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Reviews
Décembre (1973)
Somber December
A dark page of French history ;the Algeria war was a taboo subject till the early seventies with such work as "avoir 20 ans dans les Aurès" and "RAS"; "Décembre " was a different matter since it's a work from an Algerian director ;yet he used French actors such as Michel Auclair and Julien Guiomar .
The tortures are not shown ,but one hears awful screams ; the executions are not on the screen either but the view of two orphans who've just lost their mother speaks to the heart .
Colonel Saint-Méran has a crisis of conscience ;he tries to reason the prisoner, to tell him the benefits of the French civilization , and that ,without them,their country would be doomed or primitive ; he even offers him to collaborate and "he would become an important man if he listened to him" ; in desperation, he threatens to have 14 hostages shot one by one ;and even though he's just pretending and they will fire blanks , the other military officers do not share his views .
Halfway through , the director leaves the barracks and shows us what his country supposedly won with the French help
The French history is imposed upon the pupils ;the schoolteacher teaches them that in 732 AD Charles Martel stopped the Arabs who invaded the French kingdom. Their own culture is denied ,but the officer had warned his prisoner : thanks to the colonizers ,they can enjoy schools ,hospitals,roads , the wonders of modern science !The pieds-noirs (French colonials born in Algeria) seemingly kindly treat the natives but actually condescendingly : they do not sit at the table,they eat in the kitchen ; theAlgerian way of life is solely represented by a wedding ,which is tragically cut short by the soldiers.
Director Lakhdar Hamina's follow-up "chronique des années de braise" was awarded in Cannes , 1975.
Hallucinations sadiques (1969)
I must be seeing things
This is the kind of movie the foreign viewers make a cult of whereas the French,by and large ,do not bother ;Jean Rollin belongs to that tradition and ,so to speak ,can be looked upon as the master of the genre .
A recurrent feature of these flicks is to take a classic and vaguely imitates it ;such was the case of "la rose écorchée" (the blood rose) which was a "les yeux sans visages" rip off
"Hallucinations sadiques " takes a vague screenplay which bears more than a distant resemblance to Boileau-Narcejac's " celle qui n'était plus" (which spawned Clouzot's "les diaboliques" and countless remakes and imitations ; note that "hallucinations" is closer ,so to speak,to the novel)
The direction is extremely couldn't care less, the cast subpar ,to put it mildly :one can wonder why a highly talented actor such as Daniel Gélin who worked with Becker,Pabst, Guitry ,Duvivier ,even Hitchcock -"the man who knew too much (1956) got involved in that business ; a man as clever as him knew from the start he was starring in a bomb and chose to act like a zombie .The same goes for Michel Subor (who,coincidence ,also worked with Hitchcock in "topaz" ) who limits his part of a cop to a pointless wandering in the house
There's the well-known tale of the wife who should be here but is not ,and like Ophelia , her body floats on the river .Soft eroticism with a shotgun.
Une femme par jour (1949)
Harem-scarum
Prince Ali Bey maintains a harem of seven women. He loses at gambling and, unable to pay the debt, offers all these ladies as collateral to Guy de Kerentrec. At the instigation of his aunt, Guy was going to marry Sabine; she manages to get into the harem and make Guy love her.
The male lead ,Jacques Pills,was primarily a singer ,mainly known as one of Edith Piaf's husbands.
So the movie is essentially a musical and the songs are boring ,with the exception of "comme de bien entendu ", but one can prefere the earlier version performed by Arletty, Michel Simon and others in "circonstances atténuantes "(1939); the lyrics were changed and not for the best .
As for the movie,it's one of Boyer's most heavy-handed comedies ;the screenwriters desperately try to give a "thousand and one " touch to a poor tale by using the pages of a book imitating the arabic style: but the women of the harem are played by French actresses, and it's really hopeless .
Madame de Sévigné (2023)
Mother and daughter.
Viewers who expect a biopic will be fatally disappointed ; the movie focuses on an odd mother/daughter relationship ;freely based on Madame De Sévigné 's letters to her daughter Madame de Grignan, it's not very accessible ;the cinematography is splendid alternating luminous country landscapes and dark rooms lit by a feeble candle .But as an intimate drama, with a loose script, it could not expect to succeed commercially .
Since her birth madame de Sévigné was strongly attached to her baby ,at a time infant mortality was high and many high born ladies entrust their child to a nanny's care even if they were legitimate ones .
The film displays a sharp antagonism: the mother's firm independence of men ,( "she was a feminist before the women's lib "says Karine Viard who was enthused by the part of the marquise) contrasts with the daughter who followed her husband and who knew her place ;what did it matter if the man squandered the dowry ,spent a fortune and led the couple on the edge of bankrupcy ?
Madame de Sévigné was in love with her daughter,it was some kind of platonic incest ,and she was jealous of the husband ; she suffered when the beloved one would leave her to join her spouse ; her friend Madame de la Fayette (who wrote "la princesse de Clèves; the inspiration might have come from Sévigné ,some say )told her some home truths .
Other famous figures of the seventeenth century appear :the duc de la Rochefoucaud,and La Fontaine whose fables madame de Sévigné would adore (but she could never have her daughter share this literary passion)reads one of his works in a salon ;in the salons they would hold ,Madame De Sévigné's letters were read too .
Her most famous letters (particularly the one announcing the future marriage -which never occured -of the Sun king 's cousin La Grande Mademoiselle ) dealt with the Great Century and are a treasure for historians ( she was often nicknamed "the greatest gossip " ) ;but the woman director was not interested in these kind of letters; she chose to depict a mother/daughter relationship ;from that point of view ,her effort can be looked upon as a success.
Many letters are read in voice over as writing comes easy to the writer's quill.
Estambul 65 (1965)
From Istambul with love
Germany's answer to James Bond is not that much bad :handsome Horst Buchholz has plenty of go and of humor ; his acrobatics (hats off to the stuntman!) are impressive and makes you giddy .
Actually the secret agent is statuesque Sylva Koscina , but ,as the macho hero says to her while he locks her in the cupboard "it's a man job" ,and her role is boiled down to a decorative one ; French Perette Pradier ,herself a spy thriller habituée ("Furia à Bahia pour OSS 117""le judoka agent secret" "house of cards" )provides the obligatory second female "Bond" girl .....
There are several nods to OO7 : Istambul will remind you of "from Russia with love" ;the scrapyard of "Goldfinger" ;and the fight in the pool under water is pure "thunderball" ,though the latter movie was not yet released .
The cinematography is fine, the screenplay knows only one tempo :accelerated,and there's never a dull moment.
Buchholz and Koscina would team up again the following year in Yves Allégret's "Johnny Banco " but this once great director was only the ghost of himself and it was a fiasco.
Quelle sacrée soirée (1957)
What a night!
Jean Noblet, whose female successes are countless, is sent by his father to Paris to get down to work seriously under the tutelage of his uncle, a colonel who has retired and been sent to the Board of Directors of the Compagnie Mondiale des Pétroles, where Jean plans to start a career. During the trip, Jean, who presents himself as the chairman and CEO of the Company, meets Lola Wanda, director of a ballet company, and gets an appointment with her in her dressing room in Paris. In the same compartment, Prince Yucca, who reigns over vast oil territories and is eyeing Wanda, travels incognito.
A Julien Duvivier's assistant , Robert Vernay 's best efforts are his early forties movies,notably both versions of "le comte de Monte Cristo " ,the second one in color .The fifties ,it's downhill ...
"Quelle sacree soirée " begins with ponderous gags to show us that the hero (Jean Bretonnière , who sings "sous le ciel de Paris" in Duvivier's eponymous great movie:it remains his only claim to fame ) has more girlfriends than a movie star ; this cock and bull story of oil territories has nothing to recommend it : the young womanizer's uncle throws a society party and he's supposed to attend it ; but he hasn't got a tuxedo , what a problem !Even seasoned Noel Roquevert can't save something from the wreckage.
Bonheur en location (1949)
Happiness runs in the family.
Count Gerard is destitute, his coat of arms tarnished. A big deal should get him back on his feet, provided he presents a loving and united family around him. This is why Count Gerard, who does not appreciate family ties, puts together an assembly of entirely fictitious relatives...
He first chooses a daughter ,a student in the comedy of drama , who takes him as a fool first , but agrees to play the game ....followed by her father,her fiancé,her mother , and an unexpected son , not a fictitious relative this time,a youthful indiscretion....
As the count is broke, his servant has to expend a lot of effort to accomodate this would be family but he has more than one trick up his sleeve .
This is a pleasant little comedy ,written by the director and collaborator Jacques Companeez ; André Luguet and Denis Grey is a good pairing; not-so-handsome Jean Carmet serves as a foil to pretty boy Philippe Lemaire who vies with each other for the so called daughter -who is a big problem for the latter for she 's supposed to be his half-brother .
A "historical"prologue ,a la Guitry , tells us about the story of the Saint Aignan lineage ,whose biggest sin is not to be opportunist.
The ruined noble was a recurrent feature of the French movies ,in the forties and in the fifties :the best of the genre is "les affaires sont les affaires" ;"bonheur en location" (rented happiness) is a harmless little comedy ,but well acted and pleasant to watch.
Tumultes (1990)
Patrick
Bearing more than a distant resemblance to Robert Redford's critically -acclaimed "ordinary people" ,(1980)this movie deals with the loss of a child in a family , a boy whose death might be an accident (or a suicide)
Whereas Redford opted for the very famous (and peaceful) " Pachelbel Canon , here ,the movie begins,carries on and ends with heavenly choirs ,that shows a tendency to make the viewer feel he's going to watch (or has been watching) an "important " "meaningful" "deep" work. This is the movie's main weakness.
That is not to say "tumultes" is a forgettable movie; you cannot be wrong with Bruno Cremer who began his career with "tough men" characters and ,little by little, broached more intimate roles,with good results .He's excellent as a father who hides his feelings but tells there's nothing left from his only son ( his other children are girls) ;"there's God " the priest says to a faithless desperate father ;as for the mother,she verges on madness :she does believe her son's still alive, she demands he keep his place at the family table, she sends a letter to him .it's too bad that the twin sister of the departed should not be more developed ;the daughters are ,by and large,interesting characters ,though , and you won't understand the "Rosebud" trick of the movie (the name of the boat "Aniscla" )before the very end ; apart of Cremer ,the male parts are conventional and filler ,but this final revelation makes the movie deeply moving ,much more than the grandiloquent score supposed to enhance the sequences.
Quicksand (1950)
Jack for your hack.
"Drive a crooked trail" bears more than a distant resemblance to "quicksand" made four years after . In both movies ,Mickey Rooney is a mechanic, victim of a femme fatale (here Jane Cagney ,later Dianne Foster) ; his character takes naiveté to new limits ,and implausibilities abound; but the sudden new developments make the movie very entertaining ; the hostage , who happens to be a lawyer who will help the unfortunate boy to get back on the straight and narrow,takes the biscuit. But Peter Lorre as the villain, the hero's unfortunate attempts wich all backfire on him , which makes him get in deeper and deeper water (quicksand more like),it is a good roller coaster ride .Drive a crooked trail indeed.
Hélène (1936)
I am woman and I can!
Hélène Wilfur, a young girl of modest means, continues her studies at the University of Grenoble with a view to obtaining a doctorate in science, under the direction of a master whom she venerates, and whose research on the treatment of cancer is authoritative. , Professor Amboise.
Hélène has many work friends: Françoise, Marcel and the fun-loving "Durand Tout-Court". But his heart beats above all for Pierre Régnier, son of an old country doctor, who dreams of pursuing a musical career.
Jean -Benoit Levy produced a handful of movies which are too often overlooked , pedagogically interesting at best ;and yet "peau de pêche" "le coeur de Paris" "la mort du cygne " ,"altitude 2000"
are intriguing works , different from the thirties zeitgeist .
Like "la maternelle" ,it was co-directed by Jean Epstein's sister,Marie , which may explain the strong feminist side. Madeleine Renaud who starred in "la maternelle " and later would be a female aviator for Jean Grémillon ("le ciel est à vous" ) is ideally cast as a determined scientist (novelist Vicki Baum was perhaps inspired by Marie Curie ) in a macho world : "A woman's place is at home" " I'd rather have a male assistant" says professor Ambroise ,before realizing , long after his disdain, she's the most gifted student he has ever had ; in 1936 ,when women were relegated to the kitchen and to children caring ,it was daring .
On the other hand ,her squeeze,Pierre (Jean -Louis
Barrault ,Renaud's husband in real life)is frail , romantic, and he hates his medical studies ,dreaming of becoming a musician ;but his terminally-ill father needs him to replace him for his patients in his rural region .His fate is completely unexpected ,and a tad melodramatic, but the director completely eschew pathos,sentimentality and Hélène's attitude might seem cold ,heartless and selfish ;besides, the police 'investigation it's overkill .
But now Hélène can devote herself to her work ,an unwed mom,at that! She urges the professor to carry on with his research ,even though he has failed ,and probably often will in the future. If you're looking for the feminist movie in the French cinema of the thirties ,this is it!
Le roi de Paris (1995)
Larger than life.
The king of Paris, in this 1930 theater season, is the illustrious actor, Victor Derval. He reigns on the Boulevard. Established at the top of the bill for ten years, he has become one of the most courted figures in the Paris smart set. Derval has a son, Paul, who lives on the top floor of his mansion, under the attic. At 20 years old, the young man is a tortured soul who feels a mixture of fascination and contempt for his father he hardly knows.
This is essentially a showcase for Philippe Noiret , a monstre sacré of the silver screen ,portraying a thespian of a time when, as there was no TV ,stage (with a strong contender with the beginning of the talkies in the theaters ) made them the kings of Paris; in the thirties, Jules Berry, Sacha Guitry, Raimu ,Victor Francen, and Harry Baur would perform on stage as well ;but little by little, mainly after the coming of Jean Gabin, the most famous actors were mainly these of the seventh art
Victor Derval dominates the French scene ;his smugness, his pride know no bounds;surrounded by parasites and base flatterers , selfish and egocentric , he engulfes everything and everyone, including his son , a would be anarchist who does not disdain his dad's largesse and luxury though.
When Derval Sr woos a young actress and wants to be her pygmalion, Derval Jr covets her too ,and the press laughs behind their back and talks about a "ménage à trois"
Even after the tragedy ,the show must go on but when he performs with his new partner , much make-up does not conceal the aging face of an actor getting old (the close shots are revealing)The screenwriters avoid to lead the story into "a star is born " territory though.
Manuel Blanc (the son) is a talented actor who had just shone in Deray's "un crime" and is up to scratch opposite the legendary principal; this is the first of the two theatrically released works by former critic Dominique Maillet.
Dedicated to Max Ophuls.
Mon premier amour (1978)
Sons think that their mother is immortal.....
At 20, Richard takes care of his friends and girlfriends more than his mother, with whom he still lives. Divorced, Jane sometimes feels tired, very tired. She decides to carry out additional analyzes which reveal leukemia with no cure. Richard then devotes himself and finally everything to his mother...
Anouk Aimée ,who died yesterday, was never as beautiful (and livingly filmed) as in Chouraqui's debut ; she literally shines so brightly in this somber tale that it's sometimes hard to believe she's dying of leukemia;anyway, the dialogue eschews all the tricks of classic melodrama ; no tears, no rebellion against an unfair fate, all the sentences avoid death ,but use voices filled full of hidden meanings ;if you expect "love story" you'll be disappointed .
Anouk Aimée gets good support from Richard Berry as her distraught son ,whose relationship with her mother almost verges on platonic incest ; Jacques Villeret ,for once ,is not only used as a foil to the hero,but makes his scenes count; Gabriele Ferztti ,on the other hand , has a badly written part : the cliched aging bourgeois who left his wife -why he walked out on such an attractive woman remains a mystery,considering his atttitude .
On the negative side, Iintrusive syrupy music sometimes drowns the emotion out ; the bar mitzvah celebration is pure filler,and "la Traviata" makes the movie turgid and bombastic, thus mars an intimate delicate narrative .Douglas Sirk was able to handle that :see the funeral of "imitation of life" (1959). But it was too much for a director's debut
And to treat such a subject without falling into the trap of tear-jerker is quite a feat in itself ;in spite of its mediocre rating on imdb,it's a must for fans of the late Aimée.
Le roi des camelots (1951)
The gift of the gab
Robert unsuccessfully tries to earn his living as a rep for brushes . As he can no longer pay his rent, his concierge kicks him out. He steals a wallet but a street vendor forces him to return it and lectures him. Repentant, Robert becomes his friend. Thanks to his courage and his good feelings, he manages to get into a position, owns a car and a lot of money, which makes a neighborhood scoundrel and the daughter of his protector die of envy and jealousy. The girl refused once her love because he was poor.
When André Berthomieu and playwright/screenwriter
Paul Vanderberghe collaborate ,they sometimes come up with a pleasant little comedy."Gringalet "(1946) starring the great Charles Vanel ,bore this out .
"Le roi des camelots" is full of finer feelings , even mentioning the Holy Scripts ("turn the other cheek") and using the essay the cop's son has to write into a moralizing tale ; when Robert returns the money , which he has supposedly stolen , much to his students' surprise , it's another lesson in genrosity ; Robert Lamoureux is excellent as a street vendor and his gift of the gab ,dealing with feathers to sell ball-point pens ,is irresistible .He's less enjoyable as a stand-up comic on stage during the ball .
Jean Carmet ,who would appear later in Chabrol's films, already shows his talent and his stupefied look.
Le bal des voyous (1968)
Meet my brother .
Henri Verdier, a young bank manager, met Karine, a very beautiful model. Robert, who said he was Karine's brother, forced Karine to introduce Verdier to him. It is to offer him an urgent matter : 50 million contribution for a purchase of uranium which, within a few days, should bring in double the amount. Blinded by passion, Verdier accepts and "takes" the necessary sum from his bank. It doesn't take him long to realize that he has been fooled. Karine is not Robert's sister and he is a gangster. Verdier finds their trace...
"Le bal des voyou " is also known as "playmates",which is a more appropriate title since there are plenty of them ; the first thirty minutes look like a succession of TV commercials;afterwards , the hero's attitude takes naiveté to new limits and the poor script boils down the would be thriller to a simplistic gangsters' story ,with shoot-outs, free-for-alls and playmates .
Michel le Royer is the only real actor in this mess but he is totally wasted ,though he enjoys the only real hot scene of the movie.
It was Jean-Claude Dague's debut as a director. He made three other films before committing a heist to try to save his production company from bankruptcy. He spent eight years in prison, an experience which he reported in his book Le Dénommé which he then adapted for the cinema, with mixed results,to put it mildly.
Liberty Bar (1960)
Maigret's debut on French TV.....
.....when there was only one channel .......
Commissioner Maigret is sent to Antibes to elucidate the murder of William Brown, a rich Australian who regularly disappeared to indulge in tremendous drinking binges. Following in his footsteps, Maigret tours the bars until he discovers the Liberty Bar, its welcoming patroness La Grosse Jaja and its ambiguous clientele. This is undoubtedly where the key to the murder lies...
It was the first time Commissaire Maigret had appeared in a MTV work ,and would not be the last ; of course he was often portrayed on the silver screen before,notably by Jean Gabin.
Louis Arbessier,essentially a stage actor ,does a good job ,but the stand out is Mathilde Casadessus is the thankless part of an alcoholic fat woman with a heart condition,la grosse Jaja .
Françoise Hardy, la discrète (2016)
Si je m'en vais avant toi
A yeah-yeah girl was too pejorative a word to depict Françoise Hardy who has just died ;unlike the other French female pop girls, she wrote at least half of her material, her lyrics were far beyond those of her colleagues; besides,she was an icon , admired by English and American rock stars such as the Beatles, Jagger and Dylan ; the latter demanded the singer be in the theater when he performed in Paris 1966.
The doc focuses on the swinging sixties ;as Hardy ,like most of the songwriters ,could not write music ,she had to use a would be co-writer Roger Samyn to be in the SACEM (French body responsible for collecting and distributing music royalties).
For ,this is pivotal, Hardy ,unlike most of the pop stars of the first half of the sixties,did not do covers of English songs ;you can hear all her classics -but the depressing "mon amie la rose" - including one of her rare covers ,Adriano Celentano's grandiose "la maison où j'ai grandi."
She was a German student and thus could sing in this language ;ditto for English :too bad the doc does not include her original "all over the world" (dans le monde entier ) and opts for two Buffy Sainte-Marie songs ("until it's time for you to go" and "take my hand for a while ")
She was photographer Jean-Marie Périer's fiancée before her affair with singer Jacques Dutronc whom she eventually married and with whom she had a son ,who would become a singer like his parents ;both men appear in the doc .
At the end of the sixties ,she colaborated with singer/songwriter extraordinaire Serge Gainsbourg who wrote her latter sixties days biggest hit "comment te dire adieu ".
The early seventies were years in the wilderness (though it spawned one of her very best songs , the haunting "si je m'en vais avant toi" heard in the doc twice (the second time as a duet with Etienne Daho.)
IN 1973,her Michel Berger- produced "message personnel" brought her back to the charts ; then followed an experimental period she 's not very proud of ; in the eighties, the title of the doc (the discreet girl" ) was appropriate .Astrology became her raison d'être .
In the nineties,she was hailed by a new generation of singers such as Etienne Daho and even foreign ones :Eurythmics covered her international anthem "tous les garçons et les filles", Jimmy Somerville "comment te dire adieu" ,she made a special appearance on a Blur album.
In the naughties ,she became ill (lymphoma). In the last twenty years ,she showed resilience,courage and her magnificent adieu "tant de belles choses" .
The doc talks about her marriage to Dutronc ,and points out that,from "message personnel" onwards ,many of her songs were messages to him.
An interesting doc,but at a running time of 53 min,it's inevitably too short;Françoise deserves more.
The Groundstar Conspiracy (1972)
Second.
Sometimes unfairly called sub-Frankenheimer, "the groundstar conspiracy",even though he does not match stuff such as "seconds" or " the manchourian candidate" ,is a gripping story .Amnesia is a hackneyed sub-genre in the thrillers: George Peppard ,the tough guy of this movie, suffered from this mental disease in "the third day" (1965); but 'groundstar" in its own way, renews the genre for the hero,although being able to start over ,is denied his true identity till the very end and beyond .Michael Sarazzin is ideally cast as the frail chap (this kind of role fits him like a glove, like in "they shoot horses don't they?"IMHO his very best part );matching him every step of the way is Peppard 's portrayal of Tuxan , a diehard cruel investigator ;the best moment comes when the amnesic guy listens to the hush-hush tapes before the unexpected denouement. A good thriller,with a really threatening atmosphere .
La peau de l'ours (1957)
Hate women?
Jean Richard , later the most famous Commissaire Maigret on French TV portrays here his first commissaire (superintendent or captain) in this entertaining comedy , full of black humor.
Etienne Ledru, a superintendent, lives peacefully surrounded by his two children, Philippe and Juliette, his second wife, Anne-Marie, his mother-in-law and the maid Janine. But his happiness will be shattered when he discovers that he has been poisoned with arsenic and that the culprit can only be one of his loved ones...
It's not "arsenic and old lace" but if you give it a chance, you will spend a good moment;the colleague Noel Roquevert is true to form ,and his black humor is not really enjoyed by the victim; the
doctor gives a good piece of advice :"if you suffer from arsenic poisening ,stop taking it!"And one by one, the victim begins to suspect his son,his daughter, his wife who might(or might not) have a lover, even his maid and his mother-in-law ; slowly by inexorably sinking into paranoid , he spies on everyone, he does not want to share a meal with them at the table anymore but keeps food in a safe.
The film introduces future French star /producer Jacques Perrin and the boyish look he will keep along his long career ; spot another future legend , Jean -Pierre Cassel ,who appears in a single scene ; also features future stand-up comic Sophie Daumier, with a ponytail.
The denouement is lite Sacha Guitry ;it can't begin to touch the latter's genius ,but why deny yourself the pleasure to watch a little funny comedy?
Johnny Banco (1967)
You're not on
Yves Allégret was once a very good director :"manèges " ranks among the best French films noirs of all time ; "Dédée D'Anvers " "nez de cuir" " les orgueilleux" and "une si jolie petite plage " are fifties gems. In the sixties,all his talent had melt away .For instance ,his "germinal " did not do Zola justice .
A spoof on the gangsters movies of the sixties, its follow_up , "Johnny Banco", completely falls flat ; no Audiard is at hand to write lines which hit home ; the cast is absurd : in spîte of their undeniable talent , Horst Buchholz and Elisabeth Wiener are not comic thespians ;as for Sylva Koscina,she contents herself with changing wigs every five minutes. Poor screenplay.
Capitaine Ardant (1951)
An ardent fighter.
A forgotten director, André Zwobada made a handful of movies , often off the beaten track: "croisières sidérales" was one of the rare sci-fi French movies (using the general relativity ,but the lack of means often made it a laughing stock ) an interesting biography of poet Villon, and mainly his best effort ,"la septième porte" carpe diem "philosophical fable .
Both this movie and "les noces de sable" ,which transposed 'TrIstan and Isolde "to the desert,was a remake of sorts of "l'éternel retour" ,Cocteau being the narrator, take place in North Africa .
"Capitaine Ardant ,unfortunarely ,was a return to the thirties ,showing the benefits of the colonialism ,as far as one can judge by the screeplay:
Moroccan rebels are preparing to besiege the last French fortress which blocks their passage. They buy ammunition from Europeans. When their artillery is in place, they begin their work of destruction. But Captain Ardant managed to win over an undecided tribe to the French cause. He is helped by a young woman, widow of a French officer assassinated by an "European" bullet. Captain Ardant saves four times the life of a young Moroccan prince who wanted to kill him.
The Morrocan rebels even attack their own people , slaughtering and plundering ; the story lacks substance and looks like a comic book ; the dashing officer , handsome and fearless,(Yves Vincent)supported by legionnaire Jules who serves as a foil to him (Raymond Cordy) , the brave heroine (Renée Saint-Cyr ) and the perfidious temptress who tries to prevent the calife from helping the Legion :she even sat topless for a photograph which is handed around, even to be found in the captain's kepi .THe villains are botched ,being given a minimum time on the screen .
The director often filmed news,so it was only natural he shoots his work on location ; the best sequence is probably the wild dance of the rebels ,around a fire .
Bullet for a Badman (1964)
A not so bad badman.
The most interesting thing in this western made when it was slowly but inexorably an old-fashioned genre is the Logan /Sam relationship : the choice of the actors is quite relevant ;although only two years Murphy's senior , McGavin 's mature look sharply contrasts with the former's always boyish face ; another baffling thing: when the story begins, it looks like a follow-up to an imaginary prequel .
Although they became enemies , their relationship remains ambiguous and the very last sequence is revealing : in spite of what happened, friendship had survived ; the rest of the movie is more routine, but the borderline between good and bad is becoming blurred ,as far as the so-called lawmen are concerned .
Le dénommé (Oublie que tu es un homme) (1990)
Descent into hell.
The first sentence of the storyline is not accurate even though the retribution is disproportionate to the offence .
Jean-Claude Dague (died 2017) directed four films before committing a heist to try to save his production company from bankruptcy. Having used his own vehicle for this misdeed, he was arrested without difficulty . He spent eight years in prison, an experience which he reported in his book Le Dénommé which he then adapted for the cinema. It was not the first time ,though ,that a French ex-convict had depicted his time in jail : José Giovanni was a good exemple .
Plunging into the prison world, he discovers, to paroxism, love, hatred, violence, drugs, depravity, decay, death. An alternate title of the film is: "forget when you come here that you are a man". Here he is forced to survive among characters such as Bull Rosenthal, the boss, Imbert, the rapist, Macadam the executioner, Rispal the resigned, Leleubellac the unpredictable guard and Vautrot the all-powerful director.
The principal ,Jean Dolande -the unfortunate hero was given the actor's name -,made a handful of films before opting for painting ; but his director who lived through this descent into hell , does not really succeed in adapting his calvary for the screen : I saw one of the movies he made before the events, "le bal des voyous" ,and it was really very mediocre,to put it mildly .
Had he used a talented director, his plan could have succeeded ;but left to his own devices, he produces a disjointed film , with so many characters it's often hard to decipher their motives ; the journalist -the only real female character- is particularly badly written and acted .And a long-haired warden in the 1969-1975 period!!
It must be the lack of a story structure ; the movie consists of sketches ,with big time gaps. Most of the actors are unknown or non-professional ; oddly though, the cast includes more famous names such as Philippe Léotard, Bernard Fresson,Michel Galabru ,singer Lény Escudero ,Claude Brosset ,but they are wasted .
Cent francs l'amour (1986)
Bohringer blows everyone off the screen ;
Jeremy, a young art photographer, is kept by Maurice, a strange bachelor who only lives for Jeremy's appearances. To occupy his evenings, Jeremy wanders from sex shops to peep shows and becomes passionately in love with Otie, a pretty blonde.
But this gorgeous girl is the star of a peep show and at first sight she does not dote on him ;she had so many temporary admirers than she does not trust men anymore ; this exposure of the world of peep-shows and (male and female) prostitution is not really convincing (and has been treated many times,often more successfully than here)Besides the young couple is cute but bland ,and you can see how the movie will end from a mile off.
The reason why you would see through this movie is Richard Bohringer ,who steals the show every time he appears ;but his excellent performance throws the film off balance :Maurice , a sullen antique dealer, a heir (the black sheep of a wealthy family?), an admirer of a silent age
actress , and a gay in love with the hero , heterosexual through and through. Actually one feels to use the fast forward button when he's not present; watch the movie for him!
Bright Victory (1951)
Victory on the night,a new dawn .
This is the same subject as "pride of the marines" ,starring John Garfield and Eleanor Parker ; it's a very absorbing story featuring the outstanding Arthur Kennedy who was rarely given the lead , which ,with hindsight , is decidedly a shame ;to think that ,for instance,in Williams' "the glass menagerie" , he took a back seat to Kirk Douglas (I have nothing against him but his character appears late in the play) whereas he played the main character !
Kennedy is excellent from start to finish ,from utter despair to determination ; the subplot about the black soldier is a lesson about anti-racism ,and the final scene is even more moving than the sentimental story which seems contrived: the first girl the blind sergeant meets is the one !she seems to have been introduced in the screenplay just to secure a happy end .
But the official fiancée ,Chris ,allows us to meet people that are meant to help but treat him gingerly, notably the wealthy father (who reluctantly agrees to let his daughter marry him)who offers a job to the hero who does not want charity ; against all odds ,the victory will be bright and the future is no longer bleak ,braille is here to allow any study ; and it's credible ,remember Helen Keller who was blind,and deaf and dumb to boot !
Cargaison clandestine (1947)
Listen to the music.
Ricardo Mendi's gypsy orchestra lands a contract in the El Dorado cabaret, in San Juano in Central America. Mila, Mendi's girlfriend, is having an affair with José, the singer. But weariness eventually gets the better of her and the beauty lets herself be seduced by Mendoza, the cabaret director. José, disappointed, does not take long to console himself in the arms of Luisa Heim, the charming owner of the place. The troop soon discovers that their hosts are involved in drug trafficking, in which they participate despite themselves. An unenviable fate, prison or death, awaits them...
A vehicle for bel canto singer Luis Mariano masquerading as a thriller of sorts ;it's actually 50% musical acts ,and 50% film noir ; Mariano is not only a singer but he also plays the violin. The movie begins with Liszt 's Hungarian Rapsody which outstays its welcome in what is finally a smugglers affair (like "Carmen" of which Bizet wrote an opera ).
You will easily guess who the baddies are :they are VIP ,and their method is quite shrewd: to indicate where the clandestine cargo will be delivered , they use music tunes (hence the connection with the concerts) on the national airwaves ,much to the prefect's displeasure ( Pierre Renoir) who cannot catch these sharks red handed.