Sacha Guitry, by his full name Alexandre Georges-Pierre Guitry is an actor, playwright, theater director, director and screenwriter, born February 21, 1885 in Saint-Petersburg (Russia), died July 24, 1957 in Paris (72 years old). A very prolific playwright, he wrote more than a hundred plays and adapted many of them himself for the cinema. Interpreter of almost all of his films, he is the author of a work, rich of thirty-three films, which includes in particular Le Roman d'un tricheur, Désiré, My father was right, Quadrille, They were nine bachelors , The Poison, If Versailles was told to me, Assassins and thieves.
Biography
From theater to cinema
Sacha Guitry is the son of Lucien Guitry (1860 - 1925), a great theater actor, very famous in his time, and Renée Delmas, known as de Pont-Jest[1], daughter of the journalist René de Pont-Jest. A mediocre student, Guitry proved to be a brilliant actor very early on and very quickly an excellent author and director. He writes his own plays himself, sometimes in less than three days, and directs and interprets them. Nono (1905) was a resounding success.
The failure of La Clef, in 1907, discouraged Sacha Guitry for a time and it was the unwavering support of his great elder Octave Mirbeau that gave him the courage to continue; Admiring and grateful, Sacha Guitry asked him to write a preface for his Petite Hollande in 1908 and later devoted a play to him, A subject of a novel, created on January 4, 1924 by his father Lucien Guitry in the role of the great writer. Sarah Bernhardt must also be part of the creation, in the role of Alice Regnault, but the Divine dies before the premiere. He wrote tailor-made for his second wife Yvonne Printemps several very successful musicals (Mozart, L'amour masque...) and seven revues with his friend Albert Willemetz.
A witty man with a caustic humour, it was Sacha Guitry who discovered and launched Raimu in Let's Make a Dream. It delights the public but also attracts the jealousy of critics. It is somewhat the opposite of the Cartel des Quatre theater created in particular by Louis Jouvet and Charles Dullin. Sacha Guitry already uses in theater the techniques that he will use later in cinema:appropriating the rules, the codes of a genre, diverting them and bending them to his own style.
With the cinema, relations are initially very tense. He made a first attempt in 1915, by directing Those from us, in reaction to a German manifesto exalting Germanic culture. He films some of his father's friends, Rodin, Claude Monet, Anatole France, Auguste Renoir, among others. He notes their words and repeats them during public broadcasts, inventing in a way, and before the time, the voice-over.
Portrait of Sacha Guitry in his office on avenue Elisée-Reclus in 1942, by Léon Gard (coll. André Bernard)
Like Jouvet, he criticized the cinema for not having the same power as the theater and did not start it until 1935, under the influence of his young wife Jacqueline Delubac. Understanding that the cinema allows survival, by fixing the images on the film, he decides to box some of his plays. First Pasteur, written by Sacha for his father Lucien Guitry and performed by the latter, a play that gives free rein to his passion for history and historical figures. Prophetic work because, in one scene, Louis Pasteur, played by Sacha Guitry, declares to his colleagues:“Gentlemen, I know that I do not use the conventional style to which you are accustomed. A sentence heavy with meaning which seems intended for the critics who denigrate him since he has been in theater. The same year, he directed Good luck! and gives the leading female role to Jacqueline Delubac. Guitry's style asserts itself a little more.
In 1936, he shot from the play he wrote The New Testament. Then, still in 1936, he directed Le roman d’un cheater, for many his masterpiece. In this film, almost without dialogue, with the exception of a few scenes, Guitry stages the only novel he wrote, Memoirs of a cheater. He is the film's narrator, and his taste for storytelling is already apparent. If the story may seem banal, it is in fact a tribute to cinema, the art of illusion. All of Guitry is contained in his first four films:play with film processes, reconstruction of events or biography of historical figures, theatrical adaptations. From 1935 to 1937, in three years, Guitry made ten films, including at least three masterpieces[2].
At the end of the 1930s, everything was going well in Guitry's life. The only downside is his divorce from Jacqueline Delubac, but he quickly consoles himself and marries Geneviève de Séréville who is the only one of his five wives to bear the name of Guitry. About women, Guitry said:“Women, I am against... all against. “His name is proposed for the French Academy but Guitry refuses the condition imposed on him:to abandon his activity as an actor. In 1939, he was elected to the Académie Goncourt and directed They were nine bachelors, with many stars including Elvire Popesco. Guitry deals with white marriage, an eternal theme.
But the film is in almost direct contact with current events because the story starts from a decree which obliges foreigners to leave France. The day after the premiere of his film, war breaks out.
The Dark Years
The situation is complicated for the Parisian Guitry who does not want to leave the capital then under the German Occupation. For four years, away from any political thought, he continued his life as a man of theater and cinema, thus thinking of ensuring the presence of the French spirit in the face of the German occupier[3]. He used his influence to obtain the release of personalities, in particular the writer Tristan Bernard and his wife, and managed to stage Désirée Clary's Fabulous Destiny, around Napoleon's famous fiancée, a film which opposes the figure of the Emperor to the aims of German imperialism, and Give me your eyes, "an original reflection on the male gaze". His album 1429-1942 - From Joan of Arc to Philippe Pétain, catalog of French, political and artistic glories, testifies, however, to a fairly permanent political blindness, to the point of being the subject of a presentation film, screened in May 1944.
On August 23, 1944, during the Liberation of Paris, a few hours after speaking on the telephone with his friend Arletty, he was arrested by a group of resistance fighters, acting on their own initiative, who reproached him for his attitude towards the German occupier. He is imprisoned for 60 days without charge. He was then denounced in the press - on unfounded rumors - by writers like Pierre Descaves or certain journalists from Le Figaro (directed then by Pierre Brisson, of whom he had made an enemy). The examining magistrate, not knowing what to blame him for, twice published advertisements in the newspapers asking that the accusations against Guitry be communicated to him. He gets no conclusive answer and closes the file[5]. Guitry obtains, in 1947, a belated dismissal (he will say later that he would have preferred a trial).
His detractors forget that he always opposed his plays being performed in Germany. He will remember it and when he declares to Pauline Carton, in the credits of La Poison, that the decor of the cell was made from his memories, we can feel the bitterness in his voice. Trying to take it with humour, he declares:“The Liberation? I can say that I was the first to know about it. He would publish his memories in the form of two accounts:Four years of occupations (a significant plural) for the period from 1940 to August 1944 and 60 days in prison for the two painful and humiliating months that followed. He comments, implicitly, on his behavior in Le Diable lame, biography of Talleyrand who supported several regimes with always the sole purpose of serving the greatness of France.
Rehabilitation
The 1930s were years of dreams and the 1940s dark years; the 1950s will be a synthesis of the past two decades. He wrote the screenplay for Adhémar or the Toy of Fatality but, ill, he entrusted the production to Fernandel, who had already made a film. Faced with the result, Guitry feels betrayed and sues Fernandel. Lawsuit he loses. This film announces the continuation of the work of the filmmaker. The tone is more melancholic (The Comedian, Deburau, The Treasure of Cantenac), sometimes caustic (I've been three times, The Poison, The Life of an Honest Man), but always comical (Toâ, Aux deux colombes, You saved my life).
His friends support him and recognition comes with the commission of large historical productions:If Versailles was told to me, Napoleon, If Paris was told to us. Jokes and prestigious distribution are the charm of these frescoes. He does not forget his arrest and directs the very caustic Assassins and Thieves led by the duo Jean Poiret-Michel Serrault and in which Darry Cowl makes his debut with a practically improvised but hilarious scene. The three are the pair is the last film he directs with the help of actor-producer-director Clément Duhour, because the disease has weakened him a lot. Film-sum on the cinema of Guitry where we find all that makes the salt of his work:play with the filmic processes, loyalty with certain actors, caustic humor. His artistic testament is the screenplay for La Vie à deux which he wrote and in which he recast several of his plays; it is Clément Duhour who will direct it after the death of the filmmaker, with a host of stars who have come to pay homage to the master.
Sacha Guitry rests in the cemetery of Montmartre, in Paris, with his father Lucien Guitry, his brother Jean, who died in 1920, and his last wife Lana Marconi, who died in 1990.
Sacha Guitry played by Denis Podalydès at the Cinémathèque française on December 15, 2007
Sacha Guitry and the actors
Sacha Guitry holds the main role of almost all of his films. But he sometimes knows how to step aside when necessary, as in the sketch film They Were Nine Bachelors, with big names in the credits:Saturnin Fabre, Elvire Popesco, Gaston Dubosc. The man is a faithful friend and Pauline Carton is in practically all of his films, Guitry sometimes inventing roles for him. He entrusts the main role of La Poison and La Vie d'un Honest Homme to Michel Simon, as well as that of his last film The Three Make the Pair which Simon does not like but which he accepts to play out of friendship for Guitry then dying. Actor but also director, he knows how to detect new talents:Louis de Funès, Darry Cowl, Michel Serrault, Jacqueline Delubac to name a few, are launched by Guitry. Raimu, grateful to the person who launched him, agrees to play for free in Les Perles de la Couronne, and Guitry writes Adhémar's script for Fernandel. He often asks Gaby Morlay to play plays, and two of his films.
Among the great names already mentioned, let us also mention Erich Von Stroheim, Orson Welles, Jean Cocteau, Jean Gabin, Gérard Philipe, Jean Marais, Danielle Darrieux, Michèle Morgan, Pierre Larquey, Jean-Louis Barrault, Arletty, Édith Piaf, Robert Lamoureux, Yves Montand, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Luis Mariano, Jacques Varennes, Suzanne Dantès, Saturnin Fabre, Brigitte Bardot... Throughout his work, Guitry championed the actor, his father in particular. He directed a biography, The Comedian, and a theatrical adaptation, My father was right. For him, Lucien Guitry and Sarah Bernhardt are the two greatest actors in the world and he does not fail to recall this in the many articles he signs. Moreover, some of his films seem to be designed for actors:The Pearls of the Crown, They were nine bachelors, The Treasure of Cantenac, or his historical trilogy.
Sacha Guitry and the critics
With critics, Sacha Guitry has always had conflicting relationships, right from his work in the theatre. Guitry invents a style of his own, based on incisive and percussive dialogues, often declaimed by him. It is his status as a comedian and a complete author, his apparent ease and the constant success he obtains for more than twenty years, which make him unbearable in the eyes of critics. Moreover, Guitry takes revenge throughout his work and never ceases to mock this profession which has never wanted to make the effort to understand him. His films are criticized for being nothing but “filmed theatre”. But Guitry, like Marcel Pagnol, another playwright of theater and cinema, imposes his style, builds a universe in its own right. Often, critics criticize Guitry for revealing the artefacts of the shooting. The filmmaker, by showing his style, affixes his signature and prevents anyone from copying him. The pinnacle is reached with They were nine bachelors:at the end of the film, Guitry mixes reality and fiction by making Elvire Popesco's "serious lover" believe that both are shooting a film. Reality moves faster than fiction. And the film is being criticized by critics, despite positive reactions.
Among the most virulent criticisms, we regularly find the accusation of megalomania, of pretension. When Guitry staged If Versailles was told to me, a film showing the Palace of Versailles from its birth to the present day, he was criticized for having overlooked its subject and for having made a visit to the Grévin museum. Critics demolish the film and forget that Guitry is a director with all the responsibilities that implies, but also a scriptwriter, dialogue writer and actor. Few filmmakers take on so many responsibilities. It should be noted that Orson Welles, who played in If Versailles was told to me and Napoleon, considered Guitry as his master. Moreover, there are several points in common between the two artists:both men of theater, radio, literature enthusiasts, having the same sense of humor.
Another hypothesis can be considered to explain his tense relationship with critics:the virtuosity and the obvious ease with which the Master moves in the filmic universe. When he directed The Fabulous Destiny of Désirée Clary, he placed the credits right in the middle of the film and allowed himself the luxury of changing several performers with rare finesse. Of the cinema, Guitry said:"It's a magic lantern. Irony and grace should not be excluded. Another anecdote sums up the character:during the filming of Napoleon (film, 1955), a technician, while viewing the rushes, pointed out to Guitry that we saw a camera in the field. The filmmaker replies:“My friend, the public suspects that we used cameras to make this film. “[6] Casualness, elegance, finesse and humor combined with solid technical mastery. This is enough to attract gossip and jealousy. He is rehabilitated by the New Wave[7] and François Truffaut[8] in particular, who sees in him the complete author, like Charlie Chaplin.
A pseudo-misogynist, married five times
Despite his posture as a misogynist, Sacha Guitry has been married five times, and only to actresses (although the last two only became so through his contact). He is also known to have many liaisons with actresses and artists, including the "Belle Époque" dancer Jane Avril, the actress Arletty, who refused to marry him ("I was not going to marry Sacha Guitry, he had married himself!”, quoted by Francis Huster), the actresses Simone Paris (who devotes a chapter of her memoirs, Paris on the pillow, to the detailed account of their romance), Mona Goya and Yvette Lebon, etc.
So five wives:
1. Charlotte Lysès (1877 - 1956), whom he married on August 14, 1907 in Honfleur, to the chagrin of Lucien Guitry, Charlotte's ex-lover... She created 19 pieces by her husband and took over Nono in 1910. Separated since April 1917, the couple divorced on July 17, 1918.
2. He married Yvonne Printemps (1894-1977) in Paris on April 10, 1919, with Sarah Bernhardt, Georges Feydeau, Lucien Guitry (with whom he had just reconciled) and Tristan Bernard as witnesses. Yvonne Printemps created 34 plays by Sacha Guitry, took over 6 others and performed one of his films, Un roman d'amour et d'aventures (1918). Yvonne Printemps does not know how to be faithful:she has affairs with Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Maurice Escande, Pierre Fresnay, others... On July 15, 1932, Yvonne Printemps leaves Sacha Guitry for Pierre Fresnay (who in turn leaves for she the actress Berthe Bovy), but never married her. The divorce between Sacha and Yvonne was pronounced on November 7, 1934.
3. He married the young Jacqueline Delubac (1907-1997), 22 years his junior, on February 21, 1935 in Paris. As he is 50 years old, he announces their marriage by declaring, "I'm twice her age, so it's only fair that she's my other half", rejuvenating the bride slightly and gallantly (and therefore, for the beauty of the word and the accuracy of the accounts, Jacqueline will claim to have been born in 1910 and not in 1907). She plays 23 pieces by her husband, including 10 premieres and 13 covers in Paris and on tour, and interprets 11 of his films. Separated since December 15, 1938, the two spouses divorced on April 5, 1939.
4. His marriage to Geneviève de Séréville (1914-1963) was celebrated on July 4 and 5, 1939 in Fontenay-le-Fleury. Geneviève created 5 plays by her husband in Paris, took over 4 others in Paris or on tour and performed 5 of his films. The couple separated in April 1944 and their divorce was pronounced on July 25, 1949.
5. He finally married Lana Marconi (1917-1990) on November 25, 1949 in Paris. She created 7 plays by her husband, took over 2 others and performed 13 of his films.
Guitry has often evoked his predilection for women:“Life without a woman seems impossible to me; I have never been alone, loneliness is being far from women”, but he acquired a reputation as a misogynist that many lines of his plays seem to confirm. His wives, however, who reproached him for many things, never reproached him for being misogynistic but on the contrary evoked his love for women, his seduction and his finesse. In Should we marry Sacha Guitry?, Jacqueline Delubac writes:“To women he refuses the logic of the mind, not that of sex! Translation:it is not enough for the woman to dispose, she must propose. It is Sacha's whim to expect everything from the whims of women”; and later:“Sacha, you are an electric devil! You know the secret stairs of the heart! Funny corners! ". Geneviève de Séréville, in Sacha Guitry mon mari, evokes Sacha's talks on love and women and puts forward a hypothesis:"Hasn't talking about women and love become, for him, a kind of juggling in which his heart plays no part, but only his ease with irony, his excessive taste for paradox”.
With the salvoes of misogyny in some of his plays, Guitry undoubtedly takes revenge, with words, infidelities, evils, that some of his companions may have subjected him to, Yvonne Printemps in particular. But Dominique Desanti, in the biography that she devoted to him, also remarks, in connection with Do not listen to Ladies, a piece woven with mockery against women:"Beneath the witty replies runs the anguish of the aging man in the face of a too young woman who escapes him... which he finds both unbearable and natural”.
Guitry justifies himself by saying:"All the evil that I think and say about women, I think and say it, I only think and say it about people I like or who I liked. ". It is not so much with women that he has a problem, as with marriage:"Marriage is solving problems together that we would not have had alone". Seduction certainly has more charm for him than everyday life together. He writes, however, "You have to court your wife as if you never had her... you have to take her to yourself."
If we can cite many replicas and misogynistic "good words" in his plays and in his talks, no testimony gives an example of similar remarks in the intimacy and even less of gestures or attitudes. which could suggest that the man Sacha Guitry was a misogynist. According to Francis Huster, a connoisseur of Sacha:“It is often said that Guitry is misogynistic; it makes no sense. In his plays, it is the man who cheats, not the woman. He was crazy about women. Unfortunately, they were never crazy about him. Perhaps because he never knew how to hear them, even if he knew how to speak to them[9]”.
Miscellaneous
* Sacha is the Russian diminutive of Alexander. Tsar Alexander III was indeed his godfather.
* As he explains in his hundred-line speech, delivered at the Janson-de-Sailly centenary banquet, he was expelled from 11 different high schools. He explains in one of his works that it was because of his father's travels that he repeated his sixth grade 10 times. Indeed, at the time, we started the year again if we changed establishments, which was periodically the case. He celebrated his 18th birthday in sixth form and ended his brilliant studies there.
* During the winter of 1889, when Sacha was 4 years old, his father, Lucien Guitry, who was in the process of separating from his wife, went out with Sacha for a while to look for cakes on the street corner, and on the corner of street to street corner (because the best pastry shop is further away), he actually takes her as far as Russia, the place of her future performances. In Russia, Sacha plays as a child in front of the Tsar and the imperial family. It is there that he hears that his father “goes to play every night to work”.
* Despite the strong support of Tristan Bernard and many Resistance personalities, Sacha Guitry is unjustly suspected of collaborating with the Liberation, and imprisoned for 60 days (hence his book 60 days in prison). A complete dismissal is pronounced. “So there was no need! Sacha Guitry commented ironically, who also declared:“The Liberation? I can say that I was the first to know about it. For the record, it was Alain Decaux who avoided the looting of his house because he was mobilized at the time and, knowing Guitry, he asked to watch his house. In memory of this beautiful gesture, Lana Guitry offers him the emerald that Sacha wore and which now sits on the hilt of his academician's sword. Of his arrest, he said:“They took me handcuffed to the town hall. I thought they were going to marry me by force! »
* Divorce by mutual consent was not recognized at one time, letters of mutual insults were required from both parties to obtain the pronouncement. In the divorces concerning Sacha Guitry, in particular that settling his marriage with Yvonne Printemps, we clearly recognize his humorist touch in the letters provided by the “two” parties.
* A wise collector, he owned in his private mansion on the Champ de Mars, 18 avenue Élisée-Reclus a splendid collection of works of art (paintings, sculptures, autograph letters...) which he wished to make, at his death, a museum. Unfortunately, the works were gradually dispersed after his death and his project never saw the light of day. Despite protests from his many friends, the hotel was demolished in 1963.
* On the occasion of his jubilee (his first play having been performed on April 16, 1902 at the Théâtre des Mathurins) the publisher Raoul Solar graciously produced in 1952 a work entitled simply 18 avenue Elisée Reclus, with commentary by Sacha himself. It can be considered as the catalog of the exhibition of its collections, an exhibition made for the benefit of the charitable works of the Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers (SACD).
Theatrical work
* Le Page (1902), one-act play, in verse;
* The K.W.T.Z. (1905);
* Nono (1906), play in three acts;
* Among the Zoaques (1906);
* La Clef (1907), which went through a kiln;
* Little Holland (1908), preface by Octave Mirbeau;
* The Night Watchman (1911);
* The Taking of Berg-Op-Zoom (1912);
* The Scottish Pilgrim (1914);
* Two Cutlery (1914);
* A pair of slaps;
* Jealousy (1915);
* Let's have a dream (1916);
* Jean de La Fontaine (1916);
* The Illusionist (1917);
* One evening when one is alone (1917);
* Deburau (1918);
* Pastor (1919);
* Husband, Wife and Lover (1919);
* My Father Was Right (1919);
* Béranger (1920);
* I love you (1920);
* How History is Written (1920);
* The Comedian (1921);
* The White and the Black (1923);
* Masked Love (1923), musical comedy, music by André Messager;
* The heart-hugger;
* A subject of a novel (1924), piece inspired by the couple of Octave Mirbeau and Alice Regnault;
* Mozart (1925), musical;
* Desire (1927);
* Mariette or How History is Written (1928), musical;
* Stories from France (1929);
* Franz Hals (1931);
* Villa for sale (1931);
* Françoise (1932);
* The Designs of Providence (1932);
* Castles in Spain (1933);
* O, my beautiful stranger (1933), musical;
* A Ride in Paradise (1933);
* Florestan I, Prince of Monaco (1933);
* The New Testament (1934);
* When do we play comedy? (1935);
* The End of the World (1935);
* The Word of Cambronne (1936);
* Quadrille (1937);
* God Save the King (1938);
* A Mad World (1938);
* You're telling me (1939);
* Florence (1939); revised in 1949 under the title Toâ
* A pair of Gilles (1939), in one act;
* A well-typed letter (1939), in one act;
* False Alert (1939), in one act;
* The Beloved (1940);
* Long Live the Emperor (1941);
* Don't Listen, Ladies (1942);
* Talleyrand (1947);
* To the two doves (1948);
* Toâ (1949) is Florence reworked;
* You Saved My Life (1949);
* Beaumarchais (1950), piece that has not been performed;
* Madness (1951).
Filmography
Director
All films (with exceptions) as screenwriter, dialogue writer and actor. The mentions of adaptation of his own plays, and their dates of first performance, remain to be noted.
* 1914:Oscar meets Mademoiselle Mamageot - family film, unreleased, 3mn 50' -
* 1915:Those of us (documentary) The first silent version, lasted 22 mn; it was intended to be screened accompanied by a talk by Guitry. The version with sound dates from 1939. The final revised version, in 1952, lasts 44 minutes and credits Frédéric Rossif as a collaborator.
* 1922:Une petite main qui se place - short filmed epilogue of the homonymous play -
* 1934:Gala dinner at the ambassadors - 5 min documentary
* 1935:Pasteur co-directed with Fernand Rivers
* 1935:Good luck!
* 1936:The New Testament co-director:Alexandre Ryder
* 1936:The Novel of a Cheater
* 1936:My father was right
* 1936:Let's have a dream
* 1937:The Word of Cambronne - (medium-length film)
* 1937:Desire
* 1937:The Pearls of the Crown co-director:Christian Jaque
* 1937:Quadrille
* 1938:Let's go up the Champs-Élysées technical collaboration:Robert Bibal
* 1939:They were nine bachelors
* 1941:The Fabulous Destiny of Désirée Clary, technical collaboration:René Le Hénaff
* 1942:The Law of June 21, 1907 - (short film)
* 1944:From Joan of Arc to Philippe Pétain, filming of the homonymous book, 58 min
* 1943:Give me your eyes
* 1943:The Malibran
* 1947:The Comedian
* 1948:The Lame Devil
* 1949:To the two doves
* 1949:Toâ
* 1950:You saved my life
* 1950:The Treasure of Cantenac
* 1951:Debureau
* 1951:The Poison
* 1952:I have been three times
* 1953:The Life of an Honest Man (narrator)
* 1953:If Versailles were told to me...
* 1955:Napoleon
* 1955:If Paris were told to us...
* 1957:Assassins and Thieves (does not appear in the film)
* 1957:The three make a pair (Sacha Guitry appears for the last time, and only in the credits)
Screenwriter
(non-exhaustive list)
* The White and the Black (1931), by Robert Florey and Marc Allégret;
* L’Accroche-coeur (1938), by Pierre Caron;
* Adhémar or the toy of fatality (1951), directed by Fernandel - Sacha Guitry (sick could not supervise the work according to his wishes) screenwriter and dialogue writer only;
Documents
* 1935:Poste Parisien:Maurice Diamant-Berger's first television show - short film -
* 1951:The Sacha Guitry Museum by Stéphane Prince - short film -
Written work
(non-exhaustive list)
* 1910 The Correspondence of Paul Roulier-Davenel, elder Dorbon. (Réédition :Éditions Bernard de Fallois, prévue janvier 2009)
* 1930 Lucien Guitry raconté par son fils, Raoul Solar
* 1931 La Maison de Loti, Paillart
* 1935 Mémoires d’un tricheur, Gallimard NRF
* 1947 Quatre ans d’occupation, Éditions de l’Élan
* 1947 Toutes réflexions faites, Éditions de l’Élan
* 1949 60 jours de prison (fac-similé du manuscrit, illustré par des dessins de l’auteur), Éditions de l’Élan
* 1979 Le petit carnet rouge et autres souvenirs inédits, Perrin
Adaptations de son œuvre
Liste non exhaustive :
* La Vie à deux (1958), de Clément Duhour, adapté de cinq pièces de Sacha Guitry;
(Désiré,
L’Illusionniste,
Une paire de gifles,
Le Blanc et le Noir et Françoise) reliées entre elles par un scénario-prétexte. On ne sait quelle fut la part exacte de Guitry dans l’écriture des séquences de liaison (probablement le fait de son secrétaire Stéphane Prince, lequel se cacherait derrière le mystérieux Jean Martin crédité par le générique comme coscénariste).
Les affiches du film présentent La Vie à deux comme le dernier film de Sacha Guitry... lequel mourut près d’un an avant le début du tournage;
* Au voleur ! (1960), de Ralph Habib, d’après un scénario original inédit, remanié et adapté par Jean-Bernard Luc;
* Beaumarchais l’insolent (1995), d’Édouard Molinaro, adapté de la pièce inédite Beaumarchais et du scénario inédit lui aussi Franklin et Beaumarchais;
* Désiré (1996), de Bernard Murat, d’après la pièce et le film éponymes;
* Quadrille (1997), de Valérie Lemercier, d’après la pièce et le film éponymes;
* Le Comédien (1996), de Christian de Chalonge, d’après la pièce et (toutes proportions gardées) le film éponymes;
* Un crime au paradis (2000), de Jean Becker, remake du film La Poison, avec Josiane Balasko, Jacques Villeret et André Dussolier. L’action a été librement transposée du début des années 50 à l’aube des années 80.
Autres participations
Sacha Guitry apparait également en tant qu’acteur au générique de deux films muets, l’un de 1917 (Un roman d’amour et d’aventures, dont il a également écrit le scénario) et l’autre de 1922 (épilogue filmé de sa pièce Une petite main qui se place), mais encore, si l’on s’en réfère à un article paru dans la presse télé au début des années 1980 et à la filmographie établie par Claude Gauteur et André Bernard (dans la réédition 1984 de l’ouvrage Sacha Guitry, le Cinéma et Moi), dans La Huitième Femme de Barbe-Bleue (Blue Beard’s Eighth Wife) (1938), d’Ernst Lubitsch.
Ces deux sources mentionnent également la présence de Geneviève de Séréville aux côtés de son futur mari durant ce caméo furtif. Néanmoins, dans la copie de la version américaine sous-titrée, le couple n’apparaît pas à l’image.
Citations
* Si ceux qui disent du mal de moi savaient exactement ce que je pense d’eux, ils en diraient bien davantage !
* Je n’ai qu’une seule ambition :ne pas plaire à tout le monde. Plaire à tout le monde c’est plaire à n’importe qui.
* On peut faire semblant d’être grave, on ne peut pas faire semblant d’avoir de l’esprit.
* Ce qui ne me passionne pas m’ennuie.
* Etre riche ce n’est pas avoir de l’argent - c’est en dépenser.
* Il y a des gens sur qui on peut compter. Ce sont généralement des gens dont on n’a pas besoin.
* On n’est pas infaillible parce qu’on est sincère.
* A quoi bon apprendre ce qui est dans les livres, puisque ça y est ?.
* -Me donneriez-vous vingt-cinq ans ? - Si j’avais vingt-cinq ans, je les garderais pour moi.
* On parle beaucoup trop aux enfants du passé et pas assez de l’avenir - c’est-à-dire trop des autres et pas assez d’eux-mêmes.
* Le jour où l’on vous traitera de parvenu, tenez pour certain le fait que vous serez arrivé.
Notes et références
1. ↑ « Pourquoi je suis né » [archive]
2. ↑ a b Sacha Guitry, cinéaste. Ed Yellow Now, 1993
3. ↑ Dominique Desanti évoque « une réussite maintenue à travers l’horreur de l’occupation, comme si de préserver les succès et le luxe de Guitry était nécessaire à la survie de la France ». Sacha Guitry. Grasset, 1982
4. ↑ « Plus que les goûts même de Guitry, c’est plutôt comme une vaste déclinaison de gloires que ce film apparaît, et l’assez naïf rempart de leur protection. » Philippe Arnaud, Sacha Guitry, cinéaste. Ed Yellow Now, 1993
5. ↑ Dominique Desanti. Sacha Guitry. Grasset, 1982
6. ↑ Alain Keit. Le cinéma de Sacha Guitry. Vérités, mensonges, simulacres. Éditions du Céfal, 2002
7. ↑ Cahiers du Cinéma, N°173, déc. 1965, Spécial Guitry-Pagnol
8. ↑ « Sacha Guitry fut un vrai cinéaste, plus doué que Duvivier, Grémillon et Feyder, plus drôle et certainement moins solennel que René Clair. Guitry est le frère français de Lubitsch ». F. Truffaut, Les Films de ma vie. 1975
9. ↑ Journal du Dimanche, Jeudi 10 janvier 2008