Second film in the Renoir documentary trilogy directed by Jacques Rivette, featuring a conversation between Jean Renoir and Michel Simon.
A quote from “Projections of Memory: Romanticism, Modernism, and the Aesthetics of Film” by Richard I. Suchenski:
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IMDB user review:
Jacques De Baroncelli was a prolific director ,active from the silent age (1916)up to post-war years (“Rocambole” 1947).”La Duchesse De Langeais”(1942) is considered his best work.
This one is a comedy.The beginning might remind some users of a famous scene of the all-time classic “it’s a wonderful life” -which had still to be made in 1938-: a young man ,weary of life ,wants to throw himself into the river ;but a young girl does it at the very moment he is about to act.He saves her and a “guardian angel” welcomes him ,in the shape of a tramp ,played by the always wonderful Michel Simon.Nothing magic,nothing religious ,like in Capra’s beloved work.Simply the two young people decides to live under the stars ,like their mate .The chick (Meg Lemonnier)is a wealthy banker’s daughter and the boy (Jean ¨-Pierre Aumont) a poor artist ,but he is handsome whereas all the men the rich dad wanted his heir to marry were graybeards.Read More »
In 1932, Michel Simon plays in “Boudu sauvé des eaux” under the direction of Jean Renoir.
Three years later, he was again invited to don the clothes of the famous tramp on the sets of Boulogne.
But it’s to shoot a film for advertising …Read More »
Synopsis wrote:
Aged penniless actors are living in a old people’s home. They always talk about their past glory or failures. One day Raphael Saint-Clair comes; he has been a famous actor and had a lot of love affairs. Passions come back, and jealousies… A bitter film about aging, failure and the entertainment.Read More »
Political turmoil convulses 19th-century Russia, as Razumov, a young student preparing for a career in the czarist bureaucracy, unwittingly becomes embroiled in the assassination of a public official.
Based on Joseph Conrad’s novel.Read More »
Plot: Through a combination of hard work and ruthlessness, Albert Ménard-Lacoste (Michel Simon) has become a wealthy businessman, although his austerity prevents him from being loved, even by his family. One day, he is confronted by his worst nightmare in the form of his estranged brother Alain, who is his polar opposite – an easy-going, penniless drifter. Albert’s first reaction is to dismiss Alain from his sight. But then he has a change of heart and drops in on the shabby lodgings where Alain is living. Albert is about to offer his brother a job when the latter suffers a fatal heart-attack. Immediately, the cunning businessman sees a way to make a fresh start and perhaps settle a few scores with his family. He swaps his clothes with Alain and assumes the dead man’s identity. Little by little, Albert’s eyes are opened to the shallowness of his erstwhile life and to the grotesque hypocrisies of his everyday existence… (filmsdefrance.com)Read More »
Synopsis: “A French farce set in Victorian London where a botanist and his wife get into trouble when they pretend to go missing in order to hide from their sanctimonious cousin – an Anglican bishop who is leading a campaign against such writing.”
– IMDbRead More »
Synopsis:
Marcel works as assistant to a jeweller whose bossy daughter Renée keeps hitting on him. When he meets lovely Loulou and her lazy friend Jo, he is fascinated by the girl and somehow attracted by their world : Loulou and Jo are crooks. As Marcel naively tries to bring some morality in their lives, the pair turn him into an unwilling accomplice in the robbery of his boss’s jewels.Read More »
Synopsis:
Professor Henri Faust, retiring after 50 years as an alchemist in a circa-1700 university, despairs at still knowing nothing of the true secrets of nature…whereupon his old acquaintance Mephistopheles, servant of Lucifer, appears and grants him youth and a new life. But with youth, Faust’s interest is diverted from science to women. And Mephistopheles, who has taken on the guise of the elderly Faust that was, sets many snares for his young friend’s slippery soul…Read More »