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The writer, actor, and director Sacha Guitry emerged from the theater to become one of France’s best-known and most inventive filmmakers, and La poison marked his first major collaboration with another titan of the screen, the incomparably expressive Michel Simon. With Guitry’s witty dialogue and fleet pacing, this black comedy is the quintessential depiction of a marriage gone sour: after thirty years together, a village gardener (Simon) and his wife (Germaine Reuver) find themselves contemplating how to do away with each other, with the former even planning how he’ll negotiate his eventual criminal trial. Inspired by Guitry’s own post–World War II tangle with the law—a wrongful charge of collaborationism—La poison is a blithely caustic broadside against the French legal system and a society all too eager to capitalize on the misfortunes of others.
Original Release
11/30/1951
US Release
08/22/2017
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Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Michel Simon | Paul Louis Victor Braconnier |
Jean Debucourt | Maître Aubanel |
Jacques Varennes | Le procureur |
Jeanne Fusier-Gir | La fleuriste / Mme Tyberghen |
Germaine Reuver | Blandine Braconnier |
Pauline Carton | La mercière / Mme Michaud |
Albert Duvaleix | L'abbé Méthivier |
Henry Laverne | Le président |
Jacques de Féraudy | Jean Brun |
Jacques Derives | Jules |
Directors
Writers
Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Michel Simon | Paul Louis Victor Braconnier |
Jean Debucourt | Maître Aubanel |
Jacques Varennes | Le procureur |
Jeanne Fusier-Gir | La fleuriste / Mme Tyberghen |
Germaine Reuver | Blandine Braconnier |
Pauline Carton | La mercière / Mme Michaud |
Albert Duvaleix | L'abbé Méthivier |
Henry Laverne | Le président |
Jacques de Féraudy | Jean Brun |
Jacques Derives | Jules |
Louis de Funès | André |
Luce Fabiole | Amélie - la servante du curé / Amélie, la servante du curé |
Yvonne Hébert | Julie |
Roger Poirier | Un geôlier |
André Dalibert | Le gendarme |
Max Dejean | L'épicier |
Michel Nastorg | Le brigadier |
Nicolas Amato | Victor / Victor Boitevin |
Louis Eymond | Le secrétaire |
Marianne Romain |
Producers
Name | Role |
---|
Jean Le Duc | Executive Producer |
Alain Poiré | Executive Producer |
Paul Wagner | Producer |