C for Chabrol ....

My movie buff pal Martin has covered Chabrol's 1968 LA FEMME INFIDELE in his Facebook "Auteurist History of Cinema" feature, under 'C' - which makes me want to see it again, Here is my own 2012 review:

Also to be seen now, goodness knows when, are two Claude Chabrol box sets, 14 films in all!, along with his LA CEREMONIE. We saw a lot of Chabrols back in the late '60s and into the '70s, when he was doing that brilliant series of thrillers with his then wife, the marvellous Stephane Audran, particularly LE BOUCHER and LA FEMME INFIDELE and the brilliant THE BEAST MUST DIE etc. I liked that comic thriller in bright Greek sunlight LE ROUTE DE CORINTH (with Seberg and Ronet), Romy Schneider and Steiger in INNOCENTS WITH DIRTY HANDS (a valentine to Romy really), and that good Canadian one with Donald Sutherland BLOOD RELATIVES, so I really must find time to go back and see all those ones I missed like those with Isabelle Huppert (VIOLETTE NOZIERE, MADAME BOVARY). Chabrol was nothing if not prolific, good though to see how highly regarded he is now. It was also fun getting his throwaway 1960s comedies like LES GODELUREAUX and the delicious 1965 romp MARIE CHANTEL V DR KHA, and also new editions of his first successes LE BEAU SERGE and LES COUSINS - as per reviews, Chabrol label. 

It is an absolute pleasure seeing LA FEMME INFIDELE again, that perfect late '60s setting, as the loving jealous husband Michel Bouquet begins to suspect the wife he loves so much is having an affair during her frequent trips to Paris. He soon discovers the truth and calls on the lover, Maurice Ronet. It is a brilliant scene as the men talk, the lover feeling awkward and guilty, the husband not knowing what to do - but a casual remark of the lover suddenly leads to blind anger ... as in PLEIN SOLEIL and LE PISCINE there is that sudden murderous attack, with Ronet once again the victim. The husband thinks he has covered his tracks, and the ideal domestic life with their son resumes - but of course, being Chabrol, those police and detectives keep calling and finding out more details. It is all impeccably done with those lovely circular camera movements as we circle the husband and wife as they both realise the trap they are in. She finds the evidence and cooly destroys it as she is now back in love with her husband. Stephane Audran is of course so divinely cool and poised and attractive here. Classic French cinema then.
What will Martin do next? D for Demy perhaps ?

Alain Delon: "a bit of alright" says Edith ...

We have not done a piece on Alain for a while, but there are lots on him here, as per the label .....

I mentioned before that Engish film magazine "Films and Filming" I used to get, and work for, and have now got all the 1950s issues (it began in Oct 1954 and folded in 1980, as per a forthcoming piece on all that), each issue featured a column on a "Person of Promise" and I have covered some already (Lee Remick, Stephen Boyd, Belinda Lee, James Garner, Carol Lynley, Shirley Eaton, Shirley McLaine etc). Their May 1959 issue (one of the rare ones I got just now) features that interesting young French actor Alain Delon, then making a name for himself. Its rather delicious:

Alain Delon is 23. Edith Piaf, the nightclub entertainer, described him recently with these words: "Une belle petite eule", which roughly translated means "He's a bit of alright". From the colloquial to the rather more sublime comes this quote on young M. Delon from the actor Bernard Blier: "He has balance, a calm and wholesome insolence, respect for professional tradition, scorn for upstart authority and a taste for a violent, short, intense life".  (Well, they were wrong on that count, Delon is 80 this November) .

All of which goes to show that French Cinema has a virile youngster who appeals to women and men alike, to the professional artist and the audience who have come to watch him.

Alain is at pains to assure those who want to pigeon-hole him into a convenient type that he is not, and has no intention of becoming, the "French James Dean". Whether he likes it or not Alain has the same appeal that endeared the late Dean to the bosoms of his fans.

Born in a suburb of Paris, Alain showed little interest in a career in show business during his teens. At 17 he enlisted in the forces and was sent to Indo-China to fight in the sweltering jungle in the war against the rebels. After two years of this murderous campaign he was released. 

It was at this time that Yves Allegret was looking for a young actor to play in QUAND LA FEMME S'EN MELE (When a Woman Interferes). Yves passed the news along to his director brother Marc who starred the actor in his second film SOIS BELLE ET TAIS TOI (Blonde for Danger) opposite Henri Vidal and Mylene Demongeot. At this time he was offered work in the USA but declined. His first starring role came with CHRISTINE opposite Romy Schneider. He also appeared in FAIBLES FEMMES (WOMEN ARE WEAK) in 1959, with Demongeot and two new young actresses Jacqueline Sassard and Francoise Pascal. In FAIBLES FEMMES Delon plays a Don Juan who seduces three girls in turn and they plot their revenge ... 

His hobbies are horse-racing and .... sports cars. Is M. Delon treading the same path as James Dean? It would seem so. 

FAIBLES FEMMES was one of the first French films I saw, when young in Ireland, and I loved that European glamour and decadence, served up in spades of course in Rene Clement's PLEIN SOLEIL (PURPLE NOON) later that year, from Patricia Highsmith but with a twist, as -per my comments on that. Delon soon became the go-to actor after those prestige films with Visconti (ROCCO, THE LEOPARD) and Antonioni (L'ECLISSE). That great European career followed (Melville's LE SAMURAI, BORSALINO with Belmondo etc) and Delon's playboy life made the headlines too, as well as his various romances, including with Romy. Its always a pleasure seeing him with Claudia, Romy, Monica, Marie Laforet and the others, or playing gangsters with Gabin or Montand (MELODIE EN SOUS SOL, SICILIAN CLAN, CERCLE ROUGE etc.. I must get around to his one with Simone Signoret soon...

It all began when fellow actor Jean-Claude Brialy took him to the Cannes Film Festival in 1957, where among others he met were Hollywood agent Henry Willson, and British photograher John Barrington, who took some interesting shots of the young actor (in bed, left).  He was soon on the cover (first of many) in "Films and Filming's" 1961 French issue, in PLEIN SOLEIL. and of course did some Hollywod films. He seems to have aged quite well and working until recently, as per the commentary on the recent PLEIN SOLEIL Blu-ray.  Above: Delon by Barrington in 1957, right, with Belmondo in recent years.

The Ripleys again: Matt or Alain?

We had to have another look at THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY on television once again, the other day, despite rushing to it when released in 1999 and seen it several times since. It is Anthony Minghella's glossy adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's classic novel and is an engaging, if hollow, thriller in bright Italian sunshine. Minghella though, as per his published screenplay, greatly expands on the novel fleshing out characters, played by Cate Blanchett and Jack Davenport, who are barely mentioned by Highsmith. Cate is rich girl Meredith, while Jack is Ripley's new love - whom he has to get rid of in order to continue his duplicitous new life. 

We note also how Dickie is made more of a heel - getting that local girl pregnant and his indifference when she drowns herself - so presumably we the audience do not feel too bad when he is bumped off - but of course Jude Law is so charismatic here the film drifts once he is not there to tease and taunt Matt Damon's nerdy needy Tom. So its an overlong, drawn out affair as our glamorous people act out Highsmith's chilling tale. Philip Seymour Hoffman scores too in that key small role

What sinks it for me is the trowelled-on Fifties period detail - all those fussy '50s fashions they wear, with hats and gloves. Whereas in Rene Clement's PLEIN SOLEIL, the 1959 original, they were smart casual clothes that would still be fashionable now, they look strikingly modern in fact - and 24 year old Alain Delon, stunnng Marie Laforet and Maurice Ronet as Dickie are all perfectly right. Its a shorter tale, and even with that changed ending, it works better. Delon in that ice blue suit strolling around the market, and Marie Laforet as Marge strumming that guitar surrounded by her Fra Angelico prints, and the tensions of the three of them on the boat, and of course Dickie suddenly realising he is in danger after pushing Tom too far ... all set on the real mediterranean of 1959 as captured by Henri Decae's glowing colours. 

I have written a lot about PLEIN SOLEIL here, see the labels below, It is of course the tale of how New York wannabe Tom Ripley's life changes after he is sent to Italy to haul back errant playboy Dickie Greenleaf. In the 1999 version Matt Damon makes Ripley suitably sinister and needy and Jude Law is at his charismatic best as the wastrel rich boy whom Ripley wants for himself or failing that to be him, taking over his life ...just as Delon and Ronet played it in 1959.
I first saw that version when 14 in 1960, when it opened my eyes to European glamour and beauty. Its a seminal movie for me. as much as 2001, BLOW-UP, or LA NOTTE BRAVA, SANDRA, MODESTY BLAISE, WHATS NEW PUSSYCAT? etc. but THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY is fascinating too.

'60s moments ...

Some new images from some of our favourite Sixties classics:

Joseph Losey directing Monica Vitti as MODESTY BLAISE in 1966, Sarah Miles and Sean Caffrey in County Clare, Ireland in 1965 for Desmond Davis's I WAS HAPPY HERE, and below, Delon and Ronet re-teamed in Deray's glossy thriller LA PISCINE in 1969, with Romy Schneider. 

Below, filmed in 1959 (as was Antonioni's L'AVVENTURA) but on screens in 1960, Rene Clement's PLEIN SOLEIL (aka PURPLE NOON, now with a new lease of life and looking even better on Blu-ray), where Maurice Ronet, Delon and Marie Laforet are all spell-binding, as per my other Plein Soleil posts (see label), and also 1959 again, those LA NOTTE BRAVA boys, Pasolini's young hoodlums as directed and glamorised by Mauro Bolognini - Jean-Claude Brialy, Laurent Terzieff, Tomas Milian. We like Jean Sorel too, as per previous posts on him, very busy in the '60s and '70s, with lots of thriller and giallo genre movies, as well as choice items like Visconti's SANDRA where he and Claudia Cardinale are a stunning couple. Here he is with Carroll Baker, whom he made a few thrillers, such as THE SWEET BODY OF DEBORAH in 1969 ...

New Plein Soleil on Blu-Ray

That new PLEIN SOLEIL Blu-ray arrived today, and its terrific. This is the English StudioCanal one, I already got the US Criterion (right). This English has has extras on interesting restoration comparisons, and an extensive recent interview with its star Alain Delon - who is very fulsome on Rene Clement and his influence on him, plus he mentions Romy's appearance in it; plus an over an hour long documentary on its making, so now I feel I know everything there is to about PLEIN SOLEIL. Pity no Marie Laforet interview though. Highly recommended then, and the film is still dazzling, as is that 1959 Mediterranean ... and without that padding that Minghella included in his 1999 version. 
For me though Clement kind of peaked with PLEIN SOLEIL, his following films were just not in the same league, though LES FELINS with Delon again in 1963 is a ritzy thriller. 1947's LES MAUDITS and GERVAISE were interesting discoveries a while back (thanks John), and I really like KNAVE OF HEARTS (Gerard Philipe label) and 1958's THE SEA WALL, as mentioned here several times ...

Some more forgotten French flicks

We have been looking at a handful of French film noirs from the late '50s/early '60s, some directed by actor Robert Hossein, who also features in some. These kind of popular French thrillers never got shown much outside of France, not being arthouse or 'New Wave' enough?

Delon and Belmondo may have been the flashy French actors, with Trintignant scooping up those 'arty' roles (Z, THE CONFORMIST, LES BICHES, MY NIGHT WITH MAUD) as well as popular crossover hits (UN HOMME ET UNE FEMME) while the less-flashy Maurice Ronet and Hossein played all sorts of roles in all kinds of movies, (Ronet label), and then there were Jacques Perrin, Jean Sorel, Jean-Claude Brialy and Gerard Blain (Gerard Philipe and Henri Vidal both died in 1959, while older guys like Yves Montand grew in stature) .... I also have Hossein to see in WARRIOR'S REST with Bardot, and he has starred with Loren, Vitti and so many others. He has been still acting too until recently, in his 80s. He and Jean Sorel are a terrific team in that Duviviver discovery I liked a few years back: CHAIR DE POULE (HIGHWAY PICKUP) - Hossein, Sorel labels.

Hossein & Loren in MADAME SANS GENE- we have not seen it since 1961.

THE WICKED GO TO HELL (LES SALAUDS VONT EN ENFER) is a stunningly effective thriller directed by Hossein, who also plays a small part, from 1955 -  BASTARDS GO TO HELL would be a better translation, as we watch two brutal criminals in jail: Henri Vidal and Serge Reggiani. They make their escape after some drama featuring a theatrical comrade (who sings, dances and stripteases) whom one assumes is gay, but his wife comes to visit demanding a divorce whereupon he promptly hangs himself! Our two opportunists see their chance and shoot their way out of prison and escape in a car - so far, so brutal. But there is more to come - Serge gets his leg infected and can barely walk as they struggle over an endless rough terrain and finally arrive at an isolated beachside shack, where we find lovely Marina Vlady (all of 17) as the model living with an artist - whom our thugs promptly shoot. An odd menage forms between the girl, mainly silent and with few lines, and the two guys who bicker among themselves as Eve - a suitable name - comes between them and plots her own revenge. Finally the guys get the car repaired and prepare to leave, but things do not pan out quite as they intend, with the local quicksand also making an appearance .... This is smart, brutal, funny in parts.

Marina Vlady (sister of Odile Versois) is a fascinating presence here. She married Hossein and they had 2 children, but the marriage only lasted 4 years.

Henri Vidal cast against type is a splendid tough guy - what a shame he died aged 40 in 1959, he was married to Michele Morgan. (We have seen him in other movies here, French label: Clement's LES MAUDITS, ATTILA with Loren, and coming up will be 2 with Bardot: UNE PARISIENNE and DANCE WITH ME, and a 1959 Romy Schneider comedy AN ANGEL ON EARTH, which also has the young Belmondo.

LE MONTE-CHARGE (SERVICE ELEVATOR or PARIS PICKUP!) is a splendid thriller from 1962, by Marcel Bluwal. Hossein is a released prisoner, on his own and walking the streets on Christmas Eve, seeing all the happy people around him. He eats a solitary meal in a restaurant and notices an attractive woman (Lea Massari) with her young daughter. Does she also notice him and decide he will be suitable for her scheme? They get talking and he helps her carry the sleepy child home, where she invites him in and pours a drink ..... the audience wonders where we are going with this scenario - who is plotting against whom? and how the service elevator play a part? It has a lot of suspense and unexpected twists as we try to second guess what is going on ... a dead body turns up - her husband - there is a lot of Couzot or Duvivier influence here. It is set in a large factory, closed for the holidays, but with that elevator to the private apartment. IMDb says "startling surprises, revelations and numerous cinematic pleasures". If only my copy's sub-titles did not run off the screen .... so could not be seen.

LE JEU DE LA VERITE - a brilliant 1961 thriller, directed by Hossein, with gleaming black and white images and an all-star cast: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Francoise Prevost, Nadia Gray, Paul Meurisse, Jean Servais, Daliah Lavi among the dozen society people gathered at a writer's mansion. Its like an Agatha Christie whodunit, as they mingle, make small talk, but each has something to hide, and someone gets murdered .... Hossein plays the detective who enters to solve the case as each suspect is grilled. Fascinating viewing then.

CHAIR DE POULE:

http://osullivan60.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/fantastic-french-flick.html

Two more French thrillers, both starrring Danielle Darrieux:

MARIE-OCTOBRE – Its been a pleasure discovering Julien Duvivier’s French thrillers, like CHAIR DE POULE or Gabin in VOICI LE TEMPS DES ASSASSINS. Here we have Danielle Darrieux heading the cast of Duvivier's 1959 mystery. This plays like another Agatha Christie who-done-it as Marie (her code name) gathers together her wartime resistance group, all now doing well and prosperous, as she has just found out that one of them is a traitor who betrayed their group to the Nazis 15 years earlier, resulting in the death of her lover. Who was it? Who will break first? Each one of the group comes under suspicion, even Marie herself, and their faithful retainer Victorine. It is intriguing and entertaining if a little talky and confined to one set. The cast is the thing here, some of France’s finest: Paul Muerisse, Lino Ventura, Serge Reggiani, Bernard Blier, and Paul Guers, who is now a priest. Darrieux is fabulously glamorous and sophisticated here (she runs a fashion house).

MURDER AT 45 RPM (MEURTRE EN 45 TOURS). Interesting French 1960 thriller by Etienne Perier, from a story by Boileau & Narcejac, so we know nothing will be what it seems. Danielle Darrieux is the star here, effortlessy chic and in command as the popular singer whose obsessive husband Jean Servais writes and composes her hits. She and her piano player Michel Auclair are in love and Servais knows and delights in tormenting them. He continues tormenting them after his supposed death in a car accident … as the lovers each think the other killed him. But is he really dead? This is a satisfying re-tread of those familiar themes from LES DIABOLIQUES or VERTIGO, Nice period detail too as the lovers get those disks with messages on which they play on those period record players. 

Soon: Darrieux in some French classics: LA RONDE, MADAME DE... Here's a memory of her 1967 LES DEMOISELLES DE ROCHEFORT, a Jacques Demy favourite - see Demy label. (also new editions of those 2 early Chabrol classics: LE BEAU SERGE and LES COUSINS.)

Heatwave movies: Purple Noon

Or the annual PLEIN SOLEIL re-view ...

The perfect viewing for a hot summer night: the new Blu-ray of Rene Clement's 1960 PLEIN SOLEIL/PURPLE NOON, one of my favourite movies, as per the other posts on it here - see the labels below. The Criterion blurb says:

Alain Delon was at his most impossibly beautiful when PURPLE NOON was released and made him an instant star. This ripe, colorful adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's vicious novel THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY directed by the versatile Rene Clement, stars Delon as Tom Ripley, a duplicitious American charmer in Rome on a mission to bring his privileged, devil-may-care acqaintance Philip Greenleaf (Maurice Ronet) back to the United States. What initially seems a carefree tale of friendship soon morphs into a thrilling saga of seduction, identity theft, and murder. Featuring gorgeous location photography of coastal Italy, PURPLE NOON is crafted with a tight touch that allows it to be at once suspenseful and erotic, and it gave Delon the role of a lifetime.

The essay "In Broad Sunlight" by Geoffrey O'Brien says: "When it first came out in America PURPLE NOON was like an advertisement for a life of luxurious sensuality, with hints of LA DOLCE VITA style decadence and New Wave modishness, pristinely opulent hotel rooms and lobbies, and large helpings of sand and sun. The passage of time has only accentuated that allure, since the Italy we sample here in such generous detail is a vanished tourist'ts dream, underpopulated and unpolluted, a paradise for footloose Americans: the seaport waterfronts teeming with fresh-caught fish, the bodies bronzed from long carefree afternoons in the sun, the luscious blues and greens of a sea made for open-ended yachting excurions .... Every frame filled by Henri Decae's astonishing cinematography is a place that begs to be entered and savoured. The color values are almost too beautiful to be endured ...  By the end of the film we do not simply understand Tom Ripley, we want what he wants."

As I said before, seeing this for the first time when I was 15 and living in Ireland, opened my eyes to European art and culture. The 1999 remake THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY by Anthony Minghella, which I mentioned recently, while expanding on Highsmith's original looks tame and fussy (with its needy nerd Tom) and with all that 50s period detail trowelled on, the fussy clothes with hats and gloves etc - whereas here the clothes they wear look effortlessly modern and chic, that white suit Laforet wears, Delon walking around the market in that perfect grey suit ... the beach and sailing clothes. 

The whole section at sea is marvellous too as Ripley plots and schemes to separate Marge and Greenleaf. Ronet excels here as he begins to realise what Tom is up to .... but Dickie is quite unsympathetic as he throws Marge's manuscript overboard and baits Tom a step too far .... OK the ending is changed, but is somehow quite right here, but as we know Tom has other adventures we know somehow he will get away with it .... 

Marie Laforet fascinates me all over again, those golden eyes (she was THE GIRL WITH GOLDEN EYES, in that 1961 French film, Laforet label), I loved that introduction to her as the camera pans over the Fra Angelico prints, we see the guitar and her song, and then that close up on her face, I shall be playing her songs again today. The decor is tres fab too, love those yellow armchairs. A perfect summer night movie then. There is even a walk-on by Romy Schneider at the start! 

BODY HEAT from 1981 would be a terrific heatwave movie too, I saw and reviewed it a while back, 1980s label