The Grand Maneuver

Les grandes manoeuvres

Italy, France

1955

106 Min

Color

1.37:1

French

Currently 2.9/5 Stars.
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SCR René Clair, Jérôme Géronimi, Jean Marsan

CAST Michèle Morgan, Gérard Philipe, Jean Desailly, Brigitte Bardot, Pierre Dux, Jacques Fabbri, Jacques François, Yves Robert, Jacqueline Maillan, Magali Noël, Dany Carrel, Claude Rich

ED Louisette Hautecoeur, Denise Natot

Armand de la Verne is a soldier in the French cavalry in the late 1800s/early 1900s, and he sees himself as something of a Don Juan, a man whom no woman can refuse. Whilst stationed in a French provincial town, he offers a wager to his fellow soldiers that he can seduce any woman who takes his fancy before they depart for their summer manoevures. The woman he selects for this purpose is an attractive young milliner, Marie-Louise, who has recently been divorced. However, the childish game soon turns into a tragic romance when Armand and Marie-Louise fall hopelessly in love… –filmsdefrance

Director

René Clair

Born under the name of René Chomette in 1898, René Clair René Clair started life as a journalist and then turned to the cinema in 1920. At first an actor and assistant director, he started making films with Paris qui dort and Entr’acte (1924), a pearl of the surrealist cinema.

Commercial success and critical acclaim came with the brilliant farce comedy, An Italian Straw Hat (1927) followed by his famous early musical talkies, Le Million (1931) and A nous la liberté (1932). He continued his career in Hollywood during the war and came back to France to make the films of his mature years, Le Silence est d’or (1947) et Les Grandes manœuvres (1955). René Clair was elected to the Académie Française in 1960 and died in 1981. —Octuor de France