[The] romantic commerciality of Stavisky … is only emulsion deep. Like most of Resnais' previous films, this one is subtly deceptive….

Stavisky … succeeds magnificently (as I've already suggested) as commodity: as a romantic evocation of the lost worlds of the twenties and thirties, entre deux guerres, it clearly out-Gatsbies [Jack Clayton's film version of The Great Gatsby]….

[The] parallel with Gatsby extends deeper than their evident values as commodities in the film marketplace, for [Jorge] Semprun's script manages to catch some of the same mythic power which has made the novel a masterpiece (and which entirely eluded Jack Clayton's film). Stavisky, like his American cousin, is one of the last tycoons, the last of the grand self-made capitalist princes, building quite liveable castles in the air. But whereas Gatsby is only a vague homage to the old dream, Stavisky … gives us quite a precise analysis of its structure. (p...