A simple Aussie girl, as one of my friends
and myself would like to see me, is going through another period of foreign fascination.
After Poland and Italy the time came for France and French.
Coincidentally two things happened at the same time. I went returned to reading the
autobiography of Simone Signoret and saw
the film My Old Lady. The book and
the film made me think fondly and warmly about France and my French memories
flooded my feelings. Finesse and sophistication of French ways
of expressing themselves, dressing and thinking has been alluring to me in my
years of youth. Looks that there is still some of the fondness left.
Polish people looked up to French ways for many
years. I was brought up on French books and French films. English literature
was not that widely read by comparison to French and Italian. Now I see how
much France was oriented towards communism, most of French intellectuals were
communists or at least charmed by it. Their thoughts and ideology
supported official Polish believes and propaganda. I guess availability of French literature was one of very few benefits of being in the Soviet bloc.
My first film with Simone Signoret was Casque
d’Or – Golden Helmet. It made a very big impression on me and I remember many details of this remarkable movie evening. It was in the beautiful Jurata,
small holiday place on a peninsula that narrow that in places one can see the Baltic sea and the Bay of Puck across. Memories are back and I feel dreamy. But today I am not writing about Jurata, it is about
French influence. So ad rem (I am showing of my non existing Latin).
Once in a while a movable cinema came to show
films in open air on a wall of one of the pensions. Most of the holidaying people brought their
collapsible chairs to place them in the forest facing the wall where the film
magic was going to happen. Such happy times! Casque d’Or is a love story about
a prostitute and two Apache gang leaders. A tragic story telling about love that
lasted four days and finished with a guillotine execution of the hero. I was in
tears for at least half of the film that did not seem appropriate for a
fourteen years old girl, I was at the time. But if I was not allowed to see the
film then, I wonder if it would move me that much today or leave such strong
memories. Thank you my understanding and romantic mother for letting me to see
the film!
Simone Signoret was married to Yves Montand
a famous French actor and a singer. While reading the bigraphy, I almost heard
his voice singing romantically and sadly in the background. I
selected for my potential readers the song and the clip of Autumn Leaves which symbolically shows the
story of the love triangle Simone Signoret, Yves Montand and Marilyn Monroe. It is a bit ambiguous who he sings about as his love
who will stay in his memory for ever. The marriage and friendship between
Signoret and Montand lasted to the end of her life. The love of Simone Signoret
changed into a sad disappointment when she realised the romance between her
husband and the most desirable woman of her times. This was very French, in
my opinion, acceptance of infidelity. Something got broken in her though and changed their relationship for ever and that actually contradicts acceptance.
The My Old Lady is also about a ménage a trios which
gave a start to the story. This has a happy end though. Ah, this French
acceptance of superiority of romance over loyalty... The film has bad reviews
and I agree that the plot is predictable and it is not played brilliantly, but quite well. How it cannot be if the main
characters are played by Maggie Smith, Kristin Scott Thomas and Kevin Klein?
| "To good health" - she says provocatively |
