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 ...

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.

Italian choices: Marcello & Jacques, Anna & Giulietta

CRONACA FAMILIARE (FAMILY DIARY), 1962. Finally, a look at Valerio Zurlini’s absorbing family drama with brilliant performances from Marcello Mastroianni and Jacques Perrin. Post-war Italy looks marvellous, as lensed by Giussepe Rottuno, and produced by Geoffredo Lombardo. Sylvie scores too as the grand-mother. It is all as marvellous as De Sica’s GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINI (Italian label). Zurlini’s film is a melancholy meditation on two very different brothers, poor tubucular writer Enrico (Mastroianni) and the also ailing Lorenzo – Perrin is as effective here as he was in Zurlini’s GIRL WITH A SUITCASE or Bolognini’s LA CORRUZIONE, and of course this was Mastroianni’s great era too.. 

The downbeat story is totally affecting and leaves one in an emotional state. Did I say it looks marvellous? Its a perfectly restored print.

HELL IN THE CITY, 1959  (aka CAGED, Nella Citta L’Inferno) . Marvellous widescreen black and white drama with lots of comic moments from Renato Castellani and scipted by veteran Suso Cecchi D'Amico, which is a showcase for two of Italy’s greatest actresses Anna Magnani and Giulietta Masina. We are in a Roman prison, run by nuns. Masina is Lina, the timid newcomer, a variation on Masina’s CABIRIA – Lina is another lovelorn waif, seemingly a bit simple, who has been sent to prison for unknowingly aiding a robbery – a maid for a rich family, she was fooled by a man (Alberti Sordi doing a cameo) who got her to allow him into the house and then took her to the cinema while his accomplice carried out the robbery. Lina cries a lot and exasperates hardened criminal Egle – Magnani, forever in her black slip, as she dominates the screen. 

The other inmates are a varied bunch and we get involved in some stories. Renato Salvatori plays Piero, whom the nice young girl can see with the aid of a mirror, and there may be a happy ending for them. Lina finally leaves but will she be back? SPOILER AHEAD: Yes she does return and is now a hardened criminal, Egle is horrified to see how she has changed as Lina thanks her for teaching her the tricks of the trade. It is a satisfying conclusion and the two leads play it to the hilt. 

Antonioni, Fellini and Visconti as well as De Sica and Rossellini may have been the Italian great directors (along with Pasolini & Bertolucci and more), but its been fascinating catching up with those early films by Mauro Bolognini (1922-2001),which we like a lot here - LA NOTTE BRAVA, GIOVANI MARITI, CORRUPTION, SENILITA, METELLO, GRAN BOLLITO etc (as reviewed at Italian label). I still have to see Mastroianni & Cardinale in his highly-regarded IL BELL'ANTONIO, 1960, and Belmondo and Cardinale in LA VIACCIA, 1961., 

Another one, not available now, is his equally fascinating sounding FROM A ROMAN BALCONY (LA GIORNATA BALORDA), 1960, from a Moravia novel, with those attractive players Jean Sorel and Lea Massari. The trailer for it is on YouTube though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10i0K8iAT40

Bolognini also did episodes in those Italian compendium films I like: LE BAMBOLE (Four Kinds of Love - the hilarious and sexy Sorel & Lollobrigida episode) and LE FATA (The Queens), Sorel with Raquel Welch. 

Next Italian: Marcello and Romy in FANTASMA D'AMORE, 1981 - finally, a sub-titled print, and the Blu-ray of THE GREAT BEAUTY.  

The girl with a suitcase - 1961

A taster of Valerio Zurlini's 1961 Italian classic: LA RAGAZZA CON LA VALIGIA or THE GIRL WITH A SUITCASE. 
She is Claudia Cardinale (before Visconti immortalised her as Angelica in THE LEOPARD in 1962 or as SANDRA in 1965) and he is Jacques Perrin, that young French actor who built his reputation here, and in Zurlini's FAMILY DIARY with Mastroianni, and Bolognini's LA CORRUZIONE - reviewed here at Italian label, and of course he was the blond sailor in Demy's YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT, and he was in Costa-Gavras's THE SLEEPING CAR MURDERS in 1965 and Z in 1970, and the mature Perrin appeared in the Euro hit CINEMA PARADISO, and he is still working now, as indeed is Claudia - see label for other posts on her. 

THE GIRL WITH A SUITCASE is a haunting tale of unrequired romance as we observe Lorenzo, who's 16 and born to a wealthy family in Parma, tries to make things right toward a girl, Aida, whom his older brother has mistreated. In extending kindness and standing up for her, he comes of age. But, is there anything he can do that will alter Aida's situation or her prospects? 

This central scene where Lorenzo watches Aida dancing with that older man has that close-up of him  that lasts for at least one minute. He looks at them dancing, looks away, takes a sip from his drink, fidgets, with all these different expressions on his face, from jealousy to despair. The whole film is like that, and has that early '60s Italian look in spades.

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.
 
 

Once upon a time ...

DONKEY SKIN - PEAU D'ANE, 1970: Jacques Demy's ode to the classic fairy tale by 17th century author Charles Perrault comes to life with breathtaking brilliance. Digitally restored and remastered by Agnes Varda (Demy's wife) this epic tale overflows with dazzling elaborate costumes and an enchanting score by Academy Award-winning composer Michel Legrand.

Catherine Deneuve stars as a princess whose father The King wants to marry her after promising his dying wife (also Denueve) only to wed a woman more beautiful that she. Listening to her godmother, The Lilac Fairy, the frightened princess flees to a neighbourhood farm and hides as a scullery maid, while wearing the skin of her father's prize donkey as a disguise. A visiting prince passes by and of course falls for the princess. 

Ahead of its time and strikingly modern in its design, this warts and all fairytale is perhaps the Demy film most ready for discovery. - So goes the blurb for this delightful fairy tale.

Having already seen Demy's other fairy tale THE PIED PIPER from 1972 with its British cast, his 1970 Perrault tale is also endless delight to see again now. The shots of Deneuve wearing the donkey skin gliding through the forest and mixing with the other villagers are like something from a dream. The King is Jean Marais (ORPHEE), and the prince Jacques Perrin, who had teamed with Deneuve several times before. Micheline Presle (who starred in BLIND DATE, Joseph Losey label) is the prince's mother, and best of all Delphine Seyrig (right) is a total delight as the vampish fairy godmother. The sets and costumes are constantly delighful, particularly those dresses the princess asks the King for: the dress the colour of the weather, and of the moon, and of the sun (this brings back a childhood memory, I must have read these stories as a child) - finally she asks for the skin of the donkey who defecates gold and coins and jewels, and the besotted father gives it to her, before she runs away.  Its deliciously funny and inventive when all the princesses and maids in the kingdom queue up to try on the ring that Donkey Skin put in the cake for the prince to find - and when her father and the Lilac Fairy turn up by helicopter for their wedding.The large cast and those marvellous costumes which constantly delight must mean this was an expensive production. It was also scripted by Demy and lensed by Ghislain Cloquet.

Demy with Marais and Deneuve

I particularly like Demy's first two, those stunning black and white films LOLA and BAY OF ANGELS, and then his two musicals: THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG in 1964 and LES DEMOISELLES DE ROCHEFORT in '67. PEAU D'ANE was his first on his return to France after making the disappointing MODEL SHOP in Los Angeles in ther late '60s. The dvd also has the trailer for his next: THE SLIGHTLY PREGNANT MAN with Mastroianni and Deneuve and looking so very early '70s. We now need to seek out those later Demy films like UN CHAMBRE EN VILLE ...More on Demy (1931  - 1990) at Demy label. 

Some more Deneuve titles shortly: INDOCHINE, Truffaut's THE LAST METRO, two by Andre Techine: MY FAVOURITE SEASON and HOTEL AMERICA, and I may re-look at THE HUNGER too ! and of course I loved her in Ozon's POTICHE recently (Deneuve, Ozon labels), didn't care much for A CHRISTMAS TALE though ...

La Corruzione, 1963

Another Italian rarity - so rare there is no English sub-titled version available, but there it is on YouTube where the film is available in full to watch on your laptop, with optional English subtitles - so many thanks to my Sao Paulo pal Jorge for recommending this over at IMDB.  It shows though so that so many Italian films of the '60s never made it to London.  The big three then circa 1960 were of course Antonioni, Fellini and Visconti, with new boys Pasolini and Bertolucci, and old masters Vittorio De Sica and Roberto Rossellini. Then there were all those other directors like Mauro Bolognini and Monicelli and Comencini and Zurlini, Alberto Lattuada, Dino Risi, Rosi etc. LA DOLCE VITA, L'AVVENTURA and ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS set the template for the Italian renaissance ...

Monicelli had his segment (right) cut from BOCCACCIO 70 in 1962 (though it is now included on the dvd and is indeed a revelation, as per 1962 label), and directed Monica Vitti in her hilarious episode in FOUR KINDS OF LOVE (LA BAMBOLE) where Bolognini directed that hilarious episode which scandalised at the time featuring Gina Lollobrigida and Jean Sorel (Sorel label); they also directed episodes of SEX QUARTET (LE FATE, THE QUEENS) in 1966, and Bolognini also one of the episodes of I TRE VOLTI which I shall be seeing shortly, it also has Antonioni's segment with ex-Empress Soraya of Iran, whom De Laurentiis was trying to make into a movie star then. Bolognini later did some exemplary costume dramas like METELLO and GRAN BOLLITO (Shelley Winters label). Zurlini did those acclaimed films like GIRL WITH A SUITCASE with Claudia Cardinale and the young Jacques Perrin in 1961 who also featured strongly in FAMILY DIARY (CRONOCA FAMILIARE) with Marcello Mastroianni in '62...

So then, to LA CORRIZIONE (CORRUPTION) in 1963, Bolognini's study of idealistic young Jacques Perrin leaving college and deciding to become a priest, as he returns to his wealthy industrialist father Alain Cuny, who enjoys the power he wields and of course has other ideas for his son's future ... this is nicely played out in those stunning interiors and marvellous black and white photography as Bolognini orchestrates it all with a sure hand - there is that stunning scene where Cuny slaps Perrin hard across the face that certainly makes one sit up and take notice ... then we are on that luxurious yacht sailing around some remote islands, with the father's current girlfriend Rosanna Schiaffino in tow.

The tensions on the boat remind one of similar scenes in L'AVVENTURA just three years earlier, as the girl and boy explore each other's attitudes and the inevitable happens.  Has the father put her up to seducing the son ? - who then wants to leave the boat.   Isa Miranda has a scene as the ailing hypochondriac mother at the clinic and there is that brilliantly staged suicide of the employee the father has been bullying ...  

Cuny is terrific here - he was the intellectual Steiner in LA DOLCE VITA and Moreau's husband in Malle's LES AMANTS among other strong roles. The very prolific Perrin impresses as usual - he went on to Demy's LES DEMOISELLES DE ROCHEFORT as the blond sailor, and his involvement in Costa-Garvas' Z in 1970, (another one to revisit), Demy's LE PEAU D'ANE among others, and  his later acclaim in CINEMA PARADISO - like Jean Sorel he is older now but still working.  Rosanna Schiaffino (1939-2009) impressed me the least of those '60s Italian stars like Vitti and Cardinale, she was merely adequate in TWO WEEKS IN ANOTHER TOWN and THE VICTORS etc, but she is stupendous here, with that new hairstyle and the camera loves her in those lingering closeups.  The final sequence with the young people dancing to that score by Giovanni Fusco is sensational ... and captures everything the film is about.

A gripping drama then of the Italian high life, brilliantly directed by Bolognini, with that early 60s look in spades. I loved it.