STAVISKY

France, 1974, 120 minutes, Colour.
Jean - Paul Belmondo, Francois Perier, Anny Duperey, Michael Lonsdale, Roberto Bisacco, Claude Rich, Charles Boyer.
Directed by Alain Resnais.

Alain Resnais had made a big impact in the 1950s with his short film about the concentration camps, Night and Fog, as well as Last Year at Marienbad. He also made Hiroshima Mon Amour. In the succeeding decades – for more than forty years – Resnais made a great variety of films, in his old age making light romantic comedies.

Stavisky is a departure for him at this time. It treats of an episode in French political history in 1934 which almost led to the downfall of government and civil war. Serge Alexandre Stavisky was a petty criminal, Jewish background, a conman who rose to great heights in French society, manipulating money – and generating losses. The scandal was finally exposed and a number of right-wing groups wanted to bring down the government.

Jean-Paul? Belmondo who had enjoyed success in a number of light-hearted farces and historical dramas, is excellent as the conman Stavisky. There is a very strong French supporting cast including Michael Lonsdale as his doctor and Charles Boyer, in his final performance, as a spendthrift aristocrat.

The film is an interesting revelation of French politics, life in Paris in high society between the wars.

1. The credibility of this film in content and in style? The reputation of Alain Resnais?

2. The director as a poet and essayist of the cinema? His interest in human and political themes? The importance of the fluidity of time? Its definition, yet its fluctuations? The interweaving of the strands of time and memory? The effect this has on the judgement on people, events? The film’s use of colour, the editing contrasts and comments? The use of locations, the attention to detail for example the flowers, the hotel, Biarritz, the details of the theatre, the Alps, the French settings, Paris and the rooms? The background music? The use of close-up and long shots etc.?

3. The contribution of the acting to this film? Its quality and in keeping with the techniques?

4. The significance of choosing this particular eight-month period of a historical era, for French politics? The impact for a French audience? for a non-French audience? The universal questions underlying these particular events and people? The atmosphere of France between the wars, the thirties, the extremes of the Left with Trotsky entering France, the extremes of the Right and political and financial corruption? The hopes of the Left being dashed? The Right being exposed as corrupt and in disarray? The confidence tricksters, the general European background, the police? The complacency of French aristocracy? The impact on ordinary people? How well explored were these themes?

5. How was Stavisky a symbol of all this international and French confusion? His background as a Russian refugee, his original identity and his covering of this, people's puzzle about it, their being impressed by his success? The nature of his swindles, for example the number of deals going during this eight-month period? His confidence in himself, yet his deceiving himself? His ultimately being outdone, depressed, to death? The Baron said that his death was the death of an era. How well did the film highlight this? Now did it use Stavisky for the understanding of
an era?

6. The significance of the Trotsky atmosphere at the beginning? Trotsky and his background, his exile? The values that he stood for? His relationship with his wife, friends? The importance of the permission to stay in France? The adoration of the ordinary people of Trotsky? Granville as representing this, his hopes, fears? The importance of public opinion? The exclusion of Trotsky? How well were the details of Trotsky woven into the plot, especially via GranvIlle? and Erna? Trotsky as a definite focus of time for the thirties?

7. The character and personality of Stavisky, the fact that he was played by Jean Paul Belmondo? The film's shrouding of the mystery of his origins, his father's shame and his burial? Stavisky’s return to the cemetery? His self-
importance, his names? The Jewish question? His lies to himself? The file and its disappearance? The fact that he was feted by society and government, that he made money, that he used bribes and an atmosphere of glamour, his hold on newspapers and communication?

8. How was he to be understood in the entourage of his friends, the Baron and his complacency and delight in being in Stavisky’s company, the hotel management, his reliance on his doctor, his lawyer? The police that he bribed? The way that they supported him?

. The contrast with Borelli? His working the accounts, his dependence on Stavisky, his betrayal of him, his telling this to Stavisky? The irony of our seeing this within the fluidity of the time?

10. Stavisky understood by his enemies? Bonny and his methods, his ambitions, his detailed study of Stavisky, his using every means to track him down?

11. How could Stavisky be understood by his relationship with Arlette? The visual presentation of Arlette as a princess, a princess in a fairy tale in the hotel, her dress, flowers etc.? Stavisky’s devotion to her and her love for him? The lyric tone of their sequences together? The importance of the sequences together especially at the time of his death? Arlette's judgement on his death?

12. How interesting were the details of the swindles, Stavisky’s skill in running them, the fact that he could overreach himself? The character of Montalban, his devotion to Arlette, his reliance on the Baron, his interest in gun-running and his dependence on Stavisky?

14. How did the film build up suspense and tension by weaving the web around Stavisky, the inspector closing in?

15. Themes of irony in the dialogue, especially in the play by Giraudaux? The speeches about the spectre of death, the Baron’s attitude, Stavisky’s speaking these? Erna and her role within the theatre, the play, the spectre of death?

16. The effect of the failure on Stavisky, his depression, his wanting to flee, the death of an era?

17. The impact of the collapse, his fleeing, his being held up like a criminal, the police closing in?

18. The ugliness and violence of his death? Its conventional gangster look, the fact that he was a gangster, but the lack of stylishness in his death?

19. How important was the postscript about people’s reactions to his death, the court, the investigation, people pleading ignorance, the Baron excusing himself, Arlette and her judgement?

20. How valuable was the insight into human nature, the politics and finance of the 20th century?