guy gatebois

"Delusion of grandeur" is a brilliant parody, full of amazing inventions, inspired by "Ruy Blas", the play written by Victor Hugo.

Louis de Funes, Alice Sapritch and Yves Montand create a perpetual movement, an exalting dynamics of derision : they are worthy of the best artists of burlesque.Moreover, the music composed by Michel Polnareff is one of the most expressive illustration devised for a sophisticated and spectacular bubble of happiness. In fact, Gerard Oury, the laughing emperor of French comedies and his daughter, Daniele Thompson, had created a splendid miracle : they had permitted, that Spanish frenzy and classical elegance had been associated, to offer a fascinating panorama of slapstick country. Yes, "Grandeur" says the best word to describe this strange alchemy, which catches the ludicrous vanities of human being, to transform them into jewels of non-sense.

"Once upon a time in the west" symbolizes the quintessence of theatrical ceremonial. Sergio Leone seized the traditional western and, helped by his scriptwriter Dario Argento, the future reference of giallo and baroque slaughter on large screens, enriched it with emphatic approach and humorous disenchantment. In fact, he builds a myth with modest elements - an organ mouth, a blue-eyed glance, long coats - and introduces lyricism and immoderation, to sublimate the manners of this specific spectacle. The daring of realization - inverted or encircling shot - and artistic choice (Henry Fonda becomes a tough guy) express an authentic will to break the common rules, in order to confer sensible density on his characters and an aesthetic energy on his scenery. Paradoxically, this glittering vision of Redemption, which was hesitating between homage and parody, belongs now to the classics. Looking for ruins poetry and contemporary genesis, the director has created an absolute. A story beginning by "Once upon a time" contains always some scraps of eternity...

What a curious conflict ! This french film, realized by Philippe De Broca, the subtle and jovial director of "L'homme de Rio", "Les tribulations d'un Chinois en Chine", "Le diable par la queue", "Les caprices de Marie", "Le magnifique", "Tendre poulet" and "Louisiane", describes a very delicate adventure, during the Second World War, in North Africa. The wife of an ambassador is hesitating between two men - the first one clever, generous and courageous, the second one, young, sincere and sensible - and becomes the female instinct of a three-hands escape. The approach of this complex friendship is characterized by grace : that is the reason why the shadow of a windy tenderness flies on this desert of affective uncertainties.

Touching atmosphere is created too by talented comedians, Marlene Jobert (1971 was an important year for her, as the delightful comedy "Catch me a spy" and the truly inspired "Six days wonder" prove it), Michel Piccoli - originally, his part was written for Jean-Paul Belmondo - and Michael York, who display a remarkable intensity to suggest the confusion of their vulnerable feelings. Otherwise, the main theme, composed by Michel Legrand, represents the perfect musical allegory of melancholy. At last, we must celebrate epilogue, which reflects an ideal sorrow : full of tears but outwardly smiling. Follow this initiating way, which offers us the fertile ambiguity of an utopian fantasy.