The Story of a Cheat (1936)

 Sacha Guitry's "The Story of a Cheat"

Before he became a filmmaker in 1935, Sacha Guitry was an experienced stage performer and playwright. In the days of silent cinema, he avoided film due to its lack of dialogue. He felt that the lack of dialogue undermined drama. However, when sound entered film, he fully embraced it, even making as many as five films a year. His crowning achievement, however, was his 1936 film "The Story of a Cheat."

Guitry's "The Story of a Cheat" is an adaptation of the only novel he ever wrote, published in a year prior. It centers on an unnamed 'cheat' who recounts to the audience, through writing his memoirs, his life story. After caught stealing from his family's grocery shop at the age of 12, he is punished by not being allowed to eat mushrooms for dinner with the rest of his family. After the mushrooms turn out to be poisonous, all 11 members of his family die. He is then taken in by his mother's cousin, who turns out to use the boy's inheritance for his own benefit. From a very young age, the cheat learns that dishonesty pays. As a young man, he works as a bell hop for a hotel in Paris, where he informs on a plot to kill Tsar Nicholas II. He has an affair with a countess, does a stint in the army, saved by a man who loses his arm, becomes a jewel thief, becomes a professional card cheat, and quits cheating after reconciling with the man who saved his life in the war. Presently, he now has given up cheating and works, ironically, as a security guard.

What I found fascinating about the story was the moral confusion of it all. Throughout the life of the Cheat, he is taught through various life lessons that one prospers in being deceptive and 'cheating.' Whenever he cheats, he is rewarded. When he does not, he is punished. Not only this, every single character he comes into contact with is also a deceptive cheat and even ropes him in to their schemes. Guitry creates a world of deception and tricky in which everyone participating is lying and stealing to get by. On paper, this concept of a society where corruption and deceit is rewarded would sound more dramatic and perhaps dark. However, through Guitry's script and realization, it is a far more comedic tone. 

What's even more interesting about the film is how Guitry structures the story, making it utterly unique. Most of the film takes place in flashback with Guitry narrating the events. At no point in any of the flashbacks, do any of the characters speak. We only ever hear the narration. In this way, the flashback scenes becomes almost like a silent film. Even the way in which Guitry performs and scenes are shot mimic the style of silent filmmaking. However, in the scenes taking place in the 'present,' the characters speak like a normal film would have them. This unique structure allows for us to follow along like one would a novel, with the flashbacks simply filling in visually for what's being described. The original French title of the film, "Le Roman d'un Tricheur" aids in this novellike concept, as "Roman" literally translates to "Novel." I found this style and structure to be such a fascinating creative liberty by Guitry and helped elevate the film to new heights of storytelling.