Jeanne Moreau

The PFA hosted a Jeanne Moreau retrospective in November & December. I saw 9 out of the 12 films in the series although I saw The Bride Wore Black at the Viz which gave it week long run after the PFA series ended.

Bay of Angels starring Moreau and Claude Mann; directed by Jacques Demy; French with subtitles; (1962)
The Lovers starring Moreau & Alain Cuny; directed by Louis Malle; directed by Jacques Demy; French with subtitles; (1958)
Jules and Jim starring Moreau, Oskar Werner & Henri Serre; directed by François Truffaut; French with subtitles; (1961)
Touchez pas au Grisbit starring Jean Gabin & Rene Dary; with Moreau & Lino Ventura; directed by Jacques Becker; French with subtitles; (1953)
The Trial starring Anthony Perkins, Moreau, Romy Schneider & Orson Welles; directed by Orson Welles; (1962)
The Fire Within starring Maurice Ronet; with Moreau; directed by Louis Malle; French with subtitles; (1964)
Mademoiselle starring Etore Manni & Moreau; directed by Tony Richardson; French with subtitles; (1966)
Chimes at Midnight starring Orson Welles; with Keith Baxter, John Gielgud & Moreau; directed by Orson Welles; (1966)
The Bride Wore Black starring Moreau; directed François Truffaut; French with subtitles; (1968)

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In several of the films, Moreau had supporting roles. My favorite films of the series was one such film - Touchez pas au Grisbit which translates to "Don't touch the loot." A vehicle for Jean Gabin, Touchez is tale of honor among thieves and double cross.

Jean Gabin plays Max a 50ish gangster who wants to retire with some gold bars he stole. Unfortunately, Max has to carry his partner Riton (René Dary), the weak link and an equally aging playboy lacking the wisdom of his partner. Riton's girlfriend is a Jeanne Moreau who cuckolds him with Lino Ventura (in his film debut). Lino finds out about the gold, kidnaps Riton and offers to ransom him for the gold. The rest of the film involves Max try to rescue Riton & keep the gold.

Touchez pas au Grisbit was in the Golden Era of French crime capers which includes Rififi (1955), Bob le flambeur (1956), Elevator to the Gallows (1958), etc. Gabin's performance in Touchez pas au Grisbit gives the film most of its character. Polite, wise, weary and aware that he is aging, Gabin's Max could easily be mistaken for a corporate CEO or even a cop. Gabin was in a career slump at the time this film was made but his performance revived his career.

In addition to Gabin, the Paris neighborhood (Montmartre) where the film was shot and the sets (such as the bistro which only caters to gangsters) give Touchez pas au Grisbit much of its atmosphere.

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A close second was Bay of Angels which was directed by Jacques Demy (Umbrellas of Cherbourg). Moreau dyes her hair platinum blonde and cavorts with Claude Mann in the French Riviera. Mann plays a young bank employee who becomes enamored with gambling. He falls in with Moreau's character, Jackie. Jackie is une femme d'un certain age, married but travelling alone and terribly addicted to gambling. Mann's Jean receives a painful lesson in life courtesy of Jackie but between her platinum locks, decadent lifestyle and the soaring Michel Legrand piano concertos, it almost seems worth it.

After seeing Bay of Angels, there is no doubt that Moreau is a movie star. Even when she is silent, you can't take your eyes off her. There are long stretches where Jackie is silent and expresses desire, desparation, frustration and even self-loathing with facial movements.

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Mademoiselle was very compelling also. Moreau plays a small town's mysterious school teacher; I don't believe she is ever addressed by name. Prim and proper...and presumably virginous, I thought Moreau was too old for the role at 40 years of age. By the end of the film, I believe the casting decision was deliberate.

Mademoiselle lusts for a beefy Italian lumberjack whose son is one of her students. Mademoiselle secretly acts on her desires but the man's son discovers the tryst and mademoiselle knows that he knows. What follows is a complex psychological drama where mademoiselle reacts to the threat of her secrets being revealed by arson and flooding, intentionally casting blame on the Italian lumberjacks who are migrant workers. Simultaneously, she becomes resentful towards the boy and humiliates him in class. The boy though seems to want to emulate father even latently desiring mademoiselle. It was all rather fascinating and told in a measured pace.

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The Bride Wore Black was François Truffaut's homage to Alfred Hitchcock with Moreau as an avenging angel seeking retribution for her husband's tragicomedic death. The film is engaging enough but Truffaut seems to be going through the motions lacking the dark humor and morbid glee that Hitchcock displayed in his best works.

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The Lovers, Jules and Jim, The Trial and Chimes at Midnight are all well known films which I'll skip over due to considerations of my time and inclination. My only comment is that there is a scene in The Trial where Anthony Perkins walks among endless rows of workers at their desks which was visually stunning.

Documentaries on French Film Directors

I saw two documentaries at the Roxie about French directors in February.

Two in the Wave; directed by Emmanuel Laurent; French with subtitles; (2010) - Official Website
Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno; directed by Serge Bromberg and Ruxandra Medrea; French with subtitles; (2009) - Official Website

Two in the Wave documented the relationship between François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard. Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno told the story of the making of Clouzot's L'Enfer (Inferno). Clouzot was plagued with indecision (possibly the result of a nervous breakdown) during the filming and never completed the film despite shooting 15 hours of footage. Salon.com calls it "The Greatest Film Never Made."

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It was until recently that I learned that Truffaut, Godard and Claude Chabrol wrote for Cahiers du Cinema at the same time in the 1950s. It was during this period that Truffaut and Godard became friends. Truffaut's The 400 Blows was the hit of the 1959 Cannes Film Festival and made him world famous. Using his newfound influence, Truffaut helped to get Godard's Breathless made in 1960. Godard and Truffaut share screenwriting credits on Breathless. Throughout the 1960s, Godard and Truffaut were preeminent in French cinema.

The two remained friends and shared politcal causes until the late 1960s when Godard's politics and film took on more radical elements. A series of public letters between the men created a permanent break in their relationship. Truffaut and Godard did not speak for the last decade or so of Truffaut's life (he died in 1984).

Two in the Wave documented the men's relationship and their films. It didn't add too much insight but presented the known facts in a clear manner so that people unfamiliar with their shared history (like me) could get an introduction.

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Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno was more provocative. Clouzot was best known for Diabolique (1955) but had a string of well received French films in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In 1964, Columbia Pictures gave him an unlimited budget to film his screenplay for Inferno. He cast popular German film star Romy Schneider as the female lead and Italian born Serge Reggiani as her jealous husband. The plot involved the husband's increasing jealous and ultimately madness.

Given Clouzot's unlimited budget and the discipline he showed on past films, much was expected from Inferno. Instead, Clouzot dithered during filming. He was unable to make decisions, argued with his actors and endlessly shot take after take of certain scenes. Clouzot had suffered from clinical depression earlier in his life. During the making of Inferno, Clouzot appeared to be suffering from some mental condition that made him obsessive about every aspect film to the point that nothing could get made. Reggiani walked off the set after several weeks of shooting and soon thereafter, Clouzot suffered a heart attack. The film was abandoned shortly afterwards.

Director Serge Bromberg was trapped in a elevator for two hours with Clouzot's widow. She told him about Inferno and the 185 reels of film she still had in storage. Bromberg decided to make a documentary on the film that never was. Bromberg used some of the original footage as well as interviews with surviving cast and crew (director Costa Gavras was part of the crew) and actors to enact scenes which weren't filmed.

Bromberg use of Clouzot's original footage is spectacular. Clouzot mixed tinted lenses and reverse motion photography to create stunning images. There are scenes of Schneider water skiing which a submlime as her hips sway when she makes a turn. In other scenes, she wears blue lipstick that give her an otherwordly appearance and must have been used to express her husband's descent into madness. Bromberg samples an array of Clouzot's footage and the effect on me was almost like an inferno. I longed to see the entire film which of course is impossible. Clouzot was clearly as master and Inferno could have been a masterpiece if he had held it together long enough to complete it. As for Schneider, I wonder if I can ever see a film with her without comparing it to her scenes in Inferno.

The Bigamist and The Wild Child

On Sunday, I trekked over to Berkeley to see The Bigamist (1953) as part of Film on Film Foundation's "Lupino Noir" double feature. The second half of the program was Outrage but I was tired and had an early meeting on Monday so I skipped it.

The first thing I noticed was that I have already seen this film. It screened almost 3 years ago as part of the Balboa Theater's Reel San Francisco series. The film starred Edmond O'Brien, Joan Fontaine and Ida Lupino (who also directed). Much of the film was filmed and set in San Francisco.

The title tells the story - O'Brien has two wives - one in SF (Fontaine) and the other in LA. The story attempts to cast O'Brien in sympathetic light although he committed adultery, fathered a child out of wedlock and eventually committed bigamy out of sympathy for Lupino's mousy but brassy character. It put some of the blame on Fontaine's character, not just a wife but a business partner. She's hard-charging in the boardroom and barren in the bedroom. Overall, the film was dated and I didn't feel much sympathy for O'Brien. If you knock a woman up, you divorce your wife, you get an abortion or you pay child support but you don't commit bigamy (even in 1953).

The emcee shared a story that could only happen in Hollywood. Lupino was married to The Bigamist's screenwriter, Collier Young. Lupino divorced Young in 1951. Prior to the filming of The Bigamist, Young and Joan Fontaine were married; so the lead actresses had a real-life relationship that bizarrely resembled the plot. It's amazing that the three could or would work together; especially with Lupino as the director.

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On Wednesday, I saw The Wild Child or L'Enfant Sauvage. This 1970 French film (with English subtitles) was directed by and starred Francois Truffaut. Based on a true story from 1798, the plot involves a 12 year old boy that is discovered by some villagers. The boy is nude and has seemingly lived in the wild all his life. His story catches the attention of Parisian Dr. Itard (Truffaut). He arranges for the boy to live with him so he can conduct experiments on the boy's ability to integrate into society. Some think the boy is a savage that should be locked away but Itard thinks he can teach the boy social and language skills.

The rest of the film follows the ups and downs of teaching Victor (the name give to the boy) and how Itard and Victor (and their housekeeper) learn personal lessons on the meaning of humanity.

The film is slow-paced and looks like a flim from the 1970's but it's clearly a labor of love for Truffaut. His daughter says he played the lead role because he didn't want an actor between him and the film. Jean-Paul B as Victor delivers the payoff performance - he runs around naked in the woods for the first part of the film and throws temper tantrums for the second half of the film. A few scenes such as him looking balefully at the moon to convey his sense of isolation, his frolicking in the rain to show his comfort with the outdoors and his inability to steal a chicken to represent his partial integration into human society make the film a small and gentle masterpiece.

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I saw The Wild Child at the Landmark Opera Plaza. I saw some postcards for Tokyo Sonata, a well-regarded Japanese film that has been making the festival circuit. It played at this year's Cinequest and will play at SFIAAFF. Although I didn't see an announcement, I suspect Tokyo Sonata will get a run at a Landmark Theater.

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Through March 11, I'm averaging $7.66 per program or film. I've seen 77 films since January 1, 2009. January through March is the busy period for film festivals in San Francisco; at least it is for me. January is Noir City, February is IndieFest and March is the Asian American Festival. The most popular festival in SF is the International Film Festival in April. I usually skip the festival because the crowds are so large, I'm burnt out by April and many of the films get distributed after the festival or get picked up by other local festivals.