Les perles de la couronne

In the end, The Pearls Of the Crown is about political gains and advantage, royalty and succession, love and heartbreak, and life and death; with the main story that connects all the dots being the origin of the seven pearls.

Basically four of the pearls rest on the English Crown, and a writer recounts to his wife how there were originally seven pearls, all of identical shape, color and weight, but 3 of them are considered missing and to understand the value and importance of these pearls a history lesson is in order. In the meantime, representatives from France and Italy are also interested in the missing pearls. By fate, the writer and these representatives manage to form a bond and make it a mission for each individual to locate a missing pearl. This is what happens in present time, but the true main story is the pearls.

Sasha Guitry and his team create a fascinating and original story that literally spans generations and involve a bevy of characters. In fact, the director who stars and many of the actors and actresses play multiple roles. The main story of the pearls is truly epic and keeps things interesting. The main fault to me is being able to keep up with that main story. Its challenging, things fast forward in the story at a lightning quick pace and characters come and go in the blink of an eye, and events and circumstance mixed in can leave you in the dust if you suddenly lost attention. It was also purposely made to appeal to both audiences who speak English, French and Italian as it shifts frequently back and forth and sometimes all at the same moment in each language.

So I would say watch it for the story alone, its unique and ambitious. Its not for all tastes for sure but its a nicely made and well acted movie.

With only two comments on IMDb (and only one external review) I feel duty bound to chime in with a third to say that this is one of the perpetually delightful gems of cinema. A unique film: playful, fascinating, extravagant, hilarious, touching. Guitry is written off time and again as a mere purveyor of filmed theater, and it's true that he made many films -- about half of his output -- from stage plays, often long after their original stage productions. But once he got the cinema bug (he resisted for a very long time, only starting make films in middle age) he found that he was given a wonderful new toy, and continued to play with it for the rest of his days. The enormous cast, the huge number of extravagant sets, the lavish costumes, and the vivacious imagination with which all these are employed make of this charming film something to be treasured. I've seen it now four times -- I try to save it for moments when I really want something wonderful to savor. And let me not forget the beautiful and equally lavish musical score of Jean Francaix. The DVD is quite good, but you will of course have to have a region-free player -- and if you don't, why not? Available at this time only as one of the eight discs in a magnificent box set (with many extras) from Gaumont France, "Sacha Guitry: L'age d'or 1936-1938." It's well worth the price.

I was really looking forward to this, my third Guitry.. I'd liked the other two, and I'm a bit of a history buff.. so it should be a winner...

I almost gave up in the first hour.. I found it very dry and dull... but all of a sudden, once the three were dispatched on their quest, it improved dramatically. There was sparkle, wit and interest that seemed to be missing from the first half (Which felt like a slow plod through history)

Perhaps I just happened to tune in..

So my apologies for the poor '5' score.

Theatrical maestro Sacha Guitry goes through various wigs and false beards in this ornate romp through three languages and several centuries. Among the cameos by fellow theatrical luminaries Arletty wearing body makeup and very little else as the Queen of Abyssinia may offend modern 'Woke' sensibilities but she certainly keeps you awake!

The best of Guitry's historical costumed romps, this one has a great deal of verve and mischief in its favor, all in the service of a shaggy dog story about a set of pearls destined to find their way onto the crown of England, and the hunting down of the three that didn't. The story takes in Henry VIII, Napoleon and Queen Victoria along the way and ends up a sort of comedic Maltese Falcon.

The constant use of English, Italian and French languages throughout is unusual and perhaps even unique. It does slow the pace down having the same line said 3 times throughout, but, like the rest of the film, it's all done in such a spirit of playful fun it somehow works.