Le ciel est à vous

This French film entitled in English THE WOMAN WHO DARED has the original title of LE CIEL EST A VOUS (THE SKY IS YOURS). A screen card at the beginning of the original version says it is based on real events which took place in 1937, though no one seems to know what those were. In any case, the story is set in the late thirties in France. The film is directed by the much-revered French director of yesteryear, Jean Grémillon. He directs at a leisurely pace and is in no hurry to cut out the expository parts of early scenes in order to get a move on. He likes to lay the groundwork of his story in a languid fashion. The film was made under the German Occupation of France, and all such films have aroused both suspicion and hostility, many who made them were accused of being collaborators, and some genuinely were. Charles Vanel is wonderful as a mild, tolerant husband to a fiery younger wife, played by Madeleine Renaud with her usual flair. Vanel's character had worked as an engine mechanic for a famous fighter pilot in World War One. He has now become an expert auto mechanic in a small garage and struggles to make a living. Unpredictable events lead to his elevation to a better paying status, and his wife gets a well-paying job too away from home. He has secretly been piloting planes at the local aerodrome, his wife finds out and is horrified and forbids him to continue, to which he reluctantly complies. (She is a real tyrant and forbids her daughter to continue taking piano lessons when her piano teacher has the effrontery to suggest that the daughter is so talented that she should go to a Conservatoire of music and become professional; the mother wants her to earn money, not become artistic.) Suddenly, Renaud becomes infatuated herself with flying and she too becomes a pilot. Husband and wife get really carried away and adapt their plane for long-range flights so that the wife can attempt to beat the world ladies' record for solo distance flying (which at the moment stood at 2500 kilometres). With no money and no support, having sunk every penny of borrowings into their new improved plane, they enter the competition. I must not say what happens then, but she does indeed qualify to be called 'the woman who dared' and the original title of the film is absolutely right.

A mechanic (Charles Vanel) and his high-strung wife (Madeleine Renaud) become obsessed with aviation. Eventually, Renaud attempts to challenge the distance record for aviatrices. This film is a little too unfocused at the start - Renaud doesn't even get into a plane until the 45 minute mark. The real weakness, though, is that the two protagonists become real jerks in the middle of the film. Flight becomes an addiction, so much so that they have to hock their daughter's piano to pay for the upgrades they need to break the record. There is a little bit of a comeuppance, but not really. And absolutely none for Renaud - she certainly doesn't learn her lesson. I certainly have to imagine that her kids will grow up hating her.

Charles Spaak is one of those French scenarists - along with Henri Jeanson, Pierre Bost and Jean Aurenche - who tended to be overshadowed by the mighty Jacques Prevert. Any writer who can list La Kermesse heroique, La Belle Equipe and La Grande Illusion on his cv - and those were just a few of his PRIOR credits, post-Ciel they include Remorques and Le Corporal Epingle - would be almost certain to land a job on 'The World Turns' were he alive today. Spaak has delivered a quiet charmer here albeit propaganda fodder for Vichy. Charles Vanel acts out of his skin as Pierre Gauthier (what, one wonders, inspired this choice of name - with its overtones of Theophile Gauthier - for the two lead protagonists) mostly by NOT acting, or not SEEMING to. He is well matched by Madeleine Renaud as Therese, his wife, who, given the somewhat thankless role of role MODEL to French women everywhere, succeeds beyond the wildest dreams of Petain in creating a flesh-and-blood PERSON. Sterling support by Ann Vandene as an amalgam of those early pioneering female pilots and Raymonde Vernay as the mother-in-law from outer Hell make this a film to cherish. It's strength lies in the accumulation of detail and the warmth of the relationships. With a less surer touch than that of Gremillon the subplot involving the daughter, a would-be musical prodigy, could be seen as over-egging the feminist pudding but here it takes its unobtrusive place in the main story of Renaud realizing her potential as a aviatrix. 8/10

Madeleine Renaud, husband Charles Vanel, their children and her mother move their home and mechanic's shop. Their land has been expropriated for an airfield. They move into town and, because they are hardworking and thrifty, start to do well. They can even replace their daughters piano, smashed in the move, even though they won't permit her to go the the conservatory to become a concert pianist. Far better she study to become a pharmacist! That's the sort of practical people they are.

But when the airport is opened, they attend. The stunt pilot have some mechanical issues that Vanel, who was an airplane mechanic during the war, fixes easily. It also reopens old dreams of flying. Soon he is in trouble with Mlle Renaud. That is, until she goes up and gets the fever herself. And she decides she wants to break the woman's flight record.

It's based very approximately on Andrée Dupeyron, who did just that with the aid of her mechanic husband. Jean Grémillon 's movie (co-scripted by Charles Spaak) hits all the usual notes in such a film. There's real chemistry between the leads here, and a nice little speech for Vanel. Mostly, though, it's impressive how Mlle Renaud remains a small-town, hard-headed provincial woman while going all starry-eyed on flying.

After the German conquest of France in 1940, Hitler decided to create a 'Hollywood' style Nazi film industry to entertain the enslaved populations of Europe. ReichsMinister of Propaganda Goebbels formed & financed the Continental Film Co. of Germany, and it signed up a bunch of collaborating French actors based in the Occupied Zone in Paris where the film was produced. Vichy was mentioned in the film, but there was no film industry in the Unoccupied zone, it was just shown there. To the extent that this successful film fulfilled the aims of the Reich Ministry of Propaganda, French efforts in the film were collaboration. Or,if you wish, French efforts were Resistance in order to preserve what was left of French culture.

The point of view just depended on who held the knife at your throat when the question arose.