Pour le weekend

Our French favourites: Deneuve, Dorleac, Adjani & Huppert, Aimee, Audran, Hardy, Laforet .... plenty on them at labels! 

Male Hunt, 1964

Here's a rarity indeed - I had not even heard of it until pal Jerry found it - AND it features a lot of those European favourites early in their careers back at the dawn of the 1960s. LA CHASSE A L'HOMME (MALE HUNT) features Belmondo, Brialy, Claude Rich, Catherine Denueve and her sister Francoise Dorleac (their only other teaming apart from LES DEMOISELLES DE ROCHEFORT in 1967), as well as marvellous Marie Laforet, plus Bernadette Lafont and Micheline Presle, Michel Serrault.

Shot mainly in Paris, it includes locations at Rhodes and the ruins at Lindos - a favourite place of mine. It comes across now as an unpretentious comedy, directed by Edouard Molinaro, with a lot of attractive young players, no doubt made for the home market - which is probably why we never heard of it in London then. Belmondo has a nice bit as his usual young rascal. 

This captivating comedy has a number of amusing twists and turns. It stars Jean-Claude Brialy who is determined to get married despite efforts of some people to dissuade him including Claude Rich and Jean-Paul Belmondo. Catherine Denueve, Marie Laforet and Francoise Dorleac are some of the girls. Dorleac is extremely good here, she has never been better, and Laforet is as eye-catching as she was in PLEIN SOLEIL. 

Molinaro (who later directed LA CAGE AUX FOLLES) had a very good eye for comedy. IMDB lists it as a 1964 film but it looks earlier to me - most of the cast were firmly established by then.

New year re-views 5: Les Demoiselles de Rochefort

LA LA LAND got me in the mood for those Jacques Demy musicals once again - we love THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG, but even more, his 1967 THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT, which is sheer endless delight, as per my previous items on it, here's a reprise:

This was bliss to see again recently, to see it in colour and widescreen is magical. It is another all singing musical with great colour and sets – the whole town of Rochefort seems to be dancing at one stage. The sisters Catherine Deneuve and Francoise Dorleac star, with hoofers an older Gene Kelly, George Chakiris in tight pants, and a blonde Jacques Perrin as a lovelorn sailor. It all works perfectly now and I urge anyone who has not seen it to seek it out on dvd, as it is not as well known as the more famous Cherbourg film, it is in fact a perfect 60s film, which I have written about here several times already. We also get Danielle Darrieux as the girls' mother, and Michel Piccoli as her admirer.
The BFI dvd includes Agnes Varda's documentary on the film's 25 year anniversary party held at Rochefort, which sadly Francoise Dorleac was a major absentee ...

1965: Where the spies are

WHERE THE SPIES ARE. I really liked this comedy spy thriller back in 1965, nice to see it again - here is what I said about it back in 2011.
 David Niven is Dr Jason Love, an English country doctor whose passion for vintage cars gets him dragooned into helping the security services (as represented by a dry John Le Mesurier) into doing some spy work for them abroad – in Beirut, Lebanon to be exact, a 60s playground then. He is meant to be helping out local agent Nigel Davenport, but when Nigel ends up dead Dr Love realises he is out of his depth as goons with guns chase him all over the place.

One of our favourites, Francoise Dorleac is the very 60s model on a fashion shoot at the airport who turns out to be his local contact, but is she a double agent? A plane exploding after take-off is nicely suggested as the bodies and thrills pile up. Director Val Guest keeps it briskly moving and of course it turns out the Russians are behind it all. The climax is good as a Russian plane has to be tricked into making an emergency landing. Dorleac is lovely as ever and Niven is ideal here before he got too old for this kind of thing. It was meant to be the first of a series, from novels by James Leasor, but there were no more…. Jazzman Jimmy Smith did a recording of the theme tune, which teenage me bought at the time. I’ve still got it!

Its Sixties groove fits in with my current mood: there were other amusing '60s British spy capers too like 1968's OTLEY (Tom and Romy) and DUFFY (Susannah with the James': Fox, Coburn, Mason) and of course Losey's MODESTY BLAISE which topped them all - not to mention CARRY ON SPYING! 
Next: It was 50 years ago: 1966!

Les Demoiselles de Rochefort

A midwinter treat ...... I simply love this movie, as per reiews - Deneuve, Dorleac, Demy labels. 
Click the full-screen icon to see it widescreen.

Jacques Demy's films are awash with that particular type of French glamour, as we have noted here before, see labels. Here he dresses up Deneuve and Dorleac in those pastels for LES DEMOISELLES DE ROCHFORT in 1967, turns Jacques Perrin into a blonde sailor in a sailor suit, gets George Chakiris and Grover Dale into tight trousers, and makes Danielle Darrieux a very glamours mother to the singing and dancing sisters, then there is an older Gene Kelly!

LES DEMOISELLES DE ROCHEFORT is now on the BFI list of '10 Best Gay French Films" .... it may not be gay as such, but there is a definite gay sensibility here. Bliss is assured watching it in mid-winter. 

As the BFI put it: "File this one under ‘queer aesthetic’. In the most excessive of Jacques Demy’s films, he creates an infectiously cheery musical in which everyone has a ball. Catherine Deneue and Francoise Dorleac are the damsels of the title, looking for love in the sunny seaside town of Rochefort. But will any of the attractive men on offer fall for their charms?

There’s nothing explicitly gay here, but any film that shoves Jacques Perrin in a sailor suit, squeezes George Chakiris into tight white trousers and decorates itself with lavish, lurid sets definitely has a queer eye. Its relentless good nature isn’t for Scrooges, but it’s a hard heart that can’t enjoy Gene Kelly’s surprise cameo, or the vision of Deneuve in elbow-length gloves, chain-smoking while removing a chicken from the oven (trust us, it’s amazing)".

Deneuve & Dorleac

More French 1960s glamour ... with sisters Catherine Deneuve and Francoise Dorleac in Jacques Demy's LES DEMOISELLES DEROCHEFORT, a great from 1967 - its marvellous on the big screen as Demy gets all of Rochefort dancing with our sisters - add in Gene Kelly, blonde sailor Jacques Perrin, dancing boys George Chakiris and Grover Dale, as well as eternally chic Danielle Darriex as the girls' mother and bliss is assured. More on this at Demy label .... 

Francoise perished in a car accident in 1967 .... she was certainly an essential Sixties beauty and French star. We like her in THAT MAN FROM RIO, LE PEAU DEUCE, even GENGHIS KHAN and that Michael Caine film. See my fuller appreciation on her at Dorleac label.

French glamour, thanks to Monsieur Demy ...

Jacques Demy's films are awash with that particular type of French glamour, as we have noted here before, see labels, where he dresses up Deneuve and Dorleac in those pastels for LES DEMOISELLES DE ROCHFORT in 1967, turns Jacques Perrin into a blonde sailor in a sailor suit, gets George Chakiris and Grover Dale into tight trousers, and makes Danielle Darrieux a very glamours mother to the singing and dancing sisters. 
As per report below, LES DEMOISELLES DE ROCHEFORT is now on the BFI list of '10 Best Gay French Films" ....

Then there is Jeanne Moreau as a very glam blonde at the gambling tables in BAY OF ANGELS in 1963, as well as Anouk Aimee enchanting as LOLA in 1961, and later even more mysterious in MODEL SHOP in '69, as well as the dreamy teaming of Deneuve and Nino Castelnuovo in THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG in 1964.

Demy's wife Agnes Varda also made her CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 where Corinne Marchand, a glamours blonde singer, wanders Paris waiting for those medical results in that fascinating 1962 drama. And of course Jean Seberg was IN THE FRENCH STYLE in 1963.

French heart-throbs? The big guys like Delon, Belmondo, Trintignant and Ronet are well represented here, as well as Brigitte Bardot, as per their labels. Here's a bit more on those thriller guys Jean Sorel and Robert Hossein - both going strong in their 80s. Back in 1963 they teamed up for Duvivier's terrific thriller CHAIR DE POULE (HIGHWAY PICKUP) as per my review on that at French/thrillers/Sorel/Hossein labels. 

Sorel & Hossein in '63

 
Classic French glamour of course with Catherine Deneuve (again, in INDOCHINE, which we liked a lot, review at French label), those VIVA MARIA girls, and of course back to the dawn of the 60s, and the PLEIN SOLEIL crew, and Belmondo and Dorleac in THAT MAN FROM RIO! We love them.
 
 

Catherine Deneuve: from Indochine to Place Vendome

INDOCHINE

How good to see Catherine Deneuve still very busy filming with several items lined up after 50 years in cinema. Like Cate Blanchett (post below), she would be on my list of 10 important actresses working today. I remember as a teenager seeing those arthouse posters for her early films like VICE AND VIRTUE and SATAN LEADS THE DANCE. Then of course the hit of UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG followed by Polanski's REPULSION, and Demy's LES DEMOISELLES DE ROCHEFORT - with her late sister Francoise Dorleac, whom I like as well - see reviews at French, Demy, Denueve, Dorleac labels, plus those hits with Bunuel: BELLE DE JOUR and TRISTANA, and Truffaut's LE SIRENE DE MISSISSIPPI which suited her cool personality perfectly. 
Some indifferent international films followed where she was often just a beautiful blank: THE APRIL FOOLS, HUSTLE, LE CHAMADE, BENJAMIN, MAYERLING etc. Then of course that great renaissance in the 80s and 90s and beyond - as she did lots of varied films like THE HUNGER and Von Triers' DANCER IN THE DARK with Bjork, and several with director Andre Techine. I loved her recent one POTICHE with Ozon, where she is hilarious out jogging and communicating with nature before taking over her ailing husband's role at the factory, and she is fun too in his 8 FEMMES. I now have a clutch of later Deneuves to get through, so lets start with INDOCHINE ...

INDOCHINE. This was a free dvd in one of our newspapers a few years ago, but I never bothered watching it till now. I like it a lot, it plays like a French GONE WITH THE WIND or a David Lean film with those crowd scenes and sampans sailing on marvellous landscapes .... as directed in 1992 by Regis Wargnier.

Indochina during the 1930s: One of the largest rubber-tree plantations is owned by French colonist Eliane who lives with her father and her native adopted daughter Camille (Linh Dan Pham). Elaine gets to know young French officer Jean-Baptiste (Vincent Perez); after a short affair she refuses to see him again, as Camille falls deeply in love with him. Elaine gets him transferred to a far island where Camille goes in search of him, despite an arranged marriage. Her saga is rivetting and engrossing, as the fates of the three leads play out, rather like a parable of France's place in Indochina and Vietnam. It looks marvellous - Deneuve is perfect in those 30s clothes, and striding around her plantation in jodhpurs. Colonial life is nicely depicted showing also the brutality meted out to the peasants (like that family Camille travels with to that island).

It is a vast, panoramic love story set in the twilight years of French Indo-China. Comparisons with David Lean are inevitable, considering director Régis Wargnier's use of the setting as a backdrop to the love-triangle between the three main characters. Catherine Deneuve gives a strong, emotionally restrained performance as Eliane, the plantation owner whose colonial paradise is slowly falling apart. Linh Dan Pham is affecting as Camille, Eliane's adopted daughter whose journey from aristocratic ancestry to Marxist induction personifies the changing face of South-East Asia in the period around World War Two. It won the Oscar for best Foreign Film of 1992, and Deneuve was nominated as Leading Actress. 

PLACE VENDOME. A 1998 French thriller with a great role for Denueve. She plays the mainly alcoholic widow of a diamond dealer who has commited suicide after a shady business deal; she finds his secret stash of 7 perfect diamonds and decides to sell them herself as she re-enters the diamond business world of Place Vendome. Nicole Garcia’s thriller is nicely paced, does not rush anything and showcases Deneuve with a great ‘look’ here, as the world-weary woman slowly putting herself back together. Jacques Dutronc and Emmanuelle Seigner co-star, and English Julian Fellows (now creator of DOWNTON ABBEY) and Larry Lamb are in there too. It’s a stylish, moody piece of Gallic chic and thrills.

THE LAST METRO. I finally saw Truffaut's big hit from 1980 yesterday, despite having the dvd for years. and to my surprise I really did not like it at all.

Paris, 1942. Lucas Steiner is a Jew and was compelled to leave the country. His wife Marion, an actress, directs the theater for him. She tries to keep the theater alive with a new play, and hires actor Bernard Granger for the leading role. But Lucas is actually hiding in the basement...

It comes across as a banal bloodless story, with no tension or suspense about the German occupation of Paris (its a world away from Melville), there is even no tension about the husband hiding in the cellar - where they cook and have the run of the theatre at night. Its a good role for Deneuve in those '40s fashions, but Depardieu was rather a blank, there is no great passion between them either, and the ending is nothing special.  Perhaps its a valentine to the theatre, like his DAY FOR NIGHT was to movies. and as for the title  - the last train at night before the curfew - it has no bearing on the film at all ! Very pedestrian Truffaut then ...

GOD LOVES CAVIAR – a Greek curiosity from 2012 which I just had to see, as it features a sedate  Denueve as Catherine the Great of Russia! Shrewd casting. It is based on the true story of Greek pirate turned businessman Ioannis Varvakis, who made his fortune selling caviar in Russia and all over the world. This epic tale moves from Greece to the court of Catherine the Great in Russia and the shores of the Caspian Sea, and to the civil war in Greece and the fight for independence, during the Revolution of 1821 against the Ottoman Empire. It looks good as directed by Yannis Smaragdis. It reminded me of that 1959 Warner costumer JOHN PAUL JONES with that other adventurer at the court of the great Catherine (Bette Davis for the last 5 minutes).

THE HUNGER. It was nice to have another look at Tony Scott's THE HUNGER too, that popular vampire flick from 1983, capturing that early 80s look nicely. That terrific opening scene at the nightclub looks like the old Heaven club in London, as our vampires prey on urban clubbers and pick up another couple, while Bauhaus intone "Bela Lugosi's dead" on the soundtrack ..... David Bowie and Deneuve are perfect casting - Bowie though is ageing rapidly and will have to be placed with the ageless Miriam's past lovers locked away in their caskets - I liked that quick flashback to Ancient Egypt with Miriam in full vampire mode. Then there is that great scene with Susan Sarandon who asks the piano-playing Miriam if she is making a pass at her to which Miriam cooly replies "Not that I am aware of, Sarah" .... love that final shot too of the new ageless vamire looking out over her new domain ... its a glossy exercise in style of course, but it certainly satisfies the eye. Deneuve's vampire is the equal of Delphine Seyrig's countess in DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS (Horror label). Sarandon was amusing in that THE CELLULOID CLOSET documentary, noting that her character had to be drunk to allow herself to be seduced by Catherine Deneuve, one of the great beauties of the movies!  Below: back to REPULSION, 1965, and ROCHEFORT, 1967.

A clutch more Deneuve movies before too long: 3 by Andre Techine: THIEVES (LES VOLEURS), MY FAVOURITE SEASON and HOTEL AMERICA, as well as APRES LUI by Gael Morel (the lead in Techine's WILD REEDS - gay interest label) in 2007, LOVE SONGS (PAROLES ET MUSIQUE) from 1984, and Raul Ruiz's 1999 TIME REGAINED. Her book "Close Up and Personal" is an interesting collection of her diaries on various locations. Deneuve is still in her 60s but turns 70 later this month; we have grown up with her in the movies, unlike her sister Francoise whose career sadly barely last 5 years, but has left a lasting legacy too; they continue to fascinate like those other French legends Anouk Aimee, Adjani, Audran, Moreau ...