103. Le Roman D'Un Tricheur (The Story Of A Cheat) (1936)

Directed By Sacha Guitry

Synopsis

The life story of a cheat who actually always benefits from dishonesty and only goes wrong when he decides to be honest.

Review

I am sorry dear reders to be one day late with this review, but the truth is that your beloved reviewer is a pillock. I watched the wrong film yesterday, I watched La Femme Du Boulanger, film number 117 instead of Le Roman D'un Tricheur, it is now rectified and you can expect my review of La Femme Du Boulanger in some time.

This is a pretty amazing film and while in the States there was a rigid production code and film-makers were laying the stones for what would become mainstream cinema, in France there was no code and experimentation was still cool. This film is quite different from anything else you might have seen; firstly it is almost all told through the means of voiceover, the Tricheur tells the tale of his life while writing his memories and we follow him through his amazingly fun life.

Another thing which marks this film apart from most stuff coming out of the US was its creative use of camera editing, there is a scene where the Cheat tells us how amusing it would be if the Monegasc army would go forwards and backwards and we see his thoughts by a clever use of rewind and forward accompanied by some fun music. The most important thing that marks it apart from the products of the US is its morals, or actually its lack of morals, the teaching of the film is actually that crime pays. One of the characters would have been particularly shocking to American audiences, there is an elderly countess who stalks the land for young boys to have sex with, and offer them watches, gold, silver or bronze according to their performance - we come to learn that she has been ruined by her "watch" addiction, having given 217 away during here life. The code would never allow this.

As is typical of French comedies there is a very gentle kind of humour here, which keeps you constantly elated while watching the film, be it through the sexual innuendos or the simple mischeviousness of the "hero". Excellent original piece of film, unfortunately you can't get it at any Amazon I would suggest you get it from eBay if you are lucky enough to find it. If not there is always eMule where you can find it with no subtitles, or if you understand Spanish you can download subtitles in Spanish off the internet, look for Roman D'Un Tricheur .srt files on Google and put them in the same folder as the film, then match the file names to each other et voila!

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, he was the son of Lucien Germain Guitry (1860–1925), a major Parisian stage actor who spent nine years at the Michel Theater, in St. Petersburg, before returning to France. It was during this time in Russia that Alexandre-Pierre Georges Guitry was born and nicknamed Sacha. As a five year old, he appeared on stage with his father. An intellect and a prolific writer with a sharp wit, by the age of 17 Guitry had already written the first of his 120 plays. In 1918 his theatrical production premiered in Paris to critical acclaim. Guitry's dramas include Nono (1905), Petite Hollande (1908, with a foreword by Octave Mirbeau), Les deux couverts (Comédie-Française, 1913), La Pèlerine écossaise (1914), Deburau (1918), Jean de la Fontaine (1922), Un sujet de roman (1923). Also famous are Quadrille, Tôa, N'écoutez pas, Mesdames, Désiré, Faisons un rêve, Le Nouveau Testament, Beaumarchais and 100 others.

A prominent member of Parisian society, in 1919 Guitry married singing star Yvonne Printemps. Together they performed in a number of his plays, bringing the extremely popular 1925 production of Mozart to cities in North America, including New York City, Montreal, Quebec and Boston, Massachusetts. He wrote seven revues with Albert Willemetz, his best friend.

In addition to his famous plays, Sacha Guitry wrote and acted in many early films and in 1935 directed for the first time. He went on to be recognized as one of the truly innovative directors, sometimes compared to Orson Welles because of his techniques and numerous innovations. Of the 30 films he directed, some of his most recognized are The Story of a Cheat (1937), Pearls of the Crown (1938) and Royal Affair in Versailles in 1953.

Sacha Guitry is interred with his father, brother and his fifth wife in the Cimetière de Montmartre, in the Parisian neighborhood of Montmartre.

In 1931, the government of France awarded him the Legion of Honor. He was also a member of the Académie Goncourt. Following World War II he spent sixty days in prison for suspected collaboration with the Germans, but a post-War court cleared him completely of all the charges, and historians make clear now he had nothing to do with collaboration and even helped many people.

He died in Paris in 1957. After his passing, a street was named in his honor in Paris and the city of Nice, France and Radio France named a studio for him.

Some useful skills for the Casinos of Montecarlo: