Pierre Blanchar Movies
Learning his craft at the Paris Conservatory, Algeria-born actor Pierre Blanchar made the first of many memorable stage appearances in 1920. One of France's most popular show business personalities, Blanchar's most famous screen characterizations include Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment (1935) and Napoleon in the British A Royal Divorce (1938). He was also highly praised for his work in Duvivier's Un Carnet du Bal (1937) and Delannoy's La Symphonie Pastorale (1946), the latter film containing perhaps his most touching performance. In 1942, he extended his talents into directing for a brace of films. Pierre Blanchar was the father of actress Dominique Blanchar. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1959
In this crime drama, a criminal mastermind and his gang plan to rob the Bank of Belgium during the Brussels Exposition as the roof of the bank is being repaired. Included in his gang are a woman, haunted by wartime memories, who loves money, her assistant, and a man pretending to be a construction worker who will help them get in. The woman owns a floating nightclub, and when she refuses to sell it to a gangster named "The Bug" real trouble ensues for the would-be crooks. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nadja Tiller, Robert Hossein, (more)
- 1959
Feeling hamstrung and confined by Hollywood, writer/director Robert Siodmak returned to Europe to make most of his latter-day films. Produced in France, Magnificent Sinner stars Curt Jurgens as Czar Alexander II, with Romy Schneider as schoolgirl Katja. The Czar takes Katja as his mistress, elevating her to princess status. The romance leads to court intrigue, and is instrumental in Alexander's ultimate assassination. Magnificent Sinner was originally released as Katia; it was a remake of a 1938 French film of the same name, which starred Danielle Darieaux. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Romy Schneider, Curd Jürgens, (more)
- 1949
Like his earlier Monsieur Vincent, Maurice Cloche's Docteur Laennec is a lovingly rendered biography of a famed humanitarian. In this instance, the subject is the inventor of the stethoscope, who was forced to battle the hidebound medical hierarchy of his time to prove the far-reaching importance of his creation. Cloche wastes little time on Dr. Laennec's private life, adopting instead an episode retelling of his medical accomplishments. The film wasn't altogether adaptable to American screens, since the abundance of dialogue made subtitling (the preferred translation method of the time) difficult. In the title role, Pierre Blanchar once again offers a first-rate characterization. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierre Blanchar, Pierre Dux, (more)
- 1949
In Le Bal Cupidon, an amusing comedy-mystery in the Thin Man tradition, Pierre Blanchar plays Dominique-Phillippe, a suave private detective, and Simone Renant plays Isabelle, the best friend of a murder suspect. Isabelle cannot believe that her friend Anne-Marie (Maria Mauban) murdered her wealthy, crippled husband, and insists that Dominique-Phillippe track down the genuine culprit. Trouble is, the detective wants nothing to do with Isabelle, who has caused him no end of difficulty in the past. Adhering to formula, hero and heroine eventually patch up their differences and team up to solve the mystery. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Simone Renant, Maria Mauban, (more)
- 1948
This French WW II film chronicles the invasion of France by scores of English paratroopers who have come to bedevil the Nazi troops before D-Day. Much of the story centers on the preparation of the troops and upon the planning of the invasion. The rest follows the paratroopers as they team-up with French fighters and fulfill their missions. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierre Blanchar
- 1948
The troubled turn-of-the-century marriage of a Nobel Prize winner provides the basis of this complex French domestic drama. Neither husband nor wife have been faithful to each other. She is currently having a blatant affair with a drunken news reporter while the writer once had a mistress himself. Unfortunately, she is now dead. His wife discovers that the mistress bore a child and she decides to adopt the orphan herself. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Simone Renant, Gisèle Pascal, (more)
- 1946
Le Batailon du Ciel (Sky Batallion) is a monumental undertaking, especially for the financially strapped postwar French film industry. Running nearly three hours, the film is a meticulous re-creation of but one aspect of the 1944 Normandy Invasion. Director Alexander Esway concentrates on the French paratroopers who participated in the invasion, with several of the actual battalion members appearing in minor roles. Throughout, the acting and direction is realistic, arguably even more so than in the larger-scale D-Day epic The Longest Day. Le Batailon du Ciel was filmed with the joint cooperation of the French Army and Britain's RAF. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Janine Crispin, Daphne Courtney, (more)
- 1946
Adapted by Pierre Bost and Jean Aurenche from a novel by Andre Gide, Symphonie Pastorale proved yet another box-office success for popular French filmmaker Jean Delannoy. Michelle Morgan stars as a blind orphaned girl who is adopted by kindly pastor Pierre Blancher. The pastor's paternal affection for the girl blossoms into romantic love, despite the fact that he's already married. As a form of courtship, Delannoy fills the sightless Morgan's head with visions of a "perfect" world, as harmonious as her favorite musical piece, Beethoven's Symphonie Pastorale (you'll recall that composition from Disney's Fantasia). Delannoy's son Jean Desailly, likewise falling in love with Morgan, arranges for an operation that will restore the girl's sight. This plunges Delannoy into despair: once Morgan sees the world for herself, and not as an idyllic image conjured up by the pastor, she will be lost to him forever. A delicate, evenly-paced fable ending in tragedy, Symphonie Pastorale was harpooned in later years by New Wave critics who complained that Delannoy, Bost and Aurenche "trivialized" their adaptations of literary classics. The audiences, who ate up the film like cotton candy, didn't seem to be bothered in the least over the filmmakers' so-called diminishing of the Gide original. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michèle Morgan, Andrée Clement, (more)
- 1943
The French Secrets of a Ballerina is based on Honore de Balzac's Un Seul Amour. The title character is ballet-star Clara Biondi (Micheline Presle), whose peak years are shown in flashback. Clara finds herself victimized by blackmailer -- and former lover -- James de Poulet (Robert Vattier). As it turns out, she will do anything to keep her sordid past from husband Gerard de Clergue (Pierre Blanchar). Director Pierre Blanchar (who also appeared in the film) evidently felt that the flashback format was the best method to convey de Balzac's tricky narrative style. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Micheline Presle, Gabrielle Fontan, (more)
- 1940
Two Women was adapted by Charles Spaak from L'Empreinte de Dieu, a novel by Maxence Van der Meerck. Terrified of her violent-tempered husband Gomar (Jacques Dumenil), Karelina (Blanchette Brunoy) takes refuge in the home of Wilfrida (Annie Ducaux), her best friend. The one who suffers most from this set-up is Wilfrida's kind-hearted husband Van Bergen (Pierre Blanchard), who falls in love with Karelina. Upon learning that Karelina has been rendered pregnant, Gomar insanely charges into the Van Bergen household and murders the erstwhile good samaritan. Much of the film was lensed on the coast of Holland, a scant few months before the Nazi invasion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierre Blanchar, Annie Ducaux, (more)
- 1938
Though its title and director are Russian, The Volga Boatmen was lensed in its entirety in France. Set in pre-revolutionary days, the story concentrates on the miserable lives of the boatmen who pull their merchant vessels up and down the Volga. When army officer Vadime Borzine (Pierre Blanchar)is caught in a compromising position with the wife of his commander, Borzine is punished by being forced to join the ranks of the Volga boatmen. Fate intervenes when a yacht carrying his sweetheart catches fire, enabling Vadime to perform conspicuous acts of bravery, thereby clearing his name. Though not a remake of the 1927 Cecil B. DeMille film of the same name, both versions of The Volga Boatmen have a great deal in common. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vera Korene, Pierre Blanchar, (more)
- 1938
The Courier of Lyons stars Pierre Blanchar as both hero and villain. Blanchar is introduced as Joseph Lesurques, who has the misfortune of bearing a remarkable resemblance to notorious outlaw Dubosque. Arrested for a robbery and murder committed by his lookalike, Lesurques cannot account for his actions when the dirty deeds were perpertrated, and is summarily sentenced to be hanged. It is up to Lesurques' wife Mina (Dita Parlo) to clear her husband-but Mina has every reason to see the philandering Lesurques executed. The otherwise grim courtroom sequences provides a brief and very welcome bit of comedy relief when a cheery prostitute (Sylvia Bataille) offers to be a witness for the defense. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierre Blanchar, Dita Parlo, (more)
- 1938
A Royal Divorce is the misleading title bestowed upon this dramatization of certain events in the lives of Napoleon and Josephine. Making her first screen appearance in two years, Hollywood's Ruth Chatterton tops the cast as Josephine, whose widowhood is relieved upon her marriage to up-and-coming military officer Napoleon (France's Pierre Blanchar). Though she's several years older than her husband, Josephine tries to be the wife he wants-but she cannot give him what he really wants, namely an heir. Miles Malleson's screenplay puts forth the theory that Josephine agreed to her divorce from the Emperor so that he might father a legitimate child by his mistress, Marie Louise. In terms of costumes and settings, A Royal Divorce is authentic to a fault; in terms of adherence to the facts, it's a bit shaky, though undeniably dramatic. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ruth Chatterton, Pierre Blanchar, (more)
- 1937
La Dame de Pique is the first talkie version of the frequently filmed Alexander Pushkin parable The Queen of Spades. Pierre Blanchar stars as Hermann, an officer in the Russian army whose chronic gambling brings him in contact with a wealthy old countess (Marguerite Moreno) known as "La Dame de Pique." Fascinated by the countess' incredible luck at the gaming tables, Hermann is determined to learn her secret. With the help of the old woman's niece (Madeleine Ozeray), Hermann gains access to the Countess's boudoir and tries to romance the secret out of her. When this fails, he produces a gun and demands that she tell all -- whereupon the Countess falls dead from a heart attack. From this point on, Hermann's own doom is sealed. The most famous version of the Pushkin original was filmed 12 years later, with Anton Walbrook as the foolhardy protagonist and Edith Evans as the enigmatic Queen of Spades. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marguerite Moreno, Madeleine Ozeray, (more)
- 1937
Having been showered with critical adulation for his 1935 adaptation of Crime and Punishment, writer-director Pierre Chenal was further honored for his film adaptation of Luigi Pirandello's Il Fu Mattia Pascal (The Late Mathias Pascal). Fed up with his present existence as a henpecked husband, Mattia Pascal (played by Chenal himself) disappears from view to start a new life in Monte Carlo. Winning a fortune at the gaming tables, he returns home in triumph, only to discover that everyone assumes that he's dead. This gives our hero the rare opportunity of attending his own funeral, where he learns quite a few unpleasant truths. Realizing that both he and his family will be better off if he remains "dead," Pascal heads to Rome, where as "Adriano Meis" he meets a whole new group of friends -- not to mention the true love of his life. Il Fu Mattia Pascal remains faithful to the spirit if not the letter of Pirandello until about five minutes before the end. Il Fu Mattia Pascal would be remade several times, but few of the later versions came close to the excellence of the original. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierre Blanchar, Ginette Leclerc, (more)
