Barbara Somers Movies

This French-Italian romantic crime thriller is titled The Truth in English. Henri-Georges Clouzot directed sexpot Brigitte Bardot as Dominique Marceau, who is accused of killing her boyfriend. The question for the jury is whether the murder was premeditated or a crime of passion. Marceau had come from a small town to take up a sexually adventuresome life on the Left Bank in Paris. She has an affair with Gilbert Tellier (Sami Frey), the boyfriend of her sister Annie (Marie-Jose Nat). Dominique moves on to other romances, but Tellier won't let go of her. They fight and eventually separate. Tellier becomes a renowned orchestra conductor while Dominique descends into prostitution. She eventually learns that her sister and Tellier are engaged, and this knowledge leads up to the events that lead her to court. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi

Author Irwin Shaw wrote the screenplay for this adaptation of two of his short stories set in Paris. Christina James (Jean Seberg) is a footloose American girl living in the City of Lights. She becomes involved with Guy (Philippe Forquet), who tells her that he's a student at the University studying engineering, but when they plan a rendezvous at a cheap hotel, he confesses to her that he's really only 16 years old. Christina breaks it off with him and goes through a series of brief and unsatisfying affairs with a variety of men until she meets Walter Beddoes (Stanley Baker), a journalist with an unfortunate appetite for alcohol. Despite the fact his work often forces him to travel abroad on a moment's notice, Christina is deeply in love with Walter, and when her father (Addison James) tries to persuade her to come back to the United States, she refuses, preferring to stay with Walter. In time, Christina realizes that Walter is away from her more often than he's with her, and when she meets John Haislip (James Leo Herlihy), an American doctor vacationing in France, she has to decide if her passion for Walter is more important than her feelings for John, who wants her to come to his home in San Francisco, where he'll always be there for her. In the French Style offered an appropriate role for actress Jean Seberg, who was born in Iowa but found most of her best film roles after she moved to France. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton -- then Hollywood's most bankable couple -- appeared onscreen together for the third time in this romantic drama shot on beautiful locations along the Big Sur region of the California coastline. Laura Edwards (Elizabeth Taylor) is a free-thinking artist and Bohemian who is raising a her teenage son, Danny (Morgan Mason), conceived out of wedlock, on her own. Laura has issues with conventional teaching methods, and prefers to educate Danny about both intellectual and ethical matters on her own. However, Danny has become something of a problem, and child welfare authorities demand that Danny either be sent to school or become a ward of the state. Rather than send Danny to public school, Laura arranges for him to attend a private academy run by Dr. Edward Hewitt (Richard Burton), an Episcopalian minister. Edward is at first shocked by Laura's embrace of free love and rejection of conventional moral codes, but as he gets to know her better, he finds himself increasingly attracted to her, despite the fact he has a wife, Claire (Eva Marie Saint), and two children. Before long, Edward's desire overpowers his scruples and he begins an affair with Laura. Wracked with guilt over his infidelity, Edward confesses his indiscretion to Claire, which proves to have severe and unexpected consequences. While saddled with poor reviews upon its initial release, The Sandpiper did win an Academy Award for Johnny Mandel's theme song, "The Shadow of Your Smile." ~ Mark Deming, Rovi