Would-Be Gentleman [Le bourgeois gentilhomme] (Collection of 19 original color transparencies from the 1958 film)

Paris: Comedie-Francaise, 1958. Collection of 19 original studio still color transparencies from the 1958 French film, here under the original French title. Starring actors Meyer, Seigner, Marie Sabouret, and Micheline Boudet figure prominently in the images, in lavish period costumes. A few have cropping annotations either on the glassine sleeve or on an affixed glassine slip. Laid in is a signed typescript letter from "Y. Guillot" addressed to Gay Lussac at Cinedis, the film's distribution company, and dated 1960. Guillot was "Le Chef du Service des Editions," and he thanks Lussac for sending him "ektachromes" from the film, promising to include images (truncated) in upcoming issues of his publication. Housed in an original French Crumiere paper photo box, with annotations in manuscript ink and pencil on the lid.

Based on Moliere's 1670 five-act play, "Le Bourgeois gentilhomme," about social climbing and the bourgeois personality. Seigner plays Jourdain, middle-aged and aspiring to aristocracy. He learns fencing, dancing, music and philosophy, constantly making a fool of himself. The second adaptation of Moliere's play, after Humberto Gómez Landero's "El gran Makakikus (1944), and preceding Roger Coggio's "Le bourgeois gentilhomme" (1982).

18 transparencies 3.25 x 4.5 inches, 1 two-frame transparency 2.25 x 4.75 inches. Near Fine, glassine sleeves with light soil. Letter Very Good plus, folded twice. Box Very Good overall. (Inventory #: 143902)