Word: vous
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Despite the Gaullist opposition, Français, Si Vous Saviez (Frenchmen, If You Knew) was finished within 18 months. But even then, the government-appointed censorship board waited for seven weeks before granting it a commercial license. In fact, the license came through only ten days before the beginning of the French elections-too late for the film to have much influence on the voting, but in time to enable the government to refute charges of film censorship...
When Français, Si Vous Saviez finally opened in eight small theaters in Paris last month, it proved to be a prodigious (eight hours), three-part history of modern France from the First World War to the death of Charles de Gaulle. Its characters range from French-Algerian "Secret Army" Colonel Antoine Argoud to Communist Leader Jacques Duclos, from a patriotic old Lorraine grocer to a Gandhi-quoting Algerian nationalist. The two film makers, who describe themselves as non-Communist leftists, use all these characters to document their thesis: that liberté, egalité, fraternité are more rhetoric...
Naturally, Français, Si Vous Saviez became a center of controversy overnight. The pro-government France-Soir praised it as "exciting" and "excellent," while Historian François Furet attacked it as a "monument of crafty demagogy" that sought to turn De Gaulle "from a savior into a scapegoat...
...availability during his empty afternoons subdues his initial queasiness. The rest of the movie becomes a teased out elaboration of the question, will Frederic or will he not sleep with Chloe? He sees her daily, wines and dines her, lies to his wife when he arranges his rendez-vous, is agitated, sickened with desire for her, in short, has an affair in every way except sexually...
...with indignation. Actress Micheline Presle was mildly amused: "Eh bien, he has a very pretty little rear end. It's almost dishonest competition." Similarly sympathetic was Actress Catherine Deneuve, who allowed that she was "weary of naked women. Let's have some nude men, s'il vous plait." Among those outraged by the spectacle was Henri Larivière, a professional poster plasterer. In a rearguard action, as it were, he partially covered some of the posters with white rectangular patches that the French television network uses as a warning against material that is "not for minors...