Sylvie et le fantôme

The film tells the story of a young girl that has fallen in love with a man in a painting. This man however is no longer alive but is still wandering around as a ghost (a charming role for Jacques Tati). Therefore two suitors think they could conquer her by pretending to be that ghost.

This film is an elegant, delicious escapist movie. But what do you expect when the costumes are designed by none other than Christian Dior and the film is photographed by Philipe Agostini (DoP of a.o. 'Day Break' and the early Bresson films). That fact that the film was shot while World War II was still waging can in no way shape or form be noticed when you're watching it. Only during one moment in the film in which one of the 'fake' ghosts is caught and the apprehenders notice they've caught the wrong one there is a line that you could potentially regard as a hint to WWII. One of the apprehenders says that there must be many ghosts wandering around to which the ghost replies: 'Nous sommes nombreux, comme les morts.' ('We are many, as are the dead.') A nice example of the elegant dialogue by Jean Aurenche who just has too many great credits to his name to mention. The fact that Betrand Tavernier was dying to work with him should say enough.

There is a lovely scene in which Jacques Tati as the ghost -who can only be seen by children and animals- finds a ghost costume of one of his impersonators. When he enters it he can finally start walking around as a ghost that everyone can see which gives him a whole new set of options.Currently available on DVD in France only without subtitles(ASIN: B00BSVSSP4). Please visit my blog bttcinema.com.

Sylvie et le fantome came in a 4-pak from Criterion, along with the three other films Autant-Lara made during the war. Of the four, Douce is the only one really worth watching. The script is by Jean Aurenche, the cinematography by Philippe Agostini--the chateau is made to seem very elegant. Francois Perier and Jean Desailly are suitably ardent, Pierre Larquey is a wonderful father to Sylvie, Julien Carette as the servant Hector is everywhere, enjoyably so. Just one big problem: Odette Joyeux makes no impression on me at all, and she's the star. So I can't give a high rating to this item, because of her bland performance.

There really is a ghost, by the way, yet to most of the residents of this once-grand palatial estate the ghost is merely the fantasy of an over-imaginative 17-year-old named Sylvie. The great mansion is now being sold off piece by piece to satisfy creditors, and when a portrait, believed by Sylvie to be occupied by her beloved phantom, is sold, her grandfather decides to hire an actor to portray the ghost in order to give Sylvie one last chance to believe in her dreams before she grows up.

As the real ghost, roaming the mansion more than usual now that his resting place of choice, the portrait (Sylvie was right), has been removed, observes the errant artifices of Sylvie's grandfather, it turns out that no fewer than three persons have shown up claiming to be the actor who will haunt Sylvie's forthcoming birthday party: two young men who have fallen in love with Sylvie, one of them a fugitive, and an older man, the one actually sent by the casting agency. Grandpere decides to employ all three. One could say there are three young men, since the ghost himself also appears enamored of Sylvie, and absconds with the older actor's white sheet in an attempt to make a appearance himself (the French filmmakers appear blissfully unaware of how these ghost costumes stand a chance, unintentionally, of transmitting a completely different subtext to an American audience!). He has a time managing the costume, however, and so for the most part Sylvie's tangible contact with "phantoms" is by way of her two erstwhile, earthly suitors. Irony abounds in the fact that while there really is a ghost, the appearance of same continues to be sustained almost entirely by the fanciful dialogues of the living. The fact that her phantom has not only two different voices but distinctly different personalities begs a comparison to Robert Jean Nathan's Portrait of Jennie, filmed three years later, in which the title spirit is a somewhat different character each time the hero encounters her.

On the negative side, the comedy's ability to work independently of the actual ghost also means that the character of the ghost is largely unemployed. Care was taken to have a known comedian, Jaques Tati, in the role (this is a few years before Tati's emergence as auteur in his Postman and Monsieur Hulot films), yet for much of this film his pale image is seen merely wandering through the set -- some great double-exposure effects here -- looking wistful. To both credit and deficit, this is a> film version of a play; it's great that the fantasy is sustained to such a large extent by the almost poetic dialogue, yet one wishes that the filmmakers had pushed a little further to make this a ghost movie, depending more on sonic and visual effects to make the experience a little spookier.

The Ravel-like music is often beautiful, helping to bridge reality, fabrication, and the ethereal. It's never allowed to overpower the rest of the film, yet I suspect that a modern stereo recording of the music alone would probably give a stronger statement of what moods the composer was trying to infuse. The English subtitles are just enough to keep the francophonically-impaired abreast of the conversation, without covering half the screen nor detracting from the flow of the original French, which in this case sounds good whether one can understand all of it or not. One blooper does occur when one of the ghosts, according to the subtitles, assures Sylvie that he is "discrete" (discreet).

The idea of the grandfather creating a "ghost story" as an attempt to give Sylvie one last adventure before she grows up is possibly (I'd speculate) the inspiration for the treatment used in Disney's animated film version of Peter Pan, which differs significantly from Barrie's original story in that the adventures of Wendy and her brothers, plus the issue of Wendy's impending adulthood, are compressed into a single evening.

Sylvie and the Phantom is a very satisfying film in all:

hopefully it will continue to teach filmmakers a thing or two about where their audience's sense of fantasy can be found, and awakened.

Odette Joyeux is about to celebrate her sixteenth birthday. He father has sold the painting of her grandmother's lover, but has left the ghost and his hunting dog behind, played by Jacques Tati -- the ghost, not the dog. Mlle Joyeux believes in the ghost, but no one else does. Nonetheless, her father has sent to the local talent agency for a man to play the ghost. Three show up: an old trouper, and two young men, who both fall in love with the girl. The ghost does his best to make sure she chooses the right one.

There's a nice subtext in this movie about the fantasizing that a girl does when she becomes a woman. That is, after all, what fantasy is about: permitting us to consider matters in a symbolic fashion that insulates us from the pain. Director Claude Autant-Lara handles the effects in a simple manner that allows the audience to enjoy the silliness of the situation and yet still consider the serious side.

This french film is a jewel of poetry, humor, imagination with polished, right dialogs!! The emotion, is carried there by the music and the play without fault of the actors! One finds in the role of the phantom Jacques Tati! I don't know if this film can be founded in the USA but i hope that people will discover it because of the kind of poetry the same that you can find in "The beauty and the beast" a "Jean Cocteau's "film with Jean Marais and Josette Day. or "The children's of paradise" of "Marcel Carné" with the dialogs of the great poet "Jacques Prévert"!!Odette Joyeux brings all her thanks and her smoothness with the role of Sylvie... The special effects are extremely well adapted and technically realized. No violence, no unaptness, not of vulgarity nor of bad taste in this anthem with imaginary and the love! Sorry for my bad English but I should like to speak of this film that will please everybody who keep already his child soul!