Sacha Guitry
Alexandre-Pierre Georges Guitry (21 February 1885 – 24 July 1957), known as Sacha Guitry, was a French stage actor, film actor, director, screenwriter, and playwright of the boulevard theatre. He was the son of a leading French actor, Lucien Guitry, and followed his father into the theatrical profession. He became known for his stage performances, particularly in boulevardier roles. He was also a prolific playwright, writing 115 plays throughout his career. He was married five times, always to rising actresses whose careers he furthered. Probably his best-known wife was Yvonne Printemps to whom he was married between 1919 and 1932.
Guitry's plays range from historical dramas to contemporary light comedies. Some have musical scores, by composers including André Messager and Reynaldo Hahn. When silent films became popular Guitry avoided them, finding the lack of spoken dialogue fatal to dramatic impact. From the 1930s to the end of his life he enthusiastically embraced the cinema, making as many as five films in a single year.
The later years of Guitry's career were overshadowed by accusations of collaborating with the occupying Germans after the capitulation of France in the Second World War. The charges were dismissed, but Guitry, a strongly patriotic man, was disillusioned by the vilification he received from some of his compatriots. By the time of his death, his popular esteem had been restored to the extent that 12,000 people filed past his coffin before his burial in Paris.
Guitry was born at No 12 Nevsky Prospect, Saint Petersburg, Russia, the third son of the French actors Lucien Guitry and his wife Marie-Louise-Renée née Delmas de Pont-Jest (1858–1902). The couple had eloped, in the face of family disapproval, and were married at St Martin in the Fields, London, in 1882. They then moved to the then Russian capital, where Lucien ran the French theatre company, the Théâtre Michel, from 1882 to 1891. The marriage was brief. Guitry senior was a persistent adulterer, and his wife instituted divorce proceedings in 1888. Two of their sons died in infancy (one in 1883 and the other in 1887); the other surviving son, Jean (1884–1920) became an actor and journalist. The family's Russian nurse habitually shortened Alexandre-Pierre's name to the Russian diminutive "Sacha", by which he was known all his life. The young Sacha made his stage debut in his father's company at the age of five.
Lucien Guitry, considered the most distinguished actor in France since Coquelin, was immensely successful, both critically and commercially. When he returned to Paris he lived in a flat in a prestigious spot, overlooking the Place Vendôme and the Rue de la Paix. The young Sacha lived there, and for his schooling he was first sent to the well-known Lycée Janson de Sailly in the fashionable Sixteenth arrondissement. He did not stay long there, and went to a succession of other schools, both secular and religious, before abandoning formal education at the age of sixteen. ...
Source: Article "Sacha Guitry" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Known For | Directing |
---|---|
Most Rating | 3.146 |
Birthday | 1885-02-20 |
Place of Birth | Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire [now Russia] |
Also Known As | Alexandre Guitry, Alexandre Georges-Pierre Guitry, 사샤 기트리, 사차 거이트리, |
1955
Napoleon
6.3/17
The film follows the life of Napoleon from his early life in Corsica to his death at Saint Helena. The film is notable for its use of location shootin...
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Napoleon
1936
My Father Was Right
5.857/7
After being left for another man by his wife, Charles Bellanger raises his only son to fear and suspect women. Years later, such an education is beari...
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My Father Was Right
1935
Bonne chance
6.286/7
A girl, Marie, who got engaged to a boy who is leaving for military training (thirteen days) wins two million on the raffle, thanks to an older man, C...
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Bonne chance
1936
The Story of a Cheat
7.444/63
Life story of a charming scoundrel, with little dialogue other than the star/director's witty narration. As a boy, only he survives a family tragedy w...
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The Story of a Cheat
1948
The Devil Who Limped
6.385/13
The film is a 125-minute, black-and-white biography of French priest and diplomat Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754–1838), who served for 5...
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The Devil Who Limped
1939
Nine Bachelors
6.3/10
Nine Bachelors is a 1939 French comedy film directed by Sacha Guitry and starring Guitry, Max Dearly and Elvire Popesco.[1] An opportunist dreams up a...
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Nine Bachelors
1951
Deburau
7/3
Jean-Gaspard Deburau is a very successful mime, the most famous in his category. One day, he falls head over heels in love with Marie Duplessis, a cou...
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Deburau
1950
Tu m'as sauvé la vie
5.4/5
A wealthy baron, without offspring, who knows death is approaching, wants to adopt a man who kept him alive a bit longer, when he was almost run over...
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Tu m'as sauvé la vie
1956
If Paris Were Told to Us
5.8/14
Historical film directed and written by Sacha Guitry follows the the history of Paris from its founding through the significant events in the city's h...
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If Paris Were Told to Us
1937
Le Mot de Cambronne
5.9/9
Madame Cambronne, who is English, "it's historic", would really like to know what this famous "Cambronne word" is, which she has never heard. General...
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Le Mot de Cambronne
1944
La Malibran
5.7/3
On the death of the famous singer Maria Malibran, Countess Merlin retraces the main lines of the unusual destiny of this young woman entirely devoted...
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La Malibran
1948
The Private Life of an Actor
6.9/5
Biography of Lucien Guitry, stage comedian, by his son, movie director, and a poetic reflection on the passionate love of both men for their chosen ar...
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The Private Life of an Actor
1950
The Treasure of Cantenac
5.625/4
While he was about to end his life, Baron de Cantenac wanted to return one last time to the land of his ancestors. He then discovers a treasure that h...
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The Treasure of Cantenac
1938
Let’s Go Up the Champs-Élysées
5.667/9
The history of one of France's most famous streets is retold, featuring multiple performances from Guitry himself.
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Let’s Go Up the Champs-Élysées
1937
The Pearls of the Crown
6.1/17
The story of the seven pearls of the English Crown, from Henry VIII to 1937 – three of them missing.
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The Pearls of the Crown
1926
Camille: The Fate of a Coquette
4/4
A home movie version of the Dumas play. A young woman becomes a courtesan and tragedy befalls her. Appearances are made by many socialites of 1920s Pa...
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Camille: The Fate of a Coquette
1952
I Was It Three Times
4.9/6
A husband who had divorced twice because he had been betrayed by his former wives, takes his precautions to prevent the deed from happening a third ti...
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I Was It Three Times
1936
Let's Make a Dream
6.9/14
A husband who has just cheated on his wife returns home in the early morning, puzzled. He finds there, without knowing it, the lover of his wife, to w...
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Let's Make a Dream
1936
The New Testament
6.667/15
Husbands and wives, lovers and gigolos, all break a sweat when Dr. Marcelin’s newly-revised last will and testament is prematurely exposed.
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The New Testament
1937
Désiré
7.1/13
Sacha Guitry exchanges his usual top hat for a uniform in Désiré, playing a cavalier valet embroiled in an awkward flirtation with his new employer (p...
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Désiré
1938
Quadrille
5.9/17
The battle of the sexes as drawing room social satire. Philippe, a middle-aged newspaper editor, has lived for six years with Paulette, a successful s...
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Quadrille
1949
Two Doves
6.7/6
A man remarried his wife's sister whom he believes died in a fire. The alleged deceased reappears and sows trouble and discord in the new household.
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Two Doves
1941
Mlle. Desiree
5.5/8
Julie and Désirée Clary are courted by the brothers Joseph and Napoleon Bonaparte. Joseph marries Julie and Napoleon is affianced to Désirée. When Nap...
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Mlle. Desiree
1943
My Last Mistress
6.9/7
A renowned sculptor aged about fifty years, François Bressolles falls for the young Catherine Collet whom he convinces without difficulty to pose for...
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My Last Mistress
1935
Pasteur
5/3
Guitry reprises his role as Pasteur which he played successfully at the Vaudeville Theatre in 1919.
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Pasteur
1954
Royal Affairs in Versailles
6.8/23
Witty narration follows the history of Versailles Palace; founded by Louis XIII, enlarged by autocratic Louis XIV, whose personal affairs and amours,...
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Royal Affairs in Versailles
1949
Toâ
1/1
Michel Desnoyer has turned his private life into a comic stage play. But the volcanic Ecaterina is not at all pleased to find out that Michel's sister...
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Toâ
1934
Dîner de gala aux Ambassadeurs
5/1
Three successive sketches: Sacha Guitry successively calls Pauline Carton, Gaston Severin and Paul Pauley by telephone, to invite them to the Ambassad...
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Dîner de gala aux Ambassadeurs
1944
From Joan of Arc to Philippe Pétain
0/0
Sitting at his desk, Guitry gives us a lecture on French history from Joan of Arc to the Occupation, with some focus on a number of its great writers...
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From Joan of Arc to Philippe Pétain
1953
The Virtuous Scoundrel
6.067/15
La Vie d'un honnête homme English: The Virtuous Scoundrel, is a French comedy drama film from 1953, directed by Sacha Guitry, written by Sacha Guitry,...
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The Virtuous Scoundrel
1938
Bluebeard's Eighth Wife
7/84
American multi-millionaire Michael Brandon marries his eighth wife, Nicole, the daughter of a broken French Marquis. But she doesn't want to be only a...
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