Maurice Clavel Movies
- 1971
This film is a French period comic romance, set in the time just surrounding the French Revolution (1789). "Year Two," of the French title refers to the second year following the revolution. Those who guided the French Revolution renamed the days of the week, the months of the year, and much more. They also began their calendar from the time of the revolution. In this film, Jean-Paul Belmondo plays the husband of a vivacious, two-timing, and socially ambitious young woman (Marlene Jobert). After he kills one of her aristocratic lovers, the husband flees to the New World (the Americas). He returns to France after the revolution, finds that he has been divorced, and then works hard to woo his ex-wife away from all the important men and outlaw aristocrats she is spending time with. Happiness reigns anew as, remarried, they both attain aristocratic status in Napolean's regime. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Paul Belmondo, Marlène Jobert, (more)
- 1963
In this melodrama a prodigal son returns to his home village after he is acquitted of his stepfather's death to find that most of his former neighbors now shun him. At least his best friend sticks by him. Soon the young man finds himself drawn to his loyal buddy's lover. He and the woman have an affair. Later his friend finds out and vows to kill him. He cannot do it. At the same time, the young man cannot keep hurting his only true friend. As a result he spurns the woman, who runs off into the darkness and gets hit by a car driven by her first lover's mother's car. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1960
This routine, post-war drama begins during the last moments of World War II when Andre (Michael Subor), a Frenchman who has joined the Germans in fighting the Russians, realizes he has to escape. Once in France, he goes to help out a family from some difficulties and soon falls in love with Catherine (Catherine Sola), the daughter. That romance is not likely to survive because in the eyes of the French, any countryman who joined the German army is a traitor. Andre has few choices left, as Catherine sets her mind to help him out, no matter what. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elina Labourdette, Georges Poujouly, (more)
- 1960
This is an uninspired murder mystery directed by Jacques-Gérard Cornu about the unfortunate and unnatural demise of a blackmailer. Gabrielle (Danielle Darrieux) is married to Georges (Mel Ferrer) but both she and her niece had been involved with the blackmailer who is now dead. Assigned to the murder case is a closed-mouthed police inspector whose investigations eventually start to shake down clues and bits of evidence, hinting that the identity of the killer will not be a mystery forever. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Danielle Darrieux, Mel Ferrer, (more)
- 1959
Best known for his La Cage aux Folles, director Edouard Molinaro has a lesser film here in this occasionally erotic story about a summer romance. A young artist is traveling to the home of a glamorous friend for the summer season when he picks up an attractive woman at a bar. He decides to bring her along, which turns out to be too hasty a decision. While partying away the summer, the son of the hostess dallies with the artist's young woman and she vacillates in her feelings between the two men. The atmosphere and the woman's ambivalence add up to tragedy in the end. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pascale Petit, Micheline Presle, (more)
- 1953
Deux Crimes d'Amour (Two Love Crimes) is comprised of two separate, but thematically linked, short films. "Mina de Vangel," directed by Maurice Clavel and Maurice Barry, is based on a novelette by Stendhal (The Red and the Black), wherein a starry-eyed German lass (Odile Versois), betrayed by a French roue, vainly tries to find happiness with a decent man (Alain Cuny) for whom she works as a domestic. The second film is the award-winning "Le Rideau Cramoisi" ("The Scarlet Curtain"), adapted from a short novel by Barbey D'Aurevilly and directed by Alexandre Astruc. When a Napoleonic soldier (Jean-Claude Pascal) is billeted with a French family, all social proprieties are observed--a first. But a chance physical contact with the enigmatic daughter (Anouk Aimee) of the household leads to a torrid romance, which in turn leads to tragedy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Odile Versois, Alain Cuny, (more)
