Le couple idéal

Paris, 1912. The whole city shudders as it watches the adventures, renewed every week on the screens, always ending with a cliffhanger ,of Diavolo and Diana. The "serials" fascinate spectators to such an extent that they are convinced that, in life as in their films, the two stars form the ideal couple.

However, this is not the case: Diana is exasperated by Diavolo's conceit, and it takes all the diplomacy and all the good humor of the impresario Antoine for the two actors to still agree to smile at each other.

In spite of an unfairly poor rating, this is a marvelous tribute to the silent age ,to Louis Feuillade (Diana's tights are a nod to Musidora, the serial which tries to beat "Diavolo" is called "Justex " (a nod to "Judex") and to these far-fetched stories in which the hero (here Diavolo ) always comes to his fiancée-damsel-in-distress' rescue and triumphs over the villain called Satanas (Fantomas).

Raymond Rouleau shines in a double role: the smug narcissistic and refined Diavolo and his crude lookalike ,Henri ,who,much to his displeasure ,replaces him when he is in the slammer after a rumble ; both him and Diana have a tendency to put a spoke in their wheels.

Icing on the cake, Diavolo's maid -two short scenes- is portrayed by Simone Signoret ,whom Rouleau would direct later in "les sorcières de salem " (Miller's "the crucible")(1957) both on stage and on screen .

Forget the rating ,and watch it; it's,along "portrait d'un assassin", Bernard -Roland 's finest work.