No, it's not Les Règles du jeu or one of the great classics of the French cinema. But this movie is FUNNY!!! In a very Guitryesque, nasty sort of way. The humor of the dialogue is truly brilliant - though of course Guitry gives himself all the best lines. But there are a lot of them, and they are often devastatingly funny.
There is not so much a plot as a situation, THE situation of French farce: Guitry plays what he is, an older man, whose mistress (Gaby Morlay) meets a young American movie star and falls in love with him. Guitry must come to terms with that, but it's not too painful, as he has just fallen in love with his lover's best friend, Delubec, who, quite frankly, is far more attractive than Morlay and far more interesting. So everyone wins.
As do the viewers, because the situations provoke one devastatingly clever bon mot after the next, mostly from Guitry.
This is not French for beginners. Guitry and Delubuc speak as fast as is humanly possible, though with a clarity of diction that speaks to their training in the theater. I don't know how funny this would be if you had to read the subtitles, as you would lose all the inflections, which are half the humor. But if you can follow it in French, you will have one very enjoyable hour and 40 some minutes.
There is not so much a plot as a situation, THE situation of French farce: Guitry plays what he is, an older man, whose mistress (Gaby Morlay) meets a young American movie star and falls in love with him. Guitry must come to terms with that, but it's not too painful, as he has just fallen in love with his lover's best friend, Delubec, who, quite frankly, is far more attractive than Morlay and far more interesting. So everyone wins.
As do the viewers, because the situations provoke one devastatingly clever bon mot after the next, mostly from Guitry.
This is not French for beginners. Guitry and Delubuc speak as fast as is humanly possible, though with a clarity of diction that speaks to their training in the theater. I don't know how funny this would be if you had to read the subtitles, as you would lose all the inflections, which are half the humor. But if you can follow it in French, you will have one very enjoyable hour and 40 some minutes.