The Story of a Cheat
Sat. 11/10 | 8:45PM @ Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (map)
Buy Tickets
- Event Details
- Grand Illusions: French Cinema Classics, 19281960 Saturday, November 10, 2012 8:45 p.m. The Story of a Cheat Sacha Guitry (France, 1936) Le roman dun tricheur ). Sacha Guitrys masterpiece is aptly titled, for he uses every trick not in the book to tell a most convoluted story simply, elegantly, hilariously. No dialogue, per se, just his voice-over rendition that makes us wonder why we ever settled for dialogue in other films. Marvelous camera, moving, leaping, crouching, lurking, gliding where his storytelling directs it. Artful wipes making characters and time disappear . . . The protagonist, as a boy, was sent to his room for stealing, missing the dinner of mushrooms that wiped out his whole family and digesting the lesson that crime indeed pays. His adult career as adventurer and cardsharp takes us from Montmartre to Monaco with Guitry a Peter Sellerslike master of appearances and disguises, accumulating a false wife and a real lover and then, by twist of narrative, that night, I became my wifes lover. Its not the story, however, but the telling. Judy Bloch Written by Guitry. Photographed by Marcel Lucien. With Guitry, Serge Grave, Marguerite Moreno, Jacqueline Delubac. (83 mins, In French with English subtitles, B&W, 35mm, From Institut Franais, permission Janus Films/Criterion Collection)
- Comments
-
You must Login to post comments.
