Pierre Brasseur

  • Abel Gance – La Tour de Nesle AKA Tower of Nesle (1955)

    1951-1960Abel GanceDramaFrance

    from filmsdefrance.com:
    Summary
    Paris, 1315. The Tour de Nesle, a guard tower on the banks of the Seine, has become a symbol of mystery and fear. Each morning, at its base, the bodies of handsome young aristocrats are found floating in the river, all butchered by sword or arrow. One evening, two noblemen, Buridan and Philippe d’Aulnay, find themselves in the infamous tower, lured there on the expectation of a night of unbridled passion. Little do they realise that they are to be the next victims of a woman who is determined to take revenge against all men – Margaret of Burgundy, the present Queen of France. Although Philippe is killed, Buridan escapes, and intends to blackmail the Queen. Unless she makes him her prime minister, he will expose her crimes to Philippe’s brother and her husband, King Louis X. When she moves to eliminate Burdan, Margaret makes a terrible discovery…Read More »

  • Maurice de Canonge – Grisou AKA Les hommes sans soleil (1938)

    1931-1940DramaFranceMaurice de Canonge

    Synopsis:
    Femme fatale Madeleine Robinson is married to Raymond Aimos, a coal miner with a face like a pickled walnut and a libido to match. She wants some action, and what she can’t get from her impotent husband, she looks for elsewhere, first with his best friend Pierre Brasseur, then with his boss Lucien Gallas, who is also dating Brasseur’s kid sister Odette Joyeux.Read More »

  • André Cayatte – Les amants de Vérone (1949)

    André Cayatte1941-1950DramaFranceRomance

    Synopsis:
    A film crew is shooting an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in Venice. Bettina Verdi, the leading actress, visits a glass factory in Murano with her guide Raffaele. One of the glassblowers, Angelo, is mesmerized by Bettina, so much so that he joins the cast as Romeo’s double just so that he can see her again. On the film set, Angelo meets Georgia, who is Juliet’s double. Georgia lives in a Venetian palace with her father Ettore and brother Amedeo. Both are hiding from justice after the fall of Fascism. Raffaele is in love with Georgia and does what he can to help her family. But when he realises that Georgia loves Angelo, Raffaele is outraged and decides to have his revenge. He will choose his moment carefully…Read More »

  • Marcel Carné – Les portes de la nuit AKA Gates of the Night (1946)

    1941-1950ClassicsDramaFranceMarcel Carné

    Synopsis:
    ‘In February 1945, Jean Diego is tasked with breaking the news to the wife of a friend of his, Pierre, that her husband has been executed by the Nazis. It turns out that he is mistaken – his friend is still very much alive. After a happy reunion, Jean goes on his way and has a bizarre encounter with a weird old tramp on the Paris metro.The bedraggled stranger claims he can foresee the future and prophecies that Diego is about to encounter the most beautiful girl in the world.Read More »

  • Mauro Bolognini – Il bell’Antonio (1960)

    1951-1960DramaItalyMauro Bolognini

    Women love handsome Antonio because they think of him as the perfect lover. But he has problems to fullfill this ideal and Barbara only notices his failures when they are married. When the town learns about his trouble they start laughing at him…Read More »

  • Jean-Paul Rappeneau – La vie de château AKA A Matter of Resistance (1966)

    1961-1970ComedyFranceJean-Paul RappeneauRomance

    In the countryside near Normandy’s beaches lives Marie, unhappy. It’s 1944, she’s married to Jérôme, a somewhat fussy milquetoast, diffident to the war around him and unwilling to move his wife to Paris, where she longs to live, shop, and party. A German outfit is bivouacked at Jérôme and Marie’s crumbling château because its commanding officer is pursuing Marie. She’s also eyed by a French spy working with the Allies as they plan D-Day. He woos her (posing to the Germans as her brother) and, in his passion, forgets his mission. Heroics come from an unexpected direction, and Marie makes her choice.Read More »

  • André Barsacq – Le rideau rouge AKA Crimson Curtain (1952)

    1951-1960André BarsacqCrimeDramaFrance

    Quote:
    Playwright Jean Anouilh was the guiding force behind the unorthodox murder mystery. During a provincial theatre production of Macbeth, several tragedies occur. The actors attribute these calamities to the “curse” supposedly hanging over the Shakespeare play, but police inspector Jean Brochard doesn’t buy this…Read More »

  • Anatole Litvak – La chanson d’une nuit (1933)

    1931-1940Anatole LitvakComedyGermanyMusical

    Opera singer Enrico Ferraro, tired of his too many engagements, jumps off the train escaping from his manager and changes to another going to the Riviera. He makes a friend and stops at a village, where (it seems) he can at last have some well deserved holidays, with the added interest of meeting a beautiful girl in the surroundings.Read More »

  • Marcel Carné – Les enfants du paradis aka Children Of Paradise [+Commentary] (1945)

    1941-1950ClassicsDramaFranceMarcel Carné

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Synopsis
    ©Hal Erickson
    Even in 1945, Marcel Carné’s Children of Paradise was regarded as an old-fashioned film. Set in the Parisian theatrical world of the 1840s, Jacques Prévert’s screenplay concerns four men in love with the mysterious Garance (Arletty). Each loves Garance in his own fashion, but only the intentions of sensitive mime-actor Deburau (Jean-Louis Barrault) are entirely honorable; as a result, it is he who suffers most, hurdling one obstacle after another in pursuit of an evidently unattainable goal. In the stylized fashion of 19th-century French drama, many grand passions are spent during the film’s totally absorbing 195 minutes. Amazingly, the film was produced over a two-year period in virtual secrecy, without the knowledge of the Nazis then occupying France, who would surely have arrested several of the cast and production staff members (including Prévert) for their activities in the Resistance. Children of Paradise has gone on to become one of the great romantic classics of international cinema.Read More »

Back to top button