Anne-Marie

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (of Le Petit Prince fame) was a writer of some size but not up to the best; his characters are often literary and/or made of clichés such as The Inventor in this movie. Others are schematic and underdeveloped, like the five pilots. Being an aviator, however, he was unsurpassed in the picture of the thrills and dangers of flying the primitive, temperamental machines of the 1930s.

These qualities/defects are clearly visible in this movie. Acting by most of the cast shows a problem with French movies between the wars: inability to understand the difference between theater and movie acting. Paradoxically Annabella, who was not a theater actress delivers the best performance as Anne-Marie in a low key, natural fashion.

Finally the script. Saint-Exupéry obviously lowered his standards, The plot is ridden with Hollywood clichés and you will need a large dose of suspension of disbelief to swallow the ending. Special effects are rudimentary, but the few scenes that show the handling of authentic airplanes of the period are exciting,

Raymond Bernard may not be one of the great names of French cinema today, but he was considered at the front rank of directors in the 1930s when it came to high-brow commercial films, and this one was calculated and executed for that. With a script by Antoine de Saint-Expury and the titular character played by Annabella in her last role before she crossed the Atlantic to conquer, if not Hollywood, then at least Tyrone Power Jr., it was made to please the people who handed out awards, and did so, being nominated at the Venice Film Festival Award that year for Best Foreign Film.

Annabella learns how to fly, taught by five vteran fliers, but is loved by another man, who invents things, and plays the piano and raises roses. The problem I have with the script -- although it was au courant when Saint-Expury was writing it -- is these are not human beings. Instead, they are each granted nicknames which describes their principal attribute: the Thinker; the Inventor; the Detective; the Peasant; and so forth. Saint-Expury was never interested in the details of humanity. He was more entranced by big ideas ad mechanisms.... I suspect a mild case of objectophilia. Certainly, when I was studying French and forced to read him, I found his attitudes curious, but then I felt the same way about Jean-Paul Sartre.

In the same way I find Saint-Expury's indifference to human individuality unappealing, I find this movie unengaging. Yes, the issues it explores are Important. However, even a pilot cannot live with his head always in the clouds, but must come down to the earth occasionally, This movie makes that point --- but only after a hundred minutes. I suppose in 1936 that made it a big, important movie. today, to me, it just seems long.

It seems the French had a real passion for aviation, starting with the aces of WWI, continuing through the 20's with Lindbergh's solo Atlantic crossing, and into the 30's with Saint Exupery's novels into film. I think Le ciel est a vous, a 1943 film by Jean Gremillon is the best of the lot. Anne-Marie has so many tiresome characters you wish would disappear, and the story is terribly sentimental: she has four self-appointed stepfathers who are given names like The Thinker, etc and they try the viewer's patience enormously. You have to wait for the final 20 minutes to get some real excitement.

Thankfully, there is Annabella to watch, with her elegant striding through rooms, her soft, sweet voice, so musical to hear. I gave 4/10, and it's all for her.