Cavalcade d'amour (1939) User Reviews

Three delightful heroines!

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 10 May 2018]

Producer: Simon Schriffrin. Executive producer: Arnold Pressburger. A C.I.P.R.A. Production, released in France in 1939. No record of any U.S. theatrical release. 100 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: A predecessor of the portmanteau films that proved so popular in the early 1950s, this one tells three love stories of different epochs, but all centered around an old chateau on the River Loire.

COMMENT: Although superbly photographed, costumed and set, this Cavalcade of Love tends to outstay its welcome. All three stories prove not only too predictable, but take too long to reach their foregone conclusions. They are not helped by episodes of comic relief that I found too broad, too heavily acted and frankly rather wearisome.

Dauphin is merely okay as three heroes, but Michel Simon shines as the financier and does all right by the bishop except for a comic routine in poor taste in which he endeavors to impersonate Simone Simon. He fails miserably in episode one in which he draws the tyrant with such a hammy hand as to lose all audience rapport.

Fortunately, the three heroines all come across as quite delightful ingénues. Though Simone Simon's role is disappointingly small, both Janine Darcey and Corine Luchaire make their most of their opportunities and are jointly responsible for the movie's overall high entertainment rating.

"Une réalisation fastueuse"

[Spondonman · 8/10 · 4 May 2014]

After seeing Cat People and Curse Of The Cat People back in the '80's my daughter and I always wanted to see some of Simone Simon's pre-Hollywood work – not so easily done in those long-ago pre-internet days! I finally caught up with this, the last French film she made before going to America, and frankly can't understand why it seems to have sunk without trace, it doesn't deserve to have vanished. The print I've just seen wasn't too good but the trailer is on youtube in a decent condition – sadly "Time's dread swift passage" may not have been kind to it.

Three tragicomic tales of thwarted love from three different time periods, all centring on a particular castle and its various owners in 1639, 1839 and 1939. Michel Simon is omnipresent throughout, first as a travelling actor, then as a priest, finally as a rich capitalist – I preferred him as the latter but he looked like he had his usual fun dressing up for the first two roles. His only foible in the last was a moustache. Claude Dauphin also appears throughout the centuries as the handsome lithe young male who falls in love each time. The 1839 sequence with slinky Simone Simon left me puzzled: Dauphin was packing up to go, then does something you know he's regretting even before some bad news is given - snappy editing to be sure but what happened in between? They're all basically variations on a theme but all three stories have different outcomes, the modern perhaps not surprisingly being the most different and maybe the more interesting for that. There are plenty of worldly witticisms in the best French manner, but some of the best lines I've heard for centuries were uttered by the incredibly photogenic pair of lovers Corinne Luchaire and Dauphin in their frank all-too-human exchange in the modern castle's toyroom. Deliciously barmy! The acting was impeccable, photography and sets beautifully atmospheric, the story inconsequential but fascinating and one to savour.

There doesn't seem to be much information available on this at present but it must have been released just before the Germans marched in, so I wonder if that had anything to do with it being so neglected. The trailer states, "Une réalisation fastueuse" – a magnificent achievement, however I wouldn't disagree with that rather magnificent statement. So, a wonderful little film, admittedly probably partly because it was the first time of viewing for me but I'm hoping to be spared to watch it again a few more times in the future.

Love will find a way

[dbdumonteil · 8 August 2015]

Raymond Bernard 's final thirties effort ,released just before WW2,and anticipating on the future escapist film,one of the recurrent features of the Occupation days.This is a movie made up of sketches as well as a costume drama ,as was "Le miracle Des Loups" ,his silent swashbuckler of the twenties and as would be his overlooked "Le Jugement De Dieu"(1949).Michel Simon is featured in the three parts.

SEGMENT ONE:"I 'm going to be a comedian from today onwards"

in the Middle Ages....

A drama company arrives in a castle where the lord's daughter is to marry a man she has never met:as was often the case at the time,she only saw her fiancé's "picture"-"Les Visiteurs Du Soir"(1942) has a similar beginning-.The soon-to-be-husband can strike horror into the girl's heart:a half-wit who stammers and limps;Bernard was probably inspired by Von Sternberg's "Red Empress" (1934) for the ceremony of the wedding.The bride falls for one of the thespians and tries to escape from a doomed fate ...but in the castle they blow the Mort...

SEGMENT TWO:"I wish I could be the bride"

in the 19th century....

They say there's a curse on the marriages since the tragedy told in part one. Then again ,the lord of the manor's daughter is to marry a(handsome,this time)man;a little dressmaker's apprentice,Juliette (sic) is also in love with the fiancé:one night she puts on the wedding gown and the Young man catches her when she is wearing the white garment;the curse strikes.Later screenwriter Jean Anouilh would show a girl,not blessed by nature,dancing in a ball-gown,in "Pattes Blanches" (Grémillon,1948):as though,by wearing another person's clothes ,you would become her ,an obvious female fetishism.Simone Simon ("La Bête Humaine" "cat people" ) is touching.

SEGMENT THREE :"53 bedrooms in my new home"

in the present time (1939 ,that is).....

The subject is common in the French cinema: the bourgeoisie,the Nouveaux Riches ,buy the properties of the nobles who are broke :see "Le Bal" (Thiele,1931) "Le Roi " (Colombier,1936) "Les Nouveaux Riches "(Berthomieu,1938) and the best effort of the genre "Les Affaires Sont Les Affaires "(Dréville,1942).Not only the lord short of the readies wants his son to marry a rich heiress,but he also "hires" a noble dowager as a go-between.Although immoral to a fault,several reversals of situation lead to true love ..and perhaps the end of the curse.

In 1939 ,a year when the French masterpieces abounded,"Cavalcade D'Amour " is too overlooked ;"C'est La Vie Parisienne" (Rode ,1954) is a pleasant imitation of Bernard's 1939 lovely film.

"God never gives too much joy,each joy comes with sorrow."

[morrison-dylan-fan · 9/10 · 12 August 2017]

Taking part in an ICM poll for the best films of 1940,I found out of a work (incorrectly) listed as being from the year by auteur Raymond Bernard,and starring Simone Simon in her final pre-Hollywood production. With the title having some pretty "big names" I was shocked to not find a copy of it anywhere.

Ordering Claude Miller's gripping Garde à vue (1981-also reviewed) after long giving up on seeing this,I was taken by surprise,when the seller revealed he had also tracked down Bernard's work!,and I set off walking to the cavalcade of love.

The plot:

Story 1:The Middle Ages.

As a stage company travels to a castle to perform a show for the royals,a princess prepares for her wedding. Having a portrait of her arranged fiancé on the wall,the princess expects to get married to a dashing young man called Léandre,but discovers her fiancé has been painted with different brush strokes.

Story 2: 19th century:

Being new inhabitants of the castle,the couple avoid the curse of the Middle Ages by being deeply in love with each other. After helping the bride get measured in the dress during the day, dressmaker Juliette tries the dress on. As Juliette tries the dress on,the groom Hubert catches a glimpse.

Story 3:The present:

Buying the castle after seeing a portrait of a bishop who looks just like him, Lacouret shows off how grand his new property is. Previously supporting the marriage of his daughter Junie and Georges , Lacouret starts making his own plans in the castle.

View on the film:

Known in the UK for his very serious 1932 and 1934 duo Wooden Crosses (also reviewed) and Les Misérables,director Raymond Bernard (whose dad was humorist Tristan Bernard) displays an impeccable touch for the emerging Fantasy genre with a dark edge.

Bernard walks down the aisles of the castle in tracking shots catching the extravagances,and conjures up a comedic flight of fantasy in ultra- stylized overlapping close-ups and recurring motifs of dolls. Not making another title until 1946, (being Jewish,Bernard went into hiding,during which time his dad Tristan was tortured to death by the Nazis.)

Bernard & cinematographer Robert Lefebvre keep production issues off-screen,(original producer Bernard Natan got arrested for fraud/causing Pathé studios go bust,and whilst in jail, got given by the French gov to the Nazis,who sent him to the Auschwitz camp) to criticize the ruling bourgeoisie elite,from shots drenched in shadows making the rulers look like decaying monsters,to a stylized scattering of voices buying the properties of the rich,and leaving them penniless.

Reaching screens just months before the Occupation took place,the screenplay by Jean Anouilh and Jean Anouilh slyly link the Middle Ages,19th century and "present" with the theme of those in power forcing people into relationships that go against all they love and desire.

Saving a comedic side for the final segment,the writers brew historical Fantasy Melodrama (!) in the Middle Ages and 19th century,with the Gothic doom of the fake painting being sown in by the curse surrounding the tempting sight of Juliette.

Making her last French film appearance before meeting the Devil and Daniel Webster in Hollywood, Simone Simon gives a sparkling performance as Juliette,whose fragile,graceful manner Simon uses to make Juliette a siren of temptation for Hubert (played by a wonderful Claude Dauphin.)

Whilst not being related to Simon, Michel Simon follows in her footsteps by giving a trio of eye-catching distinctive performances across the tales as Diogène/ Monseigneur de Beaupré and Lacouret,with Simon being unafraid to look rotten as stage actor Diogène,and be thunderous as Lacouret,on his way to cavalcade.

In The End, A Comedy

[boblipton · 10/10 · 27 January 2024]

The castle is the source of legends, of the failure of love to triumph, every couple of centuries. In the first part, very noble Simone Simon is to marry the idiot son of another noble family, but falls in love with strolling player Claude Dauphin. She runs away with him. In the second installment, poor seamstress is at the castle for the wedding of very noble Claude Dauphin, but they fall in love.

It is the third installment, however, it is ignoble Corinne Luchaire, the daughter of immensely rich banker Michel Simon -- as he has been the father of Mlle Simon and M. Dauphin in the previous two episodes -- she loves only him. As he feels it necessary to have some respectable people in the family, some ancestors, he buys the castle for cash and has one of the portraits touched up to make him look like one of the family. He also hirs a matchmaker. She locates Claude Dauphin, who fits the bill. His family has generals and judges, but his father is so noble, he's immensely in debt and has to cadge a hundred francs from Dauphin every Thursday, from Dauphin's monthly stipend of 1400 francs. Dauphin and father come to the castle, and he and Mlle Luchaire fall instantly in love. But she hates the thought her father will have bought him, and he hates the contempt he feels she will naturally hold him in. So they decide not to get married. Can the curse be ended?

The first two episodes are played as tragedies, but the third is a riotous comedy, with Luchaire and the two men in her life having immense chemistry. Michel Simon, as always, makes this a monstrous joy to behold.