Friday, September 12, 2003

 
Stavisky (1974)
Directed by Alain Resnais

OK. Time to come clean with my readers. In my movie reviews, I often read other critics before penning my own. The purpose is to read and examine what other critics have to say; and then try as far as possible, to write a review using a different angle, so that readers (who might have read the same reviews) that I had would walk away having a different perception of it.

A search for Alain Resnais’ Stavisky review online proves fruitless. In this case, it would do justice to try to be more comprehensive and critical.

French heartthrob Jean Paul Belmondo is con man, Sacha Alexandre Stavisky, who goes around issuing fake vouches, plot scams, transferring his cash around, while leading a lavish lifestyle. It seems, he is bent on making a name for himself. His fiancé is the classy equally confounding Arlette (Anny Duperey) whom we are hardly sure if she really loves Sacha because she appears too often distant. Though she keeps her suitor, Juan Montalvo de Montalbon (Roberto Bisacco), another magnate at an arm’s length. Sacha, incidentally, is trying to pull one over Montalvo (which failed) and lead to his downfall.

I have not read the biography of Stavisky or remotely familiar with the era but that does not diminish the entertainment value of the picture. On the surface, we can reference Stavisky to Citizen Kane because both pictures are about icons and both happens to be rich media owners. Both characters possess a certain haughtiness in them that makes them immortal screen legends. But that is where the similarities ends. Stavisky is hardly Charles Foster Kane because he is a hustler foremost. His charm masks an underlying insecurity; which was psychoanalysed in the movie; a split personality the result of a strict father. One can apply Jacques Lacan’s theories on Sacha as the failed result of the patriarchal order; and hence his inability to form meaningful relationships. His love for Arlette; appears “second” place in the movie and hazy at best. In one scene, he buys white roses to surround her bed. This was a repeat act that he had done earlier to solicit a female stranger (also buying and surrounding her but with red roses); with whom he was interested in the diamond necklace around her neck.

Stylistically speaking, Resnais walked in between Truffaut and Godard. As much as the film progresses conventionally towards Stavisky’s downfall; the story is based on a real man; about a time gone by (and hence the more “romantic” Truffaut); it also creates audience awareness by telling them that they are watching a movie using constant flashbacks and jump cuts. These relapses of time and space are at times, interlinked - while Sacha was making a statement, it was intercut to his friend, the Baron Jean Raoul (Charles Boyer) who continued the statementas he was giving a testimony in the parliamentary court.

At times, they were jump cuts. Scenes would jump to a couple who talks about a Russian exile in French. The only link with Stravisky, at first recognition, was the woman who auditioned as an actress for Sacha’s upcoming play. In these respects, his style likens to Godard’s. In that respect, Albert Jurgenson, who is the film editor, probably plays an important part, in juggling the balance.

The eclectic score by Stephen Sondheim complements the mis en scene. It ranges from Hitchcockian suspense to classical piano music.

Paul Belmondo is handsome. His role as Sacha doesn’t fully exploit his versatility (like in Pierret Le Fou; though critics might disagree). Paul is what I call a “straight face” actor (which can be construed as lousy), meaning he acts not so much with facial expressions or words; but by the way he carries himself. As Sacha, he convinces us with a fluid character – exposing his charm, the way he speaks, blows his top; without much effort. Sometimes, he appears comical (when he was with his doctor and pretends to lay dead under the sheets). At others, he appears dangerous (shouting at his subordinates). Or just being simple (when he jumps unto a tree bark and says he looks like a shop owner while he was taking a stroll with the Baron, Montalvo and Arlette)

Alain Resnais’ Stravisky, as much as it is a picture about a man, also exposes the hypocrisy of the aristocracy, the ruling government and a corrupted police force. It is thematically similar to Hiroshima Mon Amour; as it fuses the personal amidst a greater social and political outlook and background.

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