The Lame Devil (film)
| The Lame Devil (Le Diable boiteux) |
|
|---|---|
 |
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| Directed by | Sacha Guitry |
| Produced by | Jean Mugeli |
| Written by | Sacha Guitry |
| Starring |
Sacha Guitry Lana Marconi Émile Drain Henry Laverne Maurice Teynac |
| Narrated by | Sacha Guitry |
| Music by | Louis Beydts |
| Cinematography | Nicolas Toporkoff |
| Edited by | Jeannette Berton |
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Production
company |
Union Cinématographique Lyonnaise (UCIL)
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| Distributed by | Compagnie Parisienne de Location de Films, Gaumont |
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Release date
|
29 September 1948 |
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Running time
|
125 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
The Lame Devil (UK: The Devil Who Limped; original title: Le Diable boiteux, French for "the devil with a limp") is a 1948 French black-and-white historical film written and directed by Sacha Guitry. A biography of the titular French diplomat Talleyrand (1754–1838), it stars Guitry in the lead role. Originally forbidden by the French censorship and turned into a play, the film went on to be released into six languages.
The film is a 125-minute, black-and-white biography of French priest and diplomat Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754–1838), who served for 50 years under five different French regimes: the Absolute Monarchy, the Revolution, the Consulate, the Empire, and the Constitutional Monarchy. Its title comes from one of the main historical nicknames for Talleyrand, that he shares with demon king Asmodeus and English poet Lord Byron.
The movie is often noted for its opening sequence: after showing the birthplace of Talleyrand as it became in then-contemporary 1948 Paris, it moves to a bookstore window showcasing his main biographies, including a copy of Guitry's own Le Diable boiteux that creates a mise en abyme.
The film then sketches Talleyrand through a dozen episodes and anecdotes, both from his public life as a politician and his private side as a womanizer. Guitry explained that he peppered the dialogues with "a very great number" of quotes from most historical figures depicted.
Under French law, a film has to be presented to the Censorship Board (commission de censure) in order to obtain a French film-license (visa d'exploitation[]). During the French Fourth Republic (1946–1958), post-war regulations mandated that a movie script be submitted for approval even before filming.
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Wikipedia