FILM PROGRAM DETAILS

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 3 CAUTION: LEMMY! The Return of Eddie Constantine

THIS MAN IS DANGEROUS/CET HOMME EST DANGEREUX 6:00, 9:30

Born in Los Angeles to Russian expatriates, Eddie Constantine wanted to be a singer. A trip to Paris after WWII brought him into the orbit of Edith Piaf and her friends in the French film industry. Almost before he knew it, the man with the dazzling smile and the lived-in face became a French icon by channeling Bogart’s tough-guy routines. Here, in his second outing as FBI agent Lemmy Caution, he goes undercover, impersonating an escaped ex-con to infiltrate a kidnapping gang.

Director Jean Sacha, who edited Orson Welles’ Othello, channels the great expatriate director’s visual strategies, giving Cet Homme Est Dangereux a kind of kinky gravitas that future editions of the Lemmy Caution series failed to recapture. With Eddie Constantine, Colette Deréal, Grégoire Aslan, Claude Borelli, Vera Norman

(1953, dir. Jean Sacha, 92 min.) Screenplay: Jacques Berland (adaptation) and Marcel Duhamel (dialogue) from the novel by Peter Cheyney. Cinematography: Marcel Weiss. Film editing: Paulette Rovert. Music: Jacques Marion.

LUCKY JO 7:45

Michel Deville, apprentice of Henri Decoin, hit his stride as a director when he teamed up with Nina Companeez, whose father Jacques was one of the legendary screenwriters in French noir ( Les bas-fonds, Pieges, La foire aux chimeres, Les maudits, Casque d’Or). More fluent in comedy than her father, Companeez helped guide Deville to a unique combination of humor and pathos that they infused into the crime film. (She also served as his film editor, which prepared her for a future career as a director.)

Taking the well-worn Eddie Constantine, turning his persona upside down, and surrounding him with first-rate acting talent (Pierre and Claude Brasseur, Georges Wilson, Françoise Arnoul), Deville conjures up a frantic sub-world of petty thieves and perilous schemes, where the quiet calculation of the next score is upended by the escalating superstition surrounding Jo (Constantine), who continues to attempt a life of crime despite being shunned by his former associates as the catastrophic opposite of a “good-luck charm.” Featuring a sharply poignant score from the great Georges Delerue. With Eddie Constantine, Pierre Brasseur, Claude Brasseur, Georges Wilson, Françoise Arnoul, Christiane Minazzoli, Anouk Ferjac.

(1964, dir Michel Deville, 90 min.) Screenplay: Nina Companeez and Michel Deville from the novel “Main pleine” by Pierre Lesou. Cinematography: Claude Lecomte. Film editing: Nina Companeez. Music: Georges Delerue.

SATURDAY MATINÉE NOVEMBER 4 ON A ROLL: EARLY CHABROL

THE HANDSOME SERGE/ LE BEAU SERGE 1:30

Claude Chabrol invokes film noir’s fascination with doppelgangers as he creates a slashing update of French noir’s venerable “provincial Gothic” subgenre in his directing debut, presaging the Nouvelle Vague and jump-starting one of French cinema’s most accomplished and idiosyncratic careers.

The escalating tension between two long-time friends (Gerard Blain, the “handsome” Serge whose life has stagnated into a series of drunken rages; Jean-Claude Brialy, the scholarly François, whose escape from his provincial hometown is not as complete as he images) plays out in the deceptively pastoral setting of Sardent, where the beauties of the winter landscape cannot conceal the sordid lives that are going nowhere. With Gérard Blain, Jean-Claude Brialy, Bernadette Lafont, Michèle Méritz, Claude Cerval, Jeanne Pérez, Edmond Beauchamp.

(1958, dir. Claude Chabrol, 98 min.) Screenplay: Claude Chabrol. Cinematography: Henri Dacae. Film editing: Jacques Galliard. Music: Émile Delpierre

THE GOOD-TIME GIRLS/LES BONNES FEMMES 3:20

After re-teaming Brialy and Blain in a tale of sexual intrigue ( Les cousins) and trying his hand at murder mystery ( À double tour), Chabrol takes dark aim at the battle of the sexes, initiating a theme that will recur in many of the subsequent films in The French Had A Name for It 4.

Les Bonnes Femmes tracks the lives of four Parisian shopgirls and the emotional and physical dangers of their forays into heterosexual love. Cinematographer Henri Dacae continues his haunting mastery of Parisian locations, including dark streets, nightclubs—and the film’s tour de force moment, a visit to the Paris zoo where it becomes clear that society has a fate in mind for the women that is all too analogous to the caged animals on display. (A grisly but oddly related factoid: screenwriter Paul Gégauff was later stabbed to death by his wife.) With Bernadette Lafont, Stéphane Audran, Clotilde Joana, Lucile Saint-Simon, Pierre Bertin, Jean-Louis Maury, Albert Dinan.

(1960, dir. Claude Chabrol, 100 min.) Screenplay: Paul Gégauff (scenario & dialogue) and Claude Chabrol (adaptation). Cinematography: Henri Dacae. Film editing: Jacques Gaillard. Music: Pierre Jansen and Paul Misraki.

SATURDAY EVENING NOVEMBER 4 GABIN IN THE 50s—DIGGING DEEPER

HI-JACK HIGHWAY/GAS-OIL 6:00

Jean Gabin as a trucker? Jeanne Moreau as his long-suffering girlfriend? Is this Gilles Grangier’s version of “Bogart through the looking glass” (as critics suggested was the case for Lemmy Caution in Alphaville)?

Feel free to exhale: there is no “meta” to be found here, only a taut policier that rolls down the road with the same effortless panache that Gabin brought to all of his roles. Gas-Oil is memorable for pitting Gabin’s character against a pungent, relentless gangster’s widow (the great Ginette Leclerc) who’s convinced that Gabin is sitting on her dead husband’s suitcase full of cash. With Jean Gabin, Jeanne Moreau, Ginette Leclerc, Roger Hanin, Robert Dalban, Marcel Bozuffi.

(1955, dir. Gilles Grangier, 92 min.) Screenplay: Michel Audiard and Gilles Grangier from a novel by Georges Bayle. Cinematography: Pierre Montazel. Film editing: Jacqueline Thiédot. Music: Henri Crolla.

THE NIGHT AFFAIR/LE DÉSORDRE ET LA NUIT 7:45

Those looking for connective tissue between late 50s French noir and Hollywood crime film motifs have come to the right place—Gilles Grangier peppers this Jean Gabin vehicle with loads of nightlife and an abundance of sensual atmosphere, including knockout jazz numbers performed by expatriate American singer Hazel Scott.

Gabin is a world-weary cop (having made the transition several years earlier in Henri Decoin’s Razzia sur la chnouf) who becomes involved with a slumming young angel (Nadja Tiller) with the ironic nickname of Lucky. It’s a love affair that is as tender as it is titillating, but Gabin gets downright ferocious as he gets closer to solving the murder of a Paris jazz club owner. With Jean Gabin, Nadja Tiller, Danielle Darrieux, Paul Frankeur, Robert Berri, Hazel Scott, Louis Ducreux, François Chaumette.

(1958, dir. Gilles Grangier, 93 min.) Screenplay: Michel Audiard and Gilles Grangier from a novel by Jacques Robert. Cinematography: Louis Page. Film editing: Jacqueline Sadoul. Music: Jean Yatove.

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT/CRIME ET CHATIMENT 9:30

Gabin’s first “out of the closet” cop role is a stunning example of his paternal star presence, as he plays the patient, methodical (and downright eloquent) Commissioner Gallet, a fine warm-up for his later success in the role of Inspector Maigret.

Robert Hossein fans take note—Georges Lampin (who mentored Hossein on his first film, Les salauds vont en enfer—shown in our 2015 festival) commissioned legendary screenwriter Charles Spaak to create a loose, modern-day remake of Dostoyevsky’s classic in order to showcase Hossein in the Raskolnikov-like role. Old-school to a fault (he was assistant to Marcel L’Herbier on the great silent director’s first talkie, 1930’s Le mystère de la chamber jaune), Lampin—Russian by birth—fashions a dark, brooding film featuring an all-star cast, with special honors going to old pros Gabin and Bernard Blier. With Jean Gabin, Robert Hossein, Bernard Blier, Lino Ventura, Marina Vlady, Ulla Jacobsson, Gérard Blain, Gaby Morlay, Gabrielle Fontan, Julien Carette.

(1956, dir. Georges Lampin, 107 min.) Screenplay: Charles Spaak from the novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Cinematography: Claude Renoir. Film editing: Emma Le Chanois. Music: Maurice Thiriet.

SUNDAY MATINÉE NOVEMBER 5 C’EST LA GUERRE: HOMME v. FILLE

HAPPINESS/LE BONHEUR 2:00

Marcel L’Herbier, one of the great innovators of silent cinema, never quite recovered his stride after the advent of sound, but among his high points in what otherwise was a long slide from an early pinnacle ( L’inhumaine, L’argent) is this singular, genre-defying film that is as dark a tale of strange attraction as has ever been filmed.

Aiding him in creating the dizzying story of an increasingly bizarre love affair between an brash, inscrutable anarchist (Charles Boyer, in a performance unlike any other he’s given before or since) and a tempestuous, calculating diva (Gaby Morlay, demonstrating why she was the “go-to” actress in France for nearly half a century) is cameraman Harry Stradling, whose swooping pans, sideways tracking shots and oblique angles add immeasurably to the story as it shifts gears from melodrama to surreal self-referentiality. With Charles Boyer, Gaby Morlay, Michel Simon, Paulette Dubost, Jean Toulout, Jacques Catelain.

(1935, dir. Marcel L’Herbier, 98 min.) Screenplay: Marcel L’Herbier (scenario) and Michel Duran (dialogue) from the play by Henri Bernstein. Cinematography: Harry Stradling Sr. Film Editing: Jacques Manuel Music: Billy Colson

HATRED/MOLLENARD 4:00

The first great male presence in French film noir was not Jean Gabin, it was a middle-aged, washed up stage actor named Harry Baur. His larger-than-life persona, first revealed in his early 30s collaborations with Julien Duvivier, was leavened with the pathos of a not so well-concealed aching heart. He would ultimately die as a result of being tortured during the Occupation by the Nazis, who mistakenly thought he was Jewish.

Mollenard is among his most fascinating performances: the macho, gun-running sea captain who is only at home when he’s on the high seas turns out to have an Achilles’ heel—his mutinous wife and family in Dunkirk, where he returns for what proves to be a fateful reckoning. Director Robert Siodmak, cameraman Eugen Shufftan and screenwriter Charles Spaak (the first two of whom would shortly flee to America) combine to make a noir as poignant as it is prickly. With Harry Baur, Albert Préjean, Marcel Dalio, Gabrielle Dorziat, Gina Manès, Marta Labarr, Robert Lynen, Liliane Lesaffre, Ludmilla Pitoeff, Lucien Coedel.

(1938, dir. Robert Siodmak, 106 min.) Screenplay: Oscar Paul Gilbert (dialogue-scenario) and Charles Spaak (scenario) from the novel by Oscar Paul Gilbert. Cinematography: Eugen Shüfftan. Film editing: Léonide Azar. Music: Jacques Belasco, Darius Milhaud

SUNDAY EVENING NOVEMBER 5

ARLETTY & CASARES ON THE OTHER SIDE OF PARADISE

THE LADIES OF BOULOGNE WOOD/LES DAMES DU BOIS DE BOULOGNE 7:15

The sphinx-like Maria Casares, a legend on stage with acclaimed performances of Lady Macbeth and Medea, made her first on-screen splash in a co-starring role opposite Arletty in Marcel Carne’s Les infants du paradis. She continues her ascent with a pitch-perfect portrayal of Hélène, a woman from the upper reaches of the French upper class who is consumed with desire for revenge when her long-time lover Jean (Paul Bernard, memorable as the villain last year’s festival favorite Voyage sans espoir) breaks up with her. She concocts a diabolical plan to trick him into marrying a young woman (Elina Labourdette) who’s concealing a sordid past.

Robert Bresson, who would soon cast aside professional actors to achieve ever-more astringent character portrayals in his films, will surprise you with his innate grasp of the connective tissue between melodrama and noir in this precipitous tale of a woman who will literally stop at nothing to destroy the man who spurned her. With Maria Casares, Paul Bernard, Elina Labourdette, Lucienne Bogaert, Jean Marchat, Yvette Etiévant.

(1945, dir. Robert Bresson, 86 min.) Screenplay: Robert Bresson (adaptation) and Jean Cocteau (dialogue) from a novel by Denis Diderot. Cinematography: Philippe Agostini. Film editing: Jean Feyte. Music: Jean-Jacques Grünenwald

GIGOLO/GIBIER DE POTENCE 9:00

Roger Richebé was not a director who was vilified by the Nouvelle Vague—no, he was trashed by those who worked on his movies! But such was unwarranted: his detractors mostly lacked the conviction that Richebé brought to his envelope-pushing projects—of which Gibier de potence is one.

This richly sordid tale of a young man’s entrapment into male prostitution spans World War II, adding resonance by virtue of Richebé casting his long-time friend Arletty, whose career had not recovered from her war-time affair with a German officer, as the calculating yet strangely maternal Madame Alice, who makes hapless hunk George Marchal’s life a special kind of living hell. Can Marchal undo the slipknot on the ties that bind? Or was his fate foreordained the first time he laid eyes on Madame Alice? With Arletty, Georges Marchal, Nicole Courcel, André Carnège, Robert Dalban, Renée Cosima, Marcel Mouloujdi.

(1951, dir. Roger Richebé, 106 min.) Screenplay: Jean Aurenche and Maurice Blondea from the novel by Jean-Louis Curtis. Cinematography: Philippe Agostini. Film editing: Yvonne Martin. Music: Henri Verdun

MONDAY NOVEMBER 6 HOMMAGE TO JEANNE MOREAU

THE STRANGE MISTER STEVE/L’ÉTRANGE MONSIEUR STEVE 7:15

Milquetoast bank clerk Georges (Philippe Lemaire) becomes friendly with a smooth-talking gangster (Armand Mestral) and soon discovers the friendship—and a one-night dalliance with the gangster’s mistress (Jeanne Moreau)—is a trap to force him into assisting with a bank robbery. But there is another twist: the gangster’s gal actually falls in love with him!

Frédéric Dard, sometimes referred to as the Raymond Chandler of France, demonstrates his deftness with irony as he adapts Marcel Pretre’s novel with an eye toward sharp characterization. Moreau, nearing the end of her “noir apprenticeship,” is appropriately feisty and inscrutable throughout. With Jeanne Moreau, Philippe Lemaire, Armand Mestral, Lino Ventura, Anouk Ferjac, Jacques Varennes, Paulette Simonin, Robert Rollis.

(1957, dir. Raymond Bailly, 90 min.) Screenplay: Frédéric Dard and Raymond Bailly from a novel by Marcel G. Pretre. Cinematography: Jacques Lemare. Film editing: Daniel Devaivre. Music: Philippe-Gérard.

MADEMOISELLE 9:00

The mercurial, mesmerizing, contradictory Marguerite Duras hovers over Mademoiselle like a shroud; her adaptation of Jean Genet’s story about the unleashing of primal desire in a remote French village is the final nail in the coffin of French film noir and its venerable sub-genre, the “provincial Gothic.”

Alternating between sylvan beauty and increasingly harrowing human interaction, and featuring a poignant performance by then-teenage actor Keith Skinner, Mademoiselle is a showcase for Jeanne Moreau’s skill at minimalist extremity, embodying the dark side of feminine power as she unleashes chaos and tragedy amongst her unsuspecting neighbors. With Jeanne Moreau, Ettore Manni, Keith Skinner, Umberto Orsini, Georges Aubert, Jane Beretta, Antoine Marin, Jacques Monod.

(1966, dir. Tony Richardson, 103 min.) Screenplay: Marguerite Duras from a story by Jean Genet. Cinematography: David Watkin. Film editing: Sophie Coussein. Music: Antoine Duhamel.