Il cielo è vostro

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.

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.

The wife of a mechanic and former fighter pilot falls in love with the idea of flying herself. This soon becomes an obsession and she undertakes a lofty feat: the longest solo flight ever made by a woman.

What I find strange about this film is how it starts by saying it is about real people. Yet, I am unable to determine which real people it concerns. As an American, when I hear longest solo flight, I think Amelia Earhart. Because I have this bias, am I not aware of a similar French aviator? (Or aviatrix?) The film is a good one, but that one detail nags at me because I would love to compare the film to a real-life counterpart, and as far as I can tell, it does not exist. A shame.

"A ghost of the aviation/She was swallowed by the sky/or by the sea/like me she had a dream to fly." (Joni Mitchell,"Amelia" on the Hejira album)

This beautiful movie is dedicated to daring women,who were feminist ahead of their time :Hélène Boucher,Amelia Earhardt,Maryse Bastié and a lot of those pioneers who had to fight to make their way in a chauvinist male world.Thérèse (Madeleine Renaud) fulfills her greatest dream :becoming a pilot.This is a simple but moving story.

During the Occupation,the Petainist France set this movie up as an example of virtue and courage ,against the dirty Clouzot's "le corbeau ".After the Liberation,both movies were attacked,the former,for being too petainist,the latter for showing the darkest side of the occupied country.That demonstrates the stupidity of the censorship.

Today's audience will certainly favor "le corbeau" over "le ciel est à vous" :the film noir is more exciting that what I could call le film blanc.But it should appeal to women :in France too,they've come a long way.

I wish to answer to Gavin6942. This movie is inspired by the real story of Andrée Dupeyron, wife of the mechanic Gustave Dupeyron, who flew from Algeria to Irak (more than 4000km) 1938. She also belonged to the Forces Françaises Libres during WW2 as a war pilot.