Clio Goldsmith Movies

Dale (Clio Goldsmith) is a married, expectant mother who holds down a job as a radio announcer and when a Frenchman, Maurice (Roger Hanin), telephones the station one day to correct a mistake she made in reference to the cinema, the two eventually end up agreeing to meet. Dale is part-French and this is one of the reasons for their first rendezvous. After the divorced Maurice sees Dale, he is attracted by her personality and charm, and the two become good friends, getting together whenever they can. Soon Maurice's son Bob (John Moulder-Brown) also meets Dale and is smitten by her just like his father. This adds a wrinkle to the already unstated feelings that pervade each meeting, feelings complicated by the fact that Dale does not have a very happy marriage but is unwilling to face up to it. Then one day, she goes into labor while her husband is away and in a series of comic sequences, Maurice is faced with seeing her through to a successful birth in the hospital (barely) -- an event that begins to finally resolve the many underlying countercurrents in the romantic tendencies of the protagonists. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Armed with a pistol, a writer (Catherine Spaak) breaks into the home of a successful publisher (Fernando Rey) to convince him to publish her erotic manuscript. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

In the original story of Camille by Alexandre Dumas, Jr. La Dame aux Camelias, a beautiful Parisian courtesan, Marguerite Gautier, (called "Camille" because of her love for camelias) is supported by a series of aristocratic lovers, but does not fall in love until she meets Armand Duval. Armand's father lets it be known that Camille would ruin Armand because of her "low" past, and she leaves to save his reputation, saying she does not love him anymore. She soon contracts tuberculosis, and Armand hears that she is dying. He rushes to her side, finds out she has loved him all along, and she dies knowing he has always loved her. The True Story of Camille uses the ploy of Alexandre Dumas, Jr. doing his version of "Camille" at the turn of the 20th century, as a means of introducing a flashback to the "real" story behind the "real" Camille, Alphonsine Plessis. In the film, Alphonsine (Isabelle Huppert) - a country girl - was sold by her father to a wealthy neighbor, which starts her off on a round of living in expansive palaces and keeping company with wealthy aristocrats and eventually, Alexandre Dumas, Jr. himself. But that trajectory did not happen all at once. Alphonsine first survives, barely, as a seamstress in Paris. Then she becomes a prostitute, after which a Count Peregaunts (Bruno Ganz) marries her, then more or less disappears, leaving her to become a high-class courtesan. As she makes her way from one handsome, aristocratic client to the next, a noble protector, Count Stechelberg (Fernando Rey) keeps her out of harm's way. By the time she and Dumas meet, she has become infected with tuberculosis - and she has created the inspiration for Dumas' story of Camille. Her father comes along at this point, however, ready to trounce Dumas for romanticizing his daughter's wretched life - the same father that sold her off in the first place. If the viewer can remember that the characters of Marguerite Gautier (Carla Fracci) and Armand Duval from Dumas' story of Camille have been given their "real" personas as Alphonsine Plessis and Dumas in this film, then the story within a story make more sense. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

A Jewish Mafia-like family is running a prostitution ring, selling "protection," and operating gambling casinos -- more or less with impunity, and at peace with their Arab counterparts -- until a young gangster (Bernard Giraudeau) decides to pit the two ethnic factions against each other. Jewish cultural and religious events are celebrated by the Jewish gangsters, who promote family traditions -- in contrast to the police inspector who has no family and is out to do them all in. Focusing on the Jewish mob boss, the story has him undergoing some personal rehabilitation in the end. Actually, comparing the merits of ethnically and religiously different mobs of gangsters might be a little like comparing the respective beauty of a pair of week-old corpses. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

In this Italian drama, Wilma, an aging dance hall girl, befriends La Cicada, a feisty, free-spirited woman who refuses to have sex for money. Together, they go traveling and on the rode take up with the handsome Hannibal, who dreams of opening up his own truck stop/gas station. The two women end up helping him achieve his dream. The place becomes a nightspot which they name La Cicada and turn into a big success. During this time, Wilma marries Hannibal, but Wilma begins worrying that her husband would rather have the young, sexy Cicada. The younger woman proves that he does not want her. When her lovely 18-year-old daughter comes to call, Wilma really gets worried because like her mother, the daughter has also become a whore. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi