Synopsis:
Henri Danglard, proprietor of the fashionable (but bankrupt) cafe ‘Le Paravent Chinois’ featuring his mistress, belly dancer Lola, goes slumming in Montmarte (circa 1890) where the then-old-fashioned cancan is still danced. There, he conceives the idea of reviving the cancan as the feature of a new, more popular establishment…and meets Nini, a laundress and natural dancer, whom he hopes to star in his new show. But a tangled maze of jealousies intervenes…Read More »
Synopsis:
A young man, Gabriel Fouquet, arrives in a coastal town in Normandy to visit his daughter, who is staying in a boarding school. He ends up lodging in a guesthouse run by the aged Albert Quentin and his wife Suzanne. To forget his troubles, Gabriel hits the bottle, not realising that the teetotal Albert was once a heavy drinker. Twenty years ago, the latter pledged never to touch alcohol again if he and his wife survived the war. Through his friendship with Gabriel, Albert becomes nostalgic about his past, recalling his time as a sailor on an expedition to China. To drown their sorrows, the two men embark on a drinking binge which quickly gets out of hand…
— James Travers.Read More »
Synopsis:
Henri, the Man from Nantes, comes back to his country after a successful stay in the United States, where he was working for Liski, the drug dealer. With the fame of being a tough guy preceding him, he sets himself to the task of knowing why the French operations were not so profitable – and soon he is master of all links of the organization. He can now get it honed to perfection – or destroy it. Only… the Police is following his every step! Is Henri what he says he is, or an undercover detective from the French police?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 »
Brisbane, Australia, late 1910s. A man on the run from a murder charge buys a place as a stowaway on a smuggler ship bound for Mexico, by way of a tiny coral reef atoll.
Quote:
Between 1923 and 1952 Maurice Gleize managed to direct twenty two films in France without distinguishing himself. This one, with a screenplay by top French scriptwriter Charles Spaak, had arguably the best cast he ever got to work with (on other occasions he directed Fenandel, Charles Vanel and Marie Bell) from co-stars Jean Gabin and Michele Morgan – hot on the heels of Quai des brumes that same year – to Saturnin Fabre, Gaston Modot and Julien Carrette but for all Gleize extracted from them it might as well have been John Lund and Maria Montez supported by Leo Gorcey and the Bowery Boys.Read More »
Gueule d’Amour
Made partly while Grémillon was working at the Ufa Studios in Berlin, this film features the young Jean Gabin as a foreign-legion Casanova – the “lady killer” Lucien Bourrache – who meets his match in the mysterious seductress Madeleine (Mireille Balin). The sizzling electricity between Gabin and Balin made Gueule d’amour a rare popular success for the director.Read More »
Quote:
Archiméde is an old tramp who likes to think he is a cut above the rest. Not for him the penury of sleeping under bridges and scrounging for scraps in dustbins. He has a taste for the finer things in life – good food, fine wine and a comfortable place to make his bed. His present abode – a room in a block of flats that is being developed – has served him well all through the summer, but as winter beckons it will be too cold for him. He can either get himself arrested, in the hope of eaming himself a nice warm prison cell, or else he can sleep rough in the south of France. After much deliberation, he decides prison is the better option, if only because the food is more to his liking. To that end, Archimede smashes up a bar and gets duly taken into custody. He is appalled when he only manages to get himself put away for one week. It seems he will have to resort to more drastic measures if he is to find a comfortable haven for the entire winter…Read More »
After 25 years of married life, Julien and Clemence Bouin have ended up hating each other. Living in a dilapidated house soon to be demolished, their lives are filled with bitterness and regret for the happy past both have lost. When Julien adopts a stray cat and smothers it with affection, Clemence’s suppressed resentment turns to hatred…Read More »
André Chatelin is a restaurant owner in Les Halles in Paris. One morning, a girl named Catherine asks to see him. She happens to be the daughter of his estranged wife, Gabrielle, that André left more than twenty years before. As Gabrielle has just died, André accepts to accommodate Catherine first, then gives her a job in his restaurant before finally marrying her. But the angel-faced young lady might well be a devil in disguise.Read More »