Gérard Philipe: un homme pas un ange

This 2003 portrait of Gerard Philipe manages, within its limited 50 minute length, to give a good idea of why he was so beloved by the French ,between the post WWII years and his untimely death in 1959.

Instead of talking heads or that many clips (a number of his famous films are indicated simply by stills or posters ) the documentary uses extensive archival material ,including family home movies and rare sound and image preservation of his theater roles ,which included Corneille ,Kleist , Giraudoux,and a production of Musset staged by his frequent film director Rene Clair.

For readers of this review who are mostly familiar with Philipe from the movies,the most eye opening aspect of this program is about how he helped promote the Theatre Nationale Populaire in collaboration with Jean Vilar-a series of outdoor plays at an Avignon Festival in 1951 that expanded into a touring company all over France and even abroad including several Iron Curtain countries In the latter regard , the actor's increasingly progressive politics as influenced by his wife Anne are touched upon.

Let us leave this writeup not by dwelling on the unkind disdain someone like critic Francois Truffaut felt for Philipe but by just saying he was a remarkable young man.