Ma cousine de Varsovie

Okay it's based on a play ,it's talky, it's derivative ,but when you deal with a monstre sacré such as Elvire Popesco ,there's never a dull moment .Actually a Romanian ,she portrays here a Pole ,the cousin from Warsaw, with her eternal joie de vivre :it takes 15 minutes before she appears and she keeps the viewer waiting.Her problems with French vocabulary would surface again, as she made her way through the thirties ,culminating in Richebé 's "l'habit vert" .(1937)

The play/movie features some good moments:

• the hypocondriac banker the doctor sends to the country , Saumur town ,where his wife lives with her lover (the naive man does not even know he's a cuckold)

-the banker turned composer who writes a horrible opera ,the libretto of which takes place in colonial times India ,: the rehearsal ,with harshing voices and some tunes borrowed from the French folk songs , and involving the amateur household, is riotously funny.

-The conversation between husband,wife,and lover , where they have nothing to talk about but the weather ("the weather is fine" "but it's cold and it 's gonna last");the same scene will return when playful cousin is gone.

WhIch makes this "théâtre de boulevard" almost sound bittersweet as for its ending:the menage à trois resumes his humdrum life ,and the cousin of Warsaw realizes that,although an attractive woman, she's been used as a tool and maybe true love will never come her way.