FRENCH FILM NOIR

American Cinémathèque at the AERO Theatre - June 19-22

THE FRENCH HAD A NAME FOR IT: RARE FRENCH FILM NOIR, 1948-1963
Presented by the American Cinematheque and Midcentury Productions, with the support of the French Film & TV Office, French Consulate.

FRIDAY JUNE 19 at 7:30pm - Double Feature
THE TRUTH

LA VERITÉ

1960, Sony Repertory, 127 min, France/Italy, Dir: Henri-Georges Clouzot

                

Brigitte Bardot tops her amazing work with Godard and Vadim in this scorching portrait of amour fou. She stars as Dominique, a hedonistic free spirit on trial for the murder of her lover, musician Sami Frey. Clouzot breaks ground in his fearless look at private insecurities, revealing what supposedly constitutes a “sordid” lifestyle, and why it is so threatening to bourgeois society. Co-written by Clouzot and his wife, Véra (star of Les Diaboliques). Winner of the 1961 Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film. In French with English subtitles.

 

    
LOVE IS MY PROFESSION

EN CAS DE MALHEUR

1958, 105 min, France/Italy, Dir: Claude Autant-Lara

                

Distinguished lawyer Jean Gabin defends Brigitte Bardot, a prostitute who has committed a robbery. After he gets her acquitted, she becomes his mistress. Alas, Gabin’s efforts to teach Bardot some class run into trouble in the form of her other lover - a handsome young student (Franco Interlenghi) with a murderous temper. With Edwige Feuillère. Based on a novel by Georges Simenon. In French with English subtitles.

SATURDAY JUNE 20 at 7:30pm - Double Feature
CLASSE TOUS RISQUES

1959, Rialto Films, 108 min, France/Italy, Dir: Claude Sautet

                

Lino Ventura delivers an awesome performance (maybe his best) as Davos, a gangster in the twilight of his career, on the run from the mob with his wife and family. Jean-Paul Belmondo (hot off his star turn in Breathless) co-stars as a young hood who comes to Ventura’s aid. Brilliantly scripted by Jose Giovanni, based on a story he had heard in prison. “In addition to its crisp action sequences, the film has an excellent sense of place, showing us Paris, Nice and the small villages and French countryside between. … One of the things that makes CLASSE TOUS RISQUES distinctive are the palpable emotional connections it makes with its characters. Though he is the hardest of hard cases, Davos cares deeply about his family, and the feelings of regret, sadness and desperation that cross his face are just one of the factors that make this film the classic it is.” - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times. In French with English subtitles.

UN TEMOIN DANS LA VILLE

1959, Gaumont, 86 min, France/Italy, Dir: Édouard Molinaro

                

France's greatest character lead in the 1960s and ’70s, Lino Ventura, has his breakout role here as a revenge murderer who, finding that his “perfect crime” was witnessed by a cab driver, must try to eliminate him. As events unfold, Ventura finds that he is as much hunted as hunter. Stunning night photography from Henri Decaë (Bob le Flambeur, Elevator to the Gallows), and an evocative score featuring jazz greats Kenny Clarke and Kenny Dorham. In French with English subtitles.

SUNDAY JUNE 21 at 7:30pm - Double Feature
DEADLIER THAN THE MALE    

VOICI LE TEMPS DES ASSASSINS

1956, Pathe International, 113 min, France, Dir: Julien Duvivier

                 

While the other French femmes fatales are “hot,” none of them approach the coiled ferocity of Danièle Delorme here, driven to a life of ruthless scheming by her hardscrabble youth. Matching her step for step are Jean Gabin, the target of her desperate, malevolent plans; Germain Kerjean as his cold-hearted mother; Gerard Blain as his clueless surrogate son; and Luciene Bogart as Delorme’s drug-addicted mother. Featuring superb camerawork by Armand Thiraud (Clouzot's frequent collaborator), DEADLIER THAN THE MALE is arguably the definitive French film noir. In French with English subtitles.

CHAIR DE POULE

1963, 107 min, France/Italy, Dir: Julien Duvivier

                

Legendary director Julien Duvivier (Pépé le Moko) was nearing the end of his illustrious career, but he saved one of the best for last in this taut tale of fate, lust and enveloping entrapment. Robert Hossein is a thief on the lam who jumps from frying pan into the fire when he holes up at a highway truck stop and is quickly embroiled in the grasping schemes of a hard-bitten, voluptuous vixen (Catherine Rouvel) who will stop at nothing to get what she wants! Costarring Jean Sorel and Jacques Bertrand, with photography from Léonce-Henri Burel, longtime right-hand man of Robert Bresson. In French with English subtitles.

MONDAY JUNE 22 at 7:30pm - Double Feature
LE SEPTIÈME JURÉ

1962, Pathé International, 96 min, France, Dir: Georges Lautner

                

Dependable character actor Bernard Blier is given his chance to shine in a lead role here as Grégoire Duval, a man facing a predicament: After accidentally killing a local strumpet, he finds himself on a jury that must decide the fate of a man who he alone knows is innocent. As Duval comes to realize the depths of provincial perniciousness, this sordid story takes a strange and tragic turn. With Danièle Delorme as Duval’s icy, manipulative wife. In French with English subtitles.

DÉDÉE D'ANVERS

1948, 95 min, France, Dir: Yves Allégret

                

Bursting through the echoes of “poetic realism” contained within its narrative, this underworld drama showcases the emergence of Simone Signoret, a hooker with a hankering for a better life. The original femme fatale, Signoret is both luminous and complex, presaging a series of follow-up performances in similarly themed films over the next half-decade. A trio of indelible actors (Marcelo Pagliero, Marcel Dalio, Bernard Blier) provides Dédée with ecstasy, agony and sympathy, respectively. In French with English subtitles.