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嚴禁咀對咀
Not on the Lip (Pas Sur La Bouche)
改編自1925年荒誕搞笑的法國同名歌劇的《嚴禁咀對咀》，去年12月3日在法國300多間戲院上映，首周開畫即以約124萬美元（約967萬港元）收入穩佔電影票房榜第5位，表現絕不比同期的《愛情差錯腳》及《特警雄風》等荷李活大製作遜色。
本片也被選為今年3月在英美兩地舉行的法國電影節參展電影，並分別安排在美國及英國部份城市公映。本片同時獲今年香港國際電影節主辦單位選為閉幕電影。
而在今年2月舉行、有「法國奧斯卡」之稱的凱撒電影頒獎禮，《嚴禁咀對咀》獲得九項提名，當中包括最佳電影及最佳導演，而最終此片共奪最佳男配角、最佳服裝設計及最佳音響三項大獎。
故事大綱
《嚴禁咀對咀》的故事背景發生在第一次世界大戰後不久的20年代的法國。姬爾比迪（莎冰艾絲瑪飾）年前在美國下嫁商人艾力湯遜（林拔韋遜飾），可惜婚姻最終在半年後以離婚收場，然而原來這段婚姻從未獲法國政府批准，因此在法國並沒有法律效力。
回到法國巴黎後，姬爾比迪認識了成功的企業家喬治斯（皮亞阿迪堤飾），並與對方結婚，但喬治斯原來是一個極嚴謹的人，他要求其妻子必須冰清玉潔，全心全意忠於他，而他當然對妻子以往曾結婚的事懵然不知，唯一知道這個秘密的就只有姬爾比迪的姊妹艾莉（伊莎貝藍蒂飾）。
最讓姬爾比迪擔心的事情終於來臨，喬治斯竟然與艾力成為生意上的夥伴，而且艾力更來到姬爾比迪的家中作客，究竟極度倉皇的姬爾比迪最終能否化險為夷呢？另一方面，青春少艾的胡歌迪（柯德莉塔圖飾）又十分傾慕一直心儀姬爾比迪的藝術家查尼（查爾萊斯柏特飾），令片中的男女關係更加錯綜複雜。
製作花絮
電影大師趨向主流
亞倫雷奈的電影結合了文學與藝術，其執導的不少電影都是取材自文學作品，他擅長把文字轉化為影像，但不同於一般改編既有的文學作品，而是廣邀新堀起的小說作家為他編寫劇本，如Maugerite Duras（《情人》原作者）的《廣島之戀》及Alain Robbe-Grillet所創作的《去年在馬倫巴》，都是循此一模式結合，雷奈在這些作品中都流露了強烈的個人風格，經由他巧手匠心的安排，使得電影不再只是單純詮釋文學，而是可以把小說的意境如詩般展現於觀眾眼前。
而過去20年（自1986年的《Melo》開始），亞倫雷奈的作品與舞台的關係愈見明顯，他的作品如《Melo》及《吸煙╱不吸煙》等都是改編自舞台劇，他上一部作品《老調重彈》更是一齣走輕鬆格調的大眾化音樂劇，今次他在《嚴禁咀對咀》中又再一次要演員引吭高歌。
演員們充滿能量的演出、活潑輕快的音樂和輝煌奢華的場景，統統都是讓觀眾陶醉其中的元素，以往曲高和寡的雷奈似乎已逐漸走向主流。
無心插柳發掘經典
雖然亞倫雷奈早有向舞台取經的前科，但今次他決定把1925年的輕歌劇改編成現在的《嚴禁咀對咀》，卻並非早有預謀的計劃。2002年7月，他與其監製比斯利（Bruno Pesery）意會到原本籌備當中的電影阻滯重重，拍攝場地及演員檔期都出現問題，開拍時間非延遲至少一年不可。二人急謀對策期間，雷奈忽發奇想，他談起他後悔有很多電影及戲劇都未看過，尤其希望對二、三十年代法國輕歌劇有更多了解。3日後，比斯利從圖書館借來這類歌劇的劇本，雷奈從10多個劇本中發現《嚴禁咀對咀》的原著歌劇劇本，他被當中的瘋狂及荒誕所打動，並被其遣詞用字及歌詞的語調迷住。
雷奈憶述當時的情況說：「我與比斯利通電話，他也是剛剛看完這個劇本，他與我都有同感。我立即找來《老調重彈》的拍檔Bruno Fortaine，他一邊用鋼琴彈奏音樂，一邊唱出歌劇的歌曲，我發現這是一個充滿活力和歡樂的作品，我們需要做的就是立即投入工作。」
雷奈希望盡量忠於原著，他只是輕微地把部份歌曲縮短，他又把片中一些對話節奏略為收緊，令情節更順暢，但他避免有違劇中語言的節奏及語調，因此並沒有改動原著任何一個字。雷奈說：「其實劇中大約有15個用詞已經不合時宜，現在不會再用，但原著劇本實在太精確，如果我硬要以一些現代的用語代替，反而會畫蛇添足。」為了不失節奏，雷奈又決定給予演員們一個挑戰，他們說話與唱歌之間不會切換鏡頭，雷奈刻意用一個鏡頭完成整個過程，以達到一氣呵成的感覺。
原著歌劇大受歡迎
《嚴禁咀對咀》是改編自法國歌劇大師及著名作曲家Maurice Yvain與傑出的劇作家Andre Barde合力創作的同名歌劇，原來這個歌劇是二人首度合作的成果。1920年Maurice Yvain開始與當時最有才華的作詞人Albert Willemetz撰寫歌劇，二人筆下創作出多個大受歡迎的作品。而在第一次世界大戰前已開始撰寫歌劇劇本的Andre Barde，在大戰期間也寫出很多出色及喜劇感強的音樂劇而享譽法國歌劇界。
直至1925年，Andre Barde撰寫了《嚴禁咀對咀》的劇本，Maurice Yvain看過後也大為欣賞，二人一拍即合，並得到歌劇院的負責人大力支持，找來當時最有實力的一流演員演出，又提供一隊17人的管弦樂團（以當年以言是很大規模），結果劇目正式演出後取得空前成功，而且公映接近兩年都仍然全院滿座。隨著這個充滿歡樂的歌劇好評如潮，Maurice Yvain及Andre Barde開始展開漫長的合作關係，他倆之後還創作了多個膾炙人口的歌劇，而期間Maurice Yvain也為其他戲劇創作了無數歌曲，以及為不少電影擔任配樂工作。
演員苦練歌藝猛進
雷奈接受訪問時曾說過：「我在歌劇院中最大的快樂是可以欣賞到演員在唱歌，而不是歌手在演戲。」因此今次在《嚴禁咀對咀》中，雷奈不想再像上次《老調重彈》般用幕後代唱，他要求演員除了演戲外，還要負責歌唱部份，對他們而言，這委實是一個艱巨的任務，因為除了林拔韋遜精於歌唱外，其餘演員都不諳此道。
而要令他們在短時間內歌藝突飛猛進，自然就是為本片編曲及配樂的Bruno Fortaine的首要工作。
Fortaine對林拔的歌唱根底十分清楚，但其餘大部份主要演員則沒有唱歌的經驗，故他須花三至四節聲樂堂時間了解及評估眾人在歌唱方面的能力，而最終的目標是令他們可達致一樣的水平。開始時大家都心存障礙，認為自己不懂唱歌，不敢放膽高歌，於是Fortaine循循善誘，說服他們釋放自己，漸漸地眾人發現唱歌的樂趣。之後演員們安排跟隨歌唱專家練習技巧，他們要被訓練成唱歌的聲音跟說話的聲音一樣自然，而最終的成果讓眾人都驚喜萬分。
同時Fortaine也根據各人的音域制定音調，但他編曲時刻意提高難度，好讓大家發現到自己進步神速。其後他開始為管弦樂團錄音，音樂準備就緒後，演員們就是盡展所長的時候，每8至10日他們就會錄音2日，而過程也相當順利，電影未開拍前眾人已完成20首歌曲的錄音工作。由於他們都是首次唱歌，所以他們也驚訝自己竟然能完成不可能的任務。而且一班演員日夕相對互相勉勵，在未開鏡前他們已緊緊融合一起，這是其他電影很少出現的情況。
重新編排經典復活
當初雷奈找Fortaine為他彈奏《Pas Sur La Bouche》原著歌劇的歌曲時，Fortaine已經被歌劇的配樂深深迷住，但事實上他對這個歌劇卻一無所知，所以雷奈邀請他為本片配樂時，可算是其一項挑戰。
由於本片主要會沿用原著歌劇由Maurice Yvain創作的配樂，因此負責改編樂曲及加入新音樂部份的Fortaine，首先要對原著加深認識，然而當年的錄音質素相當差，他只能聽到低沉的聲音，而背後的樂器演奏也雜亂無章，Fortaine遂在忠於原著音樂精神的基礎下，以自己的眼光去把其復活過來。他選擇起用一組相對人數較少、由14音樂家組成的管弦樂隊，務求使樂團中不同的樂音都能完全展現。
而電影拍攝完畢後，Fortaine就開始為原著配樂著手工作，雷奈不想失去歌曲之間的音樂性，讓觀眾等待下一首歌曲來臨，因此 Fortaine決定以斷斷續續的音樂貫穿整部電影，令全片更有音樂感。Fortaine又決定在音樂上強調各個角色的獨白，由於原著對白已很像歌詞，而且充滿節奏感，所以他建議在演員獨白時加入撥弦古鋼琴作伴奏，以填補當中的空隙及給予嶄新的刺激。
此外，雷奈又請求Fortaine編寫電影感強的音樂，例如在艾力湯遜（林拔韋遜飾）來到女主角家中作客，姬爾比迪（莎冰艾絲瑪飾）不知如何處理兩位丈夫碰面時突顯戲劇效果，而且雷奈又希望聲效盡可能更有風格，所以Fortaine與音響剪接師Gerard Hardy緊密合作，因此片中一部份的聲效是Hardy製作的特別效果，其他的則是音樂效果。
台前幕後合作純熟
1980年皮亞艾迪堤首次參與亞倫雷奈執導的電影《My American Uncle》後，二人便結下不解緣，而自1983年開始，雷奈、皮亞及加入莎冰艾絲瑪而組成的鐵三角，一直合作至今，他們先後拍出《生死戀》、《吸煙╱不吸煙》及《老調重彈》等佳作，多年來合作無間，本片已是三人第6部合作的電影。而多才多藝的林拔韋遜也在1997年的《老調重彈》中與雷奈合作過。雖然柯德莉塔圖與伊莎貝藍蒂以往未曾參演過雷奈執導的電影，但二人在2001年一起演出的大熱作品《天使愛美麗》中配合得天衣無縫。
而為本片負責音樂編排的Bruno Fortaine，過去也曾與林拔韋遜在兩個音樂劇中合作，雷奈拍攝《老調重彈》時，就是林拔介紹Fortaine與雷奈認識，二人一拍即合，雷奈邀請Fortaine為《老》片配樂。由此可見，本片的台前幕後默契十足，合作可謂駕輕就熟。
陣容簡介
演員
莎冰艾絲瑪Sabine Azema
1949年在巴黎出生的莎冰艾絲瑪，是法國影壇有數的演技派女星。70年代已展開演藝生涯的她，台上台下都是亞倫雷奈的最佳拍檔，她主演過雷奈多部作品包括《生死戀》、《吸煙╱不吸煙》及《老調重彈》外，現實中她同時也是雷奈的伴侶。
戲路甚廣的莎賓是法國奧斯卡的常客，她先後7度提名凱撒電影獎，並於1985及1987年分別以《鄉間的一個周日》及雷奈執導的《Melo》兩度榮膺影后。莎賓參演過的名作還包括與奧利華馬天尼斯（Olivier Martinez）合作的《慾望街情人》。
柯德莉塔圖Audrey Tautou
現年25歲的柯德莉塔圖，1996年開始投身演藝事業，充滿喜劇細胞、樣子甜美可愛的她，1999年便以《Venus Beauty Institute》榮膺法國凱撒電影頒獎禮最有前途女演員，2001年她接拍由《妙不可言》及《童夢失魂夜》導演尚皮亞桑里（Jean Pierre Jeunet）執導的《天使愛美麗》，電影在全球叫好叫座，令她一躍成為國際知名的女星。柯德莉也憑此片提名英國電影大獎及歐洲電影大獎最佳女主角。
當時得令的柯德莉隨後主演了《神婆美少女》、《天使愛過界》等電影，2002年她又接拍了首部英語電影《天使夜驚情》。片約不斷的柯德莉完成本片後，去年夏天她再與尚皮亞桑里合作，拍攝新片《A Very Long Engagement》，電影安排今年10月在法國上映。
皮亞艾迪堤Pierre Arditi
今年12月便屆60歲的皮亞艾迪堤，從影30多年。早期皮亞多以演出電視劇為主，及後在80年代參與更多電影演出，並成為雷奈最愛起用的男演員。皮亞也憑主演雷奈的作品而揚威凱撒獎，1987年他以《Melo》獲最佳男配角，1994年再憑《吸煙╱不吸煙》榮登影帝寶座。
皮亞可算是一個多產的演員，他拍攝過的電視及電影作品超過一百部，其中包括與茱麗葉庇洛仙（Juliette Binoche）合作的《愛在天地蒼茫時》，他又曾為《魔戒三部曲》動畫的法文版配音。
導演
亞倫雷奈Alain Resnais
崛起於二十世紀中葉的法國導演亞倫雷奈，14歲已拍成首部八米厘短片，電影天份表露無遺。其後雷奈進入巴黎的電影學院進修，二次大戰後他正式展開電影生涯，當時他拍攝了多部短片及紀錄片，這段期間他也為其他導演負責攝影及剪接的工作。
雷奈早期的作品可以說是完美的代表，1959年他執導首部三十五米厘長片《廣島之戀》，即成電影史上的經典，其第二部作品《去年在馬倫巴》便讓他嚐到威尼斯影展最佳電影金獅獎的滋味。當然以他和杜魯福、高達等人為核心的「新浪潮」運動，對近代電影創作的影響更加是毋庸置疑。「新浪潮」興起原本在於挑戰前人擁有「法國品質」的國際美名但已流於僵化的舊電影，但其對當代影壇的影響豈只局限於法國。「新浪潮」標榜的「作者電影」概念從此通行世界，此後在各地電影發展較具創意者往往也被冠上「新浪潮」之名，這運動在影壇所代表的意義由此可見一斑。
作為法國新浪潮導演中的翹楚，雷奈的電影技法已達爐火純青境界，無論形式或觀念上，雷奈都掀起革命性及深遠的影嚮，他在其電影形式、技法、創意中，融入了他對人生、宇宙、社會的關懷，雷奈的電影結合了文學與藝術，以時間及空間的交錯互換作為基礎，把想像及現實共冶一爐，著重於內在心靈精神層面，而不受外在世界邏輯準則及時空觀念所羈絆。
雖然雷奈已年屆81歲，但他仍未言倦，近年還不斷推出新作，上一部作品、1997年的《老調重彈》更在法國凱撒電影頒獎禮奪得最佳電影、最佳男主角等七項大獎，可見雷奈在電影上的創意並未有減退。
| 演員： | ||
| 莎冰艾絲瑪（Sabine Azema） | 《老調重彈》 《生死戀》 《慾望街情人》 | |
| 柯德莉塔圖（Audrey Tautou） | 《天使愛美麗》 《天使夜驚情》 《天使愛過界》 | |
| 伊莎貝藍蒂（Isabelle Nanty） | 《天使愛美麗》 | |
| 皮亞艾迪堤（Pierre Arditi） | 《老調重彈》 《生死戀》 《愛在天地蒼茫時》 | |
| 林拔韋遜（Lambert Wilson） | 《老調重彈》 《廿二世紀殺人網絡》系列 《不羈的巴黎》 | |
| 導演： | ||
| 亞倫雷奈（Alain Resnais） | 《廣島之戀》 《去年在馬倫巴》 《老調重彈》 《生死戀》 |
| 上映日期： | 5月6日 | |
| 發行﹕ | 泛亞影業有限公司 | |
| 片長： | 118 分鐘 | |
| 級別： | I 級 | |
| 院線： | 百老匯電影中心 |
Pathé is proud to distribute
and Arena Films to present
a sound, talking and singing motion picture
with mesdemoiselles
Sabine Azéma
Isabelle Nanty
Audrey Tautou
and messieurs
Pierre Arditi
Darry Cowl
Jalil Lespert
Daniel Prévost
Lambert Wilson
in an operetta
by André Barde and Maurice Yvain
PAS SUR LA BOUCHE !
(Not on the Lips!)
SYNOPSIS
Gilberte Valandray married her first husband, an American called Eric Thomson, during a stay in the United States. The marriage was a failure.
But since the French consul never certified their wedding, it has no legal value in France.
On returning to Paris, Gilberte has married Georges Valandray, a rich metallurgist. Georges, who believes in marital bliss as long as a man is his wife's first and only husband, knows nothing about her marriage to Eric Thomson. Only Gilberte's sister, Arlette Poumaillac, still single, knows the secret.
But what would happen if, by pure chance, Georges Valandray were to start doing business with Eric Thomson and forged a friendship with him?
THE FIRST PERFORMANCE OF "PAS SUR LA BOUCHE !"
"André Bourdonneaux, alias André Barde, came to see me one day at Quinson's behest. I knew him by name only. A number of his operettas, written in collaboration with the composer Charles Cuvillier, had met with success, notably La reine joyeuse, Son petit frère and Afgar. (…)
Quinson sent him round with the libretto for a musical, Pas sur la bouche. As usual, our intrusive director had "meddled" with the story that Barde had brought him. It turned out that his changes were happy ones: the play pleased me instantly. I took my new colleague down to Antibes and we set to work. Since the programme of Quinson's theatres was full for the season, it was determined that our work would be performed at the Théatre des Nouveautés. The manager, Léon-Benoit Deutsch, son of an industrialist from northern France, didn't seem destined for the theatre at first sight yet displayed rare merit in this instance. He agreed to all our demands and provided us with a first-rate cast: Régine Flory, Jeanne Cheirel and Pierrette Madd. Régine Flory, formerly with the music halls and revues of London's West End, personified the kittenish woman, both on stage and in real life. Two eyes and a body to start you dreaming while wide-awake, she was the bête noire of all those wives whose husbands, out of professional duty, were part of her circle. A fully accomplished artiste, she could act, sing and dance admirably. The male stars were Koval and Robert Darthez. At the Olympia, I had heard a young singer from Marseille, Berval, give a very intelligent reading of La belote. I had the idea of launching his operetta career. I finally managed to track him down in Challes-les-Eaux where he was taking the waters (Oh, these singers!) and made him promise to join us. And then there was Pauline Carton who, in the intermittent role of a concierge, had the lion's share of the operetta's success.
On a more personal level, Léon-Benoit Deutsch provided me with an orchestra of seventeen musicians - a large one for the time - after originally offering me five because of the cramped orchestra pit. He sacrificed a row of seats to extend it.
The noble gesture of an enterprising manager!
The rehearsals for the play went briskly. We were all confident in the outcome. Quinson, absent from rehearsals, viewed the dress rehearsal from the depths of a box. That is usually the worst rehearsal: the performers are tired, they are eager for contact with the audience, they don't "give" everything they have. At the end of the evening, Quinson, who had remained silent up until that point, made a very theatrical exit, slammed the door and declared:
"I don't feel the wind of success."
After a month of sold-out performances, he corrected his error in judgement by calling Léon-Benoit Deutsch, his associate, to demand his share of the profits.
The press was enthusiastic about the performers but moderate in its praise of the libretto, wrongly in my view for I still consider Pas sur la bouche to be the first example of a musical comedy. The critics were delighted to see me return to my first loves, notably Emile Vuillermoz who wrote:
"This comedy which, I repeat, cannot be summed up without betraying it, has been handled musically by Mr Yvain in a perfect style. Renouncing all misplaced ambition, the composer has given us lively, clear, rhythmical and beautifully prosodic pages, all accentuated with taste and finely orchestrated. I need say no more about this extremely successful score because, from tonight on, you will be hearing played by every small orchestra in Paris."
Coming from the prince of musical critics, that was high praise indeed."
Taken from "Ma belle opérette" by Maurice Yvain
With the kind permission of Les Editions de la Table Ronde.
Maurice Yvain (1891-1965)
Son of a trumpet player at the Comic Opera, Maurice Yvain established himself in his adolescent years as a pianist, accompanist and exceptional improviser, both in the classical repertoire and in cabaret, where he began his career.
Maurice Chevalier, with whom he did his military service during the First World War, taught him about fashionable rhythms, introduced him to Mistinguett and eased his way into the world of the music hall. In 1920, Maurice Yvain met Albert Willemetz, the most talented lyricist of the day: their collaboration brought Mistinguett her biggest popular hits with Mon homme and En douce, both written for the spectacular revues at the Casino de Paris, then a first operetta Ta bouche - whose libretto was also signed by Yves Mirande for the spoken scenes - first performed at the Théatre Daunou in 1922.
Until the Second World War, operettas and musical comedies followed one another at a rate of one or two each year while Maurice Yvain continued to compose numerous songs for revues as well as film scores (La Belle Equipe, L'Assassin habite au 21…).
André Barde (1874-1945)
André Barde began working as a librettist before the First World War, notably with Charles Cuvillier who wrote operettas in the style of the future musical comedies of the interwar period: Afgar ou les loisirs andalous (1909), Les Muscadins (1910), La Reine s'amuse (1912), Florabella (1921), Nonette (1922), Bob et moi (1924).
Maurice Yvain, who referred to him as "one of the last decadent poets of Montmartre", was won over by the libretto of Pas sur la bouche ! that Barde brought him. The operetta was a resounding success and played to full houses for almost two years.
Pas sur la bouche ! marked the start of a lengthy partnership between Maurice Yvain and André Barde that continued with Bouche à bouche (1925), Un bon garcon (1926), Elle est à vous (1929), Kadubec (1929), Pépé (1930), Encore 50 centimes (1931), Oh ! Papa (1933) and Vacances (1934).
Having become a leading librettist, on a par with Mirande ou Willemetz, he also worked with Raoul Moretti and Henri Christiné.
Interview with Alain Resnais
How did you get the idea of a big-screen adaptation of Pas sur la bouche !, the operetta by André Barde and Maurice Yvain that was first performed in 1925?
In July 2002, my producer Bruno Pesery and I realized that we had to postpone by at least one year the shooting of a film for which Michel Le Bris had written the screenplay. We had come up against the eternal problems of location shooting that require the schedule to fit in with the duration of the seasons and the actors' availability. In the course of our conversation, I spoke about the films or plays that I regretted never having seen, the operettas of the 20s and 30s that I wished I had known but the text of which had never even been published. Three days later, on my desk, I found the librettos for a dozen or so of these operettas that Bruno Pesery had found at the Arsenal Library in Paris. I started reading them. When I got to Pas sur la bouche !, I was struck by its madness and its musical development of the absurd. It's a very verbose text and the way it played with words, sounds and the repetition of vowel sounds intrigued me. Over the phone, Bruno Pesery, who had just read it too, reacted in a similar manner. I immediately called Bruno Fontaine, the composer without whom I would never have been able to make On connait la chanson. In the course of an afternoon, he sang and played the score on the piano for me. I discovered a lively and jubilant work. Yvain isn't a simple melodist, he displays genuine expertise in his writing. He knows how to use counterpoint and harmonic tricks. All we needed to do was to get to work.
Did you alter the text at all?
As I say jokingly, I'm opposed to cuts but all in favour of contractions. I shortened some of the songs slightly. I sacrificed four that seemed to slow down the action, in any case for a cinema audience that doesn't have the two intervals. I tightened up the dialogue here and there. But I didn't change a word. I didn't want to cheat with the rhythm and sounds of the theatrical language. As Cocteau said about one of his plays, "The least syllable counts. If an actor were to change one word, the whole piece would come undone." There were fifteen or so expressions that are no longer used today but Barde's writing is so precise that if I had replaced them with more up-to-date terms, the cure would have been worse than the disease.
Did the asides to the audience feature in the play?
André Barde had written a lot but I tripled or quadrupled the amount to establish a playful relationship with the audience.
All the actors sing in their own voices.
My great pleasure in musical theatre, be it on Broadway, in London or Paris, is to watch actors who sing and not singers who act. I wanted to see if it was possible to take French actors and avoid dubbing them. Lambert Wilson sings professionally, the others don't. They threw themselves into the game with delight. I told myself from the outset: too bad if it isn't perfect from a musical point of view as long as the voices are real. I prefer to have a little imperfection, with the actors moving naturally from song to speech and from speech to song.
Each transition between speech and song occurs within a shot.
I was particular keen never to use a cut to launch a song or to return to the dialogue. We always followed through, a particularly challenging thing for the actors on the set: they had to perform the scene, make sure that they were in synch with themselves for the song and then, once it was over, continue without losing the rhythm. This was, of course, even riskier when we were dealing with a trio, quartet and quintet or with the septet at the end of the second act.
The set, with its deep reds, mauves and greens is much darker that what we are used to seeing on stage for revivals of operettas from that period.
I didn't want the comical, squeaky-clean, perfect type of set that, in my opinion, can sink the text without revealing its frothiness. These characters who take their reasoning to absurd lengths, such as Valandray with all his crazy theories, seemed to me to have a fantastical side to them. We are close to the world of Lewis Carroll. In shooting the film, I had the impression that they were all ghosts haunting this townhouse in Neuilly, tirelessly repeating the same gestures night after night.
Taken from an interview with Francois Thomas
published in Positif
Alain Resnais - filmography
INTERVIEW WITH BRUNO FONTAINE
When Alain Resnais came to see me so that I could play the songs in Barde and Yvain's operetta on the piano for him, I fell in love with the score. I knew a few songs by Maurice Yvain but I knew nothing about Pas sur la bouche ! The incredible richness of its melodies was an eye-opener for me. Yvain's music has a rare form of energy that, in my opinion, could be felt in every stage of the film's production. Yvain was clearly a composer who was aware of the musical progress occurring in the USA, notably in jazz and, by 1925, he was imposing a more rhythmical and syncopated style on French operetta. It's an easily accessible style of music that instantly touches the listener but which blends simplicity with a great sense of the counterpoint. In addition to the quality of writing in André Barde's lyrics, I was struck by the fact that every one of the main eight characters has an important role to play.
The challenge was that none of the actors would be dubbed at any point in the film. Once the cast had been selected, I had three or four work sessions with each of the actors in order to estimate their vocal capacities. I was on familiar ground with Lambert Wilson: I had previously done two musical shows with him and he had introduced me to Resnais when the director was looking for an arranger for On connait la chanson. Daniel Prévost had worked in cabaret and had even recorded songs in his younger days as a cheeky kind of crooner. The other six actors had never sung before. Some of them knew how to play an instrument or read music but others didn't. Wherever they were starting from, the goal was to bring them all to the same point after a certain number of weeks of lessons. My first contact with each one of them was very touching: whether it was Pierre Arditi and Sabine Azéma or Jalil Lespert, Audrey Tautou, Isabelle Nanty and Darry Cowl, they had all built up a sort of barrier, swearing to God that they would never be able to sing. I tried to make them comfortable, playing a sort of game around the piano. My job was to convince them to liberate themselves. And, in no time at all, the virus of singing infected them. I saw them bloom as singers as they abandoned their final reserves one by one. As a result, I told Resnais that I felt I could produce a soundtrack with singing actors and that we wouldn't look ridiculous.
I then entrusted the actors to the coach Yann Molénat, who works at the Bastille Opera. We didn't want the voices to take on a period operetta hue but to remain as natural as possible. The actors had to sing in the same way as they talked, with a singing voice close to their spoken voice. They weren't simply singing melodies with lyrics but genuinely embodying their characters. I asked Yann to make sure that they would feel incredible pleasure at coming into the studio to sing. They all worked very hard, including the chorus of young women. The result is surprising yet, at the same time, perfectly natural: Resnais always chooses his actors for their resonance, for their way of articulating the words and communicating emotion with their voices.
Meanwhile, I started writing the arrangements and the orchestration. I only had the voice and piano score of the operetta. None of the original orchestration is extant. In the cylinder recordings from 1925, we hear a booming voice, with an instrumental mess behind it. I had to resuscitate it, remaining faithful to the spirit of the music while subjecting it to my own vision. I opted to use a small group of fourteen musicians, one per stand, in which virtually all the orchestra's tones would be represented. It's a very energetic style of music, music for the theatre, so therefore it needed a certain directness. I took into account each actor's range to establish the tonalities but, otherwise, wrote the arrangements as if they were professional singers. I could have been less daring on a harmonic level to make the actors' work easier but I preferred to put them in a situation where they would surprise themselves.
We recorded the twenty songs before shooting commenced. I started by recording the orchestra, that I conducted myself, then we moved on to the voices. The production company had rented the floor of a townhouse where Resnais was rehearsing the songs with the actors to work on their performance and his direction. Then, every eight or ten days, we would go to the studio for two days of recording. The actors' enthusiasm was communicative. There was an atmosphere of camaraderie and mutual emulation between them. The six "beginners" were very touching: when they recorded a passage rapidly and instinctively, they could hardly believe that what they had just done actually worked. And, simply because they were singing for the first time, they occasionally came out with surprising inflections.
As a result, the troupe was tightly knit before shooting began. When the actors gathered at the Arpajon studios for shooting, the ensemble already existed in a way that probably occurs rarely in the cinema. And, having spent weeks on their songs, the actors had integrated them completely, even on a physical level. That liberated them in their performance and they no longer needed to worry about the technical contingencies of singing.
After shooting was completed, I set to work on the original score. Resnais didn't want to lose the musicality between the songs and to put the audience in a position of waiting for the next song. The idea was to have snatches of music present throughout the film, more developed pieces or simple musical punctuation. Very early on, we decided to underline the characters' asides musically. In Yvain's work, the extreme sophistication of the group movements (quartet, quintet, septet…) is worthy of the great opera composers. And the dialogue is almost like lyrics, with an incredible sense of rhythm. I therefore suggested that a small harpsichord should accompany certain asides as in a Rossini recitative, whether to fill gaps, give fresh impetus or syncopate. I occasionally used Yvain's thematic material in my original music, transforming it or tweaking it. This allowed me to provide musical indications with very brief snatches or shreds of music. But I never revealed the theme of the coming songs and only reprised a melody once the characters had sung it. For other passages, Resnais asked me to write "film music", for instance to dramatize the arrival of Thomson (Lambert Wilson) at the Valandray home and the nervous attack of Gilberte (Sabine Azéma) who wonders how she is going to handle the confrontation of her two husbands. I occasionally allowed myself more dissonant incursions, in what I would call the "Resnais tone". And since Resnais wished to stylize the sounds as much as possible, I worked in close collaboration with Gérard Hardy, the sound editor. We shared the tasks: some sound effects are his while others are musical effects (a woodblock for a slap on Faradel's back when the others are trying to "dehiccup" him) or a blend of the two. Each time that a spotlight is turned on in the Mexican soirée scene, for instance, we hear a pizzicato of strings followed by an electric crackle. And when Faradel and Gilberte glide over the parquet floor with surprising leg movements, I underlined their ballet with the brush of sticks on cymbals: in that scene, Daniel Prévost and Sabine Azéma, are truly Fred and Adele Astaire.
Taken from an interview with Francois Thomas
published in Positif
Pas sur la bouche ! : a musical "à la parisienne"
The operettas of 1900 were sentimental, a touch patriotic and often outdated in their bourgeois or pastoral plots. Despite the talent of Franz Lehar or André Messager, they have retained an out-dated flavour that makes them difficult for modern audiences to stomach. After the First World War, a generation of writers and composers decided to put an end to this conventional style of operetta to create a different one. Their goal: a return to the insolent freshness of Offenbach and the first masters of the genre. This resulted in the musical "à la parisienne" - a caustic, extravagant and improper style of theatre that made fun of society and noble feelings to a foxtrot or tango beat.
The fashion was launched by the team of Henri Christiné and Albert Willemetz in Phi-Phi, whose first performance, scheduled for November 11, 1918, was "cancelled because for the Armistice". But the greatest exponent of this new spirit would be Maurice Yvain, simply because he had the experience and the high musical standards that his competitors lacked, causing Arthur Honegger, a regular at the Bouffes Parisiens to declare, "A finale by Yvain is as well constructed as a finale by Haydn. This modest musician is a master".
The Parisian musical doesn't have much in common with the American one, discovered by the French during the same decade. It wasn't a "spectacular" but rather a light comedy in the tradition of the "théatre du boulevard", full of deception and misunderstandings with characters eager to seek pleasure, cheat on and sleep with each other, while maintaining the facade of a proper bourgeois lifestyle.
The action takes place in art-deco apartments, on tennis courts, in seaside resorts and other places frequented by slightly cynical young people eager to forget the butchery of the Great War. The texts are often by Willemetz or Guitry and excellent playwrights who have now been forgotten such as Yves Mirande or André Barde.
The plot is studded with effective and relatively easy songs to sing. This style of operetta wasn't designed for lyrical voices but rather for music hall stars such as Dranem, Mistinguett, Chevalier, Raimu, Koval or Pauline Carton, who first played the concierge in Pas sur la bouche ! Even so, Maurice Yvain set particularly high standards with his astounding ensemble pieces for four, five or six voices, genuine conversations set to music.
A very Parisian creation, this style of musical, all the rage on the boulevards between 1920 and 1940, nonetheless has certain aspects in common with the shows performed on Broadway during the same period. The composers knew one another: Maurice Yvain was host to George Gershwin or Richard Rodgers in Paris. He rivals the former in piano improvisation. While classical operetta favoured the three-four time of the waltz, the musicals of the roaring twenties more willingly used the two-four time of ragtime or the foxtrot, fashionable rhythms into which Yvain tried to instil a little of "the perfume of Paris". He found recognition himself in America with the New York production of one of his works, Un bon garcon, adapted as Luckee Girl. The fascination with America was also apparent in the large number of American characters in the librettos (Thomson in Pas sur la bouche ! among others), an aspect rivalled only by the sheer abundance of Parisian references in American musicals.
The last great master of French operetta, Maurice Yvain is unjustly forgotten today, even though people continue to sing his songs. The rare revivals of his work have met with an enthusiastic reaction from often young audiences (Là Haut, at the Théatre des Célestins in Lyons during the 1996-1997 season) and his name is forever associated with the style that he created: the light-hearted comedy, frantically rhythmical, full of word games and immorality, the product of a period that was that of the music hall, Dada, Cocteau, the Groupe des Six and modern art. Pas sur la bouche ! remains the archetype of the musical à la parisienne, with its small cast, its brief theatrical scenes, its heroes that dream only of kissing, its swing numbers ("Je me suis laissé embouteiller"), its racy lines ("Par le trou de la serrure") and its breathtaking finales (the "Quai Malaquais" septet). In rediscovering this moment in the history of musical theatre, we realize that the operetta isn't there to flatter our habits but that it can surprise us while playing on situations, rhythm and language. It reminds us that the artistic spirit of the 20th century is not solely made up of dark dramas but also of fantasy and silliness.
Benoit Duteurtre, author of L'Opérette en France (published by Le Seuil)
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