Sacha Guitry Four Films 1936-1938 BD

ABOUT THIS RELEASE

Sacha Guitry has been referred to as the Gallic Noël Coward – a celebrated polymath who worked as a stage actor, film actor, director, screenwriter, and as acclaimed playwright. Four Films 1936-1938 brings together a quartet of 1930s features by Guitry, each based on his own, earlier works for the theatre.

In The New Testament (Le Nouveau testament), husbands and wives, lovers and gigolos, all break a sweat when Dr. Marcelin;s newly-revised last will and testament is prematurely exposed. My Father Was Right (Mon pere avait raison) is a comic chamber masterpiece chronicling three generations of the men in a family and their jousting with love and happiness. Let’s Make a Dream… (Faisons un reve…) examines the joys and anxieties of infidelity and features several luminaries of the French stage-and-screen in cameos and tour-de-force roles. Finally, Let’s Go Up the Champs-Elysees (Remontons les Champs-Elysees) recounts a comic history of France through the nation’s most famous street.

SPECIAL FEATURES – 3.0/5

The four films are spread across two HD Keep Cases and housed in a sturdy cardboard outer box. Also inside is an 80-page booklet.

The New Testament/My Father Was Right
Introduction to Sacha Guitry by Ginette Vincendeau (12:10; HD) – The French film critic gives us an overview of Guitry not only as a filmmaker but as a person who apparently was a womanizer yet still honored strong female characters.

Select Scene Commentaries are available for both films, again from Vindendeau. Given between the two it’s only 10 minutes, it’s not all that noteworthy.

Creatures feroces (6:15; HD) and L’Email des mots (6:59; HD) are a video essays by Philipe Durant on Guitry’s representation of women and his way with words.

Pascal Thomas on My Father Was Right (6:54; HD) is an interview with the French screenwriter and director as he talks about the film.

Let’s Make a Dream…/Let’s Go Up the Champs-Elysees
Select Scene Commentaries is once again provided by Ginette Vincendeau and as before, neither is particularly long.

Mon fils avait raison (4:26; HD) and Ne quittez pas (4:31; HD) are two more video essays from Durant.

Francis Veber on Let’s Make a Dream… (7:54; HD) – Veber is a French film director, screenwriter, producer and playwright and he talks about this film and how Guitry inspired him.

Let’s Make a Dream… sound tests (5:24; HD) and the Theatrical Trailer (4:05; HD) rounds things out.

VIDEO – 4.0/5, AUDIO – 3.5/5

Arrow Films has released a pretty good set with beautiful looking movies (for the most part), restored by Gaumont, and apparent that dust, scratches and other ailments were removed or repaired, although I did notice a few specs and Let’s Make a Dream is sometimes a little worse for wear. The black and white presentation is excellent with sharp detail as well as deep blacks, all of it presented with a 1080p high-definition transfer.

All four films come with a basic but adequate PCM Mono tracks in their original French language soundtrack. This is nothing extraordinary but there at least weren’t any major instances of hisses or pops.

OVERALL – 3.5/5

Overall, the Sacha Guitry Four Films were not exactly my forte nor did I have much interest in the subjects or the filmmaker himself, but it’s hard not to appreciate his talents behind and in front of the camera. This 4-film collection is shown with excellent video, fine audio and a fair amount of bonus features.