Souvenirs perdus

How boring was that!

We have 4 stories, all of no significance whatsoever, set around 4 items in some kind of warehouse. Three of the stories are supposed to be comedic and one is a disturbing thriller.

For the first segment, Pierre Brasseur (Philippe) and Edwige Feuillère (Florence) are past lovers who meet up in a museum and pretend to each other that they are wealthier than they are in order to impress one another. They go on a date and that's pretty much it. Boring.

In the second segment, the tedium is cranked up by what is essentially a French farce but it just drags on. And on. Give yourself a pat on the back if you don't fall asleep.

Segment three finds us in a typically French downbeat episode with an escaped nutter and a suicidal woman finding company with one another. However, this is French, so it's not a happy ending.

When is this film going to finish! Oh no, we still have one more segment to sit through.

The final story pretty much scores all the points on the entertainment front for the performances of local policeman Bernard Blier (Raoul) and street-singer Yves Montand (Raoul) in a comedic story of unrequited love. The boy who plays the violin atrociously also throws in some comedy by sneezing during his performance. It's the best segment of the four but not enough to save the whole film experience.

This film goes on far too long and doesn't provide the required amount of entertainment for such a long investment of your time.

As with all 'portmanteau' films there are segments that are bound to appeal more than others but this one has something for every taste. For those who prefer their romance to be bittersweet we have a tale of two former lovers reunited briefly on Christmas Eve. Devotees of farce will love the tale of the young man desperately trying to escape the clutches of his annoying girlfriend. Segment three which features a mentally unhinged murderer, is for those who like material of a distinctly darker hue and last but certainly not least we have a gentle comedy of a kind, well-meaning policeman who loses the object of his affections to a raffish street singer. The starting point for each of these stories is an inanimate object namely a statue of Osiris, a funeral wreath, a rabbit-fur scarf and a violin but each segment is vividly brought to life by some of the finest French actors of that, or indeed, any era. Their very names conjure up an image of impeccable artistry: Feuilliere, Brasseur, Philippe, Montand, Blier...... Excellent dialogue by Jeanson and the brothers Prevert, superlative production values and immaculate mise-en-scene by Christian-Jaque put this piece firmly in the category 'tradition of quality' so much disparaged by the New Ripple brigade. A film can be either a grevious disappointment or a jubilant surprise. This one is indisputably of the latter variety.

This is a fine film made up of sketches made by Christian-Jacques .Although it cannot hold a candle to Duvivier -who would outdo himself two years later with "sous le ciel de Paris" "souvenirs perdus " is a nice souvenir from the underrated "cinema de qualité" which was France 's forte in the fifties.

The connection between the sketches is thin -that makes the difference with Duvivier - and has its source in a lost and found department in Paris.The movie camera wanders the length and breadth of the warehouse and sometimes stops on one objects.Then begins the story in connection with it.There are four segments.

Segment one:Edwige Feuillère,Pierre Brasseur.Two former lovers meet again in le Louvre in the Egyptian department.She pretends she's now a wealthy woman (but we soon discover the jewels are not hers;she was wearing them as she poses for photographs).He tells her he's an archaeologist (actually he sells pornographic pictures to the American tourists ).It's Xmas's eve and they spend the night together.Not very original,saved by the two leads.

Segment two:Suzy Delair,François Perier.A playboy is to attend his less-than-beloved old uncle's funeral.But a former lover comes back to see him and of course ,she does not interest him anymore.So he tells his butler to make her believe it's his own funeral.Very funny scenes follow.In the graveyard the lady weeps over the uncle's grave which sets the tongues swagging.Besides the dialog is witty:the cousin(about the dead) :"he takes all our regrets with him ";the playboy : "so he does not leave us any".

Segment three:Gérard Philippe,Danielle Delorme.A mini film noir.A young man has been confined to a mental hospital .He escapes from it and kills his relatives who had him locked up in order to latch on to his inheritance.He meets a young girl who's about to commit suicide.she takes him to her apartment.This segment has a very different atmosphere.Gerard Philippe is haunted,his over-the -top performance is really scary.Christian-Jacques' directing,generally restrained,becomes disquieting here ;he wonderfully creates destabilization:sloping shots increase the audience's uneasiness,and high and low angle hots are used to stunning results.Philippe's character might have influenced Duvivier for his serial killer in "sous le ciel de Paris".

Segment four:Yves Montand ,Bernard Blier.After the farce of segment two and the despair of the third,this final sketch is a bit as an anticlimax.Two men are in love with a widow whose son plays -you will need earplugs-the violin.In order to help the wizz kid (and to conquer his mother) a gendarme asks an itinerant singer (Montand) to give private lessons to the brat.It's not hard to guess what happens next. At the beginning,in jail,Montand sings "les feuilles mortes" (Jacques Prévert) ,the celebrated song which was featured in one of his first movies Marcel Carné's "les portes de la nuit".

"Souvenirs perdus" deserves better than a lost-and-found movies department.

"Souvenirs perdus" is a 4 sketches movie with a strange construction, two comedies, one real noir, then a last comedy. It's not that I dislike comedies, but my favorite sketch is the one with Gérard Philippe and Danièle Delorme. Gérard Philippe is terribly frightening, he is possessed by death. This short noir is artistically well shot by master Christian Matras (see his french Max Ophüls movies). If I rated 8 for the entire movie (the first two sketches are so so), I rate this one 10. But there is the final sketche with the always excellent Bernard Blier competiting with Yves Montand (and his guitarist Henri Crolla) for loving a young widow owner of a grocery (ah these ancient groceries full of advertising objects). This sketch is shot in an old place in Versailles, now disappeared, a real document.

And if only for the very young Bernard Blier and Yves Montand, plus Pierre Brasseur.

4 stories, almost unrelated, of different quality. The 'noir' one alone must be watched. A real master piece!

The first one, played very well, deals with love and betrayal. The last one is rather a musical comedy. Thanks to the actors it can pass, and definitely is in the proper order, to leave the audience in high spirits.

Quite personal, I didn't really like nor unerstood the second 'act'.

Overall, and I don't think there is anything in this movie that could be spoilered, I love the overall idea: Just collect some items in a lost and found, random items, and let these items tell the stories which brought them to the lost and found.

I for one like this old style story telling, when time and inclination for listening to even drawn out stories as past time. Here it is a rather drawn out more than two hours of mostly inconsequential stories.

And yet, if you watch this movie in good company, you'll have quite a lot to talk about those stories afterwards; at supper or a light drink.