''Keep an Eye on Amelia'' (French: ''Occupe-toi d'Amélie'') is a 1949 French-Italian

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by

Claude Autant-Lara Claude Autant-Lara (; 5 August 1901 – 5 February 2000) was a French film director and later Member of the European Parliament (MEP). Biography Born at Luzarches in Val-d'Oise, Autant-Lara was educated in France and at London's Mill Hill Sc ...

and starring

Danielle Darrieux Danielle Yvonne Marie Antoinette Darrieux (; 1 May 1917 – 17 October 2017) was a French actress of stage, television and film, as well as a singer and dancer. Beginning in 1931, she appeared in more than 110 films. She was one of France's g ...

and

Jean Desailly Jean Desailly (24 August 1920 – 11 June 2008) was a French actor. He was a member of the Comédie-Française from 1942 to 1946, and later participated in about 90 movies. Life and career Desailly studied at the École nationale supérieure des ...

and

Grégoire Aslan Grégoire Aslan (born Krikor Kaloust Aslanian; 28 March 1908 – 8 January 1982) was a Swiss-Armenian actor and musician. Early life Krikor Kaloust Aslanian ( hy, Գրիգոր Գալուստի Ասլանյան) was born in Switzerland or in Co ...

. It is based on the 1908 play of the same name by

Georges Feydeau Georges-Léon-Jules-Marie Feydeau (; 8 December 1862 – 5 June 1921) was a French playwright of the era known as the Belle Époque. He is remembered for his farces, written between 1886 and 1914. Feydeau was born in Paris to middle-class parent ...

, set in Belle Époque Paris. It is one of several of film adaptations to be made of the story.

Background

One reviewer described it as a "lively adaptation of the popular Feydeau farce", "played with verve and charm by Danielle Darrieux", whose character is "an extremely personable young lady of not too difficult virtue".Peter Simmons. Paris : The Current Season. '' Sight and Sound'', March 1950, p13. Another critic rated it highly; with a screenplay by Autant-Lara's regular collaborators, Jean Aurenche and Pierre Bost, he saw it as "a tour de force of virtuosity: the old play - about a rising cocotte in the Paris of 1900, who deceives her rich admirer, agrees to a mock marriage ceremony with an engaging rake to help him secure an inheritance, is herself deceived by a genuine ceremony, has the last laugh by signing the register under a false name and goes off to Venice with the young man on a lovers' trip - has been turned practically inside out. It becomes a film within a play, the action starting in a Paris street, moving on to a stage, then to a series of stylised film sets, returning at intervals to the theatre and glimpsing the footlights; and it moves, with unfaltering invention and control, at breakneck speed." It was entered into the

1949 Cannes Film Festival The 3rd Cannes Film Festival was held from 2 to 17 September 1949. The previous year, no festival had been held because of financial problems. Like in 1947, the entire jury for this festival was made up of French persons, with historian Georges ...

. It was shot at the Billancourt Studios in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. The film's sets were designed by the art director

Max Douy Max Douy (June 20, 1913 – July 2, 2007) was a French art director.Hayward p.245 Selected filmography * '' The Rules of the Game'' (1939) * '' There's No Tomorrow'' (1939) * ''The Trump Card'' (1942) * ''Goodbye Leonard'' (1943) * '' Paris Frill ...

who won the decors award at Cannes. The

British Board of Film Censors The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC, previously the British Board of Film Censors) is a non-governmental organization, non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national clas ...

at first denied a certificate for the UK screening of the film, but with the introduction of a new category 'X' it could then be shown uncut.The Front Page - Cert X. ''Sight and Sound'', December 1950, p390.

Cast

as Amélie *

as Marcel * Louise Conte as Irène * Julien Carette as Pochet * André Bervil as Étienne *

as Le prince (as Aslan) *

Roland Armontel Roland Armontel (21 December 1901 – 15 March 1980) was a French actor. Born Auguste Louis Magnin in Vimoutiers, Orne, France, he died in Paris. Selected filmography * ''Fun in the Barracks'' (1932) * '' Let's Touch Wood'' (1933) * ''Les M ...

as Le général Koschnadieff (as Armontel) * Victor Guyau as Van Putzeboom * Charles Dechamps as Le maire * Marcelle Arnold as La dame en mauve * Lucienne Granier as Palmyre * Colette Ripert as Charlotte * Paul Demange as Moilletu * Albert Michel as Un spectateur (as Albert-Michel)

References

Bibliography

* Goble, Alan. ''The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film''. Walter de Gruyter, 1999.

External links

* 1949 films 1940s historical comedy films 1940s French-language films French black-and-white films Films based on works by Georges Feydeau Films directed by Claude Autant-Lara Films with screenplays by Jean Aurenche Films with screenplays by Pierre Bost French films based on plays Films shot at Billancourt Studios French historical comedy films Italian historical comedy films Films set in Paris Lux Film films Belle Époque 1940s French films 1940s Italian films {{1940s-comedy-film-stub