Françoise Rosay Movies
Parisian actress/singer Francoise Rosay enjoyed a starring career that spanned 61 years. After receiving her training at the Conservatoire National de Declamation, Francoise made her stage bow in 1908, originally intending to become an opera singer. In 1917, she turned to "straight" dramatics under the guidance of Jacques Feyder, whom she would later marry. Though she'd appeared sporadically in films since 1913, Rosay's first movie of note was Feyder's expressionist Crainquebille (1922). She came to Hollywood in 1929 to star in the French-language version of Norma Shearer's The Trial of Mary Dugan. She remained in California until multi-language productions went out of fashion in 1931; among her projects during this period was the German-language version of Parlor, Bedroom and Bath, in which she exchanged Teutonic witticisms with Buster Keaton. Rosay spent the World War II years in Switzerland, where she taught acting classes at the Conservatoire Geneve. Acting in international productions right up to her death, Ms. Rosay appeared in well over 100 films, delivering dialogue flawlessly in a multitude of languages. One of the best-loved figures of the French cinema, Rosay was the recipient of the Chevalier de Legion d'Honneur, and served on the executive boards of several arts-oriented organizations. Francoise Rosay was the author of two volumes of memoirs, Le Cinema notre Metier (1956) and La Traversee d'Un Vie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1956
Le Long des Trottoirs was released in English-speaking countries as Along the Sidewalks and Diary of a Bad Girl. The film was one of several French-language efforts by Russian-born director Leonide Moguy. As its various titles indicate, this is the story of a young prostitute, played by newcomer Danik Patisson. Blame for the girl's tawdry lifestyle is placed squarely on Society, which didn't want her when she was "clean" and now rehects her for her fall from grace. The long-suffering heroine is rescued from her plight by the love of an understanding doctor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anne Vernon, Françoise Rosay, (more)
- 1955
Based on a true event from 16th century Spain, this costume drama follows the tragic life of Ana de Mendoza, Princess of Eboli, (Olivia de Havilland) who is secretly loved by her good friend the King. Unfortunately for the monarch, she marries one of his ministers and bears his son. Her husband eventually dies and later the King asks her help train a replacement for her late husband. When romantic sparks begin flying between the woman and her protege, the king becomes terribly jealous and this sets in motion a terrible tragedy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gilbert Roland, Paul Scofield, (more)
- 1954
Though the screenplay for La Reine Margot (The Queen Margot) was written by legendary filmmaker Abel Gance, the directorial reins were handled by Jean Dreville. Adapted from a novel by Alexandre Dumas, the film centers around Margot (Jeanne Moreau), the headstrong sister of France's King Charles IX (Robert Porte). Consigned to a politically expedient marriage to Huguenot prince Henry de Navarre (Andre Versini), Margot nonetheless carries on a romance with the handsome Count De la Mole (Armando Francioli). This romantic intrigue is played out against Charles' slaughter of the Huguenots, and the contrast is rather jarring. Francoise Rosay steals the show as Margot's mother, Queen Catherine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeanne Moreau, Françoise Rosay, (more)
- 1952
The Seven Deadly Sins is a portmanteau film (a la Quartet and O. Henry's Full House) assembled by some of the biggest talents in the Italian and French film industry. The film's six sections (one containing two sins) are designed by separate titles, which should be self-explanatory. "Avarice and Anger" stars its director, Eduardo DeFilippo, as a miser who comes to grief. "Lust," directed by Yves Allegret, contrasts minor flirtation with major sexual passion. "Pride," directed by Claude Autant-Lara, details the fall from grace of a snooty mother and daughter. The other episodes include "Sloth," directed by Jean Dreville; "Envy," directed by Roberto Rosselini; and "Gluttony," directed by Carlo Rim. An eighth sin, directed by Georges Lacombe and starring Gerard Philipe, is thrown in as a comic bonus. Seven Deadly Sins is a lot of fun, though each of the individual episodes could use a little work in the continuity department. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gérard Philipe, Viviane Romance, (more)
- 1952
Smuggler's Ball is the English-language title for this French-Belgian seriocomedy. The action takes place along the borders separating Belgium, Holland and France. It is here that the worldly Pierre (J. P. Kieran) carries on a profitable smuggling operation, all the while romancing Siska (Christian Lenier), the daughter of a local customs official. Various subplots and secondary characters weave in and out as the plotline guides the viewer through the WW II years. Towards the end, the story shifts gears when the Benelux Frontier Agreement eliminates all government regulations. The film's screenplay is by Charles Spaak, himself the descendant of a Belgian political family, and thus well-versed in bureaucracy and red tape. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Françoise Rosay, Yves Deniaud, (more)
- 1951
A remake of the French Le Corbeau ("The Raven"), The Thirteenth Letter is a film noir in a curious setting -- a rural village deep in Quebec, seemingly sleepy and typical. Dr. Laurent (Charles Boyer) returns from a medical convention in Montreal, anxious to see his much younger wife, Cora (Constance Smith). Cora is attracted to Dr. Pearson (Michael Rennie), a young doctor who moved into the town soon after his unfaithful wife killed herself. Soon Pearson, Laurent and Cora all receive letters -- signed "the Raven" -- hinting at an affair between Pearson and Cora. Soon more poison pen letters are showing up around town, including one which insinuates that Pearson has not been telling the truth about the medical condition of a wounded war hero. Distraught, the veteran takes his life, unaware that the information in the letter was a lie. Meanwhile, Pearson has become attracted to Denise, (Linda Darnell), a romance-starved young woman born with a clubfoot. As suspicion builds about who is sending the letters -- and about whether Pearson should be trusted -- the Mayor takes charge of the investigation, and Pearson doubles his efforts to prove his innocence. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Darnell, Charles Boyer, (more)
- 1951
Autant-Lara's L'Auberge Rouge (The Red Inn) is black comedy at its very blackest. The scene is a rustic little inn in a remote rural area of France. The inn's proprietors Pierre (Carette) and Marie (Francoise Rosay) industriously support themselves by murdering the various stagecoach passengers who stop over at the inn, and then keep their valuables for themselves. As the story gets under way, a coach full of delightfully eccentric types pulls into the inn's courtyard, ripe for plucking. One of the passengers is a Monk (Fernandel), who learns of the innkeeper's homicidal schemes but is bound by the rules of the Confessional to reveal this information to no one. How can the monk secure the safety of his fellow passengers without betraying his vows? His solution--and the wickedly ironic coda that follows--will linger in the memory long after the final reel of L'Auberge Rouge tumbles over the spools. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernandel, Françoise Rosay, (more)
- 1950
The Naked Heart was also released as Maria Chapdelaine, which also happened to be the title of its source, a novel by Louis Hemon. Adapter-director Marc Allegret has fashioned the material into a vehicle for one of his most successful discoveries, Michele Morgan. This is the story of a young woman whose romantic fantasies begin spilling over into actuality. The film's novelty value is its setting: a remote village in Northern Canada. Filmed simultaneously in French and English-language versions, The Naked Heart was produced independently on a tiny budget; while the seams begin to show towards the end, for the most part the film works. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michèle Morgan, Kieron Moore, (more)
- 1950
With location scenes lensed in Italy, September Affair is consistently good to look at, even when the pacing flags and the dialogue becomes too verbose. Joan Fontaine and Joseph Cotten star as married couple Manina and David. Trouble is, they're not married to each other. Through a series of misunderstandings, Manina and David are listed among the victims of a plane crash. Since the world at large considers them dead, the couple decides to start a whole new life together. Eventually, however, the guilt they share regarding their respective spouses overrides their passions. September Affair is remembered today as the film that catapulted a 12-year-old record -- Walter Huston's rendition of "September Song" -- to the top of the 1950 hit parade. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Fontaine, Joseph Cotten, (more)
- 1949
Femmes sans Nom is the second film in a proposed trilogy conceived by Hungarian director Geza Radvanyi (the first was Somewhere in Europe). In each of these three films, Radvanyi hoped to dramatically convey the plight of those left homeless and destitute by WW II. Femmes sans Nom is set in a relocation camp in Trieste, where hundreds of disenfranchised European women are huddled together. Prominent among these unfortunate souls is a former aristocrat, played by Francoise Rosay; a woman of loose morals, portrayed by Simone Simon; and an expectant mother, essayed by Valentine Cortese. After the lukewarm response to Femmes sans Nom, Geza Radvanyi dropped his plans for the third film in his "displaced persons" series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Simone Simon, Françoise Rosay, (more)
- 1949
Venerable French character actress Francoise Rosay heads the cast of On Aime Qu'une Fois. Rosay is cast as the self-sacrificing mother to end them all. Determined that her son (Jacques Berthier) will be able to attend medical school, she denies herself everything -- including her one and only opportunity for true romance. What could have been maudlin in the extreme is handled with subtlety and delicacy by the matchless Francoise Rosay. Providing some welcome avuncular comedy relief is Pierre Larquey as a small-town general practitioner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Françoise Rosay, Renée Faure, (more)
- 1948
This lush 18th century period romance, based on historical fact, was the first color film from Britain's famed Ealing Studios, but it proved to be such a box office disappointment that Ealing never attempted such a lavish costume drama again. Sophie Dorothea (Joan Greenwood) is a young woman forced into a loveless marriage with Prince George Louis of Hanover (Peter Bull). George Louis is later crowned King George I of England. Despairing of ever experiencing true love, the depressed queen finds life at court no solace. Sophie then falls for a dashing Swedish soldier of fortune, Count Konigsmark (Stewart Granger). The feeling is mutual, and an affair begins, the couple carefully plotting to flee England to begin a new life together. Disaster strikes when they are overheard by Countess Platen (Flora Robson), a jealous former lover of Konigsmark's who takes her information to the king. Adapted from the Helen Simpson novel, Saraband for Dead Lovers (1948) was an early film for writer Alexander Mackendrick, who would later direct the classic Sweet Smell of Success (1957). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stewart Granger, Joan Greenwood, (more)
- 1948
The first of three well-received "omnibus" films hosted by Somerset Maugham, Quartet features four of Maugham's most celebrated stories, each introduced by the author himself. In "The Facts of Life," a seemingly innocent British youth (Jack Watling) is targeted for a shakedown by a beautiful adventuress (Mai Zetterling), while Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne perform their usual brilliant byplay. In "The Alien Corn," a young aristocrat (Dirk Bogarde) hopes to become a professional concert pianist. "The Kite" tells the story of a preoccupied inventor (George Cole) who places his hobbies ahead of his wife (Susan Shaw) as an indirect means of defying his dominating mother (Hermione Badderly). The film concludes with "The Colonel's Lady," wherein the title character (Nora Swinburne) embarrasses her stuffy husband (Cecil Parker) by publishing a torrid volume of romantic poetry. Each of the short tales in Quartet possesses its own mood, pace and rhythm, and each is a gem in its own right. The popularity of Quartet resulted in two more Maugham compendiums, Trio and Encore, not to mention the multistoried American film O. Henry's Full House. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne, (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
Johnny Frenchman uses humor to drive home the point that, despite all previous rivalries and hostilties, the French and English should pull together during WW2. Aldwych farceur Tom Walls plays Nat Pomeroy, harbourmaster of a Cornwall fishing village, who is continually outsmarted by clever French fish poacher Lannec Florrie (Francoise Rosay). Pomeroy is further aggravated by the fact that Florrie's son Yan (played by French-Canadian radio favorite Paul Dupuis) is busily romancing Pomeroy's daughter Sue (Patricia Roc). But when the Nazis rear their ugly heads, the Cornish fisherman and the French miscreants band together to thwart the German menace. Many of the cast members of Johnny Frenchman are actual Cornish villagers and members of the Free French resistance movement. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Françoise Rosay, Tom Walls, (more)
- 1944
The British Half-Way House is from the Thunder Rock and Outward Bound school of Divine Intervention films. A group of travellers, all of whom have reason to regret the actions of the past, take shelter from a storm in an old inn. There's something eerie about the place and its owner (Mervyn Johns)...something that indicates the guests aren't quite operating in their own time anymore. It develops that the inn really doesn't exist anymore; it had been destroyed by a bomb a year earlier. By staying in this half-way house, the guests all have a chance to rectify the errors that they've made in their own lives during the past year. Half-Way House was adapted from a play by Dennis Ogden. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Françoise Rosay, Tom Walls, (more)
- 1942
Completed in 1941, Portrait of a Woman (Une Femme disparait) was the final effort of veteran director Jacques Feyder. Though filmed in Switzerland, this is French production through and through, both in terms of production personnel and subject matter. Francoise Rosay, Feyder's wife, stars as a faded opera star who commits suicide. When her body is found, the police are unable to identify her. Subsequently, several people come forth, each claiming that he or she is an acquaintance of the dead woman. Their flashbacked reminiscences permit Rosay to offer an astonishing array of characterizations, from timid schoolmistress to bawdy waterfront dame to pathetic old peasant. For its 1946 American release, Portrait of a Woman was paired with the musical short subject Hymn of All Nations. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Françoise Rosay, Henri Guisol, (more)
- 1940
The English-language title of this stagebound French drama is They Were Twelve Women. The eponymous leading ladies run the full gamut age-wise, from twentysomething Micheline Presle to fiftyish Francoise Rosay. The story concerns the efforts of a dozen females from various walks of life to contribute to the war effort, renting a communal home for this purpose. The expected cultural clashes break out, most notably a war of words and wills between aristocratic Rosay and "loose woman" Gaby Morlay, but in the end all 12 women are solidly united in a common cause. Though it can't be proven, it is quite possible that Elles Etaient Douze Femmes was one of the principal inspirations for the American novel (and subsequent film) Tender Comrade. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gaby Morlay, Françoise Rosay, (more)
- 1939
In one of his last European film appearances, Conrad Veidt heads the cast of Le Joueur D'Echecs (The Checker Player). Set during the reign of Russia's Catherine the Great, the film recreates Poland's ongoing efforts to wrest free of Russian tyranny. Paul Cambo plays Polish patriot Bosleslas Vorosky, whose insurrection is aided by an eccentric Hungarian nobleman, Baron Kempelen (Conrad Veidt). Seemingly more interested in his various mechanical devices (including an automated checker player) than with human beings, Kempelen nonetheless proves to be the best friend the Poles could have, even sacrificing his own life for their cause. In the film's bizarre but historically accurate conclusion, the spiteful Catherine demands that Kempelen's beloved mechanical checker player be executed by firing squad (It makes sense within context--honest!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Françoise Rosay, Micheline Francey, (more)
