La Malibran (1944)
Directed by Sacha Guitry

Film Review

Midway between his two well-regarded biographies Pasteur (1935) and Napoléon (1955) Sacha Guitry proffered a film portrait of another important historical figure, Maria Malibran, one of the most famous opera singers of the 19th century.  La Malibran stands out in Guitry's oeuvre as the only one with a musical dimension, which is odd considering that the playwright-cum-director had scripted several musical comedies for his second wife Yvonne Printemps before he turned his hand to filmmaking.  In affectionate homage to Maria Malibran, Guitry delivers a vibrant film that is less a conventional biopic and more a heartfelt celebration of his subject's life and art, interspersing anecdotes from Malibran's short but eventful life with authentic recreations of the performances that made her an opera legend.

Guitry was not the first filmmaker to attempt a biography of Malibran; the previous year, the Italian director Guido Brignone had released Maria Malibran (1943), with the Austrian soprano Maria Cebotari cast in the title role.  Guitry's film differs from Brignone's in that it recounts Malibran's life as a series of flashbacks and, as a result, has more the aspect of a tragic opera than a conventional biographical drama.  For the part of the legendary singer, Guitry could not have chosen better than the acclaimed French soprano Géori-Boué, who had only recently made her debut at the Opéra de Paris at the age of 23.  This was to be Géori-Boué's one and only film appearance and she gives a riveting performance, her lack of acting experience more than made up for by her charisma and formidable prowess as a singer.  Ever the stickler for authenticity, Guitry refused to let his star mime to pre-recorded songs and insisted that she sang 'live' as the film was being shot.  In this way, Guitry was able to exploit Géori-Boué's talents to the fullest, and in so doing ensures that the film attains its maximum emotional impact, particularly in its devastating final passage.  This hymn to life, death and music is the closest that Guitry ever got to making a full-blown opera, and you can't help wondering that the director had long had aspirations in this direction.

As ever, Guitry puts in a personal appearance in front of the camera, here casting himself as the villain of the piece, the distinctly unprepossessing banker Malibran who married the singer and then sponged off her until she deserted him.  (Guitry's habit of marrying women many years his junior certainly made him suitable for the role - he was 50 when he married 28-year-old Jacqueline Delubac, wife number three).  Jean Cocteau crops up as the writer Alfred de Musset, one of a host of historical figures that Guitry manages to cram into the film with scant regard to historical fact.  Guitry's fourth wife, Geneviève Guitry, has a minor role, although she is somewhat lost in a full-bodied cast that includes such acting luminaries as Suzy Prim, Jean Debucourt and Jeanne Fusier-Gir, as well as the opera singer (a star of the Opéra-Comique in Paris) Jacques Jansen.

La Malibran was first released in France in early May 1944 but it was pulled from circulation shortly afterwards when Guitry was arrested and imprisoned after the Liberation on a trumped up collaboration charge.  Following Guitry's arrest, the Direction générale du cinéma placed a ban on the commercial exploitation of this and all of Guitry's previous films, which remained in force until October 1947, after the cineaste was granted a belated acquittal.  This goes some way to explaining why La Malibran is one of Guitry's least known films, the one that suffered most from his temporary fall from grace at the hands of his scandal-mongering detractors.  Whilst it hardly rates as one of the director's best films (Guitry's customary acid wit is conspicuous by its absence and several scenes appear over-long and painfully static), this one foray into musical territory is worth discovering, if only to savour the charm and vocal majesty of the great Geori-Boué.

Film Synopsis

When she learns of the premature death of her friend, the celebrated singer Maria Malibran, the Countess Merlin recalls several important episodes in her life.  Maria was destined for a musical career, being the daughter of the well-known Spanish tenor Manuel García.  Tutored by her father, Maria made her stage debut at the age of eight and had her first major success in London when she was 17.  It was during a tour of America that she met the banker Eugène Malibran, whom she married despite the fact he was almost 30 years her senior.  Ruined not long afterwards, Malibran became financially dependent on his wife, who was by now revered the world over.  Her marriage with Malibran effectively over, Maria embarked on the one true love affair of her life, with the virtuoso violinist Charles-Auguste de Bériot.  Despite being injured in a riding accident, she insisted on continuing her performances.  As a result she died in her prime, at the age of 28...