Belmondo

Staying French for a moment, a mini-celebration of Jean-Paul Belmondo - 80 next year. I think my favourite of his has to be L'HOMME DE RIO in 1964, (Belmondo, French labels - which also has a lot on Alain Delon) where he does his own stunts in Brazil in De Broca's still wonderful caper. Today's action stars with their CGI stunts should see it and weep. Never got to see BORSALINO though, and it does not seem available now. I have quite a few more Belmondo's to catch up with though, so more in due course. Here he is looking sensational with Claudia Cardinale, Francoise Dorleac, Catherine Deneuve, Alain Delon.

 

Among the Belmondo box-sets the British 'Screen Icons' is a good jumping-off point, featuring Chabrol's 1959 A DOUBLE TOUR, the 2 Godard essentials BREATHLESS and 1965's PIERROT LE FOU, Resnais' STAVISKY in '74 and one of his later actioners LE PROFESSIONNEL, '81 with Robert Hossein. He is in 2 of the Melville box set: LEON MORIN PRIEST and LE DOULOS; then there is THAT MAN FROM RIO and he pops up, along with everybody else, in Clements' IS PARIS BURNING? in 1966 and 1967's CASINO ROYALE - and that's just the tip of the iceberg - IMDB lists 83 titles of his! I suppose I should seek out Truffaut's MISSISSIPPI MERMAID with Deneuve now, and that glossy one with Jacqueline Bisset: LE MAGNIFIQUE, also by De Broca in '73, must be worth a look then! Plus his appearances with Loren in TWO WOMEN and Moreau in MODERATO CANTABILE. 

(Another French actor I have been catching up with (along with Delon, Ronet, Sorel and Trintignant) is Robert Hossein, who also directed some offbeat little movies - more on him later then.)