Autant en emporte le vent - Gone with the Wind

« Marion Hilaire, Première Rouge Gone with the Wind Gone with the Wind presents an overly idealized vision of the South? Yes.

And then, the South is a character in its own right in the film, perhaps he even shares the first place with Scarlett.

After all, Gone with the Wind is the story of the fall of the South, the death of a civilization.

Showing its splendor (exaggerated) at the beginning of the film allows, by a cruel reversal, to better feel the drama constituted by its disappearance.

That was the goal, and it has been achieved. The picture drawn in the first minutes of the film is frankly idyllic, even dreamed.

The splendid landscapes, people guided by the sense of honor, slaves happy to be slaves and rich devoted and friendly owners: it smells like a scam somewhere.

But this film is neither the first nor the last to make the apology of the South, and if we reproach it, then it must also be blamed on the other Southern filmmakers, John Ford, Raoul Walsh or Clint Eastwood. Scarlett and Rhett are two unbearable characters? Certainly, but here too, it is intended. After all, what does this film tell? How a young woman takes 3h30 (which corresponds to years), going through her share of personal and national disasters, before understanding what her father tells her at the very beginning: "It will come to you, this love of the earth.

It's inevitable, with your Irish blood." Gone with the Wind, it is the story of an unbearable teenager that events will torture until she definitively leaves her teenage crisis and becomes a responsible adult.

Scarlett is strong, certainly, but she is also abhorrent (the way she steals her sister's fiancé is a great example).

For a moment, towards the middle of the film, when she returns to Tara, one might think she has changed; she works with her hands and seems to have acquired a love of the land.

But no, more will be needed. And Rhett? It's simple, I love it.

I love his cynicism.

His lines are flaring and he knows how to hurt when he has to.

But he is perhaps the only character with clairvoyance, his dialogues are superbly written and he is a complex character, who never leaves his ambiguity. Melanie and Ashley look like two plagues? Yes, and it's made for there too.

The film centers on the main couple (who are only together for a short time, by the way).

The Wilkes couple serves a bit of a showman, their blandness serves to highlight the flamboyance of Scarlett and Rhett.

Their appearance as a model couple, loving and faithful, also serves as a contrast to the shameful escapades of the two main characters. But make no mistake: Ashley and Melanie are two real characters.

Here too, we must rely on their dialogues, for example.

Ashley has a rather ambiguous behavior towards Scarlett, and Melanie, by her silence, seems to accept the attraction of her husband. I do not hide that I am very sensitive to the charm of this film.

His treatment of colors, his framing, his play of shadows and lights, and even his caricatural characters.

The cult scenes follow one another.

With, of course, in mind, those taking place in Atlanta. Atlanta marked by death: wounded soldiers lying on the ground, Scarlett lost in the middle of. »