Autour du corsaire
Bruno Esquirol
1995 - 28 min - Betacam SP - Noir & Blanc - France

This documentary is about a specific period of time - the beginning of the World War II - and the films of that period seen through the history of Marc Allegret's unfinished film "Le Corsaire", shot at the Victorine studios in Nice, in 1939.
The purpose of this documentary has been to make the existing sequences consistent - none had been edited at the time - with the story of the film. In fact, only a part of the film had been shot and appeared as an heterogeneous mixture of images. They have become interesting in a documentary because of the period of time and because of their history.
By searching the film events in 1939, it was possible to put the film back in perspective : Charles Boyer coming back to France, the discovery of new talents such as Louis Jourdan, the success of Marcel Achard's play... In brief, what would have made the film a success if the war had not occured. And the pictures by Raymond Voinquel, the photographer who was on the set, contributed to give an idea of the shooting of the film until it was definitely stopped in September 1939.