It is impossible to embrace the immense In my previous review, I rushed to announce the appearance of this text. Well, I have to keep my promise. I have to, because I didn’t feel much joy this time after watching Sasha Guitri’s film about Paris. His grandiose project about Versailles was also sustained in the author’s ironic-patriotic manner, but there the genuine luxury of Versailles entourage supported a high and, even somewhat high-flown, style of narration.
“You cannot go into the same river twice,” said the ancient philosopher. But I wanted to! After all, there were so many hints about Parisian history, about Parisian events and about Parisians in the previous picture that Guitri could not refrain from presenting historical anecdotes about his beloved city. But I can't handle it. The age is already very respectable. Perhaps the money for the picture could not be collected enough. But the main miscalculation is that the author tried to plow too much time. After all, Paris, through the mouth of Guitree, was going to tell us its history, from prehistoric times to the present - until 1956. Even in more than two hours it is impossible to imagine all the most vivid episodes, to give convincing portraits of the most famous Parisians for more than two thousand years of the existence of Lutetia-Paris.
Therefore, we are presented with some dotted follow-up on chronology. Again, there is a great crowd of actors. From Julius Caesar to General de Gaulle, from the young St. Genevieve to the 102-year-old Parisian lady of the Half World! Now I can understand some of the French critics who reproached Guitry for megalomania. Of course, this film will be better understood by the French, or those foreigners who are familiar with the history of France. The homeland of the great enlighteners-encyclopedists: d'Alamber, Voltaire, Montesquieu, Diderot, Rousseau observes to this day a wonderful tradition - to regularly publish encyclopedias in various fields of knowledge. Publishing house "Larusse" for a century and a half publishes a short encyclopedic dictionary with pictures in one volume, which gives interpretations of any word and a brief, in one or two lines, description of all people, at least noticeable in history. So in the film Gitri only for ten to fifteen seconds there is a famous character, a few words about him and - a leap in half a century.
The suppression of the resistance of the Gauls, the arrival of the Franks, the invasion of the Huns, nothing about the Viking Normans, more thoroughly about the Hundred Years' War, about the treacherous Charles VII and Joan of Arc, and about the clever policy of Louis XI, under which France grew into eight provinces. Sasha Guitri is the king himself. The Age of Printing, the Renaissance, Francis I and the Gioconda, Catherine de Medici and Bartholomew’s Night, Henry IV and his assassination, Cardinal Richelieu and all Louis from XIII to XVI. Then came the Revolution, Bastille, Republic and Terror. And then Empire, military victories and the collapse of Waterloo. Again the monarchy and the Second Empire, the Prussians in Paris and the Paris Commune for five seconds. Now the monarchy in France is finally over. Industrial progress. The Eiffel Tower. Belle epic - and now the Parisian youth on scooters!
Here is the story of the great city and its great inhabitants of different times. As in the film about Versailles, there are many characters, but their stay on the screen is extremely brief. So few people remember. The only exception is Gerard Philip in the end-to-end role of a street singer - a trouver. From the previous film, unfortunate Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette (Gilbert Boca and Lana Marconi) migrated here. Old Voltaire is played again by Jacques de Farody. The French theatre is represented by Molière, Beaumarchet and Sarah Bernard. French chanson by Jean Beranger and Aristide Bruen. French literature is represented in persons: Francois Villon, Victor Hugo, Gustave Flaubert, Paul Verlaine. But still, it is nice to see not in the acting performance, but at that time a living “Prince of Poets” Paul Fore, who himself reads his poems. And even more pleasant to see behind the easel a live “Singer of Montmartre” – the artist Maurice Utrillo.
Summing up, we must briefly say about the visual side of the film. Probably, due to the limited budget, the scenery is very conditional, reminiscent of theatrical fences. Much more modest costumes. In addition, somewhat tired and muted narration on behalf of an elderly professor of history, in the role of which the author himself is Sasha Gitri.
6 out of 10