As a kid, I didn’t like Henri Baurel in An American in Paris. I saw him as nothing more than the “other man;” the antagonist who was trying to steal the girl away from Gene Kelly and ruin his happy ending.
As a result, it took me way too long to begin looking into the films of Georges Guétary, the actor and singer who played him. As much as I adore Gene, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten more sympathetic toward Henri. He took care of Lise (played by Leslie Caron) during the war, and while he was still “the other man,” he wasn’t really antagonistic. Guétary brought vim and vigor to the role, and even added depth to Henri’s character and the plot as a whole. And then, of course, there’s that wonderful singing voice.
Like I said—I should have jumped on the Georges Guétary bandwagon sooner!
But better late than never. To honor his birthday this past Thursday, I watched one of his films, a musical operetta called Plume au Vent, which also starred Carmen Sevilla. The film is in French, and the copy I found had no English subtitles. But when you’re hard-of-hearing and barely know what’s going on when the movie’s in English, what’s a little language barrier?
Sound Speed!
What I knew about the plot going in
The plot somehow involves mistaken identities.
Georges’ character is wooing one woman but then runs into an old girlfriend whom he still has a soft spot for.
That’s it! But even that very limited knowledge helped a lot. It mostly gave me context for one particular scene, in which Georges encounters Carmen Sevilla’s character. Although Georges’ character flirts with several girls before this, based on their nonverbal cues, I could tell that this was the old flame he still liked. This was the main setup for the rest of the plot, and from that point, I had a better sense of who the main characters were, and which ones I didn’t need to focus on as much. That was especially helpful since the only names I could pick out during the entire movie were Jean-Pierre and Claude!
Roll ‘Em!
The actual plot and what I missed
Plot summary, courtesy of dbdumonteil on IMDb:
“The plot revolves round a case of mistaken identities, a 4 million inheritance, an inn where the only dish that is served seems to be chicken, a vet surgeon who attracts all the girls around much to the displeasure of his colleague/father, and even sci-fi :a young scientist creates a ray which creates weightlessness, at least for forks and knives.”
And from Letterboxd:
“Carlos, veterinary, poet, musician in his spare time and a fun-minded Don Juan, pretends to be his friend Fernando who has inherited a pharmacy in Madrid. There he meets an old girl friend that attracts him.”
Besides the mistaken identities and the part about meeting his old girlfriend, I didn’t catch any of the details mentioned above (though I did see the forks and knives rising into the air!). Even when a film is in English, I’m used to certain details passing me by.
But I still had a great time. There were plenty of other wonderful aspects that made up for what I missed. Plume au Vent had all the elements of a standard musical: Catchy songs, a big production number, a happy ending, and, of course, a dream sequence!
Here are some links to my favorite musical numbers from the movie. I’ve been watching them over and over again!
The Sound Booth:
More specific thoughts from a hard-of-hearing perspective
Thank goodness for physical comedy. There wasn’t a ton of it in this film, but I appreciated the bits that were there. (Is it just me, or does it seem like a lot of spoken punchlines in movies are delivered really quietly?) I don’t need to hear slapstick in order to laugh at it.
When watching English language movies, sometimes I can still pick up snippets of words being said. While watching Plume au Vent, I’d get excited that I could hear some of the words, only to realize the word I was thinking of was an English one, and the film was in French!
Comparing this viewing experience to last month’s Silent Talkies film, The Perfect Specimen, I’d say that I still had a better sense of the overall plot while watching Perfect Specimen. But my ability to understand all the “in-between” elements—the small character-building moments, the little jokes and witticisms—was about equal in both movies.
While I try to stay positive about it, occasionally I can’t help but feel a bit left out. Sometimes, I feel bad about missing out on a joke when everyone else is able to laugh, or about not understanding the suspense and intrigue of a plot because all I see for two and a half hours are people standing around moving their lips. But during a musical, I don’t need to hear the words to enjoy the melodies and the dancing. It doesn’t matter to me what Georges Guétary is singing about—I can still swoon over him hitting that glorious high note. I can still watch the toes tapping, and admire the grace and ease with which he leaps onto a table. The actors and creative teams involved in these musicals are some of my greatest heroes, for they have reached beyond language barriers and disabilities, and created worlds where I always feel welcome. And for that, I will be forever grateful.
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