Pour le weekend

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

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 ?

Something camp for the weekend 3: a lesser Agatha Christie

A star-laden Agatha Christie from 1974: AND THEN THERE WERE NONE. We quite like those camp all-star Agatha Christie adaptations popular in the '70s and '80s, started by MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS and getting camper as they went along: DEATH ON THE NILE, EVIL UNDER THE SUN, THE MIRROR'S CRACKED (see Christie label). A lesser one is AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, which features a fascinating round-up of Euro-players, and is set in a luxury hotel in Isfahan, Iran - and features rare footage of the little-seen ancient city of Persepolis, where Alexander the Great hung out. Despite all this, there is something cheap about it though, its very much a minor Christie, but none the less camp for all that. 

A group of ten people, strangers to each other, have all travelled to a hotel located deep in the deserts of Iran. Upon arrival they discover that their host is mysteriously absent. Though some find this odd they decide to make the best of the situation and settle into the isolated but luxurious hotel. But soon they are accused by a tape recording of having committed various crimes in the past which went unpunished by the law. Then one victim dies of poisoning. Then another is strangled .... and the remaining guests deduce that their unseen host is determined to kill them one by one .... and as there is no-one else at the hotel, the killer has to be one of them ..... finally, there are just two left - one of them has to be the killer - or is there a twist ? 

This hoary old Christie chestnut has been done several times. I have not seen the 1940s one, but this 1974 version follows the amusing 1965 British TEN LITTLE INDIANS almost line by line, scene by scene - they are almost comedies. That black and white one was set in an Alpine fortress and had a fascinating 1960s cast with Bond girl Shirley Eaton and Hugh O'Brien, exotic Daliah Lavi, and Fabian, with British stalwarts Dennis Price, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Stanley Holloway and Leo Genn.  

Here in '74 we have Oliver Reed and Elke Sommer as the rather bland leads, with French Stephane Audran and Charles Aznavour, and two Bond villains Gert Frobe and Adolfo Celi, plus Brits Richard Attenborough and Herbert Lom. If you know the twist its reasonably amusing. This one is a Harry Alan Towers polyglot co-production, directed by Peter Collinson. At least it reminds us how much we like the very slinky Stephane Audran, who is marvellous here. Aznavour sings one of his popular hits "Dance in the old fashioned way" before he croaks .... and thats when the fun starts ! Oh, and the voice on the tape machine is Orson Welles ! 

New Wave stars shine in Chabrol rarities

LES GODELURAUX and A DOUBLE TOUR 

Claude Chabrol made his name with those 2 New Wave classics LE BEAU SERGE and LES COUSINS in 1958 and '59, both of which I have not seen since and need to acquaint myself with again. They are not in the two Chabrol boxsets I have, nor are a lot of his 1960s rarities by this very prolific director (who died in 2010 aged 80). We were there for his great era in the late 60s into the '70s: LES BICHES, LA FEMME INFIDELE, LE BOUCHER, THE BEAST MUST DIE etc, and I particularly liked his INNOCENTS WITH DIRTY HANDS with Romy Schneider in 1975. The early '60s saw Charbrol at his most playful with items like LANDRU, his rather comic bluebeard, in 1963, and that comedy thriller THE ROUTE TO CORINTH in '67 with Seberg and Ronet - a comedy thriller in bright Greek sunlight. and that recent pleasure of mine, his 1965 MARIE CHANTAL VERSUS DR KHA was also a bright sunny comedy thriller partly set in Morocco, with Marie Laforet and Stephane Audran. I must also catch some of his later films like LE CEREMONIE from 1995. Interesting now to go back to 2 of his early '60s ones:

The third film from Claude Chabrol and his first in colour, A DOUBLE TOUR (WEB OF PASSION) from 1959, is both a characteristically suspenseful thriller and a cruel portrait of bourgeois life. Henri Marcoux (Jacques Dacqmine) a respectable middle-class man living in Provence with his wife and 2 children, is having an affair with a younger woman Leda (Antonella Lualdi), an artist recently back from Japan and living nearby. His wife, the redoubtable Therese (Madeleine Robinson) is determined to avoid a scandal at any price, even to the extent of breaking off her daughter's engagement when she learns that her future son-in-law, the anarchic Laszlo (Jean-Paul Belmondo) sides with her husband. Then the unthinkable happens - Leda is found dead, but who is the killer? 

I liked this wayward thriller a lot - the cast is the thing here, Bernadette Lafont is a joy as the playful maid, while Belmondo (just before Godard's BREATHLESS) initially irritates as the loutish boyfriend of the family's pouting daughter. The son is a weirdo who listens to classical music in his room and may be too attached to his mother ... (interesting that Hitchcock was preparing/shooting PSYCHO at the same time...). We observe the bourgeois family life, as lushly photgraphed by Henri Decae (the same year he shot PLEIN SOLEIL): meals at table (Belmondo is always eating), going to church, lovely surroundings as family tensions simmer due to the father's relationship with the lovely Antonella Lualdi. Finally the murderer is revealed, in that long unsettling scene between killer and victim ...

My friend Daryl has some perceptive comments: 
His first film in color, it's a lively thriller, the very first of his bourgeois family melodramas (cf. LA FEMME INFIDELE, QUE LA BETE MEURE, LA RUPTURE, et al). It's a youthful film, and Chabrol encourages outrageousness in many of the performers. Jean-Paul Belmondo (as an anarchic guest of the family) disrupts every scene he's in; Mario David and Bernadette Lafont mug for the camera in hilarious fashion (Lafont, in particular, can't seem to deliver her lines without some facial contortion to let you know that this maid is fed up with the family she's working for). There's a great deal of emotion in this film, far more than in his more polished work, and the emotions aren't just expressed, they burst out, often in jagged spots. Lafont is very luscious here.

LES GODELURAUX (or WISEGUYS) which I had never heard of before - thanks Jerry for providing a copy - is an intoxicating treat from 1961, as we watch our young leads career around Paris in their cars. Ronald is the rich young man with a super apartment and a very "helpful" valet, but Ronald plots revenge against Arthur, for a perceived slight when Arthur and his pals moved his car from their usual parking place at Cafe Flore. 

Stephane dances and how!

Roland seemingly conjures Ambrosine out of thin air and sets the wayward temptress to lure Arthur and make him fall in love with her. Jean-Claude Brialy is in his element here as malicious Ronald and Bernadette Lafont is dazzling as the very capricious Ambrosine, strolling out in her tight jeans and causing mayhem whereever she goes, egged on by Ronald. They disrupt various events: tea with his aunt where she hilariously seduces the aunt's square nephew. or at that charity gathering which is suddenly dominated by a hilarious turn from Stephane Audran as a rather over the top dancer, Arthur's rich uncle's apartment is wrecked too as a Roman orgy gets out of hand while he is away. The plots twist and turn (sneezing powder and stink bombs play their part too!) as our trio commit all sorts of outrages and love too raises its head, in Paul Gegauff's fizzing script.  Its certainly an anarchic, young person's film - and pure Chabrol too, Jean Rabier's camerawork make the black and white images gleam. Jacques Demy gave us his free-wheeling LOLA that year, Truffaut then came up with JULES ET JIM in '62 as did Agnes Varda with CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 and LE BONHEUR in '64, and Malle stunned with LE FEU FOLLET, and Truffaut again with LE PEAU DEUCE (all at French label). Great years for the booming French cinema ... as per previous reviews, I also like Mocky's 1959 LES DRAGUEURS.

My friend Jorge has some nice comments on this quirky classic and its fascinating actress Bernadette Lafont (RIP label):
What an actress! I loved some quirky little touches in 'Les Godelureaux', Brialy's sensuous apartment, with flying pigeons, Persian carpets, and its greatest decoration: his very efficient "valet"! And the nearly palpable sense of macabre fun Chabrol has in casting Stéphane Audran as a burlesque danseuse - at a charity auction -, and even more so, a blink-you-miss cameo by Juliette Mayniel, as a nun!, drooling over Audran's performance!! Perhaps these bits and set-pieces - the juxtaposition between the Roman Orgy and apartment destruction, with the formal dinner at the restaurant, another example - are more memorable and sustain themselves better, than the whole, but it's a fun (occasionally uncomfortable, disquieting too) ride.

1965 - Marie Chantal & King Rat

A detour from 1966 to a treat from 1965 which I just had to see right away: Claude Chabrol's MARIE CHANTAL VS DR KHA - thanks Jerry!, plus Bryan Forbes' KING RAT, not seen since 1965 ...

Dr Kha (Akim Tamiroff hamming it up) the evil mastermind sends out his minions, including the slinky Olga (Stephane Audran) to obtain the jewelled panther with ruby eyes which actually contains a virus that could wipe out all of mankind!  The man carrying the ornament knows he is being followed and strikes up conversation on a train to a ski-ing resort with the madcap Marie Chantal (Marie Laforet) travelling with her cousin and a mysterious stranger (Francisco Rabal) and persuades her to take the panther and hide it for him ...... there is derring-do on the train, and also in Switzerland on the ski-slopes. He gets killed of course and Marie Chantal realises she is in danger, but she is a resourceful girl and runs rings around all the others. We then head off to Morocco, with more danger in the souks ... Olga does her best to get the panther and faces the wrath of Dr Kha - Marie Chantal though takes the rubies from the panther and turns them into ear-rings! - so the actual panther is now worthless as the precious virus is stored in the rubies ! Finally she confronts the evil mastermind .... who will emerge triumphant ?

This is delirious fun - a comedy thriller by Chabrol, up there with the best of them, like his ROUTE TO CORINTH, another bright comedy thriller set in Greece with Seberg and Ronet in 1967, and like De Broca's L'HOMME DE RIO which did for Brazil what Chabrol does for Morocco here, with the perfect duo of Belmondo and Dorleac (French label). It is also rather like what Losey was trying to achieve in MODESTY BLAISE with his heroine (Vitti) outwitting the bad guys, and it is all very Austin Powers ... and the Moroccan backgrounds are even better than in MAROC 7 or DUFFY (60s labels)...

 
The attraction for me are 2 stunning French actresses - I was transfixed by Marie Laforet since I first saw Rene Clements' PLEIN SOLEIL as a child (see label), she is the original Marge, and looks as perfect as Delon, she also sings, in a French folk style - I have some of her albums and downloads. 

She has one of those perfect angular faces - then there is Audran, as cool and delicious as ever, just as she and Chabrol began that marvellous series of films in the late '60s (like LA FEMME INFIDELE, review at Audran label). Serge Reggiani, Charles Denner and Roger Hanin are also involved in this delirious spy spoof, which is a joy to see now. Chabrol himself puts in an appearance too ... This is really a "pulpy" genre item like the Eurospy Bond spoof (like DANGER DIABOLIK) filtered through Chabrol's arty sensibilities (as Losey was doing at the same time with MODESTY). For an arty Eurospy movie with a strong female lead MARIE CHANTAL is just the ticket, and an interesting addition to the Chabrol boxsets ... I will be looking forward to visiting Marie Chantal again before too long ...

Now for something completely different: KING RAT, from the James Clavell novel, set in Changi prison in 1945. This is not a GREAT ESCAPE kind of prison where everyone looks well fed - the heat and humidity are well conveyed in the black and white photography - and as in the same year's other war movie Lumet's THE HILL a terrific cast of army types is assembled. Bryan Forbes directs and keeps us engrossed. It is one of the few war films to depict the conflict in the East, like A TOWN LIKE ALICE or THE LONG AND THE SHORT AND THE TALL ...

When Singapore surrendered to the Japanese in 1942 the Allied POWs, mostly British but including a few Americans, were incarcerated in Changi prison. This was a POW detention center like no other. Included among the prisoners is the American Cpl. King, a wheeler dealer who has managed to established a pretty good life for himself in the camp. While most of the prisoners are near starvation and have uniforms that are in tatters, King eats well and and has crisp clean clothes to wear every day. His nemesis is Lt. Robin Grey, the camp Provost who attempts to keep good order and discipline. He knows that King is breaking camp rules by bartering with the Japanese but can't quite get the evidence he needs to stop him. King soon forms a friendship with Lt. Peter Marlowe an upper class British officer who is fascinated with King's élan and no rules approach to life. As the story develops, it reveals the hypocrisy of the British class system and for King, the fact that his position in Changi's "society" is tenuous as best.

George Segal is ideal as King, as are James Fox as Marlowe (whom King practically seduces with a fried egg first time we see him), while Tom Courtenay seethes with rage at being unable to pin a charge on King. Add in John Mills, James Donald, Alan Webb, Denholm Elliott, Leonard Rossiter, John Standing etc ... King is a cynical huster/wheeler-dealer, while the British officers try to maintain civilised behaviour and standards in a pitiless world.

 
KING RAT now seems a very under-rated almost forgotten '60s film, odd as Segal, Fox and Courtenay were leading lights at the time, and Forbes had several successes (SEANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON, WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND, THE L-SHAPED ROOM and went on to THE WHISPERERS, THE WRONG BOX, THE STEPFORD WIVES etc, but somehow it was Losey, Schlesinger and Lester who were the critics' darlings - with THE KNACK winning best film at Cannes - I liked it but did not think it was that good!  KING RAT though is fascinating to see now, the outcome and final scene between King and Marlowe being quite affecting ... Courtenay of course also had his Losey moment with Bogarde in 1964's  KING AND COUNTRY, I must one of the few to have seen that rarity! Fox and Courtenay had of course already played in the 1962 LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER, Tony Richardson's downbeat drama from another Alan Sillitoe story, where resentful borstal boy Courtenay throws the race to spite his governor Michael Redgrave, Fox is the boy from the posh school who therefore wins ... According to Fox's biography KING RAT was made in Hollywood, and they were all on special diets to look suitably emaciated ....

Next 1965 item: the also little-seen now Kramer extravaganza SHIP OF FOOLS where Simone Signoret, Vivien Leigh (her last fiilm), Oscar Werner, Lee Marvin, and Segal again all deliver powerful performances ...

More French flicks ....

L’HOMME DE RIO – Back when I was 19 in 1965 I saw THAT MAN FROM RIO as a supporting feature. I have no idea now what the main movie was but I never forgot the deliciously zany French film dubbed into English, where Jean-Paul Belmondo was That Man (a soldier on leave) on the trail of his kidnapped girlfriend Francoise Dorleac and of course some stolen treasure, as the action heads from Paris to the Amazon jungles, it is surely an Indiana Jones before its time. This Philippe De Broca confection was a real movie – fun, exciting, romantic, brash, it is simply one of the best adventure capers ever made (and a perfect 60s movie), so I cannot understand how I have had to wait until now see it again (as it never shows here in the UK) and the version I now have is in French with sub-titles! There is also a great soundtrack with lots of Brazilian sounds – the bossa nova was really taking off in the mid-60s. This was filmed at just the right time just as all things South American were taking off.

The Tom Cruises and Gerard Butlers of the current filmworld should study this and see what a real caper movie is like and without those phoney-looking CGI stunts as the charismatic Belmondo goes on that rollercoaster ride from Rio to the jungles and the bright empty spaces of the new Brasilia! Belmondo is at his peak here, as is Dorleac as the capricious girlfriend who has a lovely sequence dancing on the beach - she's a carioca! There is also of course the obligatory cute streetwise kid (with an idyllic beach shack) who helps our hero evade the goons with guns, and some terrific airplane stunts ... and Adolfo Celi is splendidly over-ripe as usual. So from now on whenever I am depressed I shall play this and be flying down to Rio! No wonder there are raves on its comments page on IMDB. L'HOMME DE RIO is now officially 'A Movie I Love' and Belmondo is my new hero!


My friend Daryl has commented: How strange release patterns are: in the US, THAT MAN FROM RIO was a big deal indeed, winning the New York Film Critics Circle award for Best Foreign Film and running in the first-run art houses for almost a year!

LES AMANTS DE MONTPARNASSE – 1958 movie about the artist Modigliani, directed by Jacques Becker and dedicated to Max Ophuls. It follows the last year of Modigliani (or Modi as everyone refers to him) and is the usual story of the artist starving in a garret, set here in 1919 [in the Montparnasse area of Paris]. One does not have much patience with him though as Modi is hellbent on drinking himself to death and treats everyone – not least the women in his life – badly. Lilli Palmer is the rich Beatrice who does not mind too much, in fact she quite likes being slapped around, while young Anouk Aimee is Jeanne, the well to do girl who gives up everything for Modi, her father even locks her in her room to keep her away from him. Modi is Gerard Philipe, that pre-Delon/Belmondo heartthrob who died young in 1959.



I have only come lately to the cult of Philipe, having sought out his 1954 KNAVE OF HEARTS (MONSEIUR RIPOIS) for Joan Greenwood’s performance, and then getting Ophuls’ LA RONDE and the terrific FANFAN LA TULIPE. This builds to a chilling climax though as the ailing artist is reduced to selling his sketches to indifferent café diners, while being observed by Morel (Lino Ventura) a collector who knows that the works of a dead Modigliani will be worth more than those of a living artist. We watch fascinated as Modi finally collapses, stalked by Morel, who after the artist has died at the hospital rushes to the garret and begins buying the paintings from the unsuspecting Jeanne. We see glimpses of the paintings and that distinctive Modigliani style, it reminded me I used to have some reproductions pinned to my wall when I was a teenager. An interesting curiosity then - it is all very French, and just before that New Wave took off....



THE SLEEPING CAR MURDER - Costa-Gavras's 1965 French flick, a routine thriller, but expertly done, COMPARTIMENT TUEURS (it's original title) follows the police investigation of a murder in the sleeping car of the train. Then the other occupants are killed off one by one as weary police chief Yves Montand (with a head cold) essays all those cops who followed in tv series and movies as he tracks down the suspects. It is pretty much a family affair for the Montands as Simone Signoret has a showy role and her daughter Catherine Allegret is also on board. She gets involved with Jacques Perrin and others include Charles Denner, Michel Piccoli and Jean-Louis Trintignant. A very French affair then, but just as effective dubbed, in gleaming black and white. I have now also got Costa-Gavras's 'Z' to have another look at, I have not seen it since its release back in 1970, it was one of those prime thrillers of its era, 40 years ago, and no doubt still is very effective.

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. The same applies to Louis Malle and Jacques Demy.

Next: I need to go back and re-visit those Malles like LIFT TO THE SCAFFOLD, ZAZIE DANS LE METRO, VIVA MARIA and my favourite back then, LE FEU FOLLET where the very under-rated Maurice Ronet gives that staggering performance. The later Demy films did not make it to London, so one shall have to seek them out, but I have covered those early ones I like so much on here, Demy label. There are also some late Truffauts to see: THE LAST METRO and VIVEMENT DIMANCHE (FINALLY SUNDAY) with the adorable Fanny Ardant, and that amusing Hitchock pastiche THE BRIDE WORE BLACK with Moreau (my favourite Truffaut though has to be THE HISTORY OF ADELE H, with Isabelle Adjani, a movie that overwhelmed me at the time, 1976).
I also want to see (and re-see) those Francois Ozon's I missed: the camp extravaganza 8 WOMEN, the grim TIME TO LEAVE, Charlotte Rampling in UNDER THE SAND, etc. And I have just discovered a Jean-Pierre Melville set of 6 (more on that later). Back though to Chabrol....



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 (once again). It is a brilliant scene as the men talk, the lover feeling awkward and guilty, the husband not know what to do - but a casual remark of the lover suddenly leads to blind anger ... he 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. And there are those Delon and Varda boxsets to explore...her CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 was one of my discoveries of last year.