Marie-Helene Daste Movies

Pacifist and enigmatic throughout, Le Soldat Qui Dort opens with a little boy crawling along the floor of a hospital ward where his father lies in a coma. On a train, going to a remote village where it is safer, the boy sees the coach car filled with soldiers covered in dried mud, sitting like apparitions waiting for eternity to end. Once at the village, an elderly woman takes the boy under her wing and everything is peaceful until her son comes home from the war and displays behavior typical of post-traumatic stress syndrome -- sudden bursts of anger complicated by swings in mood like those of a manic-depressive. The little boy, ever quiet, continues to observe this ex-soldier and the world around him with no commentary or clear references to reveal his thoughts, or to even reveal if he is the "sleeping soldier" of the title. This puzzle and the many others in the under-explained images is likely to leave most viewers wondering what the full meaning of the film might be. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this very low-key film, 20-year-old Thomas discovers that he is not a particularly nice fellow and has no special reason to like himself. His inquisitiveness is at least in part responsible for his parents' divorce, as he discovered the cache of love-letters which proved that his mother had an extramarital liaison. He also cannot decide between his working-class girlfriend and an upper-class girl. Matters are taken out of his hands when the upper-class girl's father intervenes, and he is separated from the other girl when he goes to college. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Three screenwriters pooled their talents for the French racetrack drama Duke of the Derby. Jean Gabin plays a handicapper who's been living high on the hog (or horse) for years. While playing the ponies at Britain's Epson Downs, Gabin finally outsmarts himself. The rest of the story concerns his feverish efforts to recoup his former glory. Originally Le Gentleman D'Epsom, the film is also known as Grandes Seigneurs. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

Robert Bresson's first feature film is the story of two novice nuns in a monastery that recruits sisters from a woman's prison. Anne-Marie (Renée Faure) comes to the convent from a middle-class family eager to take up her vocation, but other nuns begin to resent her earnestness, and they accuse her of pride. Anne-Marie makes it her mission to watch over Thérèse (Jany Holt), a novice who joined the order after her release from prison. Unbeknownst to the other nuns, between the time she left jail and when she arrived at the convent, Thérèse shot the man who sent her to prison. Bresson presents the relationship between these two women with maximum psychological intensity. The contrast between Anne-Marie and Thérèse's inner turmoil and their demure behavior heightens the film's dramatic tension as Bresson develops the themes of sin and grace that will preoccupy him throughout his career. Although it follows the rules of mainstream 1940s French cinema, Les Anges du péché introduces an elegant, pared-down style that forms the basis for the completely original minimalism of Bresson's later films. ~ Louis Schwartz, All Movie Guide

Incredibly, Maurice Tourneur's 1938 romantic tragedy Katia has been designated as "delightful" by more than one film historian. Perhaps this description was meant to refer to Tourneur's leading lady, the undeniably delightful Danielle Darrieux. Set during the mid-19th century, the film dwells upon the foredoomed romance between Russian princess Katia (Danielle Darrieux) and the married Czar Alexander II (John Loder). Impressed by her forthrightness and courage, Alexander finds Katia a breath of fresh air when compared with the usual obsequious noblemen who nip at his heels. When their love affair becomes public during a state ball, the ensuing scandal forces Katia to flee to Paris. Upon the death of his wife, the Czar is at last free to wed his beloved Katia-but fate intervenes in the shape of an assassin's bullet. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide