Andrée Clement Movies
- 1954
This film is comprised of three vignettes focusing upon women and war. The first episode, set in WW II, chronicles the sad journey of an American woman who goes to Italy to bring her husband's body home. In Italy she makes a heart-wrenching discovery: he had been living with an Italian family and had impregnated their daughter and sees the child. The second story chronicles the abandonment of Joan of Arc, by her king and her soldiers. The third episode is a humorous adaptation of "Lysistrata," the Greek play where Athenian wives refused to sleep with their husbands until they stopped making war. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1953
La Vierge du Rhin translates to Rhine Virgin, a title that would have had trouble getting by the hidebound American censors of 1953. The title refers not to a woman, but to a river barge, which tools up and down the Rhone throughout the film. Ex-POW Jacques (Jean Gabin), bitter and disillusioned, hopes to wreak vengeance on a former friend who'd betrayed him to the Nazis. He is given a new lease on life through his romance with Marie (Nadia Gray), a girl who spends her life on the barge. Meanwhile, Jacques' ex-wife (Elina Labourdette) and his betrayer (Olivier Hussenot) plot the hero's demise. A phony murder charge and a climactic river chase caps this standard Jean Gabin vehicle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Gabin, Nadia Gray, (more)
- 1952
Suivez cet Homme (Follow That Man) is, as indicated by its title, a crime drama. While celebrating his birthday, police inspector Basquier (Bernard Blier) recalls two of his most-celebrated cases. The first involves duplicitous moneylender Olga (Suzy Prin). The second concerns the brutal broad-daylight murder of innocent young Yvonne (Veronique Deschamps). The film's narrative is divided neatly into two halves, prompting some observers to conclude that Suivez cet Homme was designed as a television pilot. Suivez cet Homme was adroitly scripted by the dependable Jacques Remy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bernard Blier, Suzy Prim, (more)
- 1950
French filmmaker Jean Dellanoy once again combines visual poetry with box-office savvy in Dieu a Besoin des Hommes. Set on a remote French coastal island in the 19th century, the film stars Pierre Fresnay as a peasant named Thomas. In the absence of a priest, Thomas, the village sacristan, is coerced into conducting religious services. Suddenly, and much against his will, he becomes the spiritual leader of the community. He eventually runs afoul of both the Church and the Law by administering last rites, an illegal act for a non-clergyman. Despite its rather remonstrative attitude towards organized religion, the film won an award from a major Catholic organization. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierre Fresnay, Madeleine Robinson, (more)
- 1949
The French Just a Big, Simple Girl strives to emulate Pirandello by blurring the line between artifice and reality. The scene is a theater, where a group of actors are performing in a play. We have already been informed that there is a real-life romantic triangle going on backstage, but the actors gamely act out their roles as if everything is okay. But everything becomes no-kay when a strange woman walks on stage and begins digressing from the script. Just a Big, Simple Girl was originally titled Une Grande Fille Toute Simple. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Madeleine Sologne, Jean Desailly, (more)
- 1949
Filmed in France in 1945, The Devil's Daughter didn't make it to the U.S. until 1949. Pierre Fresnay plays Saget, a supposedly self-made man of wealth who has allegedly struck it rich in America. In fact, Saget is a bank robber, who has assumed the identity of a recently deceased millionaire known for his acts of philanthropy. Everyone in the small French village where Saget resides accepts him for who he claims to be--everyone, that is, except the local doctor (Fernand Ledoux), who knows the truth and intends to use this knowledge to his advantage. Everyone's ultimate fate is sealed when Isabelle (Andree Clement), the titular "devil's daughter," falls in love with Saget. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierre Fresnay, Fernand Ledoux, (more)
- 1947
Danielle Darrieux stars as Arabella Delvaire in this baroque adaptation of Pierre Benoit's novel Bethshabee. Arabella is a woman of the world who arrives at a remote Foreign Legion outpost for a rendezvous with her current lover, Captain Duveuil. It so happens that one of Arabella's previous amours, Captain Somerville (Paul Meurisse), is also serving at the same post. So much for joining the Foreign Legion to forget. A climactic knife duel "solves" the film's various plot complications. Despite its Foreign Legion background, Bethsabee has next to no action, which must have made things difficult when the film was distributed to the U.S. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Danielle Darrieux, Georges Marchal, (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)
- 1946
Generally forgotten today, Macadam opened to good reviews and excellent business when it first came out in 1946. The film takes place in the "demimonde" of Paris' Montmartre district. The incomparable Francoise Rosay heads the cast in this atmospheric, melodramatic yarn about French gangsters, their mistresses, and various and assorted "ladies of the evening." Much of the critical attention was centered around Simone Signoret, in her first major screen role. In America, Macadam was released (in a heavily expurgated version!) as Back Streets of Paris. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Françoise Rosay, Paul Meurisse, (more)
- 1945
After three years' worth of enforced inacitivity, director Henri Decoin returned to films with La Fille du Diable. The title, which translates to The Devil's Daughter, refers to heroine Andree Clement. Though not actually the offspring of Satan, Clement, a small-town girl, is treated as an outcast after a series of emotional and sexual disasters. With no one to turn to, the girl opts for death rather than continuing dishonor. The strong supporting cast includes Pierre Fresnay and Fernand Ledoux. A success in France, La Fille du Diable did less well elsewhere. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andrée Clement, Therese Dorny, (more)
