Presenting Sacha Guitry

Actor, playwright, and filmmaker Sacha Guitry was once the toast of French theater and cinema, but in the U.S. he barely ranks a footnote and his films are nearly impossible to see. The 22nd entry in Criterion's extra-less Eclipse line, this boxed set of four sophisticated and playful comedies from the 1930s, all written and directed by leading man Guitry, goes a long way to correcting both oversights. The Story of a Cheat (1936) presents the memoir of a charmingly reluctant scoundrel (“What have I done to the Lord that people constantly solicit me to engage in crime?”), recounting his life in snappy flashbacks with running commentary (the visual credits sequence alone is a treat). An even more intricate bauble is The Pearls of the Crown (1937), a lively historical tale that bounces all over the globe (with multiple languages) to trace the journeys of seven perfect pearls through centuries of shenanigans and affairs involving, among others, France's Francois I, England's Henry VIII, and Pope Clement VII. Filling out the set are the “upstairs-downstairs” drawing room sex romp Désiré (1937) and the romantic rectangle Quadrille (1938), two movies that play like stage adaptations with inventive flourishes. While unknown to most American audiences, these witty works (with excellent liner notes by Michael Koresky) should please fans of foreign cinema who like a little continental flair with their whimsy. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)