Maurice Garrel Movies

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

Francois Truffaut directed this simple tale of revenge and adultery which features an exceptional musical score by Georges Delerue. The story concerns a love affair between successful literary magazine editor Pierre Lachenay (Jean Desailly) and alluring airline stewardess, Nicole Chomette (Francoise Dorleac). They meet on a flight to Lisbon, where Pierre is scheduled to deliver a lecture. When he returns to Paris, they continue their affair, but find it is difficult to set up their clandestine trysts, so Pierre arranges a lecture trip to Riems, where they can be together. In Riems however, Pierre finds it difficult to keep the affair a secret from his lecture sponsors. Upon his return to Paris, his wife Franca (Nelly Benedetti), suspicious her husband is having an affair, quarrels with Pierre, who leaves her and asks Nicole to marry him. Nicole refuses his proposition and Pierre attempts to reconcile with his wife. But Nelly, with a gun in her bag, is en route to surprise Pierre at his favorite restaurant for a final confrontation. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Charles (Louis Jourdan) is a writer who falls for Sandra (Senta Berger) in this routine spy story. Sandra talks the writer into helping her stop her husband from kidnapping a nuclear scientist and delivering him to the Chinese. (Edmond O'Brien) gives the standout performance in this otherwise forgettable film. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

A young hippie feels disenfranchised with the modern world around him. He tries to enter into a relationship with a young girl, but the two are plagued by their own individual problems and things don't work out as they would like. The two feel alienated from society and each other in this symbolic and listless feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This Francois Truffaut thriller is based ona novel by William Irish (aka Cornell Woolrich), whose books had been adapted by Alfred Hitchcock on many previous occasions. Jeanne Moreau stars as a woman whose fiancé is nastily murdered by five men. Utilizing a series of disguises, the cool-customer Moreau tracks down all five culprits, sexually enslaves them, and then engineers their deaths. The ominous musical score was written by Bernard Herrmann, another frequent Hitchcock collaborator. The Bride Wore Black was initially released in France as La Mariee etait en Noir. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Carl (Matthieu Carriere) is the young scholar who comes to live with French geologist Julian (Maurice Garrel) and his wife Isaballe (Marie Dubois) and two children. Carl is eager to study with the famous geologist, but soon he is involved in a love affair with his mentor's wife. A jealous laborer tells the husband of the tryst and Isaballa confesses to her husband. He has tempered his once callous exterior and gruff demeanor in the wake of his wife's infidelity in this plodding romantic drama. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

An international group of travelers trek around the world, from France to Brazil and Chile and, finally, to Easter Island, where some of their number are chosen to meet aliens who resemble small suns. One man who was not chosen tags along uninvited. For punishment, he is given the task of guarding the site until the next visit, some 500 years hence. This talky film (in French) features fine travel footage. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Murder, industrial espionage, political intrigue and Jean-Paul Belmondo are the strengths of this French thriller. Cordell (Belmondo) is the heir of a French industrialist, who dies in an air crash. When someone almost succeeds in framing Cordell with a case of drugs, he begins to suspect that his father's death was not accidental. He hires a private detective and finds that a reporter working for his father's magazine (one of the many companies he owned) was looking into plans by another multinational to take over the company. Also, Cordell's father-in-law, a former Italian fascist, may not have given up his old loyalties. As these facts emerge, his enemies become even more determined to get him out of the way. This film caused some controversy in France where it was viewed as a sharp commentary on the society by the director, a former journalist. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

At the core of this docudrama are six French-speaking villages that were transferred to the jurisdiction of a Dutch-speaking province when political lines were drawn. The director of Le Grand Paysage d'Alexis Droeven (Jean-Jacques Andrien) was born and raised in this area and filmed scenes of the demonstrations that took place when the transfer occurred -- scenes that are used in the film. Additional background on the region emerges as the viewer sees that the economic policies dictated by the European Common Market intensify the cultural clashes in this zone because the policies often damage the earnings of the farming community -- and the farmers have no way to alter the ECM mandates. The film conveys a good sense of these issues that threaten the way of life of the small community, and at the same time, a mini-drama plays out against this backdrop. The drama begins with the death of an elderly farmer and unfolds over the four days that elapse between his death, the funeral rites, and the day following the burial. The son in the family, Jean-Pierre Droeven (Jerzy Radziwilowicz) must make a decision about the family's milk-producing cattle farm -- should he sell it and move out of this politically blighted region? His Aunt Elisabeth (Nicole Garcia) has her own views on the decision. She is a lawyer, and lives in the city of Liege, long since abandoning the small farming community herself. As the son and aunt interact with each other, their perspectives begin to shift, unsettling questions arise as to their real roots, and they find that even the memories of their dead father are not always in agreement. Through its in-depth probing of ordinary human situations, the film conveys a sense of dignity and meaning to lives that are beset by forces they cannot control. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Set during the Algerian war for independence in the 1950s and early '60s, this undistinguished drama centers on Jean (Maurice Garrel) who works covertly for the FLN, the Algerian independence fighters, and although he does not know it, the woman he loves (Mouche, played by Emmanuelle Riva), is also a covert operative for the FLN. When Jean sees the SAO (the Algerian Secret Army Organization) assassinate Mouche, his world disintegrates. Eventually, after the armed conflict has ended, he meets a French Algerian named Gemina and begins a new relationship with her -- and optimistically expects it to last because peace is at hand. Although director Philippe Garrel seems to have intended certain parallels between Jean's personal life and Algerian-French politics, they are weakened by the vague script, and a stiffness or artificiality in the main characters. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Director Jacques Richard tried to emulate a silent movie in all its aspects when he filmed Rebelote. Originally screened with a live string orchestra, the silent black-and-white film has inter-titles and tongue-in-cheek, melodramatic acting and a "soap opera" type plot. Unfortunately, the tale of a sad delinquent trying to overcome his miserable childhood to find success at love and life is not a cleverly acted or staged parody, and so the idea falls short of the standards of excellence of bygone, silent screen days. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide