Classic French Cinema
French films of the 1930's to 1950's that I have seen and loved.
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- DirectorMarcel CarnéStarsArlettyJean-Louis BarraultPierre BrasseurThe theatrical life of a beautiful courtesan in 1830s Paris and the four men who love her.
- DirectorRené ClémentStarsGeorges PoujoulyBrigitte FosseyAmédéeA young French girl orphaned in a German air attack is befriended by the son of a poor farmer, and together they try to come to terms with the realities of death.
- DirectorJean GrémillonStarsJean GabinMadeleine RenaudMichèle MorganThe captain of the tugboat Cyclone, André Laurent, rushes off to save the Mirva. He abandons his sick wife Yvonne and the couple celebrating their marriage. In the early morning, the Cyclone tugs the Mirva ashore with Catherine aboard.
- DirectorJean GrémillonStarsMadeleine RenaudPierre BrasseurMadeleine RobinsonA shimmering glass hotel at the top of a remote Provençal mountain provides the setting for a tragicomic tapestry about an obsessive love pentangle.One of the great French classics. Paul Bernard is hiding a sordid secret, which only Madeleine Renaud, his long-time mistress, knows. Pierre Brasseur and Madeleine Robinson erupt into their cozy little world, with predictably disastrous results... See this and you will feel young again.
- DirectorMarcel CarnéStarsAnnabellaJean-Pierre AumontLouis JouvetOn the meandering Canal St. Martin, at the Parisian Hôtel du Nord, a nearly fatal gunshot separates a dejected young couple. But, amid a sad but beautiful panorama of lively characters, love has the final say. Can life be a fairy tale?
- DirectorJulien DuvivierStarsMarie BellFrançoise RosayLouis JouvetChristine, newly widowed and consumed by the memory of a ball she attended age 16, decides to track down the men she danced with that night and discover their fates.
- DirectorJulien DuvivierStarsHarry BaurRobert LynenLouis GauthierA red-haired boy is his mother's punching bag ; only his father's presence is a great comfort to him,but this weak man is under the shrew's thumb. His pain is so great he feels suicidal.A child is neglected by his parents, his mother is rough with him, his father distant, until the day of reckoning. Duvivier handles the direction very well, and Harry Baur and Robert Lynen as father and son play memorably.
- DirectorJean GrémillonStarsJean GabinMireille BalinPierre EtchepareSoldier Lucien meets elegant Madeleine one night in Cannes. Lovestruck, he follows her to Paris after he is discharged. Their love affair begins anew, but eventually runs cold and he returns to Orange in the south of France. She follows.
- DirectorJean GrémillonStarsRaimuPierre BlancharMadeleine RenaudAn innocent man spends time in prison for murder, then escapes and falls in love with the wife of the real perpetrator.Victor is a respected businessman who is also corrupt; he is forced to kill an associate who threatened to blackmail him. The story gets more complicated from this point on. Gremillon was such a capable director, easily the equal of Carne and his other contemporaries. He gets great performances from Raimu, Pierre Blanchar and Viviane Romance.
- DirectorJulien DuvivierStarsViviane RomanceMichel SimonMax DalbanAfter an elderly maid is murdered, opinions are manipulated, evidence is planted, violence erupts, and panic ensues.
- DirectorGeorges LampinStarsEdwige FeuillèreLucien CoëdelJean DebucourtMuichkine, a young Russian prince, returns home to St. Petersburg from a mental institution, determined to spread decency and kindness in the harsh and cruel world. He becomes betrothed to an innocent young girl while trying to save a less-innocent woman from her own travail, but jealousy and his own naivete conjoin to bring about unimaginable tragedy.
- DirectorHenri-Georges ClouzotStarsLouis JouvetSimone RenantBernard BlierA flirtatious wife runs off to meet an older man and the husband closes in with intend to murder him, but finds the deed already done.
- DirectorYves AllégretStarsBernard BlierSimone SignoretMarcello PaglieroDedee is a prostitute who works in Monsieur Rene's nightclub on Antwerp's harbour. The porter is Marco, her pimp. Dedee is not happy until she meets Francesco, an Italian sailor. They fall in love and Dedee starts to dream about escaping her daily dull grind.
- DirectorMarcel CarnéStarsPierre BrasseurSerge ReggianiYves MontandIt's Paris in the winter after its liberation. A tramp who may also be Destiny predicts that Jean Diego will fall in love with a beautiful girl. That same evening, Jean meets Malou.
- DirectorJean RenoirStarsJean GabinJulien CaretteSimone SimonIn this classic adaptation of Emile Zola's novel, a tortured train engineer falls in love with a troubled married woman who has helped her husband commit a murder.A Renoir from the late 30's, the period of Grande Illusion and la Regle du jeu, but not as well known. The only Zola adaptation Renoir made, it's lighter than many films made from this writer's works. Gabin and Simone Simon are the lovers.
- DirectorJean RenoirStarsMichel SimonJanie MarèseGeorges FlamantMaurice Legrand, a meek cashier married to a nagging wife, has a secret passion: he's a Sunday painter. He falls in love with Lulu, a young woman dominated by Dédé, the pimp who she works for. Dédé pushes Lulu into a relationship with him.
- DirectorJean RenoirStarsMarcel DalioNora GregorPaulette DubostA bourgeois life in France at the onset of World War II, as the rich and their poor servants meet up at a French chateau.
- DirectorJean RenoirStarsJean GabinDita ParloPierre FresnayDuring WWI, two French soldiers are captured and imprisoned in a German P.O.W. camp. Several escape attempts follow until they are eventually sent to a seemingly inescapable fortress.
- DirectorJean RenoirStarsMichel SimonMarcelle HainiaSévérine LerczinskaA bookseller saves a tramp from drowning and shelters him, but the tramp's odd behavior starts to wear everyone down.
- DirectorJean VigoStarsDita ParloJean DastéGilles MargaritisNewly married couple Juliette and a ship captain Jean struggle through marriage as they travel on the L'atalante along with the captain's first mate Le père Jules and a cabin boy.
- DirectorJean VigoStarsJean DastéRobert le FlonLouis LefebvreIn a repressive boarding school with rigid rules of behavior, four boys decide to rebel against the direction on a celebration day.
- DirectorJacques BeckerStarsFernand LedouxGeorges RollinBlanchette BrunoyIn a lost French village, an old woman is killed and her savings stolen. Several members of her family, all called "Goupi", are suspected.
- DirectorJacques BeckerStarsSimone SignoretSerge ReggianiClaude DauphinThree gangsters and an ex-con carpenter all fall for the same beautiful golden-haired woman in Belle Époque France.
- DirectorJacques BeckerStarsDaniel GélinBrigitte AuberNicole CourcelHopes and love and ambitions and friendship in a group of young jazz-loving Parisians.
- DirectorJacques BeckerStarsJean GabinRené DaryDora DollAn aging, world-weary gangster is double-crossed and forced out of retirement when his best friend is kidnapped and their stash of eight stolen gold bars demanded as ransom.