Trois valses (1938)
Directed by Ludwig Berger

Film Review

When Oscar Straus's three act operetta Trois valses was first performed in France in 1937, it was the perfect vehicle for Yvonne Printemps and her husband Pierre Fresnay, a couple who had already ignited the celluoid together in Abel Gance's film La Dame aux camélias (1934).  The following year, the popular stage production (performed at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens in Paris) was translated to the big screen in predictably opulent fashion, with Printemps and Pierre Fresnay reprising their roles in what is very nearly a two-handed piece (there are some other actors in the film, but you just don't notice them).  The much-vaunted Printemps-Fresnay chemistry is no fiction, as this film amply demonstrates.  Not only do the lead actors spark off one another brilliantly, like two over-charged electrodes wired up to the National Grid, they are also clearly madly in lust with each other.  Every scene in which they appear together sizzles with an unmistakable erotic tension.

Les Trois valses was competently directed by the German filmmaker Ludwig Berger, one of a handful of films that he made in France, and, owing to its episodic format and Straus's music, it has something of the character of the films that Max Ophüls would make at the tail-end of his career - La Ronde (1950) and Madame de... (1953).  The middle segment is by far the strongest, more substantial than the flimsy opener and far less whimsical than the concluding instalment.  It is also the only part of the film where the musical numbers (or is it the same number repeated several times?) fit naturally into the narrative instead of looking like a clumsily bolted on afterthought.

La Belle Époque certainly suits Yvonne Printemps and she has seldom looked more glamorous than she does here, a dazzling belle of the Parisian music hall circa 1900.  When the story hops forward to 1939 things take a turn for the decidedly silly (goodbye Belle Époque, hello American screwball) and you half expect the Marx Brothers to show up at any moment.  Fortunately, the Printemps-Fresnay magic is strong enough to hold it all altogether, and whilst the film doesn't quite live up to its promise, it still manages to be an enjoyable diversion.  You can't help wondering how many cold showers the lead actors got through been takes, though.  The water bill must have been phenomenal.

Film Synopsis

In 1867, at the time of the Second Empire, a young military man named Octave de Chalencey falls in love with a humble ballet dancer, Fanny Grandpré.  Alas, Octave's aristocratic family are totally opposed to their union and Fanny has no choice but to forsake her love for the honour of the man she loves.  In 1900, Fanny's daughter Yvette is a star of the Parisian music hall and soon catches the attention of Philippe, the son of her mother's rejected lover.  A whirlwind romance ensues but when faced with the choice of marriage to a man of dubious morals or a glittering career on the stage, Yvette opts for the latter.  In 1939, Fanny's granddaughter Irène is a film star who is about to make a movie based on her grandmother's tragic love affair.  Octave de Chalencey's grandson, Gérard, an insurance agent, is roped into playing his grandfather in the film.  This time, it seems that nothing will impede the course of true love...