Jean Delannoy

The pastor of a mountain village adopts a small blind girl, Gertrude. As Gertrude grows up into an attractive young woman the pastor, now middle-aged, realises that he is in love with her. To his chagrin, his adopted son, Jean, is also in love with Gertrude, even though he is shortly to be married to another woman. Jean’s fiancée is jealous of Gertrude and arranges for her to see a doctor in the hope that she might be cured and to enable Jean to choose equally between the two women. Miraculously, Gertrude’s sight is restored and she returns to the village a changed woman. Unable to accept Jean’s love and disappointed by the pastor’s affections for her, she realises that her former happiness has been lost forever. (Films de France)Read More »

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A prostitute is going up the mountain.Up there,lives her son she left to a shepherd to take care of him.These first minutes are perhaps the best:the mother brings toys to her child but he cannot play,”playing” is a thing he’s never done;she did not intend to bring him back with her,but after a night in the same bed ,she understands she cannot live without him.So she takes him down to Marseille.
Marseille is the city the place where evil dwells .It’s interesting to notice that the mountains (beginning) and the sea (ending)are providential,they represent purity and honesty.Read More »

A violinist passes on to his daughter three rings which represent three passions of his romantic past, and urges her to save each for men who truly deserve one.She squanders them all on one man who is undeserving.
On paper this looks promising; a beautiful actress, Edwige Feuilliere, an actor who’s just come off a starring role opposite Arletty in Les Enfants du paradis, a respected director, Jean Delannoy and one of THE four best scriptwriters in French cinema, Charles Spaak. Sometimes it all goes wrong but always with artists of this calibre in front of and behind the camera there are moments to savour and so it is here. Barrault doesn’t really convince as a violinist whereas Feuilliere has only to convince us she is in love. There are promising visuals and nine times out of ten Delannoy has the camera in the right place and when that is in front of Feuilliere’s face you won’t hear a peep out of me. Interesting as opposed to memorable.Read More »

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French director Jean Delannoy has made 40 feature films in his long as well as illustrious career. He is best known for his film “La Symphonie Pastorale” based on the book by famous French writer André Gide. However,”The little rebels” is one of his important films which deserves a wider audience.

This film is about some juvenile delinquents whose boring lives change for good when they come into contact with a kind yet practical judge. Superstar of French cinema, Jean Gabin plays the judge’s role with firm conviction.Read More »

La peau de Torpedo (1970)
Synopsis
A secret agent is murdered by his jealous wife who mistakenly interprets his absences from home as acts of infidelity. This triggers a deadly chain of events. Will she be next?Read More »

Destinées (US: Daughters of destiny) is a triptych about women in war: One part, “Elizabeth”, is about American war-widow (Claudette Colbert) who goes to Italy where her husband was in WW II; “Jeanne” tells the life of Jeanne d’Arc (Michèle Morgan); “Lysistrata” (Martine Carol) is about Athenian wives, adaptation of the Greek play.Read More »

Synopsis:
For some time now, women coming home at night have been savagely murdered by a mysterious serial killer. Inspector Lagrume thinks he has found the culprit in the person of Barberot, a local butcher. But Maigret, who takes over the investigation, is not convinced. Deep inside himself, he knows the murderer is still at large. But how to trap him ?Read More »

Synopsis:
Inspector Maigret returns to his home town and is reminiscing over his past when he receives a call for help from the Duchess of Saint-Fiacre. She has just received an anonymous letter informing her that she will soon die. A short while later she does indeed die, from a heart attack. Convinced that she was murdered, Maigret begins his investigation…
– Films de FranceRead More »

Paris, 1482. Today is the festival of the fools, taking place like each year in the square outside Cathedral Notre Dame. Among jugglers and other entertainers, Esmeralda, a sensuous gypsy, performs a bewitching dance in front of delighted spectators. From up in a tower of the cathedral, Frollo, an alchemist, gazes at her lustfully. Later in the night, Frollo orders Quasimodo, the deformed bell ringer and his faithful servant, to kidnap Esmeralda. But when the ugly freak comes close to her is touched by the young woman’s beauty…Read More »