Liebesheirat (1942)
23KLiebesheirat: Directed by Claude Autant-Lara, Pierre Guerlais. With Odette Joyeux, André Luguet, Jacques Dumesnil, Suzanne Dantès. “Chiffon” is an eccentric young aristocratic girl, who is struggling to comply with the social conventions of the community.
“Although it is a pleasant movie ,it seems like a draft, a rehearsal for Autant-Larau0026#39;s next movie u0026quot;douceu0026quot;.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAutant-Lara was mainly known for his collaborations with Lehmann (three in all, one of them u0026quot;fric fracu0026quot; is particularly memorable).During the Occupation he began to work on his own and he would become an important artist with such works as u0026quot;douce u0026quot;(1943)u0026quot;le diable au corpsu0026quot;(1946) u0026quot;lu0026#39;auberge rougeu0026quot; (1951)or u0026quot;la traversée de Parisu0026quot; (1956).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026quot;Le marriage de chiffonu0026quot; is his first real work.It casts Odette Joyeux as Chiffon (her nickname) an aristocrat offbeat young girl who finds it hard to live in a milieu full of social conventions.Her mother (Suzanne Dantès,whose strident playing seems almost unbearable today),a widow,wants her to marry a wealthy noble military man whom she met at a railway station.Although the young girl is not aware of it,sheu0026#39;s in love with her uncle (by marriage!).But Claude Autant-Larau0026#39;s dice are loaded because even if this uncle is a flying pioneer and a broke man,heu0026#39;s still an aristocrat.A liberal aristocrat is no misalliance.Of course sheu0026#39;s much younger than him,and besides heu0026#39;s got a mistress,but itu0026#39;s only a question of social class.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThatu0026#39;s why u0026quot;le marriage de chiffonu0026quot; does not really satisfy.Hotheaded Autant-Lara adjusted the fire the next year and it became a wholesale massacre.Casting again Odette Joyeux as an aristocrat ingenuous person,he pitted her milieu against the plebeian one.And it was his masterpiece,u0026quot;douceu0026quot; ,which remains today as fascinating as it was in 1943.Such is not the case of u0026quot;le marriage de chiffonu0026quot; which may seem old hat for a lot of people today.”
