"Fortuitously coinciding with the rise of the New Wave, this delightful comedy in a sense both climaxes and satirizes the French cinema up to that point, and it's literally made for film buffs. A director and his writer try to concoct a boy-meets-girl script with a Bastille Day background, and their trial and error efforts make up the film. Director Julien Duvivier [Poil de Carotte] pokes fun not only at his own earlier works, but also those of Marcel Carne, Vittorio de Sica and others, as well as the stylistic excesses of film noir. Even Georges Auric's score is occasionally self-satirizing. A thoroughly delightful romp that is [now rarely] seen, thanks to the American remake Paris When It Sizzles." William K. Everson

• Directed by Julien Duvivier. Written by Henri Jeanson and Duvivier. Photographed by Roger Hubert. Music by Georges Auric. With Dany Robin, Hildegarde Neff, Michel Auclair, Michel Roux. (1953, 105 mins, In French with English titles, Print from W.K.E.)