Se fossi re

..is the Silistrian word for "no retreat no surrender" .Sillistrie is an imaginary country located in Central Europa (probably because Elvire Popesco who plays the queen was Rumanian ).

It will be very hard to support a film which got a very poor rating .But I will try.

"EDucation de Prince" is a witty funny little comedy .The cast and credits are impressive :Carlo Rim,HG Clouzot are among the writers,and the actors include Louis Jouvet,Popesco,Robert Lynen (Duvivier's "Poil de Carotte" ) ,Josette Day (Cocteau's female lead in "la Belle et la Bête" ),Charpin,all excellent.The lines are sometimes full of humor,with more subjunctive imperfects than in any other movie I know.

Sillistrie is a country where coups d'Etat are frequent.Sillistrie would not be that much important a country if they had not oil there.(fortunately ,we have not such problems with oil nowadays).A French financier who has business in this foreign country (such a situation would be unthinkable today) wants this chocolate box land to gain political stability:so why not take back the ancient royal family of the country -the queen mother and the prince- to their old country?

The prince is a naughty student who gets mixed in politics -that is to say in "riots" with his buddies - He has got everything to learn to be a king,from the language (the first three minutes are in Sillistrian,which must have puzzled the audience at the time) to the etiquette.

Alas the prince is in love with Marianne (what a name!It's the symbol of republic in France!) .And she prefers the simple joys of life and enjoys a stroll in the country.

Dig the last lines:

-Do you think I'll be a good queen?

-What can you do?

• I can knit sweaters, I know good plain cooking,and I can solve a quadratic equation

-It's more than we need!

NB:Alexandre Esway,who directed this movie ,co-directed "Mauvaise Graine",the very first movie by Billy Wilder!