User Reviews

... providing of course you have a penchant for soufflé's prepared to perfection in the French style and are not averse to a touch of the Cinderellas around the edges and like to go to the movies occasionally just to escape and be entertained rather than lectured at or be coerced into 'raising' your conscience. Leo Johannon directed some 30 or so movies and wrote or co-wrote as many again with arguably his most enduring credit the co-writer on Julien Duvivier's Pot-Bouille. Albert Prejean was an early Maigret and a very reliable leading man in pre-war French cinema, certainly good enough for Marcel Carne to cast opposite Francoise Rosay in 'Jenny', the first collaboration with Jacques Prevert. This brings us to the name above the title: Danielle Darrieux will turn 90 in May of 2007 and is still going strong and delivering fine performances.

People still sometimes ask me why I go to Paris three or four times a year to see movies and I'd be hard put to furnish a better answer than this: There are absolutely NO cinemas in London, a major capital city, that would devote several weeks to a 'season'/'retrospective'/'homage' call it what you will, of an individual performer, writer, director (okay, the National Film Theatre does something similar but that is specialized), In Paris you have literally dozens, right now, for example you can see 'seasons' of Sacha Guitry, Marcel Carne and Ernst Lubitsch. Nobody's going to make a fortune here, they screen one film five times daily to an average audience of thirty or forty people BUT THEY KEEP ON DOING IT YEAR AFTER YEAR. This is a town that Loves movies old and new whereas London is a town that loves a buck. Anyhow Darrieux walks away with this entry from 1942 as what? Actress? Florist? Both, if anyone asks you but above all as DARRIEUX. She had - and still has - that elusive quality that someone (I think it was Ellen Terry) describes as 'that little something extra' which other, less poetic souls have called 'star quality'. Darrieux has it in spades and her effortless rapport with Prejean and her supporting cast is a joy to behold and Johannon even throws in some clever camera angles, shooting, for example, down through a chandelier onto the night club below (Jack Webb would do something similar at the climax of Pete kelly's Blues some twelve years or so later). Would that some enterprising person would issue some fifty of the hundred and thirty movies she made on DVD.

With a best of 1942 films taking place on ICM,I started looking for films from the year waiting to be viewed. Finding her terrific in Beating Heart (1940-also reviewed),I was pleased to stumble on another Darrieux title, (with so few votes!) which led to me meeting Caprice.

View on the film:

Placing the glass slipper on Lise with chic swipe edits,co-writer/(with Andre Cayatte/ Jacques "dad of Nina" Companeez and fellow film maker Raymond Bernard)director Leo Joannon & cinematographer Jules Kruger bake a fluffy, fairy tale atmosphere in elegant panning shots round Lise being the star of every ball, glittering in high above wide-shots under a chandelier, to winding shots down streets over her sparkling clothes displaying Lise becoming a dream princess. Sitting down to Lise acting in a imploding stage show before her wishes are granted, Joannon contrasts the high-life with jump-cuts on Lise and her entourage being confronted by cops, looped with cramped whip-pans during Lise's attempts to perform on stage.

Mentioning Cinderella a number times in the film, the writers pour the basic outline of the fairy tale out and whisk up a a tantalising, dreamy tale, via Lise's down on her luck roots of having to struggle as a actress and a poor flower seller being kept in tact even as she gets to the ball on time. Unhappy with Lise stepping on his toes, Jean Paredes slices the film with a comedic relish as Constant, whose eye rolls and off the cuff comments high light the luxuries Lise is becoming surrounded by. Looking immaculate from her stage intro, alluring Danielle Darrieux gives a fantastic turn as Lise,thanks to Darrieux being able to twist Lise's humble beginnings into a street smart,playful confidence among the caprices.