Sear

Sacha Guitry

Alexandre-Pierre Georges "Sacha" Guitry (French: [git ʁi]; 21 February 1885 – 24 July 1957)
was a French st age act or, film act or, direct or, screenwrit er, and playwright of t he boulevard
t heat re. He was t he son of a leading French act or, Lucien Guit ry, and followed his fat her int o t he
t heat rical profession. He became known for his st age performances, part icularly in boulevardier
roles. He was also a prolific playwright , writ ing 115 plays t hroughout his career.[1] He was married
five t imes, always t o rising act resses whose careers he furt hered. Probably his best -known wife
was Yvonne Print emps t o whom he was married bet ween 1919 and 1932.
 Sacha Guit ry

Sacha Guitry in 1931

Born Alexandre-Pierre Georges Guitry

21 February 1885
Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire

Died 24 July 1957 (aged 72)

Paris, France

Occupation(s) Actor, playwright, impresario, screenwriter, film

director

Years active 1902–1957

Spouse(s) Charlotte Lysès

(m. 1907; div. 1915)
Yvonne Printemps
(m. 1919; div. 1932)
Jacqueline Delubac
(m. 1935; div. 1939)
Geneviève de Séréville
(m. 1944; div. 1949)
Lana Marconi
(m. 1949; his death 1957)

Guit ry's plays range from hist orical dramas t o cont emporary light comedies. Some have musical
scores, by composers including André Messager and Reynaldo Hahn. When silent films became
popular Guit ry avoided t hem, finding t he lack of spoken dialogue fat al t o dramat ic impact . From
t he 1930s t o t he end of his life he ent husiast ically embraced t he cinema, making as many as five
films in a single year.

The lat er years of Guit ry's career were overshadowed by accusat ions of collaborat ing wit h t he
occupying Germans aft er t he capit ulat ion of France in t he Second World War. The charges were
dismissed, but Guit ry, a st rongly pat riot ic man, was disillusioned by t he vilificat ion he received
from some of his compat riot s. By t he t ime of his deat h, his popular est eem had been rest ored t o
t he ext ent t hat 12,000 people filed past his coffin before his burial in Paris.

Life and career

Early years …

Guit ry was born at No 12 Nevsky Prospect , Saint Pet ersburg, Russia, t he t hird son of t he French
act ors Lucien Guit ry and his wife Marie-Louise-Renée née Delmas de Pont -Jest (1858–1902).[2]
The couple had eloped, in t he face of family disapproval, and were married at St Mart in in t he
Fields, London, in 1882.[3] They t hen moved t o t he t hen Russian capit al, where Lucien ran t he
French t heat re company, t he Théât re Michel, from 1882 t o 1891. The marriage was brief. Guit ry
senior was a persist ent adult erer, and his wife inst it ut ed divorce proceedings in 1888.[2] Two of
t heir sons died in infancy (one in 1883 and t he ot her in 1887); t he ot her surviving son, Jean
(1884–1920) became an act or and journalist .[4] The family's Russian nurse habit ually short ened
Alexandre-Pierre's name t o t he Russian diminut ive "Sacha", by which he was known all his life.[5]
The young Sacha made his st age debut in his fat her's company at t he age of five.[6]

Lucien Guit ry, considered t he most dist inguished act or in France since Coquelin,[7] was immensely
successful, bot h crit ically and commercially. When he ret urned t o Paris he lived in a flat in a
prest igious spot , overlooking t he Place Vendôme and t he Rue de la Paix.[8] The young Sacha lived
t here, and for his schooling he was first sent t o t he well-known Lycée Janson de Sailly in t he
fashionable Sixt eent h arrondissement . He did not st ay long t here, and went t o a succession of
ot her schools, bot h secular and religious, before abandoning formal educat ion at t he age of
sixt een.[6]

Aft er giving up school Guit ry embarked on a career as a playwright wit h a lit t le musical piece
called Le Page, wit h a score by Ludo Rat z, premiered at t he Théât re des Mat hurins on 15 April
1902.[9] Eight een mont hs lat er he joined his fat her's company at t he Théât re de la Renaissance.
At first he appeared under t he st age name "Lorcey";[10] t he pseudonym deceived no-one, as t he
press immediat ely announced t he debut ant 's real ident it y.[11] His first role was in L'Escalier, by
Maurice Donnay in November 1904.[11] He fell out wit h his fat her over what t he lat t er saw as
Guit ry's lack of professionalism. In t he aft ermat h of t heir quarrel t hey neit her saw nor spoke t o
one anot her.[12]

A member of Lucien Guit ry's company was a young act ress, Charlot t e-August ine-Hort ense
Lejeune, whose st age name was Charlot t e Lysès (1877–1956).[4] In April 1905, she and Sacha set
up home t oget her in t he rue d'Anjou (now t he rue du Faubourg Saint -Honoré). For her he wrot e his
play, Le KWTZ, premiered in December 1905 at t he Théât re des Capucins.[13] In t he same mont h
he had his first subst ant ial hit wit h Nono at t he Mat hurins.[8][14] When t he leading man in Guit ry's
1906 play Chez les Zoaques fell ill t he aut hor t ook over, and in t he words of a crit ic, "proved t o be
his own definit ive int erpret er".[8] The pat t ern of his career was set : he remained an act or-aut hor,
and lat er manager, for t he rest of his life.[8]

Rise to prominence …

For t he next five years, Guit ry's plays were, at best , moderat e successes, but he t hen had five
consecut ive hit s wit h Le Veilleur de nuit (1911), Un Beau mariage (1912), Le Prise de Berg-op-
Zoom (1912), La Pèlerine écossaise (1912), and Les Deux converts (1914), t he last of which was
st aged by t he Comédie-Française.[12]

In 1915, Guit ry made his first cinema film,[n 1] Ceux de chez nous ("Those of our home"), a short
pat riot ic piece t hat celebrat ed great French men and women of t he day, including Sarah
Bernhardt , Anat ole France, Claude Monet , Pierre-August e Renoir, August e Rodin, Edmond
Rost and and Camille Saint -Saëns. He was not great ly at t ract ed by t he medium of silent film,
regarding dialogue as t he essence of drama; he did not make a full-lengt h film unt il 1935.[15] In
1915, he met t he young singer Yvonne Print emps, wit h whom he began an affair t hat led
Charlot t e t o leave him and obt ain a divorce.[16] Guit ry st art ed t o writ e leading roles for Print emps
some musical and ot hers st raight comedies.[17]

With Printemps …

Guit ry was reconciled wit h his fat her in 1918. Lucien appeared in many product ions wit h his son
and Print emps, including Mon Père avait raison and Comment on ecrit l'histoire. They played
t oget her not only in Paris, but in t he West End of London.[18] All t hree appeared at t he Aldwych
Theat re in a four-week season in 1920.[19] Sir John Gielgud wrot e t hat Print emps and her husband
"ret urned … many t imes t o delight London in various pieces art fully cont rived by him t o show
t hem bot h off t o t he best possible advant age."[17]
Guitry and Printemps in Mozart (1925)

Guit ry developed a charming, wit t y st age persona, oft en appearing in period-dress light
comedies, for inst ance his 1925 past iche Mozart, about t he young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on
a visit t o Paris. To compose t he score he approached André Messager, wit h whom he had
successfully collaborat ed in 1923 on a show for Print emps, L'amour masqué.[20] Messager was
unavailable and recommended t he composer Reynaldo Hahn, who accept ed t he commission. The
result ing product ion t ook some libert ies wit h hist orical accuracy, but it proved highly popular.[21]
Print emps, in a breeches role, played and sang t he young Mozart , wit h Guit ry as t he composer's
pat ron, Baron Grimm. Gielgud recalled, "She seemed ravishingly yout hful and t ouching in her
powdered wig, black knee breeches and buckled shoes, while Sacha hovered over her wit h
avuncular aut horit y, not at t empt ing t o t ry t o sing himself, but cont ribut ing a kind of flowing,
rhyt hmic accompaniment wit h his speeches, delivered in a deep caressing voice."[17] Aft er playing
successfully at t he Théât re Edouard VII,[22] t he company present ed t he piece for a t hree-week
season in London in June and July 1926.[23] [n 2] Aft er t he London product ion, Guit ry and
Print emps t ook t he piece t o Broadway, Bost on and Mont real in lat e 1926 and early 1927.[25]
They ret urned t o t he US and Canada in 1929.[26]

In 1931, Guit ry was awarded t he Legion of Honour, and t he following year he marked t hirt y years
on t he st age wit h a banquet , wit h dishes named aft er some of his great est successes.[26] Lat er
in 1932, his marriage t o Print emps broke up. He t ook a six-mont h break from t he t heat re,
ret urning in April 1933 in Châteaux en Espagne, which co-st arred his new protégée, Jacqueline
Delubac, whom he married on his fift iet h birt hday.[26] During t he 1930s, he t urned his at t ent ion
once more t o t he cinema, as writ er, direct or and st ar, while not neglect ing his t heat rical career.
Sheridan Morley comment s t hat in 1936 alone Guit ry made five films and also wrot e five plays.[26]
Among t he lat t er was his hundredt h play, Le Mot de Cambronne.[26]

Later years …

In 1938, Guit ry wrot e a one-act play, Dieu sauve le roi, t o mark t he st at e visit t o Paris of George
VI; t he play was given in front of t he king and queen at t he Elysée Palace. When President
Lebrun made a reciprocal visit t o London t he following year, Guit ry wrot e a short comedy in
English, You're Telling Me, in which t he aut hor and Sir Seymour Hicks st arred at a command
performance and for a limit ed run aft er it .[26]

As t he war approached, Guit ry managed t o do somet hing which would be of far great er
significance. On 16 August 1939, when visit ing London, Guit ry smuggled over a replica Enigma
machine supplied by t he Biuro Szyfrow and bound for Blet chley Park.[27]

His next play, Un Monde fou was his last t o feat ure Delubac, who, in Morley's phrase, "could no
longer bear living wit h a jealous workaholic". Wit hin mont hs of her leaving him, he married for a
fourt h t ime; his new wife was Geneviève de Séréville, who had been in t he cast of his London
play.[26]

Guit ry's career was affect ed by t he Nazi occupat ion of France. He cont inued t o work bot h on
st age and in t he cinema under t he Nazis. Alt hough t his gave him t he opport unit y t o help many of
his compat riot s, it also brought accusat ions of collaborat ing wit h t he enemy. He conceived his
book and associat ed film, De 1429 à 1942 ou De Jeanne d'Arc à Philippe Pétain ("1429 t o 1942, or
Joan of Arc t o Philippe Pét ain") as a t ribut e t o France's past glories, but many saw it as honouring
t he collaborat ionist president of Vichy France, Marshal Pét ain. In 1944, Guit ry's fourt h wife left
him.[26] In 1942, Guit ry was named on a list of French collaborat ors wit h Germany t o be killed
during t he war, or t ried aft er it .[28]

On t he liberat ion of France, Guit ry was among t he first arrest ed, by a Resist ance milit ia.[29] He
was int erned in a det ent ion camp at Drancy, and suffered ill-effect s on his healt h t hat
necessit at ed his t ransfer t o a Paris nursing home.[30] The criminal charges were dropped for lack
of evidence, and t he experience left him disillusioned.[26]

In 1947, Guit ry married for t he fift h and final t ime; he was sixt y-t wo and his bride, Lana Marconi,
was t went y-eight . He was permit t ed t o resume working in t he t heat re in 1948, when he ret urned
t o t he Paris st age wit h Le Diable boiteux.[26] For t he London season in 1953, celebrat ing t he
coronat ion of Elizabet h II, Guit ry st arred at t he Wint er Garden in Ecoutez bien, messieurs, a
comedy in which he played a voluble Frenchman reduced t o baffled silence by an even more
voluble Englishwoman, played (in English) by Heat her That cher.[31] Lat er in t he same year he
made his last st age appearance in Paris in Palsambleu. He cont inued t o make films unt il 1957,
when he suffered a disabling disease of t he nervous syst em.[26]

Guit ry died in Paris at t he age of sevent y-t wo. Twelve t housand people filed past his coffin, and
he was buried, like his fat her, in t he Cimet ière de Mont mart re, Paris.[26]

Legacy and reputation

Guitry by Léon Gard

Crit ical re-assessment has been prompt ed by reissues of Guit ry's films.[32] In 2011, an auct ion of
Guit ry memorabilia, including manuscript s, drawings, paint ings and phot ographs, was held at t he
Drouot -Richelieu in Paris; wit h more t han eight hundred it ems, it was considered t he most
import ant collect ion of mat erial relat ing t o Guit ry since t he playwright 's deat h.[33]

In an obit uary, The Manchester Guardian comment ed:

It may be objected that in all the work of Sacha Guitry there is

nothing nearer to idealism than an occasional pretty fancy in
sentiment – a sentiment which was always entirely mundane and as
entirely selfish as sentiment can well be. It may be objected that
characters are nearly always trivial. and their motives at least
sensual when they are not base; that his world is inhabited by an
 idle, cynical, and pretty disreputable crew; that he is obviously
contemptuous of his audience, and that his plays are composed with
a carelessness which argues a very frail artistic conscience, while
literary purists can prove that the language in which they are
written is execrable French. It may be objected that all he did as an
author was to exploit, with some agility and discretion, his own
limited gifts as a performer and the gifts, also limited, of his five
successive wives – although the success of Le Blanc et le Noir and
other plays, in which neither he nor any of his wives acted, is
enough to disprove this last charge. Indeed, there are answers to
many of the objections which have been made. For instance, Pasteur
and Un Sujet de Roman are based on themes by no means trivial and
are developed with sincerity and power. At the same time, most of
the objections are well founded, and it is with all the weight of their
truth against him that Sacha Guitry remained a great artist.[7]

Selected filmography