Tonight I watched the last of the three Autant-Lara movies that I got from Northridge Libe. This one was called "Sylvie et le Fantome" (1946), a charming story of a young girl and the ghost she has a crush on. Odette Joyeux once again stars as a precocious 16 year old (though she was 30 when she played the part) who seems more knowing than those around her. She lives in a huge, castle-like mansion with her father and some relatives, and a few servants. As the movie opens, she is giving a tour of the mansion to a group of village children. She shows them what she considers to be the prize possession of the entire household; a large painting - a 19th century-style portrait - of an elegant man all dressed in white. She explains to the children that he was a secret paramour of her Grandmother, who was married to a cruel man. Then she shows the children the secret passageway located directly behind the painting, in the wall, that allowed her grandmother's lover to sneak into the castle.
Of course, he was caught by the cruel husband, who challenged him to a duel, which the husband won.
And thus, the paramour was killed and became a ghost. Sylvie's grandmother later disposed of her cruel husband, and had a portrait painted of her real love. And his ghost came to reside inside that painting.
Sylvie can't see him, but she knows he is there. This is the Odette Joyeux Factor that Autant-Lara has used in all the films I've seen, where he uses the Joyeux character and her own traits as an actress to portray an All Knowing Young Girl On The Verge Of Womanhood.
The Ghost - portrayed by the brilliant comic actor/director Jacques Tati, who would go on to greater fame with his "Mr. Hulot" films (the stuff of comic genius) - can see her, and he loves her in a spiritual way, because he is a spirit. He knows what is in her heart. He sees also that she has a suitor or two in the real world, and that knowledge figures into his decision to ultimately interfere in her life.
The plot of the film involves Sylvie's imminent 17th birthday party. Her father is going broke, and he needs to sell off the furnishings of the castle to stay afloat. One of the things he is selling is Sylvie's prized portrait of her grandmother's secret lover, who is now The Ghost. Her father knows that losing the painting will break Sylvie's heart, so he arranges a secret action for her birthday party.
He hires a stage actor from a local casting agency to portray a "live ghost" - The Ghost from the portrait! The Ghost is to make an entrance into the party at Midnight, to entrance the impressionable Sylvie one last time, and in real life, so that she will not feel so bad about losing her favorite painting.
But in the plot, three ghosts show up to play the part, while still the Real Ghost is roaming the castle.
Here I must leave you, because as with the other Claude Autant-Lara films I have recently reviewed for you, the plot is so intricately layered and so well detailed and characterized, that to try and describe it is not only to ruin it, but is also a lost cause. "Sylvie et le Fantome" is a beautiful fantasy that you simply have to see, rather than to have me describe it to you.
Like the other two Autant-Lara films I've attempted to review, it is a movie that could never be reproduced in this day and age, simply because people and ideas are so different now. As talented as filmmakers are now in the technical sense, and actors too, there simply could not be another type of film (or films) like these three I have been so fortunate to discover. And that is because the world has changed quite a bit. These films by Autant-Lara were made in the midst of Nazi occupation of France, and so it feels like the fantasy aspect, especially in the visual presentation of these movies, was something the director channeled. It feels like he created something in these movies to rise above the circumstances he and his countrymen were living under, and in doing so he gave the audience for these films something beautiful to believe in, and to sustain themselves in that belief.
That's how great these films are.
So here's to the Great Director Claude Autant-Lara, who I had never heard of a month ago, but who I was fortunate to discover because he made some very, very great movies.
Tonight I say, search for what is great, and search for what is true.
You may not know what you are looking for when you search, but your spirit will show you.
When your spirit shows you what you are looking for, embrace what you find.
See you in the morning.
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