574 - The Marriage of Chiffon, France, 1943. Dir. Claude Autant-Lara.

Tuesday, January 15, 2019

574 - The Marriage of Chiffon, France, 1943.  Dir. Claude Autant-Lara.

Lieutenant Colonel, Duke d'Aubieres walks the street at night.

A girl comes running out and slips on the wet pavement.  A spritely girl.  A pixie girl.  Probably racing home before curfew.  Or after curfew.  Before being caught.

She loses a shoe.

Colonel d'Aubieres is a gentleman.  He comes to her assistance.  Helps her up.  Asks if she is okay.

She cannot find her shoe.

He finds it.

And hides it.

He offers to carry her home.  They are not far.  He is a gentleman.  She accepts.

The duke and the girl cannot see one another in the darkness, and each of them seems to prefer it that way.  They both seem enamored with the other, he perhaps more than her, but she interested as well, yet they both fear the other might be disappointed to see each other's face.

Their conversation is going well.  They do not wish to spoil it with light.

They arrive at the stopping place.  The duke wants to know her name or if he can see her again, but she coyly takes off.  He will have to seek her out.  After all, he has her shoe.  If he is going to play Prince Charming, he will need to rise to the occasion.

This Cinderella is no step-child.  She is the progeny of the de Bray family.  The upper crust in the Belle Epoch.  The glory years.  Not only is she not the servant, but also she has servants.

Namely, the butler Jean, her personal companion and confidante.  A loyal friend.

Madame de Bray, the Countess, named her Corysande, and refuses to allow her to call her Mom.  She is Mother.

But Corysande has rejected the name Corysande.  Rejected the name her mother gave her.  It is too old-fashioned, too stiff, too conventional.  She wants to express herself.  To be free.

This is a girl who refuses to wear corsets.  She likes her body the way it is.  Perhaps other girls will look better with their shapes enhanced, but she will look like herself, and that suits her.

She has chosen the name Chiffon.

If you are an American of a certain age, you remember Chiffon Margarine and one of the greatest commercials on television.  "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature." . . . "It's Chiffon!"

But the word itself refers to a light, sheer fabric made of silk or nylon, or to the lightness of a cake made with beaten egg whites.  In French, the word chiffon means "cloth."

Chiffon is all about lightness.  And this Chiffon, this light and silky girl, may as well be made of meringue.  The actress, Odette Joyeux, herself has one of the silkiest names in French cinema.  She is the Audrey Tatou of 1942.

Jean agrees to help her with her alibi.  He will tell her mother they went to church together.  But she is wet from being out in the rain, and in the street puddle.  So he loyally, lovingly doffs his cap and walks out under the faucet.  So that he will be wet.  So that they will match.  So that she will have an alibi.

Countess de Bray sees through their tomfoolery in an instant, and Jean tells the truth when asked.  So Chiffon is in trouble.

No worries.  She has her uncle Mark to turn to.  He is her uncle by marriage.  Yet he is single.  Is there a story behind that?  A secret?  He has lived with the family for the past ten years.  And Chiffon has loved him since she was six.

They have a routine they have had for years, where she goes to his room at night and he unbuttons the back of her dress and she gives him a kiss.  This was when dresses had to be buttoned and unbuttoned by someone else.  And it has always been innocent.

Chiffon is coming of age, though.  And Marc understands it.  He tries to tell her that she is outgrowing their little game.  That he will not be able to keep helping her.  She is too young to understand.  Or does not want to be old enough to.

Marc is having an affair with Alice de Liron, and he has just arrived home as well.  It just so happens that Mme. de Liron wears the same kind of shoes as Chiffon, and that she is staying across the hall from where Colonel d'Aubieres is staying.  There is some slapstick involving the shoes, and Marc somehow ends up with Chiffon's shoe, back at home, where the pet dog carries it back into Chiffon's room.  Returned as if by magic.

The film itself is replete with this kind of magic.

Uncle Mark is building an airplane.  No one has ever flown before.  The Wright Brothers would not fly until 1903.  Clement Adar, in 1890.  Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler have, however, each built motorcars in 1896.  We are right around that time.  Uncle Mark has tried to fly on countless occasions.  With each crash he learns and makes adjustments.  The neighbors, however, believe that he is crazy.  A dreamer.  He has spent his last penny.  (The French for penny is penny.)  He has broken his arm.

Colonel d'Aubieres is interested in him.

Chiffon believes in him.

Colonel d'Aubieres loves Chiffon.

Chiffon loves Colonel d'Aubieres.

As far as she knows.

Colonel d'Aubieres will help Chiffon.  Colonel d'Aubieres is a gentleman.


The light falls beautifully on people and places in this film lensed by two men: Philippe Agostini and Jean Isnard.

The director, Claude Autant-Lara, is directing one of his first features at age 40, having spent his career up to this point as a Production Designer and Costume Designer, so you can be sure that the production design and costumes are rich and fully detailed, whether with or without corsets.