Donnez-moi ma chance

Michèle Mercier played a supporting part in the good film noir "Retour De Manivelle";in this film ,she is the star,and displays lots of qualities,a spontaneity and plenty of go,qualities which did not emerge in the late sixties,when she tried her luck at comedies.

After the cast and credits,we are warned: the way to stardom is the rocky road,lots of girls want to become stars of the silver screen,the story you are about to see is about one of those girls and it's inspired by a true story,so pay attention ,blah blah blah...

Leonide Moguy is not much of a director ("Je T'Attendrai aka "Le Deserteur " is his strongest work ,available on DVD );although a bit old -fashioned,and with a reactionary macho ending at that,"Donnez-Moi " still retains a certain passé charm;Mercier is a good lovely lead;the cast includes excellent supporting actors,particularly the inevitable Noel Roquevert as a demanding dramatic art teacher,Ivan Desny as the villain,and mainly Roger Coggio ,who in real life was a drama lover and plays here a director/actor who stages "Hamlet";he remained one of the luminaries of the French theater till his death in 2001;Corinne Marchand ("Cleo De 5 A 7") briefly appears as a starlet,who meets Nicole when she arrives for her audition and has less-than -encouraging-words.

The rest of Mercier's career was rather sad :in 1966 ,she came third actress at the French box-office (after BB and Jeanne Moreau),thanks to the huge success of "Angelique Marquise Des Anges";by 1970,her career was virtually over ;her marquise had killed her.Her Italian career in the early sixties -more than Truffaut's overpraised "Tirez Sur Le Pianiste"-proved that she could do more than a heroine in a watered-down version of Anne And Serge Golon 's absorbing historical novels.

Before being a french director dealing with social problems, Leonide Moguy was a famous russian editor. In France, he became a script advisor and a talent scout (from Michèle Morgan to Michèle Mercier, even Ava Gardner in Usa). His talent scouting was related in cinema newspaper since the 30's and many beautiful young girls dreamed to be the new Danièle Darrieux or Brigitte Bardot, waiting down his flat in Paris. And "Donnez-moi ma chance" is the true story of one of these girls, running away from home and grabbing suspicious opportunities from vicious sexual predators. The editing skills of Leonide Moguy are effective in the scenes with these predators. Moguy appears as the fine director Guymo who has a sane professional eye on the young starlet. And lot of fine other young starlets, we can trust in Moguy's talent : the lovely smiling Danik Pattisson, Nadine Tallier, Françoise Brion, Marie-José Nat, Corinne Marchand and many more. And of course a very young and fresh Michèle Mercier in her second movie as the young starlet.

Leonide Moguy was a sincere director, sensitive with social problems : young prostitution, bachelor mothers, sexual education, reform schools... predating André Cayatte. Eric-Antoine Lebon wrote "un citoyen du monde au pays du cinéma" ("a world citizen in the country of cinema"), a book very well documented about Leonide Moguy, with help from Leonide's daughter Katia who provided him very fine pictures and more.

In "Django Unchained", Dennis Christopher plays the character Leonide Moguy, di Caprio's lawyer. Tarantino discovered and admired "Je t'attendrai", the best movie by Moguy.

Two basic virtues define this creation of Leonide Moguy.

The first is the young Michèle Mercier, seductive and credible in the role of young woman desiring build her career in cinema.

The second is the story itself, about illusions , sexual predators, enthusiasm and presumed compromises .

In same measure, the end is just lovely and in some measure, just ironic.

It is a precise - nuanced exploration of a story containing many other personal stories of girls attracted as butterflies by the light of film industry. And that is the real source of beauty of film, in the veils of a sort of nostalgia.