Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Let's Go Up the Champs-Élysées Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 30, 2018

Note: This release is available as part of Sacha Guitry: Four Films 1936-1938.

The back cover of the slipbox of this new Arrow Academy release makes the case that Sacha Guitry was the Gallic Noël Coward, but I’d like to offer another, perhaps decidedly more outré, comparison. While it may sound a little cheeky, something I won’t argue too much with, in a way Sacha Guitry might be thought of as the Tyler Perry of his time, despite their obvious differences in nationality and ethnicity. Much as with Perry’s ubiquitous output, Guitry seemed almost preternaturally able to write both plays at the drop of a veritable hat, many of which he filmed, as well as original screenplays written expressly for the big screen. Additionally, Guitry frequently starred in these productions, though I have yet to be able to discover any cross dressing (a la Madea). Perhaps most saliently, at least for some curmudgeons (ahem) who have found at least occasional deficits in Perry’s writing and execution, even some experts quizzed as talking heads in supplements included on this new set unashamedly mention, some of Guitry’s offerings were decidedly on the pedestrian side. This may be especially ironic, given Guitry’s association with so-called (and I’m about to pun horribly) “Boulevard Theater”. Within this kind of wide ranging style that was often aimed at the popular masses (as opposed to the intelligentsia), Guitry was well known for playing “boulevardier” roles, “slackers” of a sort who nonetheless often had peculiarly observant qualities that frequently allowed them to act as almost individual Greek Choruses in plays and films, offering trenchant commentary on the foibles of whomever they were watching, supposedly from the sidelines. (The fact that “Boulevard Theater” was in fact aimed at the supposedly common everyday working stiff sort is one reason that I might quibble a bit with the Coward comparison, since Coward’s work was typically fairly highbrow.) The four films in this set are in fact filmed versions of plays, and as such are almost unavoidably theatrical, though it’s interesting to see Guitry experimenting with then still fairly new techniques like long tracking shots within confined areas. Three of the four films have at least some things in common with Coward outings (and in fact Perry outings), positing fractured family relationships that often revolved around things like marital infidelity. The fourth film in the set, Let’s Go Up the Champs-Élysees might be thought of as a “limited French edition” of Mel Brooks’ History of the World: Part I, with the focal element being the famous titular boulevard.

In the spirit of Passover, a holiday being celebrated as this review is being written, I’ll be a little cheeky and ask, “Why is this Sacha Guitry film different from all other Sacha Guitry films (or at least the other three in Arrow’s box set)?” While The New Testament, My Father Was Right and Let's Make a Dream. . . all feature certain “parlor” elements that do in fact remind at least a little of Noël Coward at times, Let’s Go Up the Champs-Élysées is almost a fantasy, one that introduces a level of pomp and pageantry courtesy of its recounting of the history of the famed boulevard, pomp and pageantry that are really nowhere to be found in the other three films in this set.

Guitry portrays a number of characters in this film, some historical, but the main one being a schoolmaster who is giving his charges a brief history of Paris’ most famous throughway. The film documents the planning and construction of the Champs-Élysées within the context of a conceit that several major contributors to the project were all related (and all protrayed by Guitry).

Kind of weirdly for an artist largely remembered for his boulevardier roles, Guitry also had a penchant for historical fantasies, and this film serves as an enjoyable if sometimes rather talky introduction to this side of his creativity. The film is considerably more opulent than some of the others in this set, offering quite a bit of outdoor location photography that might have been a challenge given the technologies of the time.

Let's Go Up the Champs-Élysées Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

All four films in the Sacha Guitry box set are presented courtesy of Arrow Academy with AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. Arrow's insert booklet only offers fairly generic verbiage about the transfers, stating they were culled from "original film and audio elements" that Gaumont delivered in high definition to Arrow for this release. All four transfers are rather similar in terms of strengths and weaknesses, so I'll address them as a whole, with some specific comments about individual aspects. Grain is quite heavy in all of these presentations, which, along with some variant contrast and fairly noticeable softness, may indicate that solid primary elements were no longer available for these films. All four transfers have their fair share of damage, including things like scratches (some quite recurrent and long lasting) and warped frames. For example, while there are some short passing scratches in The New Testament early on, especially toward the right side of the frame, at around 33:36 a large vertical scratch toward the middle of the frame shows up and is present, with a few brief exceptions, for quite a bit of the rest of the film. My Father Was Right has what looks like photochemical damage that creates almost spore like splotches that are also recurrent for much of the early part of the film, and which pop up again later, and which are especially noticeable when backgrounds are lighter. Some opticals, as in the dissolves that are used in Let's Go Up the Champs-Élysées, can occasionally look a little rough as well. All of this said, with an understanding of the age and historical importance of these works, Arrow is providing a decent viewing experience that presents these works in an organic way that may be a little rough on occasion, but which show no annoying signs of overly aggressive digital manipulation.

Let's Go Up the Champs-Élysées Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As with the video presentation, the four French LPCM Mono tracks on the films in this set all have a fairly similar sound. There's noticeable hiss on all four of them, something that can tend to slightly mask higher frequencies in the rather appealing music scores that accompany the films. Dialogue is also pretty boxy sounding, and occasionally has slight amplitude variances. With the optional English subtitles, though, nothing is really overly problematic.

Let's Go Up the Champs-Élysées Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Let's Make a Dream. . . and Let's Go Up the Champs-Élysées share a disc, on which the following supplements can be found:

• Selected Scene Commentaries by Ginette Vincendeau

  Let's Make a Dream (1080p; 8:56)

  
  

  Let's Go Up the Champs-Élysées (1080p; 3:50)

• Mon fils avait raison (1080p; 4:26) is a visual essay by Philippe Durant detailing Guitry's representation of children in his films.
• Francis Veber on Let's Make a Dream. . . (1080i; 7:54)


• Let's Make a Dream. . . Sound Tests (1080p; 5:24)


• Let's Make a Dream. . . Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 4:05)

Let's Go Up the Champs-Élysées Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Perhaps because Let's Go Up the Champs-Élysées is so manifestly different from the other three films in the Guitry box set, it was my overall favorite. The "history" here is questionable (to say the least), but the film has a nice sweep to it that makes it the most traditionally "cinematic" of the four outings Arrow has assembled. Video and audio show their age, but as usual Arrow has provided some enjoyable supplements.