Fans of Ingrid Bergman, take note: If you thought she was inspired in Casablanca or luminous in Gaslight, she is pure magic in Elena and Her Men (1956). The actress elevates the often silly screenplay and is the main reason for seeing it. Otherwise, the color film probably would be lost to history.
The director and co-author is Jean Renoir, the great French humanist filmmaker. The Rules of the Game and Grand Illusion are classics, but Elena and Her Men can be slow going whenever Bergman is absent from the screen.
Set around turn-of-the-century France, this “musical fantasy,” as Renoir calls it, turns on the enchanting powers of the Polish Princess Elena Sorokowska (Bergman). She meets the dashing General Rollan (Jean Marais) at a military parade on Bastille Day and he is delighted with her. Thereafter he regards her as a good luck charm. His aides use her on numerous occasions to convince the indecisive general of his political destiny to lead the nation.
The character of Rollan is inspired by a real character in French history, General Georges Boulanger, who halfheartedly led a right-wing political movement in the 1880s. But Renoir’s purpose is only to celebrate the things men do in the name of romantic desire.
The princess’ family is poor, so she agrees to marry a wealthy, much older shoe manufacturer. He’s a wimpy-looking opportunist who views an impending war solely as a means of selling boots to soldiers. Her heart really belongs to the handsome Henri (Mel Ferrer, the victim of bad dubbing), whose value to society is nil. His goal in life is “to achieve perfect idleness.” They spend one glorious day of patriotic reveling by dancing, drinking and kissing, before she runs off to a life of careful calculation.
With a bounty of blond hair piled on her head and an hourglass figure beautiful in form-fitting formal gowns, she brings a distinctive grace to this uneven costume drama. Sometimes farcical, sometimes dreamily romantic, the film was made by Renoir when Bergman’s career was on the downswing after her marriage to Roberto Rossellini, she wrote in her autobiography My Story. The resulting movie was a big success in France. But when released in the United States with the title Paris Does Strange Things, “the critics declared it a disaster,” wrote Bergman.
It isn’t that. There are funny scenes, as when the teeming crowds in the street on July 14 cause a baby and a periscope to be temporarily misplaced. And it’s amusing when a crowd of well-dressed listeners walks out the second that a fat opera singer opens her mouth.
Elena and Her Men has been called the ultimate expression of Renoir’s feeling for the theater. That may be so. But its staginess and insistent farcical nature are sometimes at cross-purposes with the theme that love can work miracles. Thank heaven for Bergman’s presence.
ELENA AND HER MEN
1/2 Star
A beautiful Polish princess is enlisted to convince a French general of his political destiny.
Credits: With Ingrid Bergman, Mel Ferrer, Jean Marais. Directed by Jean Renoir. Written by Jean Renoir with Jean Serge. In French with English subtitles.
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(Unrated) No offensive material for any age audience.
