1936. Mainly told via narration it never loses its charm and humour as the elderly cheat from the film's title writes his memoirs, and the audience is shown the eventful moments in flashback. The Director also was writing and staring in the film, as the main character in his later years, The young actor playing the tricheur as a young boy of 12 years was the most adorable version of the character, for me, followed by the older man. This is a film you have to see if you can, either via BluRay or DVD or via the Criterion Channel streaming service.

Cahiers du Cinema classed this as one of '100 most important films' which is high praise indeed. It is years ahead of its time and has aged like a good wine. It is the first film to use a voice-over narration and Sacha Guitry has introduced his actors and technicians on camera thereby dispensing with traditional credits. This respect for and appreciation of the talents at his disposal is evident in his subsequent films. Guitry has adapted this from his own novel and within its eighty minute length is inventive, absorbing and entertaining enough to be rightly considered one of his best films. Marguerite Moreno is great as the Countess, there is the glorious voice of chanteuse Frehel and a brief appearance by Roger Duchesne as an anarchist. He went off the radar after the War amid 'allegations' of collaboration but resurfaced in 'Bob le Flambeur'. The art direction by Henri Menessier is superlative. Guitry was essentially a man of the theatre and his films have been described as 'anti-cinematic'. There is some truth in this and the staginess, verbosity and over indulgence of his later films are inclined to test ones patience but there are also moments of genius. He was an artiste whose devotion to his craft cannot be overestimated.

The Story Of A Cheat (1936) : Brief Review -

Sacha Guiltry's immensely humourous and coolest dark comedy that does not cheat with the audience at all. This is perhaps the most entertaining crime comedy i have seen from 30s decades. Full of humour, brilliant screenwriting, interesting narration and what not, The Story Of A Cheat does not cheat anywhere to be blamed for. Among all the crime comedies i have seen so far from old Hollywood this one kept me hooked for entire 80 minutes including every single small dialogue such as Okay, Thank You and the Pauses as well. A charming scoundrel reflects on his exploits, from childhood through to manhood. In every stage of his life he discovers something new, something innovative that might just blow your head. For instance, there is scene from his childhood where all the family member dies and he alone survives and later he discovers a theory that he survived because he was a cheat and rest of the members died because they were honest. I couldn't stop laughing there and then gave it a thought and believe it or not it made a phenomenal right sense out of wrong theories. Sacha tries an innovative idea of telling the narrative though narration and belive me every single minute worths it. What a brilliant narration it was. I was glued to the screen throughout the runtime despite the fact that there were hardly 20 dialogues in 80 minutes runtime, rest it was all about crispy narration. It was a major breakthrough for him as a filmmaker. As an actor he justifies his role with an convincing act with lots of varieties. Bit of a flirt, few tricks, some gimmicks, nasty characteristics, wild Romance and meeting human values at the end, these all elements have been used in perfect order to make The Story Of A Cheat a brilliant film. Overall, exquisite. One of the most entertaining cheat job ever done.

RATING - 7.5/10*

By - #samthebestest

I can only approve of my old pal Writer's Reign 's opinion ,who for a change wrote the very first comment."Le Roman d'un Tricheur" is an unique work ,which tends to make a reductio ab absurdum : what 's the point of being honest if honest people are chastised.

So much for the prelims: a young boy was born a very big family :12 persons in all;as he had stolen some money,he was punished and deprived of mushrooms! But they were poisonous mushrooms and the whole family but the naughty brat went to their grave .So what's the point of being honest? The whole story is told by a voice over;the form was totally new since the actors did not act ,they just mimed ,like some kind of tableaux vivants.The only scenes (two) where you find a real dialog are the ones between the hero (Guitry ,of course) and Marguerite Moreno's countess.

This is a short film (barely 80 min) but Guitry 's story is dense and includes an attempt against the life of Russian tsar Nicolas the Second , a lesson of geography about Monaco , a trip to the casinos (royale or not)where the hero tries his luck with mixed results , WW1,a sneak thief -whose methods would make Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie admire the lady-,and more ...

Guitry was often criticized in France ;they said he had an unbearable ego .Completely true:that's what made his movies so exciting.

Sacha Guitry was the greatest orator in movie history. Even greater than Orson Welles, in my estimation. But that does not make him the greatest filmmaker. He had real trouble in SHOWING the audience what was going on, rather than telling them. I think Story of a Cheat is the most successful of his films because he found a way of creating action--an example being the jewel thief who comes up with a novel way of stealing gems from unwitting marks. The two scenes with Marguerite Moreno in the cafe are wonderfully done, with great dialog. Otherwise the story is told through narrated flashbacks.