Roger Vailland Movies
This French sex farce is translated in English as The Trout. Joseph Losey directed and co-wrote the film, which stars Isabelle Huppert as Frederique, a young woman living on her family's rural trout farm. Frederique is trapped in a dull marriage to a rube. She decides to leave him and the trout farm for the city; she wants to make her living in the financial sector. She ends up in a cutthroat corporate world and meets up with the sophisticated Lou (the legendary Jeanne Moreau). Frederique finds herself trading sexual favors for corporate advancement and becoming more deeply involved in a complicated series of business dealings. Eventually, she longs for a return to her simpler life on the trout farm. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Isabelle Huppert, Jeanne Moreau, (more)
- 1972
This drama tells the tale of union woes at a French factory, and of the single mom who gives her all for the union cause. Pierrette (Dominique Labourier) is the young mother, and she somehow has time to have an affair with her handsome co-worker who is nicknamed Beau Masque (Luigi Diberti). All this grows more complicated when the workers go out on strike. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dominique Labourier, Luigi Diberti, (more)
- 1968
A group of five member of the French underground resistance muse over their upcoming plan. Spouting political rhetoric, the characters reveal their motives and hopes for the movement against the Vichy government and the occupying Nazi army. A pleasure-seeking journalist has quit his job and left his party-boy lifestyle behind to fight against the Germans. The story is taken from a novel by Roger Vailland and attempts to give psychological and personal reasons as to why each member joined the resistance in the first place. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maurice Garrel, Remy Longa, (more)
- 1963
The "vice and virtue" of the title of this wartime drama directed by Roger Vadim are exemplified in the personae of two very attractive women: Juliette (Annie Girardot) and Justine (Catherine Deneuve). Juliette is a collaborator and Justine supports the resistance movement, yet when her husband is arrested on her wedding day, she goes to Juliette to ask for help. That simple plan is nixed by a series of unfortunate circumstances that send Justine to a brothel for German soldiers and make Juliette the mistress of a brutal Nazi officer. The symbolism in this tale harks back to two stories by the Marquis de Sade, one titled "Juliette" and the other, "Justine." Vadim seems to have been caught between creating symbolic characters versus creating believable women since as the story unfolds, Juliette is not exactly vice incarnate, nor is Justine a model of pristine virtue. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Annie Girardot, Robert Hossein, (more)
- 1963
This French/Italian effort travelled under the titles Le Jour Et L'Heure, Il Giorno e L'Ora and Viviamo Oggi in Europe. In Great Britain, it was known as Today We Live. No matter the title, the film stars Simone Signoret as a world-weary French aristocrat who finds a purpose in life by joining the World War II Resistance. She is ordered by her fellow undergrounders to hide allied paratrooper Stuart Whitman in her own country estate. At first resenting this intrusion in her life, Signoret falls in love with Whitman, and together they try to escape into Spain. The Day and the Hour was based on a story by Andre Barret. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Simone Signoret, Stuart Whitman, (more)
- 1961
In this French drama, a woman preparing to take her vows to become a nun must write a letter describing her past indiscretions. She goes to a priest to confess that she had killed her former lover when she discovered that he had been sleeping with her mother. Her enraged mother gave her two options: she could become a nun, or go to prison. She chose the former, but when the convent refuses to take her, everything falls apart. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1960
Talented actress and writer Simone Signoret carries this drama about an emotionally deteriorating woman, Roberta, who tries everything she can to win back the affection and interest of her husband, Milan (Reginald Kernan). Milan is a moody race-car driver who is now retired, living with Roberta, married for ten years, and intent on writing his memoirs. Too much togetherness has the couple sniping at each other, so when an attractive young woman joins them for awhile, Roberta eventually sees her as a chance to improve her marriage. Already declining in heavy bouts with the bottle, Roberta thinks that the young woman could awaken her husband's interest in intimacy -- and therefore in Roberta herself. As might be expected, this convoluted and risky plan backfires in the worst possible way. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Simone Signoret, Reginald Kernan, (more)
- 1959
Jules Dassin, blacklisted during the McCarthy era, directs this routine, ostensibly romantic tale that really courts an underlying theme of the misuse of power. Based on a popular French novel and set in a small Mediterranean town, the story involves a small group of men and the woman several of them desire. The men gather around in the local tavern each evening to play a rather vicious game called "The Law." One man is chosen to dictate to the others, and they have to do what he says, no matter how humiliating. Marietta (Gina Lollobrigida) is the gorgeous servant of Don Cesare (Pierre Brasseur), desired by Francesco, the son of a crime boss (Yves Montand), and by her brother-in-law. She herself has fallen in love with Enrico (Marcello Mastroianni), a poor engineer. Determined to get a dowry and thereby be able to marry Enrico, Marietta turns the tables on the men who play "The Law." ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gina Lollobrigida, Pierre Brasseur, (more)
- 1959
Pierre Ambroise Francois Choderlos de Laclos's 18th century novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses was filmed several times. In Roger Vadim's version, Jeanne Moreau coerces her husband Gerard Philippe into ruining the reputation of pious Annette Vadim (the director's wife at the time). Philippe spoils Moreau's nasty little plan by falling in love with his intended victim. While the novel merely humiliated Moreau's character for her misdeeds, Vadim comes up with a far more painful and permanent punishment. Since the release of the 1988 Dangerous Liaisons, Vadim's film has travelled under the title Dangerous Liaisons 1960 (even though it was technically completed in 1959, and released to the U.S. in 1961). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gérard Philipe, Jeanne Moreau, (more)
