Third adaptation by Jacqueline Audry of a Colette book,this movie might appeal to a female audience but it's not sure that the male viewers can get something out of it.
Danielle Delorme portrays Mitsou (this name has nothing Japanese ;it's made with the first syllabus of the young courtesan/music hall artist's fancy man's factories )a kept girl who lives in a desirable apartment which looks out onto the Eiffel Tower and the Champ De Mars .
What may put off the male audience is the way War is depicted (and it's WW1!)Yes,Mitsou blames her greybeard draft dodger ;he may be too old to be a soldier but he eats lobster when the poor GI have to make do with "Singe "(="monkey" -bully beef-):as Mitsou is gorgeous but a bubble head girl,she's probably sure that the soldiers have monkey meat for lunch.The scenes depicting the army are too gentle ,too nice "it looks like holiday camps,the President (Poincarré at the time)says,when he comes for the review ,and he hardly exaggerates .Only the propaganda numbers performed on stage -I particularly like Delorme dressed up as a ludicrous Alsatian= "we'll get 'em and mainly we'll get back Alsace and Lorraine - ring true ,apart from the scenes of light gallantries.
Nice cameos by famous actresses : Gaby Morlay plays Mitsou's mother who is the occasional fortune -teller;Gabrielle Dorziat helps her former lover (now Mitsou's) improve his poor syntax in a laudable attempt to educate the girl (Shaw's "Pygmalion" shades) Danielle Delorme had just made "Voici Le Temps Des Assassins" with Julien Duvivier and it's much to her credit to have been able to play two diametrically opposite parts ;I must confess that I like Delorme best (and it's an euphemism) in Duvivier's movie.But I'm a man after all.
Like this ?try these....
"Gigi" ,Jacqueline Audry ,from Colette (1948) ,remade by Vincente Minnelli as a musical ten years after.
"Minne " ,Jacqueline Audry ,from Colette (1950) "L'Ecole Des Cocottes" Pierre Colombier (1935 )remade by Audry in 1958.
