Toâ (1949)
Directed by Sacha Guitry

Film Review

Such was the popularity of Toâ when it was first performed on the Parisian stage in May 1949 that its author, Sacha Guitry, wasted no time turning it into a full-length film, which was released in October of the same year.  It's another attempt by Guitry - one of his more determined - to show the degree to which life and art are intimately woven together, to the point that (for the artist at least) it can become impossible to tell one from the other.  Toâ originally derived from a play that Guitry had written in 1936, Florence, and the difference between the two works shows the extent to which the intervening years - which include a period of public rejection in the aftermath of the Liberation - had affected the playwright.  Now in the final decade of his life, Guitry had good reason to be cynical of human nature, and this cynicism manifests itself in his acerbic wit and some surprisingly astute mockery of himself, his profession and people in general.

In its original form as a play, one of Toâ's attractions was its blurring of the boundary between stage and audience.  It was an early example of what is now termed 'interactive theatre'.  A playwright (appropriately played by Guitry) struggles to find the subject for his next play, so he decides to create one based on his own recent falling out with his mistress.  He goes to the trouble of constructing a stage set that is an exact replica of his study at home (and the first time we see the 'real' study it is obvious to us that it is a three-sided stage set).  On the opening night of the play, the writer's mistress shows up and starts heckling him from the stalls - to the amusement of the audience.  It's a brilliant concept for a stage play but it doesn't quite translate to the big screen.  Indeed, the film version is a painfully static example of filmed theatre, and were it not for Guitry and his crackling dialogue the film would have difficulty holding our attention.

Accompanying Guitry in the film adaptation is the entire cast of the earlier stage version, with Mireille Perrey (a former member of the Comédie-Française) sparking brilliantly off the lead actor as his sister.  Lana Marconi plays the execrable ex-mistress and inevitably ended up as Guitry's next, and last, wife in real life.  (They married not long after the film's release in 1949 and remained together until the writer's death in 1957.)  Marconi's sharp tongue and lively persona had already been put to good use by Guitry in three earlier films, and she would feature in eight of his subsequent films, notably Le Trésor de Cantenac (1950).  Jeanne Fusier-Gir, another favourite actress of Guitry, makes her presence felt as the playwright's fastidious maid.  Her son - François Gir - worked on this (and several other films) as Guitry's assistant, although his main claim to fame is that he was the brother-in-law of Louis de Funès.

Guitry's decision not to embellish his original play was probably deliberate but it does result in a film that feels excessively stagy and somewhat languorous.  In other adaptations of his stage plays, the playwright was mindful of falling into the trap of just filming a piece of theatre, but here he seems to want to emphasise the film's theatricality, perhaps in an attempt to make his point about the interconnectedness of life and art.  The fact that Toâ is one of Guitry's least celebrated films implies the experiment was not entirely successful, and even admirers of his work have to admit it lacks the charm and impact of his other films.  Stripped of cinematic artifice, all that Toâ has to offer is Guitry and his humpful of sour observations on human nature - surely this is enough to make it worth watching?

Film Synopsis

After a violent domestic row, Ecaterina leaves her lover, the playwright and actor Michel Desnoyer.  Shortly afterwards, Michel is visited by his sister Françoise and her husband Fernand, who have returned after a long stay in the United States.  Harangued by his theatre director to come up with a new play, Michel decides to re-enact on stage his turbulent love affair with Ecaterina.  He gives the part of his former mistress to Françoise, who has long dreamed of starting a career as an actress.  On the evening of the first performance, Michel receives death threats.  Outraged that Michel is having her private affairs played out in public, Ecaterina causes a scandal by shouting out from the auditorium during the performance.  The play ends with an impromptu exchange of words between Michel and his ex-lover.  This only adds to the film's success and the next day the theatre director asks Michel to include his unexpected confrontation with Ecaterina in the play...