SYLVIE ET LE FANTÔME (aka SYLVIA AND THE PHANTOM) (1946)

Sixteen-year-old Sylvie lives with her family in an old castle, and she is fascinated by the family legend of Alain, her grandmother's lover who died many years ago in a duel, but whose portrait dominates a room in the castle and whose ghost is said to haunt the place. When her father, the Baron, decides to sell the painting to a local art dealer for some much needed cash, he knows Sylvie will be distraught so he decides to hire an actor to play the ghost of Alain at a ball being held for Sylvie's birthday. Immediately, complications ensue. First, Sylvie discovers a secret passage in the wall where the painting was, and in exploring it, runs into Ramure, who was attempting to burgle the place and darts away through the passage. Sylvie, not knowing his intentions, finds him handsome and mysterious. Then the art dealer's son, Frederick, meets her briefly and becomes infatuated with her, returning to the house to try and arrange a meeting. When the art dealer's assistant nails the painting into a wooden box, he hears a tapping response from inside, and we see the ghost of Alain rise out of the box, along with the ghost of his beloved dog (who wasted away and died on Alain's grave). On the night of the party, Ramure and Frederick are both caught in the house and both claim to be actors hired to play the ghost, and when the real actor, an older fellow, shows up, the Baron is happy to have all three don ghost costumes. Finally, the real ghost shows up, slips on a sheet, and all hell breaks loose.

This is a charming supernatural romance with distinct tones of melancholy which do not take away from the generally comic air of the film. First things first, however: Odette Joyeux, who plays Sylvie, was over 30 when she made this, and though she is lovely and charming and doesn't quite look 30, she surely does not look 16, so in my mind, Sylvie was turning 21. The most famous member of the cast is Jacques Tati (the ghost) who would go on to become something of a French Charlie Chaplin, directing and acting in several comic masterpieces in the 1950s. Here, however, he speaks no dialogue and has little to do besides glide about transparently and walk through doors and walls. Acting-wise, for me, the movie belongs to the two competing suitors, Francois Périer as Ramure and Jean Desailly as Frederick. Both are quite appealing and I was genuinely uncertain which man, if either, Sylvie would wind up with. (Frankly, I think she makes the wrong decision.) The transparent effect of the ghost was done on set, with two identical sets built at right angles to each other, with glass in between which reflects Tati on the second set against the main set. It's quite effective, though occasionally you can see light bouncing off the glass. As directed by Claude Autant-Lara (who went on to become a controversial French politician in the 1980s), the whole thing has a lovely light fantasy element which would make this a nice pairing with something like The Ghost and Mrs. Muir or A Matter of Life and Death. Pictured are the suitors, Périer and Desailly. [DVD]