Review by Gary Tooze

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• Cineaste De Notre Temps (1:06:53)
• PLUS: An essay by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau and a 1957 obituary for Guitry by François Truffaut

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Description: One of the great late period films by Sacha Guitry — the total auteur who delighted (and scandalised) the French public and inspired the French New Wave as a model for authorship as director-writer-star of screen and stage alike. In every one of his pictures (and almost every one served as a rueful examination of the war between the sexes), Guitry sculpted by way of a rapier wit — one might say by way of “the Guitry touch” — some of the most sophisticated black comedies ever conceived… and La Poison [Poison] is one of his blackest.

Michel Simon plays Paul Braconnier, a man with designs on murdering his wife Blandine (Germaine Reuver) — a woman with similar designs on her husband. When Braconnier visits Paris to consult with a lawyer about the perfect way of killing a spouse — that is, the way in which he can get away with it — an acid comedy unfolds that reaches its peak in a courtroom scene for the ages.

From the moment of Guitry’s trademark introduction of his principals in the opening credits, and on through the brilliant performance by national treasure Michel Simon (of Renoir’s Boudu sauvé des eaux and Vigo’s L’Atalante, to mention only two high-water marks), here is fitting indication of why Guitry is considered by many the Gallic equal of Ernst Lubitsch. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to introduce Sacha Guitry into the catalogue with La Poison for the first time on video in the UK in a dazzling new Gaumont restoration.

 

 

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The only digital extra is a doozy - and hour long documentary on Guitry and the film entitled On Life On-Screen: Miseries and Splendour of a Monarch. It was made in 2010 and is filled with interesting information - Guitry fans will not want to miss. Masters of Cinema also include another substantial liner notes booklet containing writing on the film, vintage excerpts, and rare archival photos.

Criterion include a new, 16-minute, interview (conducted in October 2016) with filmmaker Olivier Assayas on director Sacha Guitry’s influence on French cinema. He states that he doesn't consider himself a cinephile who re-watches films over and over again... except for Guitry. He talks of the director's pioneering and influential style effecting French cinema. We also get On Life On-screen: Miseries and Splendour of a Monarch, a 60-minute documentary from 2010, also found on the MoC, on the work of Guitry and Michel Simon examining their collaboration and the making of La Poison. There is also an hour long episode of Cineastes De Notre Temps showing a portrait of director Sacha Guitry through interviews with those who worked with him, both onstage and on-screen. It was directed by Claude de Givray, it originally aired on May 20th, 1965 and is shown in French with optional English subtitles. The package has a liner notes booklet with an essay by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau and a 1957 obituary for Guitry by François Truffaut.

Masters of Cinema - Region 'B' - Blu-ray

Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray