067 - Elena and Her Men, 1956, France. Dir. Jean Renoir.

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

067 - Elena and Her Men, 1956, France. Dir. Jean Renoir.

Elena has some advice for Denise.

My dear Denise, you're going about it all wrong.  Eugene is a tormented soul.  He only longs for the unattainable.

Elena knows what she is talking about.

Elena makes a living making herself unattainable.  Because she is unattainable, men want her.

Denise follows Elena's advice.  Denise makes herself unattainable.

Eugene chases Denise.  Denise succeeds.

Elena begins with her first lover, a composer, with whom she is seated at the piano, playing together his composition of Abelard and Heloise.  She is smiling, carefree, enjoying the music and enjoying her composer.

It is Bastille Day, July 14, the National Celebration, the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille in 1789, and General Rollan is marching into town.  It is now a hundred years later, in the 1890s, the fin de siecle, the turn of the century, and the crowds are out and the bands are playing.  The music of the passing parade begins to overwhelm the music of the piano and Elena and her composer.

Elena joyfully leaves the piano to step out on the balcony and enjoy the festivities.  Her composer is not pleased.  The music of the passing parade is interrupting his playing.

Close the window!

She closes it, but remains on the balcony.

He pulls her back in.

They try to play again but he complains that his inspiration is now gone.

No worries.  He has an announcement to make.  His composition has been accepted and his career will now advance.  Elena praises him.  She knew his work must be good because it is too complicated to understand.

After he leaves, Elena is informed by her aunt that a shoe magnate, Martin-Michaud, is coming to call.  Elena is not impressed.  He is an older man, not attractive, and unappealing to her.

However, he is rich, and they are broke.

Elena is a princess from Poland, the widow of a bomb-maker who blew himself up.  She has title but no money, and she is beautiful.  Just the kind of a woman a shoe magnate would desire.  Along with everyone else.

Elena follows her aunt's advice and accepts Martin-Michaud's proposal on the spot.  He will take them to his chateau.  He will take Elena out in the parade.

But somehow in the crowd Elena gets separated from Martin-Michaud and finds herself with another man, The Count Henri de Chevincourt.

The crowd is cheering for General Rollan.  The Count is cheering for General Rollan.  He works for the General.  Elena joins the Count in cheering.  Before she knows it, she is swept up in the crowd with the Count.

Before she knows it, she is kissing the Count and falling in love with him.

But Elena is engaged, and she leaves the Count to return to Martin-Michaud.  She honors her vow.

The Count will try to get over her, but he, like so many men, cannot keep her out of his mind.

We are in a time of political intrigue and upheaval.  A Frenchman has accidentally crashed his hot air balloon in German territory and is captured as a French spy.

The General's political party seeks to persuade him to intervene to launch a campaign to seize power.

A trade war is going on, with the protectionists seeking to raise tariffs to protect national workers and their jobs, while their opposition seeks to lower tariffs to stimulate free trade.

Elena is enlisted to influence General Rollan.  Nothing can persuade him but a woman's charm, and specifically, Elena's charm.

Elena is patriotic.  She approaches her mission with sincerity as a national duty.  She loves her country.

And with her mission, this romantic comedy of manners launches itself into a romantic farce.  Elena is in this room with this man and in that room with that man, trying to persuade them, capturing their hearts.

All will end well.

It is a comedy.

We are in France.

There is no problem that a good dose of love cannot cure.

The Count himself will explain it.

Eventually, the Count and the General and their retinue, along with Elena, find themselves trapped upstairs with a mob outside.  How will General Rollan escape?

He dresses himself as a gypsy as Count de Chevincourt stands in the window pretending to be him.  If he can retain the attention of the mob, then they will not see General Rollan as he departs.

The Count concocts a plan.

He will kiss Elena before the window.  The mob will believe it is the General and that the General is in love.  They will be distracted from politics.  They will be drawn to love.

She questions him and he explains it.

You mean to kiss me?  Why?
To allow Rollan to escape.
I don't see why.
The French respect love.  If they think Rollan came here for romance, they'll forget about politics for a moment.
Mr. de Chevincourt, how superficial.
Perhaps it's a form of civilization.  When it comes to drilling oil or choosing governments or manufacturing explosives, perhaps we're not the best.  But when it comes to the art of living, you can count on the French.

When it comes to the art of living, you can count on the French.

C'est merveilleux.  Apprenons alors des Français cet art de vivre.  Enregistre-moi.

At first the Count only pretends to kiss Elena, just enough for the mob to believe it in the window.

But then something happens.

A wave of love washes over the streets of Paris, and everyone begins kissing one another.

The Count and Elena really kiss, and their kissing becomes real.

Ah, l'amour!

When we watched Blow-Out (041, February 10), I said, "Here are two words to inspire you to watch this film.  John Travolta."  Well . . .

If John Travolta is reason enough to watch Blow-Out, Ingrid Bergman is reason enough to watch any movie.

She has something in her that goes beyond what even the greatest female stars had.

She has on the one hand such great beauty and on the other hand the look of innocence, a depth of purity.  Her heart is open.  Her heart is true.  She dispenses with the superficialities of glamour.  She gives of herself.  She is real.  When a man looks at her, he believes he can trust her.

That question of trust is the fulcrum on which Casablanca is moved.  Rick arrived at the train station in Paris but did not find her.  He believes she betrayed him.  He lets it get to him.  It dominates his life.  He grows bitter.  "I stick my neck out for nobody."  And yet, we finally learn that she was always true to Rick in Paris, and that she remained true to her husband.  She loved Rick when she thought that her husband was dead.  When she learned he was alive, she returned to him.  Her heart was sincere throughout.  It was the circumstances that devastated them.

That same trust is what makes her so vulnerable in Gaslight.  She loves her husband Gregory Anton, played by Charles Boyer, and she trusts him completely.  But he has married her for jewels, and he lies to her and is cruel to her.  Our hearts go out to her because she is so loving and so pure that she cannot conceive of even the possibility that her husband could be bad.  She believes it is her fault.  Reality bends, and she begins to go mad.

That trust will be stretched in Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious, when she is asked to spy on Nazis, and even marries Alexander Sebastian, played by Claude Rains.  He grows suspicious, but slowly, and only after she has had the time to infiltrate him and get that wine cellar key.

In our film, in Elena and Her Men, there remains something wholesome about Elena.  She is not playing men.  She is not toying with them.  She is merely living life, loving life, enjoying herself, and at each point doing what she understands to be right, even noble, under the given circumstances.  She is innocent in each moment.

Either that, or she has mesmerized me too.

Meanwhile, our director Jean Renoir has given us the most painterly movie we have seen to date, even over yesterday's French Cancan (066, March 7).  He has given us more impressionistic images in scene after scene replete with extras in full and colorful attire.

Watching Renoir has been a joyful journey.