Wednesday, December 11, 2024

Sylvie et le fantôme (1946) directed by Claude Autant-Lara

 



Sylvie is obsessed with the portrait of her grandmother's lover in the family estate and is distressed when her father sells it to pay some bills. There are stories that Alain, the man in the portrait haunts the estate and he does in fact do just that. Before the painting is hauled off he leaves it and begins walking around the house and sort of stalking Sylvie in a way not cool by today's standards. 

To make her feel better, her dad has a 16th birthday ball for her and hires a ghost visit her so she can feel better about losing the painting. Robbers and the son of the man who bought the painting are caught creeping around the estate one night but are mistaken for actors hired to play the ghost. The real actor arrives and they decide that 3  is better than one since he can instantly appear in different locations. The real ghost is till walking about as well. 

This is sort of needlessly complicated and I can see that it's light enough to watch and find some charm in it but I found it a bit banal. The best thing in for me were the effects. They used the same reflection effects Disney's Haunted mansion uses to make it appear translucent ghosts are integrated into the sets and its very well done.  Not a must see but maybe light enough to watch before bed. 

No comments: