Simone Signoret stars in a dark tale of love in the belle époque underworld that is a unmissable classic with a pitilessly grim finale
A 70th-anniversary rerelease for this film by a masterly French director who is known for his craftsmanship – but deserves also to be known for his artistry. Jacques Becker’s Casque d’Or is a gripping tragic drama of Parisian lowlife set at the turn of the century, based on news stories and apocryphal tales of the “apache” criminal gangs that roamed the Paris underworld in the belle époque, terrifying and titillating those wealthy boulevardiers who liked to slum it in seedy dives.
Simone Signoret is glorious as Marie (nicknamed “Casque d’Or” for her golden helmet of hair); she is a woman of the night, based on the “gigolettes” tempting gentlemen into dark alleys, who would then be beaten and robbed by the woman’s male accomplices lurking behind her.
A 70th-anniversary rerelease for this film by a masterly French director who is known for his craftsmanship – but deserves also to be known for his artistry. Jacques Becker’s Casque d’Or is a gripping tragic drama of Parisian lowlife set at the turn of the century, based on news stories and apocryphal tales of the “apache” criminal gangs that roamed the Paris underworld in the belle époque, terrifying and titillating those wealthy boulevardiers who liked to slum it in seedy dives.
Simone Signoret is glorious as Marie (nicknamed “Casque d’Or” for her golden helmet of hair); she is a woman of the night, based on the “gigolettes” tempting gentlemen into dark alleys, who would then be beaten and robbed by the woman’s male accomplices lurking behind her.
- 11/24/2022
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
To mark the release of Casque D’Or on 28th November, we’ve been given a 4K Ultra HD copy to give away to one winner.
Set in Paris at the turn of the 19th Century, Casque D’Or follows the love affair between gangster’s moll, Marie and reformed criminal Georges Manda. When mob boss, Felix Leca (Claude Dauphin), takes an active interest in their affair, an underworld rivalry ensues leading to a treacherous and tragic end.
Please note: This competition is open to UK residents only
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Casque D’Or is released on 4K Uhd, Blu-ray, DVD and Digital from 28th November 2022
The Small Print
Open to UK residents only The competition will close 5th December 2022 at 23.59 GMT The winner will be picked at random from entries received No cash alternative is available Please note prizes may be delayed due to Covid-19 To coincide with Gdpr regulations,...
Set in Paris at the turn of the 19th Century, Casque D’Or follows the love affair between gangster’s moll, Marie and reformed criminal Georges Manda. When mob boss, Felix Leca (Claude Dauphin), takes an active interest in their affair, an underworld rivalry ensues leading to a treacherous and tragic end.
Please note: This competition is open to UK residents only
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Casque D’Or is released on 4K Uhd, Blu-ray, DVD and Digital from 28th November 2022
The Small Print
Open to UK residents only The competition will close 5th December 2022 at 23.59 GMT The winner will be picked at random from entries received No cash alternative is available Please note prizes may be delayed due to Covid-19 To coincide with Gdpr regulations,...
- 11/23/2022
- by Competitions
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
In film history, the anthology genre is the most challenging. Episodic films often have several directors and screenwriters which gives them an inconsistent tone and quality. But the genre’s pitfalls haven’t stopped such filmmakers including Akira Kurosawa (“Dreams”), the Coens (“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs”), Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez (“Sin City”); Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese (“New York Stories”); and Joe Dante, John Landis, George Miller and Steven Spielberg (“Twilight Zone: The Movie”).
Wes Anderson joined them with his latest film “The French Dispatch,” which received a nine-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival. The comedy brings to life three stories from an American magazine published in a fictional French city and features his stock company of actors including Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Adrien Brody and Owen Wilson.
If you are a fan of the genre, here are the best anthology movies that...
Wes Anderson joined them with his latest film “The French Dispatch,” which received a nine-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival. The comedy brings to life three stories from an American magazine published in a fictional French city and features his stock company of actors including Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Adrien Brody and Owen Wilson.
If you are a fan of the genre, here are the best anthology movies that...
- 10/30/2021
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Jean-Pierre Melville’s most accomplished, most personal movie gets a new reissue. Ignored in 1969 and released in the United States only 37 years later, this somber, ultra-realistic look at the French resistance has never been equalled. Forget thrilling adventure tales with daring escapes, patriotic oaths and beautiful spies; Melville presents resistance activities in the Occupied territory as a fearful grind leading in one direction only. Criterion’s extras include an interview piece with historical operatives, who still argue points of strategy.
Army of Shadows
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 385
1969 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 145 min. / L’Armée des ombres / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date April 7, 2020 / 39.95
Starring: Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Simone Signoret, Claude Mann, Paul Crauchet, Christian Barbier, Serge Reggiani, André Dewavrin.
Cinematography: Pierre Lhomme, Walter Wottitz
Film Editor: Françoise Bonnot
Original Music: Eric De Marsan
Written by Jean-Pierre Melville from the novel by Joseph Kessel
Produced by Jacques Dorfmann
Directed...
Army of Shadows
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 385
1969 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 145 min. / L’Armée des ombres / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date April 7, 2020 / 39.95
Starring: Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Simone Signoret, Claude Mann, Paul Crauchet, Christian Barbier, Serge Reggiani, André Dewavrin.
Cinematography: Pierre Lhomme, Walter Wottitz
Film Editor: Françoise Bonnot
Original Music: Eric De Marsan
Written by Jean-Pierre Melville from the novel by Joseph Kessel
Produced by Jacques Dorfmann
Directed...
- 4/7/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
We can depend on H.G. Clouzot to find people at their most desperate, at their worst. His updated adaptation of Manon Lescaut dissects the trauma of amour fou And the hypocrisy, opportunism and political horror of postwar France. Resistance fighter Michel Auclair and provincial tart Cécile Aubrey are lovers caught in a web of vice and treachery, much of it of their own making. Their desperate escape takes them to an inhuman landscape devoid of mercy. Clouzot may pity these characters, but he sure doesn’t give them a break.
Manon
Blu-ray
Arrow Academy
1949 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 105 min. / Street Date February 25, 2020 / Available from Arrow Academy 39.95
Starring: Serge Reggiani, Michel Auclair, Cécile Aubry, Andrex, Raymond Souplex, André Valmy, Henri Vilbert, Héléna Manson, Dora Doll, Robert Dalban.
Cinematography: Armand Thirard
Film Editor: Monique Kirsanoff
Production designer: Max Douy
Original Music: Paul Misraki
Written by Jean Ferry, Henri-Georges Clouzot from the...
Manon
Blu-ray
Arrow Academy
1949 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 105 min. / Street Date February 25, 2020 / Available from Arrow Academy 39.95
Starring: Serge Reggiani, Michel Auclair, Cécile Aubry, Andrex, Raymond Souplex, André Valmy, Henri Vilbert, Héléna Manson, Dora Doll, Robert Dalban.
Cinematography: Armand Thirard
Film Editor: Monique Kirsanoff
Production designer: Max Douy
Original Music: Paul Misraki
Written by Jean Ferry, Henri-Georges Clouzot from the...
- 3/10/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Valentina Cortese, an Italian actress who held the extremely rare distinction of having been nominated for best supporting actress for her work in a foreign film, Francois Truffaut’s 1973 classic “Day for Night,” has died, according to Italian news agency Ansa. She was 96.
In Truffaut’s “Day for Night,” considered by many to be the best movie about making movies ever made, Cortese played, in the words of Roger Ebert, “the alcoholic diva past her prime.” The New York Times said: “The performances are superb. Miss Cortese and Miss Bisset are not only both hugely funny but also hugely affecting, in moments that creep up on you without warning.”
For a two-part, Carlo Ponti-produced 1948 film adaptation of “Les Miserables,” Cortese caused a sensation by playing both female leads, Fantine and Cosette. (The film was otherwise an adequate treatment of the Victor Hugo novel.)
“With Valentina Cortese’s passing, the...
In Truffaut’s “Day for Night,” considered by many to be the best movie about making movies ever made, Cortese played, in the words of Roger Ebert, “the alcoholic diva past her prime.” The New York Times said: “The performances are superb. Miss Cortese and Miss Bisset are not only both hugely funny but also hugely affecting, in moments that creep up on you without warning.”
For a two-part, Carlo Ponti-produced 1948 film adaptation of “Les Miserables,” Cortese caused a sensation by playing both female leads, Fantine and Cosette. (The film was otherwise an adequate treatment of the Victor Hugo novel.)
“With Valentina Cortese’s passing, the...
- 7/10/2019
- by Carmel Dagan
- Variety Film + TV
Auteurist film books from the early ’70s touted the crime pictures of Jean-Pierre Melville, a Yankeephile Frenchman who chose a new name for himself and embraced crime pix because he loved John Huston’s The Asphalt Jungle. This tale of utter ruthlessness among thieves is one of Melville’s best. The great Jean-Paul Belmondo and Serge Reggiani leading a superior cast of underworld losers: Fabienne Dali, Michel Piccoli, Jean Desailly and Monique Hennessy.
Le Doulos
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1962 / B&w / 1:66 widescreen / 109 min. / Street Date July 2, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Serge Reggiani, Fabienne Dali, Michel Piccoli, Jean Desailly, René Lefèvre, Aimé De March, Monique Hennessy, Carl Studer.
Cinematography: Nicolas Hayer
Film Editor: Monique Bonnot
Original Music: Paul Misraki
Written by Jean-Pierre Melville from a book by Pierre Lesou
Produced by Carlo Ponti, Georges De Beauregard
Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville
Having plumbed the libraries of some of...
Le Doulos
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1962 / B&w / 1:66 widescreen / 109 min. / Street Date July 2, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Serge Reggiani, Fabienne Dali, Michel Piccoli, Jean Desailly, René Lefèvre, Aimé De March, Monique Hennessy, Carl Studer.
Cinematography: Nicolas Hayer
Film Editor: Monique Bonnot
Original Music: Paul Misraki
Written by Jean-Pierre Melville from a book by Pierre Lesou
Produced by Carlo Ponti, Georges De Beauregard
Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville
Having plumbed the libraries of some of...
- 7/2/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
I.Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno (1964) is one of the most tantalizing unfinished projects in cinema history. If completed, it would have told a story of extreme jealousy and obsession. The plot is simple—a hotel owner, Marcel (Serge Reggiani), begins to suffer from nightmarish visions in which his young wife Odette (Romy Schneider) appears in various lascivious poses and sometimes erotically interacts with another man. Marcel gradually descends into madness and may, in the end, be driven to kill his wife. Generously backed by Columbia (via the French production company Orsay Films), Clouzot shot in black and white as well as in color, employing three separate film crews, no less than 12 cameras, and a large number of technicians and film craftsmen, including some of the most established industry names of the time. For six months, three cameramen—Claude Renoir, Armand Thirard and Andréas Winding—shot seemingly endless studio tests and,...
- 9/28/2018
- MUBI
Review by Roger Carpenter
After several critical and financial successes, Henri-Georges Clouzot was at the top of his game as a filmmaker. Widely considered one of the greatest French filmmakers and continental Europe’s answer to Hitchcock, Clouzot had directed such genuine classics as Le Corbeau, Quai des Orfevres, The Wages of Fear, and Diabolique. By this time he was being courted by many large film companies, but it was Columbia who won out, giving him complete creative control and an unlimited budget to create what was to be his masterpiece: L’enfer (Inferno in English).
Clouzot, rightly recognizing this exceptional opportunity, set to work creating a unique slice of cinema. L’enfer was to tell the story of a newlywed couple, he a middle-aged man and she a twenty-something debutante. But soon after the nuptials, the new husband, Marcel, spirals into jealousy and paranoia, convinced his wife, Odette, is sleeping with others.
After several critical and financial successes, Henri-Georges Clouzot was at the top of his game as a filmmaker. Widely considered one of the greatest French filmmakers and continental Europe’s answer to Hitchcock, Clouzot had directed such genuine classics as Le Corbeau, Quai des Orfevres, The Wages of Fear, and Diabolique. By this time he was being courted by many large film companies, but it was Columbia who won out, giving him complete creative control and an unlimited budget to create what was to be his masterpiece: L’enfer (Inferno in English).
Clouzot, rightly recognizing this exceptional opportunity, set to work creating a unique slice of cinema. L’enfer was to tell the story of a newlywed couple, he a middle-aged man and she a twenty-something debutante. But soon after the nuptials, the new husband, Marcel, spirals into jealousy and paranoia, convinced his wife, Odette, is sleeping with others.
- 4/2/2018
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The Tenth Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival — co-presented by Cinema St. Louis and the Webster University Film Series continues this weekend. — The Classic French Film Festival celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s cinematic legacy. The featured films span the decades from the 1920s through the mid-1990s, offering a revealing overview of French cinema. This year’s fest kicked off last weekend with a screening of Bertrand Tavernier’s acclaimed documentary My Journey Through French Cinema.
There are two more events for the Tenth Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival happening this weekend:
Saturday, March 9th at 7:30pm – Casque D’Or. Ticket information can be found Here
Jacques Becker lovingly evokes the belle epoque Parisian demimonde in this classic tale of doomed romance — the French equivalent of the legend of Frankie and Johnny. When gangster’s moll Marie (Simone Signoret) falls for reformed criminal Manda (Serge Reggiani...
There are two more events for the Tenth Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival happening this weekend:
Saturday, March 9th at 7:30pm – Casque D’Or. Ticket information can be found Here
Jacques Becker lovingly evokes the belle epoque Parisian demimonde in this classic tale of doomed romance — the French equivalent of the legend of Frankie and Johnny. When gangster’s moll Marie (Simone Signoret) falls for reformed criminal Manda (Serge Reggiani...
- 3/6/2018
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The Tenth Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival — co-presented by Cinema St. Louis and the Webster University Film Series starts this Friday, March 2nd. — The Classic French Film Festival celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s cinematic legacy. The featured films span the decades from the 1920s through the mid-1990s, offering a revealing overview of French cinema. This year’s fest kicks off with a screening of Bertrand Tavernier’s acclaimed documentary My Journey Through French Cinema, the director’s personal reflections on key films and filmmakers. Several of the works he highlights — such as Jacques Becker’s “Casque d’or” and Jean-Pierre Melville’s “Le Samouraï” — are screened at this year’s fest.
Tickets: $13 General Admission. Cinema St. Louis Members: $10. Students: $10. Webster. U students: Free. Tickets for My Journey Through French Cinema can be purchased Here
All films are screened at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood).
Friday,...
Tickets: $13 General Admission. Cinema St. Louis Members: $10. Students: $10. Webster. U students: Free. Tickets for My Journey Through French Cinema can be purchased Here
All films are screened at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood).
Friday,...
- 2/26/2018
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
A cinematic puzzle and a filmic detective piece, Serge Bromberg’s examination of a world-class filmmaker’s catastrophic, never-finished production fascinates and dazzles. If the particulars of H.G. Clouzot’s experimental epic of internal torment remain clouded, the astonishing visuals he created are a total knockout. Working with hours of uncut dailies and precise collaborator memories, Bromberg gives us the most interesting filmic autopsy on record. Incredible stuff!
Inferno
(L’enfer d’Henri-Georges Clouzot)
Blu-ray
Arrow Academy
2009 / Color & B&W / 1:78 widescreen / 100 min. / L’enfer d’Henri-Georges Clouzot / Street Date February 6, 2018 / Available from Arrow Video 34.95
Starring: Romy Schneider, Serge Reggiani, Bérénice Bejo, Jacques Gamblin, Dany Carrel, Jean-Claude Bercq, Mario David, Catherine Allégret, Henri-Georges Clouzot, Gilbert Amy, Jacques Douy, Jean-Louis Ducarme, Costa-Gavras, William Lubtchansky, Thi Lan Nguyen, Joël Stein, Bernard Stora, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Bernard Blier, Inès Clouzot, Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, Lino Ventura, Burt Lancaster.
Cinematography: Jérôme Krumenacker, Irina Lubtchansky...
Inferno
(L’enfer d’Henri-Georges Clouzot)
Blu-ray
Arrow Academy
2009 / Color & B&W / 1:78 widescreen / 100 min. / L’enfer d’Henri-Georges Clouzot / Street Date February 6, 2018 / Available from Arrow Video 34.95
Starring: Romy Schneider, Serge Reggiani, Bérénice Bejo, Jacques Gamblin, Dany Carrel, Jean-Claude Bercq, Mario David, Catherine Allégret, Henri-Georges Clouzot, Gilbert Amy, Jacques Douy, Jean-Louis Ducarme, Costa-Gavras, William Lubtchansky, Thi Lan Nguyen, Joël Stein, Bernard Stora, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Bernard Blier, Inès Clouzot, Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, Lino Ventura, Burt Lancaster.
Cinematography: Jérôme Krumenacker, Irina Lubtchansky...
- 2/20/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno (2009) is showing from February 2 - March 4, 2018 in many countries around the world.“Memory is cursed with what hasn’t happened.”—Marguerite Duras With Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno, directors Serge Bromberg and Ruxandra Medrea both reconstruct and describe the production of the titular unfinished 1964 film, presenting their film as at once an op-art experiment and a traditional documentary of a failed production. At its center, however, is a preoccupation with the notion of the historical fragment and the viewer’s attribution of meaning and value to the fragment. This attribution is largely the result of a lack, as Lacan put it, experienced by both the fragment and viewer that can never be satisfied. The fragment signifies its own symbolic desire to be a part of a whole and the viewer’s symbolic desire for that whole.
- 2/19/2018
- MUBI
In 1964, Henri-Georges Clouzot, the acclaimed director of thriller masterpieces Les Diaboliques and Wages of Fear, began work on his most ambitious film yet.
Set in a beautiful lake side resort in the Auvergne region of France, L’Enfer (Inferno) was to be a sun scorched elucidation on the dark depths of jealousy starring Romy Schneider as the harassed wife of a controlling hotel manager (Serge Reggiani). However, despite huge expectations, major studio backing and an unlimited budget, after three weeks the production collapsed under the weight of arguments, technical complications and illness.
In this compelling, award-winning documentary Serge Bromberg and Ruxandra Medrea present Inferno’s incredible expressionistic original rushes, screen tests, and on-location footage, whilst also reconstructing Clouzot’s original vision, and shedding light on the ill-fated endeavor through interviews, dramatizations of unfilmed scenes, and Clouzot’s own notes.
Special Edition Contents
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation Original 5.1 DTS-hd Master...
Set in a beautiful lake side resort in the Auvergne region of France, L’Enfer (Inferno) was to be a sun scorched elucidation on the dark depths of jealousy starring Romy Schneider as the harassed wife of a controlling hotel manager (Serge Reggiani). However, despite huge expectations, major studio backing and an unlimited budget, after three weeks the production collapsed under the weight of arguments, technical complications and illness.
In this compelling, award-winning documentary Serge Bromberg and Ruxandra Medrea present Inferno’s incredible expressionistic original rushes, screen tests, and on-location footage, whilst also reconstructing Clouzot’s original vision, and shedding light on the ill-fated endeavor through interviews, dramatizations of unfilmed scenes, and Clouzot’s own notes.
Special Edition Contents
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation Original 5.1 DTS-hd Master...
- 1/24/2018
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The 10th Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival — co-presented by Cinema St. Louis and the Webster University Film Series — celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s cinematic legacy. The featured films span the decades from the 1920s through the 1990s, offering a revealing overview of French cinema.
This year’s fest kicks off with a screening of Bertrand Tavernier’s acclaimed documentary “My Journey Through French Cinema,” the director’s personal reflections on key films and filmmakers. Several of the works he highlights — such as Jacques Becker’s “Casque d’or” and Jean-Pierre Melville’s “Le Samouraï” — are screened at this year’s fest.
The fest annually includes significant restorations, and this year features New Wave master Jacques Rivette’s visually sumptuous “La belle noiseuse.” The fest also provides one of the few opportunities available in St. Louis to see films projected the old-school, time-honored way, with Jean Renoir...
This year’s fest kicks off with a screening of Bertrand Tavernier’s acclaimed documentary “My Journey Through French Cinema,” the director’s personal reflections on key films and filmmakers. Several of the works he highlights — such as Jacques Becker’s “Casque d’or” and Jean-Pierre Melville’s “Le Samouraï” — are screened at this year’s fest.
The fest annually includes significant restorations, and this year features New Wave master Jacques Rivette’s visually sumptuous “La belle noiseuse.” The fest also provides one of the few opportunities available in St. Louis to see films projected the old-school, time-honored way, with Jean Renoir...
- 1/18/2018
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Ready for some full- on Japanese sentimentality? Superlative tough guy Ken Takakura takes us deep into heartbreak territory in search of a happy ending. Yoji Yamada’s Hokkaido road epic throws together a trio of ‘drifters of the heart’ to see if they can solve each other’s romantic dilemmas.
The Yellow Handkerchief
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1978 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / Street Date November 14, 2017 / Shiawase no kiiroi hankachi / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 24.95
Starring: Ken Takakura, Chieko Baisho, Kaori Momoi, Tetsuya Takeda, Hisao Dazai, Makoto Akatsuka, Mari Okamato.
Cinematography: Tetsuo Takaha
Film Editor: Iwao Ishii
Original Music: Masaru Sato
Written by Yoji Yamada, Yoshitaka Asama
Produced by Toru Najima
Directed by Yoji Yamada
Americans can experience difficulty navigating the sometimes- confusing sphere of Japanese humor. Cartoons, children’s films, action movies often seem crude or cruel, but can also be unexpectedly delicate. And some cultural barriers are still there — nobody...
The Yellow Handkerchief
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1978 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / Street Date November 14, 2017 / Shiawase no kiiroi hankachi / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 24.95
Starring: Ken Takakura, Chieko Baisho, Kaori Momoi, Tetsuya Takeda, Hisao Dazai, Makoto Akatsuka, Mari Okamato.
Cinematography: Tetsuo Takaha
Film Editor: Iwao Ishii
Original Music: Masaru Sato
Written by Yoji Yamada, Yoshitaka Asama
Produced by Toru Najima
Directed by Yoji Yamada
Americans can experience difficulty navigating the sometimes- confusing sphere of Japanese humor. Cartoons, children’s films, action movies often seem crude or cruel, but can also be unexpectedly delicate. And some cultural barriers are still there — nobody...
- 11/25/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Michel Piccoli and Romy Schneider in Max Et Les Ferrailleurs - Bertrand Tavernier: "I see Claude Sautet as the son of Jacques Becker."
In the third and final installment of my conversation with Bertrand Tavernier on his Journey Through French Cinema (Voyage À Travers Le Cinéma Français) he discusses his dedication to Jacques Becker (Casque D'Or, Édouard Et Caroline) and Claude Sautet (Max Et Les Ferrailleurs), Mireille Balin's dress in Jean Delannoy's Macao, l'Enfer Du Jeu (Gambling Hell), Jean Gabin, not forgetting Jean-Pierre Melville's Army Of Shadows (L'Armée Des Ombres), Léon Morin, Prêtre or Le Silence De La Mer, Jean Paul Gaultier and Falbalas (Paris Frills), Mila Parély in Coco Chanel, Jean Renoir's A Day In The Country (Partie De Campagne), Joseph Kosma, Sylvia Bataille and Jacques Lacan, Howard Hawks's Red River and Only Angels Have Wings, and not having to see Rio Bravo ever again.
In the third and final installment of my conversation with Bertrand Tavernier on his Journey Through French Cinema (Voyage À Travers Le Cinéma Français) he discusses his dedication to Jacques Becker (Casque D'Or, Édouard Et Caroline) and Claude Sautet (Max Et Les Ferrailleurs), Mireille Balin's dress in Jean Delannoy's Macao, l'Enfer Du Jeu (Gambling Hell), Jean Gabin, not forgetting Jean-Pierre Melville's Army Of Shadows (L'Armée Des Ombres), Léon Morin, Prêtre or Le Silence De La Mer, Jean Paul Gaultier and Falbalas (Paris Frills), Mila Parély in Coco Chanel, Jean Renoir's A Day In The Country (Partie De Campagne), Joseph Kosma, Sylvia Bataille and Jacques Lacan, Howard Hawks's Red River and Only Angels Have Wings, and not having to see Rio Bravo ever again.
- 6/16/2017
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Simone Simon in 'La Bête Humaine' 1938: Jean Renoir's film noir (photo: Jean Gabin and Simone Simon in 'La Bête Humaine') (See previous post: "'Cat People' 1942 Actress Simone Simon Remembered.") In the late 1930s, with her Hollywood career stalled while facing competition at 20th Century-Fox from another French import, Annabella (later Tyrone Power's wife), Simone Simon returned to France. Once there, she reestablished herself as an actress to be reckoned with in Jean Renoir's La Bête Humaine. An updated version of Émile Zola's 1890 novel, La Bête Humaine is enveloped in a dark, brooding atmosphere not uncommon in pre-World War II French films. Known for their "poetic realism," examples from that era include Renoir's own The Lower Depths (1936), Julien Duvivier's La Belle Équipe (1936) and Pépé le Moko (1937), and particularly Marcel Carné's Port of Shadows (1938) and Daybreak (1939).[11] This thematic and...
- 2/6/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Marie Dubois, actress in French New Wave films, dead at 77 (image: Marie Dubois in the mammoth blockbuster 'La Grande Vadrouille') Actress Marie Dubois, a popular French New Wave personality of the '60s and the leading lady in one of France's biggest box-office hits in history, died Wednesday, October 15, 2014, at a nursing home in Lescar, a suburb of the southwestern French town of Pau, not far from the Spanish border. Dubois, who had been living in the Pau area since 2010, was 77. For decades she had been battling multiple sclerosis, which later in life had her confined to a wheelchair. Born Claudine Huzé (Claudine Lucie Pauline Huzé according to some online sources) on January 12, 1937, in Paris, the blue-eyed, blonde Marie Dubois began her show business career on stage, being featured in plays such as Molière's The Misanthrope and Arthur Miller's The Crucible. François Truffaut discovery: 'Shoot the...
- 10/17/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Jan. 22, 2013
Price: DVD $24.95, Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Olive Films
Bourvil (l) and Jean Gabin star in the 1958 French film version of Les Miserables.
French filmmaker Jean-Paul le Chanois’s 1958 film version of Les Miserables is considered to be one of the greatest epic drama movie adaptations of Victor Hugo’s renowned novel.
Jean Valjean (Jean Gabin, Remorques) is paroled after serving 19 year term in a hard labor prison for stealing some bread. After spending a night in a missionary, he tries to steal some silverware, but he is set straight by a kindly bishop (Fernand Ledoux) who protects him from the police and makes him promise that he has to become a new man. Nine years later, Valjean has become a wealthy industrialist and a mayor. He eventually befriends Fantine (Daniele Delorme), a single mother turned prostitute and risks everything when he comes to her aid, after she...
Price: DVD $24.95, Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Olive Films
Bourvil (l) and Jean Gabin star in the 1958 French film version of Les Miserables.
French filmmaker Jean-Paul le Chanois’s 1958 film version of Les Miserables is considered to be one of the greatest epic drama movie adaptations of Victor Hugo’s renowned novel.
Jean Valjean (Jean Gabin, Remorques) is paroled after serving 19 year term in a hard labor prison for stealing some bread. After spending a night in a missionary, he tries to steal some silverware, but he is set straight by a kindly bishop (Fernand Ledoux) who protects him from the police and makes him promise that he has to become a new man. Nine years later, Valjean has become a wealthy industrialist and a mayor. He eventually befriends Fantine (Daniele Delorme), a single mother turned prostitute and risks everything when he comes to her aid, after she...
- 11/8/2012
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
★★★☆☆ Jacques Becker's 1952 French melodrama Casque d'Or celebrates its 60th anniversary this week with a deserved Blu-ray rerelease, courtesy of UK distributor StudioCanal. Often overlooked in discussions of genuinely groundbreaking French cinema - and perhaps understandably so - Becker's well-shot and well-acted Belle Époque romance is nevertheless an enticing proposition, despite its slightly hackneyed 'doomed lovers' narrative. Marie (Simone Signoret) and Georges (Serge Reggiani) are the would-be lovebirds in question, their blossoming relationship tragically splintered by circumstance and underworld interference.
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- 11/6/2012
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
To celebrate the 60th anniversary and UK Blu-Ray premiere of French classic Casque D’Or on November 5th, we’ve been given 3 copies of the movie to give away.
Set in Paris at the turn of the 19th Century, Casque D’Or follows the love affair between gangster’s moll, Marie (Simone Signoret, Room At The Top, Les Diaboliques) and reformed criminal Georges Manda (Serge Reggiani, Les Miserables, The Pianist).
When mob boss, Felix Leca (Claude Dauphin), takes an active interest in their affair, an underworld rivalry ensues leading to a treacherous and tragic end.
Casque D’Or is a classic, poetic tale of doomed romance based on the true-life Leca-Manda scandal. Evoking the Belle Epoque period perfectly and with an unforgettable femme fatale performance from Signoret, Casque D’Or is considered a Becker masterpiece.
To win a copy of Casque d’Or on Blu-Ray, simply answer the following question:...
Set in Paris at the turn of the 19th Century, Casque D’Or follows the love affair between gangster’s moll, Marie (Simone Signoret, Room At The Top, Les Diaboliques) and reformed criminal Georges Manda (Serge Reggiani, Les Miserables, The Pianist).
When mob boss, Felix Leca (Claude Dauphin), takes an active interest in their affair, an underworld rivalry ensues leading to a treacherous and tragic end.
Casque D’Or is a classic, poetic tale of doomed romance based on the true-life Leca-Manda scandal. Evoking the Belle Epoque period perfectly and with an unforgettable femme fatale performance from Signoret, Casque D’Or is considered a Becker masterpiece.
To win a copy of Casque d’Or on Blu-Ray, simply answer the following question:...
- 10/16/2012
- by Competitions
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Didn’t I just write one of these a week ago? Of course I did, because this is your destination for the best coverage of all the new titles Criterion puts up on their Hulu Plus page, and this week is no different. There’s fewer films (unless they decide to throw up another 30 when I least expect it) but in this case, less is more. And the lucky number is 13 this time. With worries of what the future for Hulu is, there are supposed talks that Google is definitely interested, which is interesting. Especially with their roll out of Google+ these past few days. If you like what you see, please sign up via this link. It does wonders for this article. But enough about that, you want to know about the movies. So let’s not make the good people wait.
The one that made my head explode was Godzilla,...
The one that made my head explode was Godzilla,...
- 7/4/2011
- by James McCormick
- CriterionCast
Chicago – What truly defines a master of suspense? Is it the skill of keeping an audience’s attention rapt with slick pacing, elaborately designed set-pieces, and a whopper of a twist ending? Or is it simply the ability to viscerally convey the psychological trap of a character until the audience feels confined within it, and every onscreen gasp, scream and shiver becomes the viewer’s own?
Henri-Georges Clouzot is one of the few filmmakers in cinema history who not only warrants comparison to the legendary Master of Suspense himself, Alfred Hitchcock, but deserves to be considered his equal (both men were greatly fond of storyboards). Though he only made a quarter as many pictures during his career, which spanned nearly four decades, he made some of the most influential and spellbinding thrillers ever made, including two renowned masterpieces, 1953’s “The Wages of Fear” and 1955’s “Diabolique.” The latter film certainly...
Henri-Georges Clouzot is one of the few filmmakers in cinema history who not only warrants comparison to the legendary Master of Suspense himself, Alfred Hitchcock, but deserves to be considered his equal (both men were greatly fond of storyboards). Though he only made a quarter as many pictures during his career, which spanned nearly four decades, he made some of the most influential and spellbinding thrillers ever made, including two renowned masterpieces, 1953’s “The Wages of Fear” and 1955’s “Diabolique.” The latter film certainly...
- 9/14/2010
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
As if the recent November titles weren’t enough, we now have some other films to add to our upcoming Criterion Collection wishlists.
The Criterion Collection will once again be curating the upcoming All Tomorrow’s Parties Film Screenings, in Monticello New York, this September. The event overall, will be curated by Criterion alum, Jim Jarmusch (Down by Law, Night on Earth, Stranger Than Paradise, Mystery Train). Earlier today, Atp & Criterion announced their line-up of films, and hidden among the list of epic titles that we already knew were going to be released, or are already available, were a few little verifications of rumors going around.
The line-up looks to be pretty amazing, and if I could afford the flight, I would surely head out for that weekend. Several of the new Bbs box set will be screening, as well as some other films that we’ve discussed on the...
The Criterion Collection will once again be curating the upcoming All Tomorrow’s Parties Film Screenings, in Monticello New York, this September. The event overall, will be curated by Criterion alum, Jim Jarmusch (Down by Law, Night on Earth, Stranger Than Paradise, Mystery Train). Earlier today, Atp & Criterion announced their line-up of films, and hidden among the list of epic titles that we already knew were going to be released, or are already available, were a few little verifications of rumors going around.
The line-up looks to be pretty amazing, and if I could afford the flight, I would surely head out for that weekend. Several of the new Bbs box set will be screening, as well as some other films that we’ve discussed on the...
- 8/21/2010
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
Cécile Aubry, Henri-Georges Clouzot‘s leading lady in the 1949 drama Manon and Tyrone Power‘s romantic interest in the 1950 period adventure The Black Rose, died of lung cancer on July 19 in Dourdan, outside of Paris. She was 81. Born Anne-José Madeleine Henriette Bénard (or Anne José Bénard according to some sources) into a wealthy Parisian family on Aug. 3, 1928, Aubry’s film debut took place in Clouzot’s updating of Abbé Prévost‘s 18th-century novel Manon Lescaut. In the film, the then 20-year-old actress plays Manon, who flees her French village after locals accuse her of having collaborated with the Nazis. Rescued by a Resistance activist (Serge Reggiani), Manon ends up in Paris where a life of degradation and marital discord awaits her. "To achieve what he wanted," Aubry later remarked, "Clouzot pushed the actors to the limit, especially the women. But he also declared that he needed to be in love...
- 7/30/2010
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
By Ali Naderzad - July 31, 2010
Here in Paris--the Montparnasse and Odeon neighborhoods especially--there are legion movie theatres of all sizes and denominations. Careful where you walk, you might bump into one.
I like them all: the modern multiplexes and the arthouse cinemas near La Sorbonne, such as le Champo. I prefer the big loud and bright theatres because the sound is better and the screens are large. But where else can you see films by Michael Powell ("The Red Shoes" which I saw at Film Forum a year ago is now showing here) or Ettore Scola but at these neighborhood theatres? And besides, they deserve major credit for their extraordinary resiliency. The Champo has been opened since the late 1930s.
Tonight, a group of us is going to Le Champo to see Scola's "The Terrasse." Of note, is the extraordinary cast: Marcelo Mastroianni, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Serge Reggiani, Ugo Tognazzi and Vittorio Gassman.
Here in Paris--the Montparnasse and Odeon neighborhoods especially--there are legion movie theatres of all sizes and denominations. Careful where you walk, you might bump into one.
I like them all: the modern multiplexes and the arthouse cinemas near La Sorbonne, such as le Champo. I prefer the big loud and bright theatres because the sound is better and the screens are large. But where else can you see films by Michael Powell ("The Red Shoes" which I saw at Film Forum a year ago is now showing here) or Ettore Scola but at these neighborhood theatres? And besides, they deserve major credit for their extraordinary resiliency. The Champo has been opened since the late 1930s.
Tonight, a group of us is going to Le Champo to see Scola's "The Terrasse." Of note, is the extraordinary cast: Marcelo Mastroianni, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Serge Reggiani, Ugo Tognazzi and Vittorio Gassman.
- 7/30/2010
- by Screen Comment
- Screen Comment
Chicago – Many great films have been made about the changing of eras and the passing of power from one generation to another. But few are as masterfully conceived and as lovingly detailed as Italian filmmaker Luchino Visconti’s 1963 classic “The Leopard.” Gorgeously restored on Blu-Ray, this near-masterpiece was sliced and diced by Hollywood for American audiences, but is now presented in its original three-hour running time.
As one of the founders of Italian neorealism, Visconti is well known for his depictions of upper-class life, which are somewhat inspired by his own upbringing in one of Italy’s wealthiest families. Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s 1958 novel of “The Leopard,” published a few months after the author’s death, was an ideal fit for Visconti’s stylistic and thematic obsessions. The story centers on members of the Sicilian aristocracy during the Risorgimento (Italian unification) of the early 1860s. The aristocracy’s delicate...
As one of the founders of Italian neorealism, Visconti is well known for his depictions of upper-class life, which are somewhat inspired by his own upbringing in one of Italy’s wealthiest families. Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s 1958 novel of “The Leopard,” published a few months after the author’s death, was an ideal fit for Visconti’s stylistic and thematic obsessions. The story centers on members of the Sicilian aristocracy during the Risorgimento (Italian unification) of the early 1860s. The aristocracy’s delicate...
- 7/7/2010
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
There was an entrancing 1949 French movie, The Lovers of Verona, in which the 17-year-old Anouk Aimée and Serge Reggiani become star-crossed lovers while playing understudies in a film of Romeo and Juliet being shot in Italy. It came to mind as I endured the endless longueurs of this kitschy piece in which New Yorker fact-checker Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) and her restaurateur fiance (Gael García Bernal) drift apart on a visit to Verona. He's only interested in researching food, while she becomes involved with a group of Italian women who answer lonely hearts letters left at Juliet's supposed house by lovelorn girls.
Sophie's new job brings her into contact with an English grandmother (Vanessa Redgrave) who left a letter there for her Italian Romeo in 1957 and is drawn back to find him, accompanied by her parodic English grandson. This is Three Coins in the Fountain with a small infusion of Lost in Translation...
Sophie's new job brings her into contact with an English grandmother (Vanessa Redgrave) who left a letter there for her Italian Romeo in 1957 and is drawn back to find him, accompanied by her parodic English grandson. This is Three Coins in the Fountain with a small infusion of Lost in Translation...
- 6/12/2010
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
The newly restored version of director Luchino Visconti’s "Il Gattopardo" debuted @ the 63rd annual Cannes Film Festival, thanks to support from Gucci.
Gucci Creative Director Frida Giannini was joined on the red carpet by the film’s original cast members Alain Delon ('Tancredi Falconeri') and Claudia Cardinale ('Angelica Sedara'), with producer/director Martin Scorsese, Founder and Chair of The Film Foundation, introducing the film.
"Il Gattopardo" first screened @ Cannes in 1963, winning the festival's top award, the 'Palme d'Or'.
With Gucci's support, the film has undergone an extensive 4K digital restoration at Sony’s Colorworks Digital Facility through a partnership of Cineteca di Bologna, L'Immagine Ritrovata, The Film Foundation, Pathé, Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé, Twentieth Century Fox, and Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia-Cineteca Nazionale.
"Il Gattopardo" (The Leopard), based on the novel by author Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, was first released March 1963, directed by Visconti, produced by Goffredo Lombardo/Pietro Notarianni...
Gucci Creative Director Frida Giannini was joined on the red carpet by the film’s original cast members Alain Delon ('Tancredi Falconeri') and Claudia Cardinale ('Angelica Sedara'), with producer/director Martin Scorsese, Founder and Chair of The Film Foundation, introducing the film.
"Il Gattopardo" first screened @ Cannes in 1963, winning the festival's top award, the 'Palme d'Or'.
With Gucci's support, the film has undergone an extensive 4K digital restoration at Sony’s Colorworks Digital Facility through a partnership of Cineteca di Bologna, L'Immagine Ritrovata, The Film Foundation, Pathé, Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé, Twentieth Century Fox, and Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia-Cineteca Nazionale.
"Il Gattopardo" (The Leopard), based on the novel by author Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, was first released March 1963, directed by Visconti, produced by Goffredo Lombardo/Pietro Notarianni...
- 5/14/2010
- by Michael Stevens
- SneakPeek
For art and entertainment, 'making of' films can rival the movies they document, says Mark Kermode
Every now and then, a documentary about the making of a film rivals its subject for both art and entertainment. Take Les Blank's extraordinary Burden of Dreams which, arguably, documents obsession and the search for "ecstatic truth" as effectively as Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo. "I live by this movie, I die by this movie!" declares Herzog with a conviction which would shame Klaus Kinski's titular madman and which Blank backs up with breathtakingly confrontational on-set footage.
Or what about Hearts of Darkness, in which Martin Sheen suffers a heart attack and Francis Ford Coppola mutates into a modern-day Colonel Kurtz while filming Apocalypse Now? "My movie is not about Vietnam, my movie is Vietnam!" says Coppola with Brandoesque bravado, before admitting: "We had too much equipment, too much money and little by little we went insane.
Every now and then, a documentary about the making of a film rivals its subject for both art and entertainment. Take Les Blank's extraordinary Burden of Dreams which, arguably, documents obsession and the search for "ecstatic truth" as effectively as Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo. "I live by this movie, I die by this movie!" declares Herzog with a conviction which would shame Klaus Kinski's titular madman and which Blank backs up with breathtakingly confrontational on-set footage.
Or what about Hearts of Darkness, in which Martin Sheen suffers a heart attack and Francis Ford Coppola mutates into a modern-day Colonel Kurtz while filming Apocalypse Now? "My movie is not about Vietnam, my movie is Vietnam!" says Coppola with Brandoesque bravado, before admitting: "We had too much equipment, too much money and little by little we went insane.
- 4/10/2010
- by Mark Kermode
- The Guardian - Film News
Recent winner for Best Documentary at the Césars (the French Oscars), Serge Bromberg's and Ruxandra Medrea's Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno has been picked up theatrically for the play in the U.S. (via The Flicker Alley - I never heard of you guys) - I'm imagining a traveling, art-house circuit release for the doc. - Recent winner for Best Documentary at the Césars (the French Oscars), Serge Bromberg's and Ruxandra Medrea's Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno has been picked up theatrically for the play in the U.S. (via The Flicker Alley - I never heard of you guys) - I'm imagining a traveling, art-house circuit release for the doc - or if you can call it that, as its a construction of Clouzot’s original, unfinished vision, filling the gaps with interviews, re-enactments and Clouzot’s own notes and storyboards.  ...
- 3/11/2010
- IONCINEMA.com
A Prophet: Césars for Best Picture, Director, Actor Emmanuelle Devos was the Best Supporting Actress César winner for Xavier Giannoli’s In the Beginning, a well-received drama that also played at Cannes. In the film, Devos plays the mayor of a small town in the north of France suffering from high unemployment rates. A teary-eyed Mélanie Thierry was the Best Female Newcomer for her young alcoholic in Le dernier pour la route (One for the Road). Never mind the fact that Thierry has been around for more than a decade. Serge Bromberg and Ruxandra Medrea’s L’enfer d’Henri-Georges Clouzot (Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Hell), about the Diaboliques and The Wages of Fear director’s unfinished 1964 effort L’enfer starring Romy Schneider and Serge Reggiani, was [...]...
- 2/28/2010
- by Steve Montgomery
- Alt Film Guide
Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno Directed by Serge Bromberg and Ruxandra Medrea [1]Serge Bromberg’s much-lauded documentary, on limited UK release from today, tells the story of revered French director Henri-Georges Clouzot's ill-fated attempt to create his cinematic opus: L’Enfer (‘Inferno’ or, more commonly, ‘Hell’). In 1964, Clouzot, working with an unlimited budget, a handpicked crew, and total creative autonomy, set out on the project which would live up to its name before long. Clouzot made his reputation as a thriller director: his 1950s films The Wages of Fearand Diabolique earned him the sobriquet ‘the French Hitchcock’ and brought him great acclaim both in his native country as well as internationally. But it was L’Enfer that Clouzot hoped would create a lasting legacy; not just for him as a filmmaker but in its transformation of cinema itself. Shifts in the boundaries of visual effects, storytelling, psychological exposition – all of...
- 11/7/2009
- by Joel
- SoundOnSight
By Michael Atkinson
Supercool and desperate and retroactively magnificent though it is, American film noir rarely had -- film for film -- very much deliberate philosophical torque; they were too busy being fast-moving, medium-to-low-budget programmers. In the American psyche, westerns always held more self-consciously ontological cachet: here were portraits of the American soul reckoning with evil, with fate and with itself. Noir came by its resonance more circumstantially, collectively and after the fact, although the catalogue of '45-'60 noirs still constitutes the most culturally expressive chunk of Hollywood films ever made. It took the French to recognize noir for what it was, and, in the personage of pulp archangel Jean-Pierre Melville, to transform the noir paradigm into a full-on dark night of existentialist tribulation. The two Melvilles to get newly, ravishingly Criterionized, "Le Doulos" (1962) and "Le Deuxième Souffle" (1966), are studies in the famous genre's evolution from haphazard Zeitgeist to...
Supercool and desperate and retroactively magnificent though it is, American film noir rarely had -- film for film -- very much deliberate philosophical torque; they were too busy being fast-moving, medium-to-low-budget programmers. In the American psyche, westerns always held more self-consciously ontological cachet: here were portraits of the American soul reckoning with evil, with fate and with itself. Noir came by its resonance more circumstantially, collectively and after the fact, although the catalogue of '45-'60 noirs still constitutes the most culturally expressive chunk of Hollywood films ever made. It took the French to recognize noir for what it was, and, in the personage of pulp archangel Jean-Pierre Melville, to transform the noir paradigm into a full-on dark night of existentialist tribulation. The two Melvilles to get newly, ravishingly Criterionized, "Le Doulos" (1962) and "Le Deuxième Souffle" (1966), are studies in the famous genre's evolution from haphazard Zeitgeist to...
- 10/14/2008
- by Michael Atkinson
- ifc.com
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