Château de rêve

This is a lightly amusing film from 1933. There's a lot of beautiful scenery (as far as the medium allows), a lot of villagers in national dress and a lot of clowning from old theatre hand Lucien Baroux as the Cameraman.

The daughter of the château is played by Darrieux, just sixteen and in her fifth film, a natural comedienne in the selling-a-cow scene and always lively, still trying to work out what to do with her hands in the more serious moments.

Edith Méra (who sadly was to die of an infection only a year or so later) plays the star actress, sings a song, has a bittersweet moment or two, and (if perhaps for selfish reasons) does the decent thing by Béatrix. There's a talked song from the somewhat silent-movie-bound Jaque Catelain 'playing' the Prince.

So a nice little pastiche on movie-making and fairy tale villages, and a chance to check in on Darrieux's early acting adventures.