In the summer of 1939 she
was a star, at the height of her career with such films as director Marcel
Carné’s Hôtel du Nord (Christmas of 1938) and Le Jour Se Leve (1939)
and director Maurice Lehmann’s Fric-Frac. Cinetrove International announced this past
week that a new film restoration of one these star-studded pre-war productions,
Fric-Frac,
will making its Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack debut on Dec. 4.
Like Cher, or Madonna, or
Barbra, she was known internationally by just one name, Arletty (aka: Léonie
Marie Julie Bathiat). All of France
celebrated her … her fame, her beauty. World
War II would come to Europe, Paris fell, Paris was liberated and in March of
1945 her greatest film triumph, directed by Marcel Carné, Children of Paradise,
would have its debut in a liberated Paris.
Between Fric-Frac
in the summer of 1939 and the arrival of Children of Paradise (which was
filmed during the occupation) in the spring of 1945, Arletty’s career would
take a tumble. She had an affair with a
German Luftwaffe Lieutenant-Colonel by the name of Hans-Jürgen Soehring during
the occupation of Paris and was arrested in December of 1944, convicted,
sentenced to time in prison and forbidden to work for three years
thereafter. Her film career was never
quite the same after that.
Fric-Frac is based upon a comedy play by Édouard Bourdet
and stars Arletty as Loulou, a streetwise beauty, who has partnered up with Jo
(Michel Simon), a shifty pickpocket and all around conman (they both were
featured in the original play). By
chance they run into Marcel (Fernandel), a happy-go-lucky sort, if anything, a
little on the dim side, who is being pursued for marriage by Renée (Hélène
Robert), the daughter of his jeweler boss.
When Loulou picks up on Marcel’s
unique position, it is just a matter of time before a plot is hatched to use
him for a major jewelry haul, without any of that “fric-frac” stuff (slang for
breaking and entering). As with any
plans hatched in a comedy, things will go wrong … absurdly wrong!
Bonus features include
the original French-language theatrical trailer and a “Behind-the-Scenes”
featurette. Fric-Frac is presented in
French with English subtitles.
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