Orane Demazis Movies
Actress Orane Demazis is most famous for playing the ill-fated Fanny in Pagnol's Marseilles trilogy, Marius (1931), Fanny (1932), and Cesar (1936). Originally, she played Fanny on stage in Paris. Demazis was a longtime lover and companion to the French director/playwright Pagnol and appeared in many of his works. When the two parted, her career basically died--though she did occasionally land small roles in films through the late 1970s. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1979
This artfully contrived and engaging period drama is set during World War I and gradually reveals the human relationships in a small family. Catherine (Juliet Berto) is the temporary head of the family while her husband, whom she loathes, is away fighting in the war. Her widowed sister-in-law Suzanne (Anna Prucnal) lives with her, and after awhile it becomes apparent that Catherine loathes her as well. The children in the house are all boys -- Catherine has two sons, twelve and thirteen, and Suzanne also has a twelve-year old. While the relationship between Suzanne and Catherine is coming to a head, Catherine is having an affair with an army officer, and the boys in the family are planning a musical performance for everyone. The crescendo may be barely audible at the beginning, but it builds up to a tragedy at the end. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Juliet Berto, Anna Prucnal, (more)
- 1974
Director André Téchiné brings his usual obsessions -- including a preoccupation with the fortunes of the bourgeoisie -- to this episodic drama, which serves as a thinly-veiled portrait of France's economic peaks and valleys from the 1930s through the 1970s. Jeanne Moreau stars as Berthe Pedret, a simple laundry woman who marries Hector (Michael Auclair), son of a wealthy, upper class, Spanish immigrant family that owns a successful farm machinery factory. Through a series of vignettes, Techine depicts the passage of years, during which the ambitious working class woman blooms through several bold moves, such as negotiating a workers' strike settlement and using her alliance with the war-time French Resistance movement to increase the enterprise's prestige. Eventually, Berthe comes to control the family's fortunes, but economic challenges in the 1950s force her to turn to an unlikely source for financial help: her obnoxious sister-in-law Regina (Marie-France Pisier). Regina, who ran off with a wealthy American after the war, may now be willing to aid Berthe in exchange for her freedom. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeanne Moreau, Michel Auclair, (more)
One of Luis Buñuel's most episodic films, The Phantom of Liberty focuses on no one particular narrative. In the beginning, a man sells postcards of French tourist attractions, calling them "pornographic." A sniper in Montparnasse is hailed as a hero for killing passersby. A "missing" child helps the police fill out the report on her. A group of monks play poker, using religious medallions as chips, and in the most infamous sequence, a formally dressed social group gathers at toilets around a table, occasionally excusing themselves to go into little stalls in a private room to eat. ~ John Voorhees, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Claude Brialy, Monica Vitti, (more)
- 1973
In this French film, Jeanne (Simone Signoret) is a poorly regarded (and treated) second wife, who serves as more of a servant to her new family than as anyone important. This movie screens both her Thurber-esque fantasies of gaining status and revenge, and her actual activities, which generally do little to improve her situation. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Simone Signoret, Jacques Debary, (more)
- 1956
Le Cas Du Dr. Laurent (The Case of Dr. Laurent) stars Jean Gabin as a Paris-based doctor who tries to spread the gospel of Natural Childbirth. Working in a cloistered rural community, Gabin runs up against the stone walls of fear and prejudice. His theories are proven sound when unwed mother Nicole Courcel gives birth within Gabin's methodology. The childbirth sequence is filmed straight-on with a delicate combination of taste and frankness. Nonetheless, the lurid ad campaign of Cas Du Dr. Laurent sensationalized this sequence all out of proportion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Gabin, Nicole Courcel, (more)
- 1948
One suspects that the torrid melodrama The Wench had a somewhat stronger title when it was first released in France. The title character, played by Maria Casares, is a cook/housemaid named Carmelle. Hired by wealthy, unmarried farmer Rabasse (Jean Brochard), Carmelle keeps her employer at arm's length until he promises to name her as sole beneficiary in his will. Upon Rabasse's death, Carmelle takes advantage of her new-found wealth and prestige by sleeping with practically every male in town. This being a French film, Carmelle is not required to pay for her sins, as she would have in a Hollywood production. One subplot involving an implicit incestuous relationship would, of course, have been vetoed from the get-go by the American censors. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maria Casarés, Orane Demazis, (more)
- 1943
Fire in the Straw (Le Feu de Paille) was the final directorial effort of French filmmaker Jean Benoit-Levy before he left his wartorn native country in favor of a teaching post at the New School for Social Research. Based on Henri Troyat's award-winning novel Grandeur Nature, the film details the progress of 12-year-old Christian Vautier (Jean Keller), who rises to fame as a movie star. Christian's father Antoine (Lucien Baroux), himself a failed actor, is gratified by his son's popularity, though he knows it's only a matter of time before the boy falls out of public favor. The film paints a fairly bleak portrait of show business, which in France at least seems to be in the hands of sycophants, fly-by-night opportunists and backstabbers. Filmed in 1940, Fire in the Straw was released in the US three years later. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lucien Baroux, Orane Demazis, (more)
- 1939
Feu de Paille (Straw Fire) was adapted by director Jean Benoit Levy from the prize-winning novel by Henri Troyat. Lucien Baroux plays Antoine Vautier, an aging and modestly talented ham actor of the Old School. Unable to achieve prominence on the stage, Vautier is understandably put out when his handsome son (Jean Fuller) is promoted to stardom in talking pictures. At first feigning pride in his son's achievements, Vautier eventually succumbs to jealousy, taking comfort in the fact that the boy's second picture is a failure. But when his son falls victim to a debilitating illness, the elderly actor realizes how much he truly loves the boy, bringing a permanent end to their familial rivalry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Orane Demazis, Lucien Baroux, (more)
- 1938
Le Schpountz (Heartbeat) stars Fernandel as a feckless country boy named Saturnin who fancies himself the second coming of Charles Boyer, and wants to make it in the film industry on this basis. Director Marcel Pagnol uses the plot of this bucolic comedy drama to mercilessly drub his producers and their often questionable methods of raising production money. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernandel, Orane Demazis, (more)
- 1937
Originally Regain, this Marcel Pagnol masterwork was distributed in the US in 1939, two years after its completion; the hold-up was due to complaints from the New York censors, who disapproved of the plotline's harmlessly adulterous undertones. Told in a simple, straightforward fashion, the film deals with the trials and tribulations of peasant farmer Panturie (Gabriel Gabrio) and his lover, apprentice knife-grinder Arsule (Orane Demazis), as they struggle to revitalize their failing wheat farm. Despite one setback after another, Panturie and Arsule refuse to give up, and it is their devotion to their land-and each other-which sparks a revival of optimism and solidarity throughout the countryside. Fernandel provides wistful comedy relief as Gedemus, the itinerant knife-grinder to whom Arsule is married at the outset of the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernandel, Edouard Delmont, (more)
- 1935
The final film in Marcel Pagnol's Marseilles trilogy (following Marius and Fanny), this drama follows Cesariot (Andre Fouche), an 18-year-old who has recently been led to believe that his father, Honore (Fernand Charpin), is not really his father at all. Honore dies without telling Cesariot about his true parentage, but after the funeral, his mother Fanny (Orane Demazis) breaks the news that Cesar (Raimu), who he had always been told was his godfather, is in fact his grandfather. Cesariot asks Cesar for the truth; the old man tells him that his real dad is Marius (Pierre Fresnay), an auto mechanic, and tells him how to find the garage where Marius works. Cesariot sets out to meet Marius, but when he stops by the garage, Marius isn't in. His boss, Fernand (Doumel), decides to have some fun and tells Cesariot that Marius is a notorious outlaw; the boy buys it hook, line, and sinker and returns home heartbroken. When Marius finds out what happened, he realizes that he must find the boy and see if the damage can still be repaired. While any of the three films in Pagnol's trilogy can be enjoyed separately, Cesar in particular is best appreciated when seen alongside the other two films. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Raimu, Pierre Fresnay, (more)
- 1934
French writer/director Marcel Pagnol didn't do much editing when he transferred Jean Glono's excessively long novel Angele to film. Orane Demaziz plays the title role, an innocent country girl who becomes a Parisian streetwalker thanks to a smooth-talking pimp. Angele's father fetches her back to the farm, forcibly locking the girl and her newborn baby in his cellar. Her faithful rustic boyfriend rescues Angele, and together the two attempt to escape for a new life. But Angele still loves her father and returns home, whereupon daddy does an about-face and welcomes her with open arms. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Orane Demazis, Fernandel, (more)
- 1934
Les Miserables is perhaps the most frequently filmed novel in screen history. This 1933 French version of the Victor Hugo classic is the most epic in proportion, though the human elements of the story are kept in sharp focus by director Raymond Bernard and star Harry Baur. Baur plays Jean Valjean, an essentially decent man imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread and transformed into a dehumanized outlaw. His faith in humanity restored by the kindliness of a bishop (Henry Krauss), Valjean goes to a small village to start life anew, but is pursued throughout his life for breaking parole by relentless police officer Javert (Charles Vanel). The various stages of Valjean's life--from convict to businessman to elderly martyr--were bounded by the film's original three-part structure. Part one, Tempete sous un Crane, ran two hours; part two, Les Thenardiers, was 90 minutes; and part three, Liberte, Liberté Cherie clocked in at 95. The American version of Les Miserables was spliced down to 165 minutes, with all three parts combined into one, then was withdrawn to avoid competition with 20th Century Pictures' 1935 Les Miserables. Years later, director Bernard himself pared down his film to two parts: Jean Valjean (109 minutes), and Cosette (100 minutes, with Josseline Gael in the title role). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harry Baur, Charles Vanel, (more)
- 1932
In this sequel to Marcel Pagnol's Marius, which picks up roughly where the first film left off, sailor Marius (Pierre Fresney) has left for the sea, while his girlfriend Fanny (Orane Demazis) is pregnant with his child. Through she still loves Marius, Fanny bows to the pleas of her parents and agrees to marry Panisse (Fernand Charpin), an elderly sail maker, so that her baby will have a name and a father at home. Marius' father Cesar (Raimu) tries to keep Fanny's marriage and the child that Marius fathered a secret from him, but to no avail; when Marius learns of Fanny's predicament, he comes home as quickly as possible. While Marius and Fanny want to reconcile, Fanny's parents will hear nothing of it, and Panisse refuses to give Fanny up, declaring that while he is not the biological father of the child, the baby is his son in every other sense. With a heavy heart, Cesar advises his son to return to the life of the sea, and a heartbroken Marius follows his father's advice. Pagnol concluded his "Marseilles Trilogy" three years later with Cesar. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Raimu, Pierre Fresnay, (more)
- 1931
In this touching romance, the first in Marcel Pagnol's Marseilles trilogy (the other two being Fanny and Cesar, Pierre Fresnay stars as Marius, a young man tending bar who dreams of a life at sea. Because he so desires to become a sailor, he cannot commit to marriage even though he loves Fanny (Orane Demazis). When the rich Honore Panisse (Charpin) proposes to Fanny, Marius becomes enraged, but still refuses to ask for her hand. At the bar, Fanny confesses her love for him and tells Marius she has rejected Honore's proposal. Marius admits his love for her as well and they retire to a back room to make love. When Marius is told a spot has opened up on a departing ship, he declines to sign on, not wanting to leave Fanny, but he still refuses to marry her. Fanny overhears the conversation, and not wanting to hold Marius back from the life at sea he so desires, tells Marius she has changed her mind and accepted Honore's proposal. Heartbroken, Marius rushes to pack and catch the departing ship. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Raimu, Pierre Fresnay, (more)
