Pearls of the Crown (1937)

History may be written by the victors, but it is only the best writers who make it fun.

"Pearls of the Crown" starts with Jean Martin(Sacha Guitry, who also co-wrote and directed) in the process of telling his wife Francoise(Jacqueline Delubac) about seven pearls and their history. At the same time, the story is being told in Rome and London. The action opens in 1518 with the almost simultaneous births of the French Dauphin and Catherine de Medici, the latter of whom is almost immediately orphaned after her birth, leaving her in the care of her uncle, Pope Clement VII(Ermete Zacconi), who not wanting to have anything to do with a baby, sends her to the care of a monastery. Eight years later, the Dauphin's father, King Francis I of France(Sacha Guitry) thinks it is about time he should get married and arranges a marriage for him with Catherine de Medici. As time goes on, Clement notices her handlers taking an interest in her, so he promotes one to Cardinal(I'll behave myself for once and not say anything) while sending the other on a quest for perfect pearls... ...and that's not the half of it as the second part of the movie consists of a mystery after Martin's story has been concluded. Overall, the effect of watching "Pearls of the Crown" is sort of like having 400 years of European history directly downloaded into your brain, albeit in a totally delightful fashion.(Oh where have you been films of Sacha Guitry all my filmgoing life?) All of which feels fresh, even with Tudor England having been done to death recently. But then I do not really think it is history that Guitry is after but romance and how it has played out over the centuries from the ruling class(including Abyssynia) to the poor.