Jean Wiener Movies

An author (Pierre Etaix), an actress (Nicole Calfan) and a stage manager (Jean Carmet) star in this plotless story about the preparation of a new play. Scenes of the audience are inserted to move along this story within a story. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

This film chronicles the strange battle among a pair of beings from the sphere of the sun or moon, who take the form of women and fight over a young man in bars, hotels, and mystical power-spots. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

The original French title for Gentle Creature is Une Femme Douce. Both affectionate appellations refer to leading lady Dominique Sanda, a popular model of the 1960s, here making her film debut (Incredibly, she was chosen for the role by director Robert Bresson on the basis of her voice!) Sanda's first appearance is as a gorgeous corpse; she has committed suicide, and her pawnbroker husband (Guy Frangin) doesn't know why. It takes him nearly the entire movie to figure out what the audience has suspected all along: That the ravishing Dominique felt stifled by her husband's cloistered lifestyle. Gentle Creature was director Robert Bresson's first color film, and he proves himself as much a master with hues as he did in monochrome. Filmed in 1969, Gentle Creature was released in the U.S. in 1971, taking full advantage of Dominique Sanda's new international popularity. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Robert Bresson directed this grim but moving story of a girl forced to grow up quickly due to the unfortunate circumstances which surround her. Mouchette (Nadine Nortier) is a fourteen year old girl living in a rural village in France; while it's the mid-1960's, in many respects her community looks as if it could still be World War II, or even the turn of the century, and a number of the men earn their living though poaching game. Mouchette's mother (Marie Cardinal) is slowly dying of an incurable illness, while her father (Paul Hebert) is a heavy drinker who shows little concern for his daughter, often using a hard shove as a parenting technique. Mouchette is an outcast at school, works odd jobs to help her family's meager circumstances, and has developed a thinly veiled contempt for most of those around her. One of the few places Mouchette feels at home is in the woods, and when a heavy storm breaks out while she's making her way home from school, she happens upon Arsene (Jean-Claude Guilbert), a poacher who allows her to stay in his cabin for the night; he forces himself upon her sexually, but after her initial resistance Mouchette seems to almost welcome his attention. When Mouchette is made party to an act of violence between Arsene and a rival gamekeeper, she's forced into a complicated lie, and after the death of her mother, her shabby existence becomes almost too much to bear. Based on a novel by Georges Bernanos, Mouchette was (like many of Robert Bresson's films) largely cast with non-professional actors, and shot using a deliberately simple, ascetic style; the result was honored with major awards at the Cannes Film Festival and Venice Film Festival, and was named Best Film of 1967 (along with Luis Bunuel's Belle de Jour) by the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Lady L (Sophia Loren) is an 80-year-old woman who recalls her amorous adventures in flashback in this light sex comedy. While working as a laundress, Lady L falls for the gambler and anarchist Armand (Paul Newman), who gets mixed up with an inept group trying to assassinate the senile Prince Otto (Peter Ustinov). She ends up marrying the suave aristocrat Dicky (David Niven) in this entertaining but uneven feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Jean Gabin stars in Voici le Temps des Assassins as Chatelin, a soft-spoken, middle-aged restauranteur. His life is unexpectedly complicated when Catherine (Daniele Delorme), the daughter of his ex-wife, pays a visit. Catherine tells Chatelin that her mother is dead, and that she's all alone in the world. The good-hearted Chatelin comes to regret his decision to allow the girl to stay when it develops that she's not only a liar, but a psychotic, who plans to murder him. Voici le Temps des Assassins was released in the US as Deadlier Than the Male. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Veteran French filmmaker Louis Daquin was the recipient of worldwide plaudits for his realistically detailed drama Le Point du Jour. Shot on location in a mining town, the film relates the story of a young miner named Larzac (Rene Lefevre). Unlike his elders, Larzac is terrified at the prospect of going deep into the bowels of the earth to earn his keep. After several dramatic complications related to his plight, Larzac overcomes his fear and gains pride of place. Le Point du Jour might make a fascinating double feature with John Ford's How Green Was My Valley. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this French drama, based on a story by Tolstoy, the public prosecutor decides to sacrifice himself so that his wife can be freed to be with the man she really loves. Just as he is about ready to kill himself, someone saves him. He then opts to become a soldier. The villagers do not know this and assume that he has been killed by his wife. She, now engaged to the lover, is arrested. When he later reappears, the philandering female begs that he return, but he ignores her pleas and walks away. She then swears to wait for him. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

A pair of slippers is the plot catalyst for this rambling French comedy. Hoping to save the reputation of a philandering friend, do-gooder Beatrice (Betty Stockfield) drives all the way from Paris to Switzerland to return an incriminating slipper to its mate. Along the way, she is sidetracked by handsome Georges (Roger Treville). By the time Beatrice arrives at her appointed destination, she finds that her friend has already replaced the tell-tale slipper. Now she's got to get rid of that pesky third slipper-which isn't as easy as it sounds, and which results in all sorts of merry misadventures. The Slipper Episode is based on a story by Tristan Bernard, who appears briefly at the beginning of the film to "explain" the action. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Voted 1936's best picture by a circle of prestigious French critics, Jean Renoir's The Lower Depths (Les Bas-Fonds) is based on the "gutter" play by Russian author Maxim Gorky. Louis Jouvet plays The Baron, forced by circumstance to give up his life of luxury and to set up residence in the slums of Paris. As Jouvet observes the passing parade, he bears witness to the frustrated romance between Jean Gabin and Junie Astor, the thwarted dreams of actor Robert Le Vigan, and the oppressive cruelties of landlord Vladimir Sokoloff. The Lower Depths surprised Renoir's admirers, who weren't used to seeing the director involve himself in so sordid and depressing a tale. Actually, the project was brought to Renoir by a producer friend of his, who secured the director's services by promising to provide Louis Jouvet and Jean Gabin as the leading actors. Renoir's The Lower Depths would make a fascinating companion piece to Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa's 1957 adaptation of the same Gorky play. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi