Donne-moi tes yeux

Often dismissed as mawkish melodrama ,"donne -moi tes yeux" is actually deceptive : its treatment keeps the obligatory scenes to the minimum :thus ,Guitry does not show the medical exams of his hero becoming blind slowly but inexorably ;only a phone call tells us about it;there's even a brief subjective camera sequence .

This film belongs to the occupation days where Guitry was blamed because,for instance, he never lacked coal to heat in his town house ; after the liberation ,he ran into difficulties during the purge .

Strange how Guitry wanted to highlight the French glorious past ;"de Jeanne D'Arc à Pétain " was based on a dubious figures anagram :1429 :Joan of Arc in Orleans;1942 : Occupation after the 1940 debacle , and claimed to enhance French history ; the same goes for "donne-moi tes yeux" , the first part of which taking place in a pictures exhibition where he sings the praises of the French painters .

For an artist ,the worst thing that can happen to you is going blind ; and for a womanizer (like the hero and Guitry himself in real life) , the English title tells it all :"the last mistress". In his "voyage dans le cinéma français " ,Bertrand Tavernier admired the ..."special effects" the director got with a simple electric torch.

Guitry's peerless wit is present ,particularly in the first part : the model who does not want his new wealthy fiancé to see her in the nude on the painting; this melodrama begins like a comedy .

The movie may have a subconscious meaning : the director ,blind to his country's plight ,or pretending he does not see the fate of his homeland .

Instant karma : many of Guitry 's post-war movies were taunting French Justice.