La poison

Sacha Guitry entered the fifties profoundly more cynical than he had been before the war. The result was a series of acerbic murder mysteries through which he expressed his views on contemporary society. Michel Simon was his perfect partner in crime. Here he plays a peasant who shares his mediocre life with a despised wife and a jug of wine. In consultation with a lawyer, he “confesses” the murder of his wife, then, armed with that barrister’s brilliant plan of defense, returns home to commit a crime for which he knows he will be acquitted. “Society, after the war, for Guitry is no longer that blessed place where his characters can reign with lightness thanks to their astuteness, their charm or their taste for work well done. It’s now a jungle in which the weight of the characters’ acts, and even their astuteness, would seize him nearly with terror were he not protected by a perpetual irony.” (Jacques Lourcelles) —BAM/PFA