Catherine Fontenay Movies
- 1968
Caroline (France Anglade) is the heroine who is pushed by her father into a loveless marriage with a lawyer. Unknown to her new husband, she lost her virginity to a handsome young officer the day the peasants stormed the Bastille. When her husband flees the revolutionary fervor, Caroline engages in a series of adventures. She is seduced, then raped before her husband returns and relative calm has been restored. The officer, now a member of Napoleon's court, and her husband are now safe. She conspires to leave her husband and return to the arms of her true love, the dashing officer to whom she has given her all. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- 1960
In this drama of lost love, Therese (Alida Valli) is a woman who runs a café in Paris; she lost her husband when he disappeared sixteen years earlier, and, while time has healed some of her wounds, she's still a lonely person. One day, a tramp (Georges Wilson) passes by humming a familiar tune, and Therese is convinced that the vagabond is her husband. She follows him to his home, a tiny shack by the river, and tries to question him about his past. She discovers that the tramp suffers from amnesia and has no clear memory of his past. Therese brings him back to her cafe in hopes of jogging his memory and renewing the love they once knew. Une Aussi Longue Absence was well-received at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival, where it shared the Golden Palm with Luis Buñuel's very different Viridiana. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alida Valli, Georges Wilson, (more)
- 1959
Miscegenation, murder and revenge are the themes of this French crime drama set in the steamy American south. Joe Grant is a vengeful light-skinned black who leaves Memphis and moves to a small town after his brother is brutally lynched for attempting to marry a white woman. Joe's skin is so light that he is able to pass himself off as Caucasian and find work in a local bookstore. To get revenge on white society, Joe seduces a rich young white girl and then plots her death. At the same time, Joe discovers that the bookstore where he works is a front for an extortion ring. A short time passes and he finds himself falling in love with the girl. She too loves him until she learns that he is of African descent. Knowing this complicates matters (she is engaged to another), but loving him just the same, she suggests they run away together to avoid the blackmailers. After Joe is beaten by the blackmailers, he decides this is a good idea and together the lovers flee. Back in town, the girls enraged fiance organizes a posse loudly claiming that Joe has abducted the girl and plans to rape her. Tragedy ensues just as the fugitive lovers are about to cross the Mason-Dixon Line. This film is not to be confused with the disgusting mid '70s exploitation film of the same title. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Antonella Lualdi, Christian Marquand, (more)
- 1950
Bel Amour (Beautiful Love) is a compact little tale of love, betrayal and redemption. Happily married for ten years, a young doctor (Anthony Vilar) deserts his wife in favor of a more desirable mistress. The doctor's young son (played by a girl named Marie-France) refuses to accept his parents' breakup. As his father endeavors to secure a divorce, the boy does his best to gum up the proceedings. The virtuoso acting by the young Marie-France in a very challenging role elevates Bel Amour from the mundane. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gisèle Pascal, Antonio Vilar, (more)
- 1941
Filmed in 1941, Christian-Jacque's La Symphonie Fantastique at last attained an American release in 1947. In an elaborate, almost orgiastic manner, the film details the life and times of 19th century composer Hector Berlioz, here played by Jean-Louis Barrault. Expansively dividing his valuable time between his music, his friends (including Balzac and Delacroix) and his many women, Berlioz illustrates Christian-Jaque's thesis that there is always grandeur in genius. The film's highlight is Berlioz' feverish creation of the title composition, which is staged in a florid manner reminscent of Disney's animated Fantasia. Alas, the English-language prints of Symphonie Fantastique were cursed with a substandard soundtrack, rendering virtually inaudible the brilliant orchestrations of Berlioz' works by the Paris Conservatory Orchestra. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Renée Saint-Cyr, Jean-Louis Barrault, (more)
- 1938
Le Coeur Ebloui (Troubled Heart) is set in France during WWI. Too young to enlist, student José Noguero remains behind in school. With no real competition, Noguero has no qualms about falling in love with much-older headmistress Huguette Duflos. From this point onward, the plot becomes confusing and cluttered; suffice to say that the course of true love has several potholes and speed bumps, especially when math professor Max Dearly also falls for Duflos. The running time of Le Coeur Ebloui is padded with reams of wartime newsreel footage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Huguette Duflos, Catherine Fontenay, (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)
- 1935
Released in the U.S. as Happy Days, Les Beaux Jours was Simone Simon's last French vehicle before she launched the Hollywood phase of her career. The story revolves around the lives and loves of a group of attractive young Parisian students. The most attractive, of course, is our girl Simon, who is wooed by such eligible males as Raymond Rouleau and Jean-Pierre Aumont. The unexpected star of the proceedings, however, is the brilliant pantomimist Jean-Louis Barrault, whose first film this was. Barrault of course was later the star of the wartime classic Les Enfants du Paradis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Louis Barrault, Simone Simon, (more)
- 1934
An above-average Monogram programmer, Red Head stars the gorgeous Grace Bradley as a good-hearted photographer's model. After she is involved in a scandal, Bradley is persona non grata until she meets sympathetic playboy Bruce Cabot. Cabot marries Bradley, hoping that his wealthy father (Berton Churchill) will try to buy Bradley off and thus allow her to get back on her feet financially. Instead, the father offers Bradley a great deal of money if she will force the lazy Cabot to take a job. Cabot comes to like his new blue-collar existence until he discovers the deal Bradley has made with his father. All is forgiven when Bradley reveals that she never accepted the money and that she truly loves the now-industrious Cabot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Cabot, Grace Bradley, (more)
Adapted from various stories by Jules Renard, Poil de Carotte (The Red Head) is the poetically related tale of a delicate domestic situation. Robert Lynen plays the young son of Catherine Fourtenay. Fourtenay's husband Harry Baur knows that Lynen is not his son, but remains married for appearances' sake. Baur remains aloof and distant until he discovers the cruelties heaped upon Lynen by his resentful mother. Foster father and son develop a respect and friendship for one another that finally deepens into love. A remake of a 1925 film of the same name (also directed by Julien Duvivier), Poil de Carotte which made a star out of its juvenile lead Robert Lynen, whose genuine red head needed no touching up by the makeup men; sadly, Lynen was killed while fighting with the Resistance during World War II. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Lynen, Catherine Fontenay, (more)
