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Abstract

Sacha Guitry is known for his witty farces and flamboyant historical film pageants. This study examines his documentary films and their function as archive and display case of French genius: Ceux de chez nous (1915; 1952), a home movie showing among others Rodin, Anatole France and Andre Antoine, and MCDXXIX–MCMXLII De Jeanne d’Arc à Philippe Pétain (1943–4), a film consisting of an anonymous hand turning the pages of a book (of the same title), displaying in full view portraits, hand moulds and original manuscripts on and by great figures of French culture, arts and politics. The essay discusses how the image of the hand, omnipresent in the filmmaker's work and collections, bridges his passion for the theatre, collecting and film. The hand is central to Guitry's gestures of display, his presentational aesthetics. It is also the key signifier for traces of French identity and artistic genius.

Keywords

film France Sacha Guitry hand indexicality memorial theatricality

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Sacha Guitry,National Portraiture and the Artist's Hand

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