Alain Cuny Movies

Originally released in 1942 as Les Visiteurs du Soir, The Devil's Envoys is another masterful collaboration between actress Arletty, writer Jacques Prevert and director Marcel Carne, who would team up one year later for the brilliant Les Enfants Du Paradis. The film is predicated on the 15th century French legend, wherein the Devil, disturbed by the encroaching forces of Good, sends his envoys to Earth to drive the citizens to despair. The Devil, played by Jules Berry in a subtly Hitler-like fashion (a chancy artistic decision in the days of the Occupation), is thwarted when his agents are unable to overcome the power of true love. Even after the lovers are turned to stone for defying His Satanic Majesty, their hearts continue to beat for each other. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Strange Deception combines a standard revenge tale with a postwar reenactment of the first four books of the New Testament. Freshly released from a Russian POW camp, Italian soldier Raf Vallone tries to discover who betrayed his brother to the Nazis. Alain Cuny is an enigmatic carpenter who has confessed to causing the brother's death. Cuny is slain by Vallone, whereupon it is revealed that the carpenter sacrificed himself on behalf of the real culprit, Phillipe Lemaire. Vallone catches up with Lemaire, but is unable to kill him, thanks to the Christlike example of Cuny. Originally titled Il Cristo Proibito (The Forbidden Christ, just so we don't miss the point), this film represented the movie directorial debut of novelist Curzio Malaparte, who also wrote the musical score. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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

Camicie Rosse (Red Shirts) was released in most markets as Anita Garibaldi, in deference to the star status of Anna Magnani. The actress plays the wife of the great Italian patriot Garibaldi, who at the beginning of the film hovers on the brink of death, harking back to past glories. Most of the story deals with the European political upheavals of 1848-49, and Garibaldi's participation in these earth-shattering events. Raf Vallone stars as Garibaldi, while the stellar supporting cast includes Alain Cuny, Jacques Sernas, Serge Reggiani and Michel Auclair. According to some reports, Auclair was supposed to have played Garibaldi, but was replaced by Vallone when the film's initial director, Goffriedo Allesandri, was put out of commission by an auto accident (Allesandrishares screen credit with Franco Rosi, who completed the film). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Lovers (Les Amants) furthered the reputations of both director Louis Malle and star Jeanne Moreau -- and also pushed the boundaries of American censorship (1959 vintage) to the breaking point. Moreau plays a humdrum housewife whose life brightens considerably when she meets a handsome young archeologist (Jean-Marc Bory). The two enjoy an exquisite evening in the boudoir, and when comes the dawn, Moreau has gained a whole new outlook on things. She abandons her family in favor of Bory, even though neither has the slightest notion of what the future will hold. The Lovers gained notoriety upon its first release as the Movie With the Nude Scene: though a model of decorum by today's standards (the most suggestive moment is a shot of Moreau's hand falling limply on the bedsheets), the scene provided fodder for outraged guardians of public morals for several years. One hapless Cleveland theatre owner was arrested on an obscenity charge, a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court. The Venice Film festival took a more liberal stance on the matter, awarding The Lovers a special jury prize. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Set in a small coastal fishing village, this low-budget, undistinguished melodrama penned by no fewer than six writers is about the misfortunes of a young woman. After her father takes her into the village, the poor woman is raped by the local lothario, yet her victimization does not end there. Low catches drive her fisherman father farther down the poverty scale, and later on he is killed. The final injustice is that the woman becomes pregnant and eventually gives birth to a child that is the result of her rape. This makes the rapist change his feelings towards her. As might be expected, the six writers are all men. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

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

While arch surrealist Luis Bunuel never made a secret of his skepticism about the existence of God, he was also raised as a strict Spanish Catholic and remained fascinated with the church's teaching throughout his life, and his obsessions with both faith and the contradictions of dogma provided the basis for this episodic satiric comedy. Jean (Laurent Terzieff) and Pierre (Paul Frankeur) are two threadbare vagabonds who are making their way from Paris to Spain on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, where the remains of Saint James are believed to be kept. While Jean and Pierre's journey begins in the 20th Century, as they travel they seemingly develop the ability to move through time and space as they pass through a variety of historical scenes taken from a broad range of theological texts -- and all involving heresy in one form or another. As they walk the long road to Santiago de Compostela (when they can't catch a ride), Jean and Pierre encounter Jesus (Bernard Verley), who decides not to shave his beard to keep his mother happy; a young boy with stigmata and unusual powers; the Marquis de Sade (Michel Piccoli), who patently struggles to teach atheism to a young girl he's captured; an eccentric priest who has an irreversible belief in transubstantiation until he changes his mind; two men who put their debate over Catholic dogma to the test in a duel with swords; and Satan (Pierre Clementi), who shows up just in time for a car wreck. La Voie Lactee (aka The Milky Way) was scripted by Bunuel and his frequent screenwriting collaborator Jean-Claude Carriere; each of the film's historic episodes was adapted faithfully from an actual biblical text or historical account. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Italian army regulars resist the orders of a cruel general whose rigid interpretations of the rules call for a man to be shot. Leone (Alain Cuny) orders the execution of an army regular who halted the troops while under enemy fire. A sympathetic lieutenant substitutes a dead body for that of the doomed soldier because he believes the general has been wrong and the man acted normally. Another lieutenant is shot when he refuses to shoot men who have exited quickly from a foxhole under bombardment. This anti-war film illustrates the enemy is not the only force of evil on the battlefield and that war is inherently wrong for everyone involved. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This tiresome comedy features pop singer Enzo Jannacci as Amedeo, a country rube who comes to Vatican City seeking a personal audience with the Pope. Detailing Amedeo's battle with officious Vatican bureaucrats and bungling attempts to catch the Pope off-guard, the film rarely rises to the level of director Marco Ferreri's more subversive farces and resembles nothing more than a 1970s Neapolitan-style Pauly Shore vehicle. Italian film buffs will still appreciate the cast, which includes Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Piccoli of La Cage aux Folles as well as Claudia Cardinale, Vittorio Gassman, and Alain Cuny. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

The harbor of Trieste, at the head of the Adriatic, has at various times been an independent state, a port of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, part of Yugoslavia, and part of Italy. This film, set in 1917 when the city was still Austrian, examines the last days of the life of a fading nobleman (Alain Cuny) of Italian/Austrian lineage, and the change in that city's fortunes which his death prefigures. Only two years later, Trieste was ceded to Italy. This Italian movie is based on the novel La Rosa Rossa by Perantonio Quarantotti Bambini. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Francesco Rosi utilizes the breathtakingly beautiful Italian landscape in an unspecified Italian city to hatch this mystery film involving murder and corruption in high places. As the film begins, a well-known prosecutor is killed. The murder turns out to be the first in a series of murders -- and all the victims are judges. With Italy lapsing into chaos because of the crimes, the craggy and careworn Inspector Rogas (Lino Ventura) is brought in to solve the murders. Rogas thinks that a man, sent to prison for a crime he didn't commit, is the person responsible for the killings. But when Rogas reports that fact to his superiors, they want nothing to do with the case. When more killings occur, Rogas uncovers a plot involving his superiors who are using one man's revenge murder as a ploy in order to affect nefarious changes on the entire country. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide