The Grand Manoeuvre

France, 1913. A cavalry regiment arrives in a provincial town for manoeuvres. Lieutenant Armand has a reputation with women. He takes a bet with his friends: whichever woman's name is drawn in the town, he will have her within a month. The name drawn is Marie-Louise, a divorced woman from Paris who runs a milliner's shop. Armand begins the way he always does. But she sees through the game and falls in love anyway, and at some point he forgets about the bet. René Clair directs the French film; a hundred and six minutes, with Gérard Philipe as Armand and Michèle Morgan as Marie-Louise, and Brigitte Bardot in a small part. It was Clair's first film in colour. The whole town knows about the wager, which is where the comedy comes from, and the cruelty as well.