La donna che ho più amato

A gathering of old friends ;the actors (Raymond Rouleau,René Lefèvre,etc) seem older than they were in 1942.Up comes the host's nephew who doesn't want to join the party and goes up to his bedroom.The servant sees a revolver on an armchair:he is about to commit suicide .He warns the uncle who takes the boy down to the dining-room :his girlfriend walked out on him some hours ago and he cannot overcome the pain.The guests then begin to tell him a tale of their private life ,when they too were about to take their own lives.

The film made of sketches was in France (and in America during the war years) Julien Duvivier's field.Nobody has equaled him since in this genre in France and nobody probably ever will.Robert Vernay's sketches are so so stuff ,occasionally funny ,but never really exciting.

Segment one: the guest is in love with a chanteuse ,but she is independent and marriage would be a prison to her.Only interesting because Arletty is in it and plays her own character :In real life ,Arletty never got married.

Segment two:like segment one is saved from mediocrity by Arletty,segment two is saved by René Lefèvre ,mainly in its first part when he comes home stinking out booze much to his wealthy father's great displeasure.

Segment three: a sculptor (Michele Alfa) hires a lawyer as a model (a gladiator).Not particularly stunning.

Segment four: two men (Raymond Rouleau and Jean Tissier) love the same woman (Mireille Balin).This segment 's trick lies in the fact that the first name Claude ,in French is masculine and feminine.

Segment five:A man passes for dead ,and as he lies on his "deathbed ",he learns his wife slept with his best friend ,and that she is rather stingy when it comes to buying a coffin (Bernard Blier plays the undertaker).Average.

The young man understands that life is worth living and that "joys of love" don't last and that there are plenty of unhappy love affairs.But when he returns home,the lights are on...What do you suppose that means?