Quadrille

Guitry's films are often relegated to the category of "filmed theater." While this is an inaccurate categorization of his films as a whole, it does apply to this very talky picture. Not only is it based on a play, it is also very clumsily "opened up" with cutaway "meanwhile" inserts, brief exterior shots showing characters entering buildings, etc., which break up the theatrical continuity and add little, if anything. A rather long 91 minutes (the running time of the Gaumont DVD in the "Guitry Coffret d'or" boxed set -- though two Guitry books and IMDb list it as 109), despite the exceptionally appealing presence of young star Georges Gray -- a very handsome man, who is seen in a (non full-frontal) nude scene. He's very chipper and genial (if not exactly funny -- he doesn't really have any good lines). Guitry gives a typical Guitry performance. He himself said he was no actor, and, indeed, Guitry is always Guitry (as John Wayne is always John Wayne). Sometimes that's fine -- when he plays historical characters it seems to work well -- but here one could use something more. The women are all fine, the decors and costumes are lovely. And it's a bit of a bore.

"Quadrille" is a film written, directed and starring Sascha Guitry. And, like the few films of his I have seen before, it's a comedy about sex and the upper class. Guitry plays a man who has lived with a woman for six years. Finally, he's getting around to the notion of asking her to marry him. Unfortunately, his timing is terrible as his beloved just met an international movie star--and this star is intent on bedding her. What is Sascha to do?

While the general plot idea wasn't bad, the execution left a lot to be desired. So, although the acting was good, the film was bogged down because almost nothing happened...other than the characters talking and talking and talking. In fact, compared to other films, this one had very few scenes--just very long and dull ones where the folks talked and talked about love and sex but didn't do much of anything. I found it to be a well-acted but very dull affair indeed--and perhaps my vote of 5 is being charitable. I noticed that the other reviews were much more positive and so I am definitely the odd man out here.

No, it's not Les Règles du jeu or one of the great classics of the French cinema. But this movie is FUNNY!!! In a very Guitryesque, nasty sort of way. The humor of the dialogue is truly brilliant - though of course Guitry gives himself all the best lines. But there are a lot of them, and they are often devastatingly funny.

There is not so much a plot as a situation, THE situation of French farce: Guitry plays what he is, an older man, whose mistress (Gaby Morlay) meets a young American movie star and falls in love with him. Guitry must come to terms with that, but it's not too painful, as he has just fallen in love with his lover's best friend, Delubec, who, quite frankly, is far more attractive than Morlay and far more interesting. So everyone wins.

As do the viewers, because the situations provoke one devastatingly clever bon mot after the next, mostly from Guitry.

This is not French for beginners. Guitry and Delubuc speak as fast as is humanly possible, though with a clarity of diction that speaks to their training in the theater. I don't know how funny this would be if you had to read the subtitles, as you would lose all the inflections, which are half the humor. But if you can follow it in French, you will have one very enjoyable hour and 40 some minutes.

Guitry is once again the center of attention of all the young, beautiful ladies of Paris. A visiting American matinée idol seduces his girlfriend, causing him to consider leaving her. After an attempted suicide, her best friend suggests that they get married instead. He agrees, but only if she becomes his lover on the wedding day. Guitry's double standard is appalling to watch: he berates his girlfriend for her affair, barely keeping himself from hitting her, all the while plotting his next conquest. As with all of Guitry's films, it's dialog driven and tedious to sit through, only the presence of Jacqueline Delubac makes it bearable, but when you realize she is Guitry's wife in real life, even that loses its appeal.

The introduction of the Hollywood heartthrob "Carl Erickson" is an interesting novelty but he adds nothing memorable - kind of like one of those bland singing beefcakes MGM kept forcing into the later Marx Bros films that only slowed the jokes down.

Jacqueline Delubac is as beautiful as always to look at, but it's actually Gaby Morlay who shines this time around. I'd not seen her before, but her breezy, fluid performance reminded me most of Margaret Sullavan in 'The Shop Around The Corner'. Other than that it's all a little stagebound and sometimes dull.

The best stretch by far is the long, half-hour, post-infidelity showdown between Guitry and his lover Morlay halfway through: it's well-observed, funny and insightful and covers so many different emotional bases, in such an effortless and natural way. So flippant and precise, so throwaway and sincere: exactly the kind of thing Sacha Guitry does so well.