Les Grandes Manoeuvres [DVD] [1956]

Is it possible to hurt those who are incorrigibly superficial? Probably. In René Clair's Les Grandes Manoeuvres, an amusing film of manners, morals and seduction, you can watch how to do it in style.

Lieutenant Armand de la Verne (Gerard Philipe) is a dashing young officer of the 33rd Dragoons. His regiment is based in a small provincial French town. The time is well before World War I. de la Verne has a reputation of having seduced just about every daughter, wife and mistress among the town's grande bourgeoisie and petit nobility, not to mention their maids and a number of night club singers. He's charming, confident, light-hearted and may even mean some of those endearments and pledges he whispers, at least when he's whispering them. His regiment will be going on maneuvers in 30 days, and a wager is placed between his friends in the regiment and their civilian friends. A woman will be chosen at random, and if Armand has not seduced her before the regiment leaves, he and his friends will pay for a sumptuous farewell dinner. If he succeeds, their friends will pay. Armand is supremely confident. So are his friends. The woman turns out to be Marie-Louise Riviere (Michelle Morgan), single, divorced and the proprietor of a millinery shop. The women of the town have been polite toward her but suspicious. She is, after all, an outsider and divorced. A reputation can be extraordinarily fragile when upper-class gossips start whispering together. Not only does Lt. de la Verne begin finding reasons to be gallant toward Madame Riviere, so does Victor Duverger (Jean Desailly), a cautious citizen of the town who is just as worried about his own reputation. He has two sisters who don't approve. Marie-Louise has no wish to see her reputation ruined, despite all those who are observing and who love to have something to talk about behind their fans. Then, to Armand's befuddlement, in the process of seduction he begins to fall in love. By then, everyone is aware of his attempts with Marie-Louise, and all his well-worn (and previously successful) lines are repeated with laughter by his friends, by the women he has seduced and in some cases even by those he didn't. Marie-Louise hears the whispers...even worse, she learns of the wager. This movie which is so stylish, which glows and smiles with such elegant artificiality, has a decidedly ironic ending.

The movie is permeated with a gorgeous sense of unreality. The costumes and colors are vibrant; the scenes in the town streets, the drawing rooms, the ball rooms are almost like exquisite drawings. The officers strut along in their red pants, polished black boots and stiff collars. It's apparent that to be a success as an officer one must dance well. Michelle Morgan is a vision with her long neck, blond hair and enigmatic eyes. Gerard Philipe, however, is the center of the story. He's a seducer, a happy comrade, a man who loves a challenge in love and is unafraid of a challenge for a duel. He is so completely superficial that his growing acquaintance with love and his final look at a pair of closed shutters is touching.

Gerard Philipe was one of France's greatest actors and leading men in the Fifties. He was 33 when he made this film. He was dead four years later. He said he was feeling poorly and went to his doctors for a check up. They discovered he had cancer of the liver. He died weeks later at the age of 37.

Given the date of this film, I expected a lack of the kind of irony that any director today would bring to what sounds like a fairly hackneyed plot.

I was delighted to find that Les Grandes Manoeuvres is utterly charming and avoids falling into melodrama or clichés. It skilfully plays with the spectator's emotions and the pace never slackens.

The sets are gorgeous, the script is witty and the direction and casting are beyond reproach. To cap it all, the restoration is superb and both the picture and the sound are as good as new -- a treat for anyone who can follow French dialogue but is tired of old films where the sound quality is poor and new ones where the French is mumbled and slipshod.

I don't see how anyone could be disappointed.

Set in a small military town in France in 1914, a dashing, young cavalry officer (Gerard Philipe) who is known for his seductive powers over women makes a wager that he can seduce any woman in town. He picks her out by chance and the woman turns out to be a newly arrived divorcee (Michele Morgan) from Paris, anxious to protect her reputation. What begins as a lark turns into something quite different that will cause heartbreak to both individuals. When one thinks of Rene Clair, one usually thinks of his delightful and witty farces like AN ITALIAN STRAW HAT or LE MILLION but he's venturing into Max Ophuls territory here. LES GRANDES MANOEUVRES has more in common with Ophuls' EARRINGS OF MADAME DE ... and LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN than Clair's farces. Its mixture of romantic farce and bittersweet romance is somewhat unsettling and often alienates its audience. Visually, it's one of the most gorgeous films I've seen thanks to Robert Lefebvre's cinematography, Leon Barsacq's and Maurice Barnathan's sumptuous art direction and Rosine Delamare's exquisite costumes. The film looks like it was shot in a pastel colored candy box! With Brigitte Bardot, Magali Noel and Jean Desailly.

The English DVD from C'est La Vie is a vibrant and colorful transfer.