Micheline Presle, the standout French actress who starred in the controversial Devil in the Flesh before making a foray into Hollywood that included roles opposite John Garfield, Tyrone Power, Errol Flynn and Paul Newman, has died. She was 101.
Presle died Wedneday in the Paris suburb of Nogent-sur-Marne, her son-in-law Olivier Bomsel told Le Figaro.
Presle came to international attention when she portrayed a nurse having an affair with a student (Gérard Philipe) in the World War I drama Devil in the Flesh (1947), which the National Board of Review voted as one of the 10 best films of the year.
Because it featured a woman who took a lover while her husband was away at war, it generated a great deal of discussion.
In 1949, Presle met American actor William Marshall, who had been married to another French star, Michèle Morgan, and followed him to America. They would wed that year in Santa Barbara.
Presle died Wedneday in the Paris suburb of Nogent-sur-Marne, her son-in-law Olivier Bomsel told Le Figaro.
Presle came to international attention when she portrayed a nurse having an affair with a student (Gérard Philipe) in the World War I drama Devil in the Flesh (1947), which the National Board of Review voted as one of the 10 best films of the year.
Because it featured a woman who took a lover while her husband was away at war, it generated a great deal of discussion.
In 1949, Presle met American actor William Marshall, who had been married to another French star, Michèle Morgan, and followed him to America. They would wed that year in Santa Barbara.
- 2/22/2024
- by Rhett Bartlett and Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Arthur Riplye's The Chase (1946) is playing from September 30 - October 30, 2017 in the United States.“It’s happened again.” This almost throwaway admission by the protagonist of The Chase, Arthur Ripley’s way-out 1946 noir, comes just after the film’s jolting third act twist. It sets the viewer up for the unexpected, but is delivered with such exasperation that, at least for the beleaguered hero of the picture, the situation may perhaps be all too familiar, a possibility that in itself makes the occurrence that much more significant. Prior to this point, The Chase had been a solid, atmospheric thriller, with sufficient quirkiness to keep it in thoroughly fresh territory. But with this derailing revelation, there is really no preparing for how The Chase plays out, and what that, in turn, means for the preceding story. On its surface set-up,...
- 10/16/2017
- MUBI
Guillaume Gallienne as the older Cézanne with director Danièle Thompson: 'It was a journey of discovery: I had no idea that Cézanne originally wanted to be a writer and Zola wanted to be a painter' Photo: Unifrance
She has become French cinema “royalty” with an impeccable pedigree. Danièle Thompson’s father Gérard Oury was one of the country’s most successful directors whose wartime frolic La Grande Vadrouille from 1966 scored more than 17 million box office admissions - and she had her first experience of a film set working on the hit comedy. Thompson’s mother was actress Jacqueline Roman - and her father, who died in 2006, later married the iconic Michèle Morgan.
Danièle Thompson: 'The quality of TV today has improved enormously. Look at your Downton Abbey - it is a writer’s dream' Photo: Unifrance Her son Christopher is an actor and director (together they worked on...
She has become French cinema “royalty” with an impeccable pedigree. Danièle Thompson’s father Gérard Oury was one of the country’s most successful directors whose wartime frolic La Grande Vadrouille from 1966 scored more than 17 million box office admissions - and she had her first experience of a film set working on the hit comedy. Thompson’s mother was actress Jacqueline Roman - and her father, who died in 2006, later married the iconic Michèle Morgan.
Danièle Thompson: 'The quality of TV today has improved enormously. Look at your Downton Abbey - it is a writer’s dream' Photo: Unifrance Her son Christopher is an actor and director (together they worked on...
- 4/7/2017
- by Richard Mowe
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
2016 movies Things to Come (pictured) and Elle have earned French cinema icon Isabelle Huppert her – surprisingly – first National Society of Film Critics Best Actress Award. 2016 Movies: Isabelle Huppert & 'Moonlight' among National Society of Film Critics' top picks Earlier today (Jan. 7), the National Society of Film Critics announced their top 2016 movies and performances. Somewhat surprisingly, this year's Nsfc list – which generally contains more offbeat entries than those of other U.S.-based critics groups – is quite similar to their counterparts', most of which came out last December. No, that doesn't mean the National Society of Film Critics has opted for the crowd-pleasing route. Instead, this awards season U.S. critics have not infrequently gone for even less mainstream entries than usual. Examples, among either the Nsfc winners or runners-up, include Isabelle Huppert in Elle, Moonlight, Toni Erdmann, Casey Affleck in Manchester by the Sea, and Lily Gladstone in Certain Women. French...
- 1/8/2017
- by Mont. Steve
- Alt Film Guide
Ronald Bergan’s fine obituary of Michèle Morgan shows how, like so many other of Europe’s creative people, her life was fractured by fascism and war in the 1930s and 1940s.
Her performance in The Fallen Idol (1948) throws clear light on this. With the writer Graham Greene and the director Carol Reed at the top of their form, this little masterpiece is set in the embassy of a French-speaking nation in postwar London. Morgan plays a typist in love with the embassy’s English butler, Baines, superbly played by Ralph Richardson.
Continue reading...
Her performance in The Fallen Idol (1948) throws clear light on this. With the writer Graham Greene and the director Carol Reed at the top of their form, this little masterpiece is set in the embassy of a French-speaking nation in postwar London. Morgan plays a typist in love with the embassy’s English butler, Baines, superbly played by Ralph Richardson.
Continue reading...
- 12/30/2016
- by Patrick Renshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
French actor best known for her role in the 1930s film Le Quai des Brumes
One of the quintessential images of pre-war French cinema was the almond-eyed Michèle Morgan, dressed in trench coat and beret, trying to grab some happiness together with the doomed army deserter, Jean Gabin, in a sombre fogbound port in Le Quai des Brumes (Port of Shadows, 1938). “You have beautiful eyes, you know,” Gabin tells her. “Kiss me,” she replies.
It was the first film in which the distinctive melancholic “poetic realism” of the director Marcel Carné and the screenwriter Jacques Prévert expressed itself. The then 18-year-old Morgan had already been in pictures for three years, yet never again in her long career would she appear in a role so perfectly suited to her, that of the beautiful, mysterious waif, old beyond her years.
Continue reading...
One of the quintessential images of pre-war French cinema was the almond-eyed Michèle Morgan, dressed in trench coat and beret, trying to grab some happiness together with the doomed army deserter, Jean Gabin, in a sombre fogbound port in Le Quai des Brumes (Port of Shadows, 1938). “You have beautiful eyes, you know,” Gabin tells her. “Kiss me,” she replies.
It was the first film in which the distinctive melancholic “poetic realism” of the director Marcel Carné and the screenwriter Jacques Prévert expressed itself. The then 18-year-old Morgan had already been in pictures for three years, yet never again in her long career would she appear in a role so perfectly suited to her, that of the beautiful, mysterious waif, old beyond her years.
Continue reading...
- 12/21/2016
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Michèle Morgan, one of the greats of 20th century French film who starred in the lauded Port of Shadows, among many others, died today. The family announced her death, according to French media reports. She was 96. Morgan was a leading lady for three decades in both French cinema and American features. She was the inaugural winner of the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival, and in 1992 was given an Honorary César Award for her contributions to French…...
- 12/20/2016
- Deadline
The Retro Set a "loosely autobiographical review" of 20th Century Women
Variety there's a documentary coming about the men behind the classic "Curious George" books
The Guardian Dick Van Dyke, who is 91 years old, has confirmed that he has a part in Mary Poppins Returns playing the son of one of his two characters in the original (the ancient banker guy apparently rather than the chimney sweep)
Browbeat BAFTA makes a bold move, requiring some degree of diversity to be eligible for awards starting in 2019 (they offer several ways in which you can do that for those worried about artistic freedoms for filmmakers)
Towleroad a list of retailers you should shop at this Christmas since the anti-gay right wing is targeting them.
Decider the year in cinematic smoking
New Yorker their 16 most read stories this year
Coming Soon Legion, an X-Men spinoff TV series, gets a poster
Awards Daily Vancouver...
Variety there's a documentary coming about the men behind the classic "Curious George" books
The Guardian Dick Van Dyke, who is 91 years old, has confirmed that he has a part in Mary Poppins Returns playing the son of one of his two characters in the original (the ancient banker guy apparently rather than the chimney sweep)
Browbeat BAFTA makes a bold move, requiring some degree of diversity to be eligible for awards starting in 2019 (they offer several ways in which you can do that for those worried about artistic freedoms for filmmakers)
Towleroad a list of retailers you should shop at this Christmas since the anti-gay right wing is targeting them.
Decider the year in cinematic smoking
New Yorker their 16 most read stories this year
Coming Soon Legion, an X-Men spinoff TV series, gets a poster
Awards Daily Vancouver...
- 12/20/2016
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Michele Morgan, famous for her role in The Fallen Idol, died Tuesday at her home in Paris. "The most beautiful eyes in cinema were permanently closed this morning," the family said in a statement. She was 96.
Considered one of the greatest actresses of French cinema, Morgan is best known as the girlfriend of an unhappily married butler (Ralph Richardson) whose wife dies accidentally in the 1948 film The Fallen Idol. It was nominated for two Oscars.
Morgan was born Feb. 29, 1920, in Neuilly-sur-Seine as Simone Renee Roussel. She left home when she was 15 to pursue acting and...
Considered one of the greatest actresses of French cinema, Morgan is best known as the girlfriend of an unhappily married butler (Ralph Richardson) whose wife dies accidentally in the 1948 film The Fallen Idol. It was nominated for two Oscars.
Morgan was born Feb. 29, 1920, in Neuilly-sur-Seine as Simone Renee Roussel. She left home when she was 15 to pursue acting and...
- 12/20/2016
- by Cheryl Cheng
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Michele Morgan - in her heyday
The French actress Michèle Morgan, who was the unforgettable partner of Jean Gabin in Le Quai Des Brumes, died today in Paris at the age of 96.
Born Simone Renée Roussel on 29 February 1920, Michèle Morgan began her career in 1935 as an extra in La Vie Parisienne directed by Robert Siodmak, and in Mademoiselle Mozart by Yvan Noé, in which the title role was taken by Danielle Darrieux.
She decided to take her craft seriously, enlisting in the stage school Cours Simon where she learned the essentials of acting - and paid for her studies by continuing to take small roles in films.
Then in 1937 she made her mark in Gribouille by Marc Allégret and ascended to mythic status when (in Le Quai Des Brumes) Jean Gabin remarked “Tu as des beaux yeux, tu sais …” (“You know you have beautiful eyes …”) to which she replied: “Embrasse-moi.
The French actress Michèle Morgan, who was the unforgettable partner of Jean Gabin in Le Quai Des Brumes, died today in Paris at the age of 96.
Born Simone Renée Roussel on 29 February 1920, Michèle Morgan began her career in 1935 as an extra in La Vie Parisienne directed by Robert Siodmak, and in Mademoiselle Mozart by Yvan Noé, in which the title role was taken by Danielle Darrieux.
She decided to take her craft seriously, enlisting in the stage school Cours Simon where she learned the essentials of acting - and paid for her studies by continuing to take small roles in films.
Then in 1937 she made her mark in Gribouille by Marc Allégret and ascended to mythic status when (in Le Quai Des Brumes) Jean Gabin remarked “Tu as des beaux yeux, tu sais …” (“You know you have beautiful eyes …”) to which she replied: “Embrasse-moi.
- 12/20/2016
- by Richard Mowe
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
An exercise in dizzy disorientation, this Cornell Woolrich crazy-house noir pulls the rug out from under us at least three times. You want delirium, you got it -- the secret words for today are "Obsessive" and "Perverse." Innocent Robert Cummings is no match for sicko psychos Peter Lorre and Steve Cochran. The Chase Blu-ray Kino Classics 1946 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 86 min. / Street Date May 24, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Robert Cummings, Michèle Morgan, Steve Cochran, Peter Lorre, Lloyd Corrigan, Jack Holt, Don Wilson, Alexis Minotis, Nina Koschetz, Yolanda Lacca, James Westerfield, Shirley O'Hara. Cinematography Frank F. Planer Film Editor Edward Mann Original Music Michel Michelet Written by Philip Yordan from the book The Black Path of Fear by Cornell Woolrich Produced by Seymour Nebenzal Directed by Arthur D. Ripley
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
As Guy Maddin says on his (recommended) commentary, the public domain copies of this show were...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
As Guy Maddin says on his (recommended) commentary, the public domain copies of this show were...
- 5/7/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Philippe Garrel. Photo by Darren Hughes.There’s no exact equivalent in film history for Philippe Garrel’s “family cinema,” as he calls it here. To immerse oneself in his work is to watch Garrel and those he loves (parents, partners, children) be transformed by age and experience, while their passions and preoccupations—that particular Garrelian amour fou—persist.After several decades during which Garrel’s films saw limited distribution and exhibition in North America, he's now experiencing something of a revival. Over the span of three days at the Toronto International Film Festival I enjoyed an impromptu Garrel family retrospective. In the Cinematheque program, Tiff debuted its recently-commissioned 35mm print of Jacques Rozier’s first film, Adieu Philippine (1962), which features a middle-aged Maurice Garrel in a supporting role. Actua 1 (1968), Philippe Garrel’s long-lost short documentary of the May ’68 protests, screened in the Wavelengths section, also in a new print.
- 1/13/2016
- by Darren Hughes
- MUBI
Danièle Delorme: 'Gigi' 1949 actress and pioneering female film producer. Danièle Delorme: 'Gigi' 1949 actress was pioneering woman producer, politically minded 'femme engagée' Danièle Delorme, who died on Oct. 17, '15, at the age of 89 in Paris, is best remembered as the first actress to incarnate Colette's teenage courtesan-to-be Gigi and for playing Jean Rochefort's about-to-be-cuckolded wife in the international box office hit Pardon Mon Affaire. Yet few are aware that Delorme was featured in nearly 60 films – three of which, including Gigi, directed by France's sole major woman filmmaker of the '40s and '50s – in addition to more than 20 stage plays and a dozen television productions in a show business career spanning seven decades. Even fewer realize that Delorme was also a pioneering woman film producer, working in that capacity for more than half a century. Or that she was what in French is called a femme engagée...
- 12/5/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Michael Curtiz's wartime tale of Devil's Island convict Humphrey Bogart fighting to get back and defend France has a still-controversial scene of violence. The convoluted storyline nests enough flashbacks-within-flashbacks to confuse any viewer, and packs the screen with every actor on the Warner lot who can handle a foreign accent. With Claude Rains, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, George Tobias, and Michèle Morgan. Passage to Marseille Blu-ray Warner Archive Collection 1944 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 109 min. / Street Date November 10, 2015 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Humphrey Bogart, Claude Rains, Michèle Morgan, Philip Dorn, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, George Tobias, Helmut Dantine, John Loder, Victor Francen, Vladimir Sokoloff, Eduardo Ciannelli. Cinematography James Wong Howe Art Direction Carl Julius Weyl Film Editor Owen Marks Original Music Max Steiner Written by Casey Robinson, Jock Moffitt from a novel by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall Produced by Jack L. Warner Directed by Michael Curtiz...
- 11/14/2015
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Each week, the fine folks at Fandor add a number of films to their Criterion Picks area, which will then be available to subscribers for the following twelve days. This week, the Criterion Picks focus on eight delightful French films.
Three decades of exceptional French cinema in the service of that most intoxicating, unpredictable and stubborn of muscles, to which laws of convention and commitment prove no barrier: the heart.
Don’t have a Fandor subscription? They offer a free trial membership.
Children of Paradise by Marcel Carne
Poetic realism reached sublime heights with Children Of Paradise, widely considered one of the greatest French films of all time. This nimble depiction of nineteenth-century Paris’s theatrical demimonde, filmed during World War II, follows a mysterious woman loved by four different men (all based on historical figures): an actor, a criminal, a count, and, most poignantly, a mime (Jean-Louis Barrault,...
Three decades of exceptional French cinema in the service of that most intoxicating, unpredictable and stubborn of muscles, to which laws of convention and commitment prove no barrier: the heart.
Don’t have a Fandor subscription? They offer a free trial membership.
Children of Paradise by Marcel Carne
Poetic realism reached sublime heights with Children Of Paradise, widely considered one of the greatest French films of all time. This nimble depiction of nineteenth-century Paris’s theatrical demimonde, filmed during World War II, follows a mysterious woman loved by four different men (all based on historical figures): an actor, a criminal, a count, and, most poignantly, a mime (Jean-Louis Barrault,...
- 9/22/2015
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
Child actor Dickie Moore: 'Our Gang' member. Former child actor Dickie Moore dead at 89: Film career ranged from 'Our Gang' shorts to features opposite Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper 1930s child actor Dickie Moore, whose 100+ movie career ranged from Our Gang shorts to playing opposite the likes of Marlene Dietrich, Barbara Stanwyck, and Gary Cooper, died in Connecticut on Sept. 7, '15 – five days before his 90th birthday. So far, news reports haven't specified the cause of death. According to a 2013 Boston Phoenix article about Moore's wife, MGM musical star Jane Powell, he had been “suffering from arthritis and bouts of dementia.” Dickie Moore movies At the behest of a persistent family friend, combined with the fact that his father was out of a job, Dickie Moore (born on Sept. 12, 1925, in Los Angeles) made his film debut as an infant in Alan Crosland's 1927 costume drama The Beloved Rogue,...
- 9/11/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Olivia de Havilland picture U.S. labor history-making 'Gone with the Wind' star and two-time Best Actress winner Olivia de Havilland turns 99 (This Olivia de Havilland article is currently being revised and expanded.) Two-time Best Actress Academy Award winner Olivia de Havilland, the only surviving major Gone with the Wind cast member and oldest surviving Oscar winner, is turning 99 years old today, July 1.[1] Also known for her widely publicized feud with sister Joan Fontaine and for her eight movies with Errol Flynn, de Havilland should be remembered as well for having made Hollywood labor history. This particular history has nothing to do with de Havilland's films, her two Oscars, Gone with the Wind, Joan Fontaine, or Errol Flynn. Instead, history was made as a result of a legal fight: after winning a lawsuit against Warner Bros. in the mid-'40s, Olivia de Havilland put an end to treacherous...
- 7/2/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Marc Allégret: From André Gide lover to Simone Simon mentor (photo: Marc Allégret) (See previous post: "Simone Simon Remembered: Sex Kitten and Femme Fatale.") Simone Simon became a film star following the international critical and financial success of the 1934 romantic drama Lac aux Dames, directed by her self-appointed mentor – and alleged lover – Marc Allégret.[1] The son of an evangelical missionary, Marc Allégret (born on December 22, 1900, in Basel, Switzerland) was to have become a lawyer. At age 16, his life took a different path as a result of his romantic involvement – and elopement to London – with his mentor and later "adoptive uncle" André Gide (1947 Nobel Prize winner in Literature), more than 30 years his senior and married to Madeleine Rondeaux for more than two decades. In various forms – including a threesome with painter Théo Van Rysselberghe's daughter Elisabeth – the Allégret-Gide relationship remained steady until the late '20s and their trip to...
- 2/28/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
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
Sean Penn: Honorary César goes Hollywood – again (photo: Sean Penn in '21 Grams') Sean Penn, 54, will receive the 2015 Honorary César (César d'Honneur), the French Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Crafts has announced. That means the French Academy's powers-that-be are once again trying to make the Prix César ceremony relevant to the American media. Their tactic is to hand out the career award to a widely known and relatively young – i.e., media friendly – Hollywood celebrity. (Scroll down for more such examples.) In the words of the French Academy, Honorary César 2015 recipient Sean Penn is a "living legend" and "a stand-alone icon in American cinema." It has also hailed the two-time Best Actor Oscar winner as a "mythical actor, a politically active personality and an exceptional director." Penn will be honored at the César Awards ceremony on Feb. 20, 2015. Sean Penn movies Sean Penn movies range from the teen comedy...
- 1/28/2015
- by Steve Montgomery
- Alt Film Guide
Translators introduction: This article by Mireille Latil Le Dantec, the second of two parts, was originally published in issue 40 of Cinématographe, September 1978. The previous issue of the magazine had included a dossier on "La qualité française" and a book of a never-shot script by Jean Grémillon (Le Printemps de la Liberté or The Spring of Freedom) had recently been published. The time was ripe for a re-evaluation of Grémillon's films and a resuscitation of his undervalued career. As this re-evaluation appears to still be happening nearly 40 years later—Grémillon's films have only recently seen DVD releases and a 35mm retrospective begins this week at Museum of the Moving Image in Queens—this article and its follow-up gives us an important view of a French perspective on Grémillon's work by a very perceptive critic doing the initial heavy-lifting in bringing the proper attention to the filmmaker's work.
Passion...
Passion...
- 12/11/2014
- by Ted Fendt
- MUBI
Publicity still of Remorques. Courtesy of Janus Films.
"Melodrama – 2. now, a drama with sensational, romantic, often violent action, extravagant emotions, and, generally, a happy ending" —1959 Webster's New World Dictionary
The “melo” of melodrama, a word from the French, takes its root from the Greek melos, meaning “song.” Originally, the two-pronged word was said to be a sensational or romantic stage play with songs or orchestral accompaniment. The recently departed Alain Resnais took the prefix for the title of his superb 1986 film Melo, about a love triangle involving a violinist and a pianist. Only one of the three Jean Grémillon’s films (Remorques, Lumière d'été, and Le Ciel est à vous) in the Museum of the Museum Image's major and rare retrospective, made during WWII and the French Occupation, carries the music or the happy ending, which Webster’s affixed to melodrama’s meaning in the year of the filmmaker’s death,...
"Melodrama – 2. now, a drama with sensational, romantic, often violent action, extravagant emotions, and, generally, a happy ending" —1959 Webster's New World Dictionary
The “melo” of melodrama, a word from the French, takes its root from the Greek melos, meaning “song.” Originally, the two-pronged word was said to be a sensational or romantic stage play with songs or orchestral accompaniment. The recently departed Alain Resnais took the prefix for the title of his superb 1986 film Melo, about a love triangle involving a violinist and a pianist. Only one of the three Jean Grémillon’s films (Remorques, Lumière d'été, and Le Ciel est à vous) in the Museum of the Museum Image's major and rare retrospective, made during WWII and the French Occupation, carries the music or the happy ending, which Webster’s affixed to melodrama’s meaning in the year of the filmmaker’s death,...
- 11/28/2014
- by Greg Gerke
- MUBI
Maureen O'Hara movies: 2014 Honorary Oscar for Hollywood legend (photo: Maureen O'Hara at the 2014 Governors Awards) In the photo above, the movies' Maureen O'Hara, 2014 Honorary Oscar recipient for her body of work, arrives with a couple of guests at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' 2014 Governors Awards. This year's ceremony is being held this Saturday evening, November 8, in the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood. For the last couple of years, Maureen O'Hara has been a Boise, Idaho, resident. Before that, the 94-year-old movie veteran -- born Maureen FitzSimons, on August, 17, 1920, in Dublin -- had been living in Ireland. Below is a brief recap of her movies. Maureen O'Hara movies: From Charles Laughton to John Wayne Following her leading-lady role in Alfred Hitchcock's British-made Jamaica Inn, starring Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Hara arrived in Hollywood in 1939 to play the gypsy Esmeralda opposite Laughton in William Dieterle...
- 11/9/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Danielle Darrieux turns 97: Darrieux has probably enjoyed the longest film star career in history (photo: Danielle Darrieux in ‘La Ronde’) Screen legend Danielle Darrieux is turning 97 today, May 1, 2014. In all likelihood, the Bordeaux-born (1917) Darrieux has enjoyed the longest "movie star" career ever: eight decades, from Wilhelm Thiele’s Le Bal (1931) to Denys Granier-Deferre’s The Wedding Cake / Pièce montée (2010). (Mickey Rooney has had a longer film career — nearly nine decades — but mostly as a supporting player in minor roles.) Absurdly, despite a prestigious career consisting of more than 100 movie roles, Danielle Darrieux — delightful in Club de femmes, superb in The Earrings of Madame De…, alternately hilarious and heartbreaking in 8 Women — has never won an Honorary Oscar. But then again, very few women have. At least, the French Academy did award her an Honorary César back in 1985; additionally, in 2002 Darrieux and her fellow 8 Women / 8 femmes co-stars shared Best Actress honors...
- 5/1/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Mickey Rooney was earliest surviving Best Actor Oscar nominee (photo: Mickey Rooney and Spencer Tracy in ‘Boys Town’) (See previous post: “Mickey Rooney Dead at 93: MGM’s Andy Hardy Series’ Hero and Judy Garland Frequent Co-Star Had Longest Film Career Ever?”) Mickey Rooney was the earliest surviving Best Actor Academy Award nominee — Babes in Arms, 1939; The Human Comedy, 1943 — and the last surviving male acting Oscar nominee of the 1930s. Rooney lost the Best Actor Oscar to two considerably more “prestigious” — albeit less popular — stars: Robert Donat for Sam Wood’s Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939) and Paul Lukas for Herman Shumlin’s Watch on the Rhine (1943). Following Mickey Rooney’s death, there are only two acting Academy Award nominees from the ’30s still alive: two-time Best Actress winner Luise Rainer, 104 (for Robert Z. Leonard’s The Great Ziegfeld, 1936, and Sidney Franklin’s The Good Earth, 1937), and Best Supporting Actress nominee Olivia de Havilland,...
- 4/9/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Acclaimed New Zealand director, producer and screenwriter Jane Campion will succeed Steven Spielberg in presiding the Jury of the 2014 Festival de Cannes, it was announced yesterday. Campion has long been involved with the Festival, starting with her first attendance in 1986. .Since I first went to Cannes with my short films in 1986, I have had the opportunity to see the festival from many sides and my admiration for this Queen of film festivals has only grown larger. At the Cannes Film Festival they manage to combine and celebrate the glamour of the industry, the stars, the parties, the beaches, the business, while rigorously maintaining the festival's seriousness about the Art and excellence of new world cinema,. Campion said in the announcement published on the Cannes website. Campion is also the only female director to have won the Palme d.or for The Piano in 1993, adding to her 1986 Short Film Palme d.or for Peel.
- 1/8/2014
- by Emily Blatchford
- IF.com.au
Jane Campion, who remains the only female director to win the Palme d’or (for 1993′s The Piano), will head the jury at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. ” is a mythical and exciting festival where amazing things can happen, actors are discovered, films are financed, careers are made,” said Campion. “I know this because that is what happened to me!”
“We are immensely proud that Jane Campion has accepted our invitation,” said Thierry Frémaux, Cannes’ general delegate. “Following on from Michèle Morgan, Jeanne Moreau, Françoise Sagan, Isabelle Adjani, Liv Ullmann and Isabelle Huppert in 2009, she is the latest distinguished...
“We are immensely proud that Jane Campion has accepted our invitation,” said Thierry Frémaux, Cannes’ general delegate. “Following on from Michèle Morgan, Jeanne Moreau, Françoise Sagan, Isabelle Adjani, Liv Ullmann and Isabelle Huppert in 2009, she is the latest distinguished...
- 1/7/2014
- by Jeff Labrecque
- EW - Inside Movies
Jane Campion has been announced as the president of the jury of the next Cannes Film Festival.
The New Zealand-born director, screenwriter and producer succeeds Steven Spielberg in the role for this year's event, which takes place from May 14 to 25.
"Since I first went to Cannes with my short films in 1986 I have had the opportunity to see the festival from many sides and my admiration for this queen of film festivals has only grown larger," Campion said.
"At the Cannes Film Festival they manage to combine and celebrate the glamour of the industry, the stars, the parties, the beaches, the business, while rigorously maintaining the festival's seriousness about the art and excellence of new world cinema."
She added: "It is this world wide inclusiveness and passion for film at the heart of the festival which makes the importance of the Cannes Film Festival indisputable.
"It is a mythical and...
The New Zealand-born director, screenwriter and producer succeeds Steven Spielberg in the role for this year's event, which takes place from May 14 to 25.
"Since I first went to Cannes with my short films in 1986 I have had the opportunity to see the festival from many sides and my admiration for this queen of film festivals has only grown larger," Campion said.
"At the Cannes Film Festival they manage to combine and celebrate the glamour of the industry, the stars, the parties, the beaches, the business, while rigorously maintaining the festival's seriousness about the art and excellence of new world cinema."
She added: "It is this world wide inclusiveness and passion for film at the heart of the festival which makes the importance of the Cannes Film Festival indisputable.
"It is a mythical and...
- 1/7/2014
- Digital Spy
New Zealand director, producer and scriptwriter Jane Campion will preside over the Jury of the 67th Festival de Cannes, which will take place from 14 to 25 May 2014.
Campion said, “Since I first went to Cannes with my short films in 1986, I have had the opportunity to see the festival from many sides and my admiration for this Queen of film festivals has only grown larger. At the Cannes Film Festival they manage to combine and celebrate the glamour of the industry, the stars, the parties, the beaches, the business, while rigorously maintaining the festival’s seriousness about the Art and excellence of new world cinema.”
Jane Campion is the only female director to have won the Palme d’Or, for The Piano in 1993 and the Short Film Palme d’Or back in 1986 for Peel.
Thierry Frémaux, Cannes Delegate General, said: “We are immensely proud that Jane Campion has accepted our invitation.
Campion said, “Since I first went to Cannes with my short films in 1986, I have had the opportunity to see the festival from many sides and my admiration for this Queen of film festivals has only grown larger. At the Cannes Film Festival they manage to combine and celebrate the glamour of the industry, the stars, the parties, the beaches, the business, while rigorously maintaining the festival’s seriousness about the Art and excellence of new world cinema.”
Jane Campion is the only female director to have won the Palme d’Or, for The Piano in 1993 and the Short Film Palme d’Or back in 1986 for Peel.
Thierry Frémaux, Cannes Delegate General, said: “We are immensely proud that Jane Campion has accepted our invitation.
- 1/7/2014
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
Jane Campion has been announced as the jury president of the 67th Cannes Film Festival, running May 14-25, 2014. The unusually early announcement (last year it came at the end of February when Steven Spielberg was set as president) makes Campion the first female jury president since Isabelle Huppert in 2009, and the 10th in the festival's history (following Huppert, Olivia de Havilland, Sophia Loren, Michèle Morgan, Françoise Sagan, Ingrid Bergman, Jeanne Moreau, Liv Ullmann and Isabelle Adjani). Campion, notably, is the only female director to ever win the Palme d'Or at Cannes. Full press release below: The New Zealand director, producer and scriptwriter Jane Campion is to preside the Jury of the next Festival de Cannes, which will take place from 14 to 25 May 2014. "Since I first went to Cannes with my short films in 1986 – Campion says - I have had the opportunity to see the festival from many sides and my...
- 1/7/2014
- by Peter Knegt
- Indiewire
The New Zealand director, producer and scriptwriter will preside over the jury of the 67th Festival de Cannes, set to run from May 14-25.
“Since I first went to Cannes with my short films in 1986 I have had the opportunity to see the festival from many sides and my admiration for this queen of film festivals has only grown larger,” said Campion.
“At the Cannes Film Festival they manage to combine and celebrate the glamour of the industry, the stars, the parties, the beaches, the business, while rigorously maintaining the festival’s seriousness about the art and excellence of new world cinema.”
Campion remains the only female director to win the Palme d’Or, for The Piano in 1993. She won the short film Palme d’Or in 1986 for Peel.
“Once upon a time there was an unknown young director from Down Under who was no doubt proud enough that the Festival de Cannes was going to present...
“Since I first went to Cannes with my short films in 1986 I have had the opportunity to see the festival from many sides and my admiration for this queen of film festivals has only grown larger,” said Campion.
“At the Cannes Film Festival they manage to combine and celebrate the glamour of the industry, the stars, the parties, the beaches, the business, while rigorously maintaining the festival’s seriousness about the art and excellence of new world cinema.”
Campion remains the only female director to win the Palme d’Or, for The Piano in 1993. She won the short film Palme d’Or in 1986 for Peel.
“Once upon a time there was an unknown young director from Down Under who was no doubt proud enough that the Festival de Cannes was going to present...
- 1/7/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The organizers of the Cannes Film Festival have announced Jane Campion will preside over the Jury of the 67th Cannes Film Festival, taking place from May 14-25. Campion is the only female director to have ever won the Festival's Palme d'or when she won for The Piano in 1993. The New Zealand director who is currently earning kudos for her television series, Top of the Lake, which is nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and two Screen Actors Guild Awards, will follow in the footsteps of Steven Spielberg who served as the head of the jury last year where the much talked about Blue Is the Warmest Color won the Palme. Quoted in the press release Campion said, "Since I first went to Cannes with my short films in 1986, I have had the opportunity to see the festival from many sides and my admiration for this Queen of film festivals has only grown larger.
- 1/7/2014
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Danielle Steel, the San Francisco and Paris-based "Queen of Romance" novelist who has sold 600 million books in 70 countries and 45 languages, has been awarded France's highest honor, the Legion d'honneur, say news reports. Steel joins such other non-French culture figures as Walt Disney, Julia Child, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Alan Greenspan, Bob Dylan, Bono and novelist Philip Roth in being recognized for what the Agence France-Presse calls "service to France or work that is deemed to uphold its ideals." Britain's The Telegraph quotes the author, 66, as saying: "I love French literature. Colette is a special favorite of mine." Born Danielle-Fernande Dominique Schulein-Steel in New York,...
- 1/2/2014
- by Stephen M. Silverman
- PEOPLE.com
Molinaro-Directed Subtitled Comedy Blockbuster Led to Two Sequels and One Highly Popular U.S. Remake
‘La Cage aux Folles’ film: Edouard Molinaro international box office hit (photo: Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Serrault in ‘La Cage aux Folles’) (See previous post: “‘La Cage aux Folles’ Director Edouard Molinaro Dead at 85.”) But Edouard Molinaro’s best-known effort — comedy or otherwise — remains La Cage aux Folles (approximate translation: "The Cage of the Queens"), which sold 5.4 million tickets when it came out in France in 1978. Perhaps because many saw it as a letdown when compared to Jean Poiret’s immensely popular 1973 play, Molinaro’s movie ended up nominated for a single César Award — for eventual Best Actor winner Michel Serrault. Somewhat surprisingly, in the next couple of years La Cage aux Folles would become a major hit in the United States and other countries. Released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the U.S. in 1979, the film grossed $20.42 million at the North American box office — or about $65 million in 2013 dollars, a remarkable sum for a subtitled release.
- 12/8/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Books and films have been joined at the hip ever since the earliest days of cinema, and adaptations of novels have regularly provided audiences with the classier end of the film spectrum. Here, the Guardian and Observer's critics pick the 10 best
• Top 10 family movies
• Top 10 war movies
• Top 10 teen movies
• Top 10 superhero movies
• Top 10 westerns
• Top 10 documentaries
• More Guardian and Observer critics' top 10s
10. Planet of the Apes
Although the source novel, La Planète des Singes, was written by Frenchman Pierre Boule and originally reached its futureshock climax in Paris, this enduring sci-fi fantasy is profoundly American, putting Charlton Heston's steel-jawed patriotism to incredible use. It also holds up surprisingly well as a jarring allegory for the population's fears over escalating cold war tensions.
Beginning with a spaceship crash-landing on an unknown planet after years of cryogenic sleep, Franklin J Schaffner's film soon gets into gear as Heston's upstanding...
• Top 10 family movies
• Top 10 war movies
• Top 10 teen movies
• Top 10 superhero movies
• Top 10 westerns
• Top 10 documentaries
• More Guardian and Observer critics' top 10s
10. Planet of the Apes
Although the source novel, La Planète des Singes, was written by Frenchman Pierre Boule and originally reached its futureshock climax in Paris, this enduring sci-fi fantasy is profoundly American, putting Charlton Heston's steel-jawed patriotism to incredible use. It also holds up surprisingly well as a jarring allegory for the population's fears over escalating cold war tensions.
Beginning with a spaceship crash-landing on an unknown planet after years of cryogenic sleep, Franklin J Schaffner's film soon gets into gear as Heston's upstanding...
- 11/15/2013
- The Guardian - Film News
Revivals, Views From The Avant-Garde, Convergence, Applied Science, Motion Portraits took place at the New York Film Festival. Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze Breaking off from the New York Film Festival Main Slate, here are some of the highlights. In the Applied Science programme at the press conference for Teller's Tim's Vermeer, David Hockney, Johannes Vermeer, and Jimi Hendrix were intertwined by Teller's partner Penn Jillette. This year's Convergence focused on the "intersection of technology and storytelling" and opened with a Keystone Presentation of Investigate North's The Cloud Chamber Mystery, co-produced by Lars von Trier's Breaking The Waves producer Vibeke Windeløv, whom I met at the New York Film Festival in 2003 where she presented Dogville with Nicole Kidman. In the Revivals, Arthur Ripley's restored The Chase starring Robert Cummings, Michèle Morgan and Peter Lorre would be a high-water mark for any festival, at any time. In New York,...
- 10/15/2013
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Mind
“There is an image, and people believe me when I say I make films, because, well, in the end...because we used a camera, and there is an image,” muses Jean-Luc Godard to potential producers in his video pitch, Petites Notes à propos du film Je vous salue Marie (1983), shown at the 51st New York Film Festival’s retrospective programmed by Kent Jones and Jake Perlin, Jean-Luc Godard - The Spirit of the Forms. “People think everything comes from the camera.”
Sometimes I think the images come from inside myself. On rare occurrence, a picture unspools in front of me that in the moment has no antecedent in my mind. Its movement is that of a dream, spontaneously created, this instant’s images connected only by the most opaque thread to those behind them. Its future images, those that follow what I am seeing, are not predestined by the...
“There is an image, and people believe me when I say I make films, because, well, in the end...because we used a camera, and there is an image,” muses Jean-Luc Godard to potential producers in his video pitch, Petites Notes à propos du film Je vous salue Marie (1983), shown at the 51st New York Film Festival’s retrospective programmed by Kent Jones and Jake Perlin, Jean-Luc Godard - The Spirit of the Forms. “People think everything comes from the camera.”
Sometimes I think the images come from inside myself. On rare occurrence, a picture unspools in front of me that in the moment has no antecedent in my mind. Its movement is that of a dream, spontaneously created, this instant’s images connected only by the most opaque thread to those behind them. Its future images, those that follow what I am seeing, are not predestined by the...
- 10/11/2013
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
European Film Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award: Catherine Deneuve, Jeanne Moreau, Judi Dench are the only three female recipients to date (photo: European movies’ Lifetime Achievement Award-less actress Danielle Darrieux) (See previous post: "Catherine Deneuve: Only the Third Woman to Receive European Film Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award.") As mentioned in the previous post, French film icon Catherine Deneuve is only the third woman to receive the European Film Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award since the organization’s first awards ceremony in 1988. Deneuve’s predecessors are The Lovers‘ Jeanne Moreau (1997) and Notes on a Scandal‘s Judi Dench (2008). In that regard, the European Film Academy is as male-oriented as the Beverly Hills-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. More on that below. Male recipients of the European Film Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award are the following: Ingmar Bergman, Marcello Mastroianni, Federico Fellini, Andrzej Wajda, Alexandre Trauner, Billy Wilder,...
- 9/25/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
French film director who attracted big stars and box-office success but was disdained by the Nouvelle Vague
Denys de La Patellière, who has died aged 92, was of the generation of French film directors described with ironic contempt by François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard and other critics turned Nouvelle Vague directors as representing le cinéma de papa. But De La Patellière had several huge box-office hits in France in the 1950s and 60s, featuring some of the biggest internationally known French stars of the period such as Lino Ventura, Danielle Darrieux, Michèle Mercier, Pierre Fresnay, Bernard Blier and, above all, Jean Gabin, whom he directed in six films.
"I was a commercial director, which for me is not a pejorative word," De La Patellière recalled. "I never had the ambition to become an auteur, but to make entertaining films that pleased general audiences." In a way, his first film, Les Aristocrates (1955), could...
Denys de La Patellière, who has died aged 92, was of the generation of French film directors described with ironic contempt by François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard and other critics turned Nouvelle Vague directors as representing le cinéma de papa. But De La Patellière had several huge box-office hits in France in the 1950s and 60s, featuring some of the biggest internationally known French stars of the period such as Lino Ventura, Danielle Darrieux, Michèle Mercier, Pierre Fresnay, Bernard Blier and, above all, Jean Gabin, whom he directed in six films.
"I was a commercial director, which for me is not a pejorative word," De La Patellière recalled. "I never had the ambition to become an auteur, but to make entertaining films that pleased general audiences." In a way, his first film, Les Aristocrates (1955), could...
- 7/30/2013
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Paul Henreid: Hollow Triumph aka The Scar tonight Turner Classic Movies’ Paul Henreid film series continues this Tuesday evening, July 16, 2013. Of tonight’s movies, the most interesting offering is Hollow Triumph / The Scar, a 1948 B thriller adapted by Daniel Fuchs (Panic in the Streets, Love Me or Leave Me) from Murray Forbes’ novel, and in which the gentlemanly Henreid was cast against type: a crook who, in an attempt to escape from other (and more dangerous) crooks, impersonates a psychiatrist with a scar on his chin. Joan Bennett, mostly wasted in a non-role, is Henreid’s leading lady. (See also: “One Paul Henreid, Two Cigarettes, Four Bette Davis-es.”) The thriller’s director is Hungarian import Steve Sekely, whose Hollywood career consisted chiefly of minor B fare. In fact, though hardly a great effort, Hollow Triumph was probably the apex of Sekely’s cinematic output in terms of prestige...
- 7/17/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Oscar winners Olivia de Havilland and Luise Rainer among movie stars of the 1930s still alive With the passing of Deanna Durbin this past April, only a handful of movie stars of the 1930s remain on Planet Earth. Below is a (I believe) full list of surviving Hollywood "movie stars of the 1930s," in addition to a handful of secondary players, chiefly those who achieved stardom in the ensuing decade. Note: There’s only one male performer on the list — and curiously, four of the five child actresses listed below were born in April. (Please scroll down to check out the list of Oscar winners at the 75th Academy Awards, held on March 23, 2003, as seen in the picture above. Click on the photo to enlarge it. © A.M.P.A.S.) Two-time Oscar winner and London resident Luise Rainer (The Great Ziegfeld, The Good Earth, The Great Waltz), 103 last January...
- 5/7/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The Chase
Written by Philip Yordan
Directed by Arthur Ripley
U.S.A., 1946
*A fair warning to readers: those sensitive to spoilers had best watch the film under review before reading the article. To properly dive into its themes and story, major plot points will be revealed.
Surprises in movies are a great gift the storytellers can offer viewers to wake them from the state of comfort, or boredom depending whom one asks, which sets in when plot points are too familiar and the dramatic beats too predictable. For some it can be a chore to get through just as it may offer the right type of simple escapism for others. Sometimes, however, the ingredients need be shaken and stirred. In an amusing case of coincidence, this week’s column entry, the 1946 film The Chase, arrives only weeks after Steven Soderbergh’s supposed final theatrical feature, Side Effects, opened in theatres.
Written by Philip Yordan
Directed by Arthur Ripley
U.S.A., 1946
*A fair warning to readers: those sensitive to spoilers had best watch the film under review before reading the article. To properly dive into its themes and story, major plot points will be revealed.
Surprises in movies are a great gift the storytellers can offer viewers to wake them from the state of comfort, or boredom depending whom one asks, which sets in when plot points are too familiar and the dramatic beats too predictable. For some it can be a chore to get through just as it may offer the right type of simple escapism for others. Sometimes, however, the ingredients need be shaken and stirred. In an amusing case of coincidence, this week’s column entry, the 1946 film The Chase, arrives only weeks after Steven Soderbergh’s supposed final theatrical feature, Side Effects, opened in theatres.
- 3/2/2013
- by Edgar Chaput
- SoundOnSight
Kerr in the 1958 box-office blockbuster musical South Pacific (seen above with love interest France Nuyen) and his (few) other post-Tea and Sympathy efforts [Please check out the previous article: "The Two Kerrs in the stage and film versions of Tea and Sympathy."] Director Curtis Bernhardt's Gaby (1956) was a generally disliked remake of Waterloo Bridge, with Kerr and leading lady Leslie Caron in the old Robert Taylor and Vivien Leigh roles (1940 movie version -- and even older Douglass Montgomery and Mae Clarke roles in the 1931 film version). Jeffrey Hayden's The Vintage (1957), starring Kerr and Mel Ferrer absurdly cast as Italian brothers, also failed to generate much box-office or critical interest. MGM leading lady Pier Angeli played Ferrer's love interest in the film, while the more mature and married French star Michèle Morgan (a plot element similar to that found in Tea and Sympathy) is Kerr's object of desire. (Pictured above: South Pacific cast members John Kerr and France Nuyen embracing.) Also in the mid-'50s, John Kerr...
- 2/9/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
by Vadim Rizov
The misty streets of Le Havre are home to cloudy minds and spirits all round in Marcel Carné's 1938 Port of Shadows. (The film premieres today in a new Dcp restoration at NYC's Film Forum.) "There's no fog in here," bar owner Panama (Édouard Delmon) tells military deserter Jean (Jean Gabin) about his dilapidated shack. "It's always fair weather." Taking nighttime shelter, Jean meets Nelly (Michèle Morgan) in the back room. "One look at you, love at first sight," he'll tell her later. "Just like in the movies." A highly self-conscious film aware that well-trod conventions already exist for the progression of unlikely love affairs, Port of Shadows replaces the inevitability of romantic spark with the more banal inevitability of some "scum" or "swine" (Jean's most common words) coming along and screwing up anything nice in an already-difficult world.
Continued reading Film Of The Week: Port of Shadows...
The misty streets of Le Havre are home to cloudy minds and spirits all round in Marcel Carné's 1938 Port of Shadows. (The film premieres today in a new Dcp restoration at NYC's Film Forum.) "There's no fog in here," bar owner Panama (Édouard Delmon) tells military deserter Jean (Jean Gabin) about his dilapidated shack. "It's always fair weather." Taking nighttime shelter, Jean meets Nelly (Michèle Morgan) in the back room. "One look at you, love at first sight," he'll tell her later. "Just like in the movies." A highly self-conscious film aware that well-trod conventions already exist for the progression of unlikely love affairs, Port of Shadows replaces the inevitability of romantic spark with the more banal inevitability of some "scum" or "swine" (Jean's most common words) coming along and screwing up anything nice in an already-difficult world.
Continued reading Film Of The Week: Port of Shadows...
- 9/14/2012
- GreenCine Daily
A father, worried sick that his wife may be dead, walks his son and daughter across a rain-slicked square, while a long line of black-clad children from an orphanage snakes past them in the other direction. The bars of a castle-shaped birdcage, which has been the backdrop for a bitter quarrel between an aristocrat and his middle-aged mistress, gives way to a shot of a mountaintop hotel crisscrossed by countless panes of glass. A man and woman on the verge of an affair walk through an empty seaside house that evokes both their waning marriages and the life they will never have together.
Those are three moments from the three movies in Eclipse's set, Jean Grémillon During the Occupation: Le ciel est à vous, Lumière d'été and Remorques. This DVD release marks an extraordinary stroke of luck for those who, like me, had barely heard of this director. How often does anyone encounter,...
Those are three moments from the three movies in Eclipse's set, Jean Grémillon During the Occupation: Le ciel est à vous, Lumière d'été and Remorques. This DVD release marks an extraordinary stroke of luck for those who, like me, had barely heard of this director. How often does anyone encounter,...
- 9/11/2012
- MUBI
StudioCanal embarks on the second round of its self-styled StudioCanal Collection which, it says here, brings together “the very best of cinema”. Of course, since this is the second round, one might be forgiven for being a tad cynical about the ‘very best’ claim. It’s like the old ads for “The Best Album in the World Ever … Volume 2”, a triumph of marketing over logic. What we have, instead, are films that are not the obvious usual suspects, but rarer and, in some cases, more interesting films.
Take, for example, Marcel Carne’s Le Quai Des Brumes – or Port of Shadows, if you prefer. Many pundits consider his later film, Les Enfants du Paradis to be his definitive statement on the Second World War since it is seditious and uncompromising and shot entirely under the noses of the Nazis. But that was the end of the War … Quai des Brumes...
Take, for example, Marcel Carne’s Le Quai Des Brumes – or Port of Shadows, if you prefer. Many pundits consider his later film, Les Enfants du Paradis to be his definitive statement on the Second World War since it is seditious and uncompromising and shot entirely under the noses of the Nazis. But that was the end of the War … Quai des Brumes...
- 9/10/2012
- by John Ashbrook
- Obsessed with Film
Studiocanal are pleased to announce the release of their latest Studiocanal Collection that aims to revisit some of the most iconic films from Studiocanal’S back catalogue of over 5,000 titles.
Bringing together the very best of cinema, the Studiocanal Collection is a series of acclaimed and influential films on Blu-ray with unique special features and accompanying booklets, available in HD so as to present the best possible picture and sound quality. Discover or re-discover great classics, iconic contemporary works or adaptations from literary masterpieces.
The Trial and That Obscure Object Of Desire will also be available on DVD on September 10th. Quai Des Brumes is out on DVD now.
We have one copy of each Blu-ray to give away as a box set to our readers…
The Studio Canal Collection: The Trial (1962)
Available on Blu-ray: September 10th, 2012
Based on the influential Franz Kafka novel, The Trial is a paranoid masterpiece...
Bringing together the very best of cinema, the Studiocanal Collection is a series of acclaimed and influential films on Blu-ray with unique special features and accompanying booklets, available in HD so as to present the best possible picture and sound quality. Discover or re-discover great classics, iconic contemporary works or adaptations from literary masterpieces.
The Trial and That Obscure Object Of Desire will also be available on DVD on September 10th. Quai Des Brumes is out on DVD now.
We have one copy of each Blu-ray to give away as a box set to our readers…
The Studio Canal Collection: The Trial (1962)
Available on Blu-ray: September 10th, 2012
Based on the influential Franz Kafka novel, The Trial is a paranoid masterpiece...
- 8/13/2012
- by Matt Holmes
- Obsessed with Film
Port of Shadows
Directed by Marcel Carné
Written by Jacques Prévert
France, 1938
There’s a reason why it’s called ‘film noir’. Stylish, haunting, and lyrically cynical, the genre, however, has always been regarded as a staple in the American cinematic tradition. So why the French name?
Because before the likes of Hitchcock, Huston or Hawks popularized the movement in the 40’s and 50’s, there was a Frenchman named Marcel Carné, whom, along with writer by Jacques Prévert, adapted a novel by Pierre Dumarchais to create Port of Shadows (French: Le Quai des brumes).
Bursting with a style, atmosphere, thematic discontent, and a ‘poetic realism’ that were hitherto unknown, Port of Shadows was an undeniable game changer that revolutionized French filmmaking.
Dark, bleak, and more sinister than anything they’ve ever seen before, the French had, in Port of Shadows, a new genre on their hands. And they called it...
Directed by Marcel Carné
Written by Jacques Prévert
France, 1938
There’s a reason why it’s called ‘film noir’. Stylish, haunting, and lyrically cynical, the genre, however, has always been regarded as a staple in the American cinematic tradition. So why the French name?
Because before the likes of Hitchcock, Huston or Hawks popularized the movement in the 40’s and 50’s, there was a Frenchman named Marcel Carné, whom, along with writer by Jacques Prévert, adapted a novel by Pierre Dumarchais to create Port of Shadows (French: Le Quai des brumes).
Bursting with a style, atmosphere, thematic discontent, and a ‘poetic realism’ that were hitherto unknown, Port of Shadows was an undeniable game changer that revolutionized French filmmaking.
Dark, bleak, and more sinister than anything they’ve ever seen before, the French had, in Port of Shadows, a new genre on their hands. And they called it...
- 7/8/2012
- by Justin Li
- SoundOnSight
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
As part of the BFI’s season dedicated to French acting maestro Jean Gabin, Marcel Carné’s hugely influential film noir Port of Shadows is re-released at the Southbank this week. Three-quarters of a century since its inception, the film remains a high-point of the genre, and was an important precursor for the post-war American noirs that followed.
Pre-war French disillusionment is rife in Carné’s brooding, sparse film; the fog of war, as it is put, and the angst of killing, has been a heavy burden on Jean (Gabin), an army deserter who hitches a ride to Le Havre with the hope of starting a new life. Here he meets Nelly (Michèle Morgan), a 17-year old girl caught in the midst of criminals and degenerates, and looking to escape it; Jean might just be her ticket.
When viewed today, Gabin’s Jean might remind us...
As part of the BFI’s season dedicated to French acting maestro Jean Gabin, Marcel Carné’s hugely influential film noir Port of Shadows is re-released at the Southbank this week. Three-quarters of a century since its inception, the film remains a high-point of the genre, and was an important precursor for the post-war American noirs that followed.
Pre-war French disillusionment is rife in Carné’s brooding, sparse film; the fog of war, as it is put, and the angst of killing, has been a heavy burden on Jean (Gabin), an army deserter who hitches a ride to Le Havre with the hope of starting a new life. Here he meets Nelly (Michèle Morgan), a 17-year old girl caught in the midst of criminals and degenerates, and looking to escape it; Jean might just be her ticket.
When viewed today, Gabin’s Jean might remind us...
- 5/5/2012
- by Shaun Munro
- Obsessed with Film
They outraged the authorities on release. But the two films, made before and during the second world war, are now considered classics – and will be re-released this month. Our critics consider their impact
Ryan Gilbey on Le Quai des Brumes
It's easy now to call Marcel Carné's Le Quai des Brumes a masterpiece. When the film was released in 1938, such a view was more contentious. In the wake of the collapse of France's Popular Front government, the film was seen as exacerbating the mood of despair creeping into the left. Jean Renoir labelled it "counter-revolutionary". The Motion Picture Herald concluded: "One will be sorry that such art and talents have been used for such a trite and sordid story, which includes not a decent or healthy character." The Vichy government denounced it as "immoral, depressing and detrimental to young people", and declared that if the war was lost, Le Quai des Brumes...
Ryan Gilbey on Le Quai des Brumes
It's easy now to call Marcel Carné's Le Quai des Brumes a masterpiece. When the film was released in 1938, such a view was more contentious. In the wake of the collapse of France's Popular Front government, the film was seen as exacerbating the mood of despair creeping into the left. Jean Renoir labelled it "counter-revolutionary". The Motion Picture Herald concluded: "One will be sorry that such art and talents have been used for such a trite and sordid story, which includes not a decent or healthy character." The Vichy government denounced it as "immoral, depressing and detrimental to young people", and declared that if the war was lost, Le Quai des Brumes...
- 5/3/2012
- by Ryan Gilbey, Philip Oltermann
- The Guardian - Film News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.