Remontons les Champs-Élysées

After years of hearing many cinema buffs here in France putting Guitry down for the filmed-theater aspect of his first films and finding some of these films hard to sit through myself, I came across a quote from Mae West that Guitry's "Roman d'un tricheur" was one of her favorite films. So I decided to keep trying.

"Roman" was more inventive than the previous films, as if Guitry had taken his contemporaries' criticism to heart, but a bit predictable for 21st century expectations. Yet it was fascinating to see Guitry falling in love with the means of expression that cinema had to offer him after he had lambasted the medium when talkies first came out.

This exploration continued in "Les perles de la couronne" and now reach their pinnacle in "Remontons les Champs Elysées," truly his most beautiful black and white film. The framework of a teacher telling students about his fore-bearers through the evolution of Paris' most famous street foreshadows the tone of Cocteau's future personal interventions in some of his best films. The fact that Guitry the actor is a teacher here justifies his talkativeness, and perhaps this frees Guitry the director to glide, sweep and whirl the camera around the lovingly created sets-- at some point the viewer wonders if Ophuls had something to do with the filming. Jump cuts are employed with the same elegance that would highlight Goddard's work at the end of the century. All of this to serve a comic and dramatic structure where humanity outweighs a kind of patriotism that never degenerates into chauvinism. This is thanks to Guitry's affectionate criticism of the foibles of those who inhabit his country and create its evolution. One of his best films and one of the best films of all time.

Let Guitry take you down cause he's going to...Elysées fields ...where nothing is real (isn't it?)and nothing to get hung about ..

Champs Elysées forever!

This movie belongs to Guitry's historical movies ;such works include "les Perles de la Couronne " (1937) and the two magnus opus "Si Versailles M'Etait Conté "(1953) and "Si Paris Nous Etait Conté "(1955);there were three more movies but they were minor ("le Mot De Cambronne") or academic ("Napoleon" ).As for " De Jeanne D'Arc à Petain",made during the occupation days (1942) let's draw a veil over it,if only out of respect for the artist and let's remember his very first film "Ceux De Chez Nous " ,the true granddaddy of all Guitry's historical extravaganzas.

"Remontons les Champs Elysées " fills its quota of puns,gags and hilarious situations as well as useful "inventions ":the 2-person guillotine Marat is very interested in is not the least.

IT all began under Marie de Medicis's regency when Concini (a nasty Italian:why ,complains Guitry ,do French always choose treacherous aliens to rule ?)was the real master:les Champs Elysees were then just a large path through the wood where young Louis 13th ,sick and tired of his minister ,achieved a right and left:a boar and the infamous wop.

May this movie be the director's claim for immortality?the story is told by a schoolteacher (Guitry who plays other parts)in front of his pupils :one of them is his own son,and he's the son of the kings ,of Napoleon and of the Republic !How Guitry succeeds in proving such a far-fetched story is his secret !A transparent metaphor for the French citizen as he is today?Or the artist's desire longing for immortality?

But Guitry has a darker side to him:the fear of death .One of the segments is revealing:a two-bit fortune teller told the king Louis 15th he would die six months after the marquis de Chauvelin ; so the monarch sends all his sawbones to the noble man to take care of his health ;he puts him on a diet because "if you die,my own days will be numbered".there's also this obsession of dying when you are 64: "when you are 20,and you know you're going to die when you're sixty-four,you've got plenty of time;but when you turn sixty-three ,you are not smiling anymore" .This obsession with death was even more obvious in the two final historical works :the best segment of "Si Versailles ...." deals with the final years of the Sun King,growing old along Madame De Maintenon;as for "Si Paris....",it shows many old people,among them Voltaire dying...

Guitry opened up in his movies: proof positive he was a genuine artist.

A maths professor decides to take the morning off and instead teach his students the history of France's most famous avenue.

"Let's Take The Champs-Élysées" is a pleasant enough romantic and flag-waving whimsy, but it's a little aimless, and early on quite dull. Its interest and worth will probably depend upon how curious one is about the individual historical stories Guitry recounts, as the tales go by so fast there's little time to invest in any of the characters. The best by far is the one with Guitry himself as Louis XV, but the rest by and large end up diverting enough.

The film improves as it goes on, but it still remains something of a disappointment, all in all. Handsome to look at, though.