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Eclipse Series 45: Claude Autant-Lara Four Romantic Escapes from Occupied France (Le mariage de Chiffon, Lettres d amour, Douce, Sylvie et le fantôme) (The Criterion Collection)
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About Eclipse Series 45: Claude Autant-Lara Four Romantic
Too often overlooked after his work was spurned by the New Wave iconoclasts as belonging to the tradition of quality, Claude Autant-Lara was one of France's leading directors of the 1940s and '50s. He began as a set and costume designer and went on to direct French-language versions of American comedies in Hollywood, but it was back in his home country that Autant-Lara came into his own as a filmmaker. He found his sophisticated and slyly subversive voice with these four romances, produced during the dark days of the German occupation. Sumptuously appointed even while being critical of class hierarchy, these films all made with the same corps of collaborators, including the charmingly impetuous star Odette Joyeux endure as a testament to the quick wit and exquisite visual sense of the director whose name they established.4-DVD BOX SET INCLUDES:LE MARIAGE DE CHIFFONThis delightful comedy brought Claude Autant-Lara his first popular success as a director. Chiffon (Odette Joyeux) is being pushed by her mother to wed a dashing military officer (André Luguet) but finds herself drawn to her stepfather's penniless brother (Jacques Dumesnil). For LE MARIAGE DE CHIFFON, Autant-Lara convened the creative team including screenwriter Jean Aurenche, cinematographer Philippe Agostini, and the incomparable Joyeux that would reunite for each of his subsequent three features, initiating a remarkable run of sharp love stories.LETTRES D AMOUR A deceptive lightness distinguishes this farcical second feature made by Claude Autant-Lara while Germany occupied France. During the reign of Napoleon III, a plucky postmistress (Odette Joyeux) agrees to receive love letters to a prefect's wife from a young official, and soon finds herself embroiled in a scandal that inflames a town's class tensions. A transporting period piece with ornate costumes by Christian Dior, LETTRES D AMOUR paints a blithely pointed portrait of life in a highly stratified society.
