Alain Cuny Movies
A former medical student, Alain Cuny briefly pursued a painting career, entering the French film industry in the early '30s as a set and costume designer. In 1941 he turned to acting, at first playing leading roles but later specializing in character parts as priests and aesthetes. Most American audiences first caught up with Cuny when he played the villainous cleric Claude Frollo in the Anthony Quinn version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1956). He worked frequently in the films of Federico Fellini, playing the anguished intellectual Steiner in La Dolce Vita (1960) and Lycas in Fellini Satyricon (1970). Alain Cuny's final screen role was as the title character's father in Camille Claudel (1988). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Federico Fellini makes his most decadent, undisciplined work in this free adaptation of Petronius' famous farcical chronicle of ancient Roman life. The film opens with Encolpio (Martin Potter) vying with his friend Ascilto (Hiram Keller) for the affections of a young effeminate lad named Gitone (Max Born). When the youth chooses his rival or him, Encolpio begins a journey that has him encountering Romans of every stripe and color. He drops in on an orgy thrown by Trimalchio (Mario Romagnoli), a wealth-loving ex-slave who has spurned his wife in favor of a pleasures of a young boy; he toils on a slave galley, fighting off the advances of Lichas (Alain Cuny) -- the ship's burly wall-eyed captain; he steals an albino hermaphrodite demi-god who is reputed to be able to tell the future; and fails to summon the enthusiasm to make love to a whore-priestess. Along the way, we witness a parade of prostitutes in ancient Rome's pleasure quarters; watch performance by Vernacchio (Fanfulla), an actor whose on-stage specialties include farting and public amputation; and the wonton devouring of a human corpse for financial gain. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martin Potter, Hiram Keller, (more)
- 1963
The young son of a wealthy industrialist eschews the material pleasures of life and decides to enter the priesthood. His father wishes his son to follow in his footsteps and recruits his young girlfriend to help change his mind. The girl seduces the inexperienced lad, and he quickly falls prey to the material and sexual pleasures of the flesh. Father and son argue over the boy's future as the son agonizes about his fall into hedonism. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alain Cuny, Jacques Perrin, (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
In this lightweight French comedy a pair of sharpers, Cathy (Jeanne Moreau) and her ex-husband Michel (Jean-Paul Belmondo) attempt to bilk a miserly millionaire out of his fortune during his visit to the French Riviera. Unfortunately for them, he is just as crafty as they are. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeanne Moreau, Jean-Paul Belmondo, (more)
- 1961
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
- Starring:
- José Suárez, Carla Gravina, (more)
In one of the most widely seen and acclaimed European movies of the 1960s, Federico Fellini featured Marcello Mastrioanni as gossip columnist Marcello Rubini. Having left his dreary provincial existence behind, Marcello wanders through an ultra-modern, ultra-sophisticated, ultra-decadent Rome. He yearns to write seriously, but his inconsequential newspaper pieces bring in more money, and he's too lazy to argue with this setup. He attaches himself to a bored socialite (Anouk Aimée), whose search for thrills brings them in contact with a bisexual prostitute. The next day, Marcello juggles a personal tragedy (the attempted suicide of his mistress (Yvonne Furneaux)) with the demands of his profession (an interview with none-too-deep film star Anita Ekberg). Throughout his adventures, Marcello's dreams, fantasies, and nightmares are mirrored by the hedonism around him. With a shrug, he concludes that, while his lifestyle is shallow and ultimately pointless, there's nothing he can do to change it and so he might as well enjoy it. Fellini's hallucinatory, circus-like depictions of modern life first earned the adjective "Felliniesque" in this celebrated movie, which also traded on the idea of Rome as a hotbed of sex and decadence. A huge worldwide success, La Dolce Vita won several awards, including a New York Film Critics CIrcle award for Best Foreign Film and the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marcello Mastroianni, Yvonne Furneaux, (more)
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
- Starring:
- Jeanne Moreau, Alain Cuny, (more)
Better known as The Hunchback of Notre Dame, this opulent French production is the second talkie version of Victor Hugo's famous novel. Buried under mounds of latex, Anthony Quinn does his best as the deformed bellringer Quasimodo, though he comes off more as a punchdrunk ex-pug than a literal interpretation of Hugo's tragic protagonist. Somewhat more effective within the film's framework is Gina Lollobrigida as gypsy dancing girl Esmerelda, whose friendship with Quasimodo motivates the story. As in previous adaptations of the Hugo novel, the villain Frolio (Alain Cluny), originally a priest, is given a less-controversial station in life: in this case, he is an alchemist rather than a man of the cloth. Otherwise, Notre Dame de Paris is one of the more faithful renditions of the original novel, even unto retaining Hugo's unhappy ending. When first released in the U.S. by Allied Artists, the film was titled Hunchback of Paris, to avoid a copyright conflict with RKO's 1939 adaptation of Hunchback of Notre Dame. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gina Lollobrigida, Anthony Quinn, (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)
- 1953
Signora Senza Camelie (Lady without Camelias or Camille without Camelias) was the third feature-length directorial effort by Michelangelo Antonioni. It is possible that the director invested a great deal of himself in the story's central character, a film producer played by Gino Cervi. Turning shopgirl Clara Manni (Lucia Bose) into a major movie star, Ercole "Ercolino" (Cervi) caps this Svengalilike action by marrying the girl. Her head in the clouds, Clara demands that her husband star her in an "artistic" production, rather than the sexy vehicles in which she's previously appeared. When the film bombs, so does the marriage. The film ends with a backhanded paean to "public taste," a commodity Antonioni seldom bothered himself with in his future films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lucia Bosé, Gino Cervi, (more)
- 1953
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
- Starring:
- Anna Magnani, Raf Vallone, (more)
- 1950
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
- Starring:
- Raf Vallone, Elena Varzi, (more)
- 1942
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
- Starring:
- Arletty, Jules Berry, (more)
- 1942
Jean Cocteau wrote the dialogue for this acclaimed and atmospheric tale of the supernatural, in which he also plays a small role. When a baron suddenly vanishes from his estate, his friends and family organize a search party to find him, little realizing that what they're chasing is in fact a ghost. A major box-office success in Europe upon its initial release, Le Baron Fantome stars Odette Joyeux and Jany Holt. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Odette Joyeux, Jany Holt, (more)
