Annie Girardot Movies
More handsome than beautiful, versatile Annie Girardot was the most popular female star in France during the 1970s. Girardot typically played strong-willed, independent, hard-working, and often lonely women, imbuing her characters with an earthiness and reality that endeared her with women undergoing similar daily struggles. It is small wonder, then, that Girardot became one of the symbols of the early-'70s feminist movement in France -- though in personal life Girardot was not terribly involved with feminists.Girardot made her professional debut with the distinguished Comedie-Francaise theater troupe in 1954 after she graduated with honors from the Conservatoire de Paris. She remained with the troupe through 1957, occasionally taking time off to perform on radio, television, and in Parisian nightclubs. She made an inauspicious film debut in Trieze a Table in 1955. In early roles, Girardot was typically cast as doomed women of dubious origins in dark films, but she didn't make much impact until she played Nadia, a prostitute whom meets a tragic end in Luchino Visconti's Rocco et Ses Freres (Rocco and His Brothers) (1960). During filming she became romantically linked with co-star Renato Salvatori, who played the character who stabbed her character 13 times. They married, but divorced many years later.
Through the early '60s, Girardot played leads in a few Italian pictures directed by either Visconti or Marco Ferreri. Girardot also played leads in numerous run-of-the-mill French films. After 15 years, Girardot finally became a star when she was cast as the tragic teacher Danielle in Andre Cayatte's Mourir d'Aimer (Death of Love) (1970), the fact-based tale of a middle-aged teacher whose affair with a much younger student made her the object of bourgeoisie ridicule and harassment and led her to suicide. Though she appeared in many dramas during the '60s and '70s, Girardot never forgot her Comedie Francaise experiences and proved herself an adept comedienne in such films as La Vielle Fille (1971), Cause Toujours Tu M'Interesses (1979), and Tendre Poulet (1977). Through the '70s, she worked with some of her country's best directors, but by the '80s, her career was in sharp decline and her film appearances became sporadic. However, in 1995, Girardot had a major comeback playing a peasant wife in Claude Lelouch's Les Misérables. The role won her a Cesar (the French Oscar) for Best Actress. Upon accepting the award, a joyous and tearful Girardot expressed her happiness that she had not been forgotten. She also offered her heartfelt thanks to her many film industry colleagues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1993
Based on a novel by Mary Higgins Clark, the film explores the life of an art-gallery manager (Carol Higgins Clark) who marries a famous Canadian painter (Perry King). After moving her two young daughters to his mansion, she soon comes to the frightening realization that he is much more than the garden-variety tortured artist. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Perry King, Carol Higgins Clark, (more)
- 2006
The gently evocative, nostalgia-seeped autobiographical drama A Year In My Life cinematizes writer-director Daniel Duval's recollections of his youth in 1950s France. As a thinly-veiled onscreen fictionalization of the filmmaker, Raphael Katz is Pippo, a 9-year-old boy whose parents are arrested and thrown into jail under enigmatic circumstances - leaving him in dire need of guardians. Thrown into an orphanage, he is promptly adopted by a young French farm couple: the taciturn Gustave (Jean-Paul Rouve) and his wife Cecile (Anne Brochet. Per its title, the film observes events in Pippo's life over the course of the following year, from his slight and harmless brushes with authority figures at the local school, to his decision to befriend an octogenarian widow (All Night Long's Annie Girardot) shamelessly rumored by his classmates to be a witch. Made and released in 2006, this feature represented filmmaker Duval's first major cinematic outing since the 1979 French blockbuster La Derobade. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Paul Rouve, Anne Brochet, (more)
- 1981
- R
Gene Hackman plays a disgruntled suburbanite who manages the Ultra-Sav, an all-night drugstore. He hates his job, hates his debts and responsibilities, and isn't overly fond of his wife (Diane Ladd) and son (Dennis Quaid). Partly as a form of protest, Hackman enters into an affair with Barbra Streisand, one of his wife's distant relatives (don't ask how she's related - it takes Hackman about thirty seconds to explain it to another character). Streisand doesn't belong in this picture at all, but she can be forgiven her acting excesses because she wasn't the first choice for the role anyway (Lisa Eichhorn dropped out just before shooting began). The best moments in All Night Long involve the steady stream of oddballs and losers who trickle into Hackman's establishment. There is also a cute Apocalypse Now parody involving a battery-operated toy helicopter. The principal attraction of All Night Long is Gene Hackman playing an endearingly recognizable modern type. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gene Hackman, Barbra Streisand, (more)
- 1969
- R
A young man who cares for pigs defends a mentally challenged girl. When he fights with the local saloon keeper, the man gets the boy drunk and bribes the priest into marrying the boy to the unfortunate girl. When a teacher arrives to instruct the ladies of the town in painting, the swineherd is used as a model and then a boy-toy for the teacher's pleasure. The teacher takes another lover and gives up the young man with the excuse that she didn't know he was married. The young swineherd kills his wife, but his father takes the blame and confesses his sins before he dies in prison. The people of the town exact their revenge on the swineherd as he is tied to the massive church bells and subjected to a torturous demise in this depressing feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Annie Girardot, Eva Ras, (more)
- 1979
Jacco (Laurent Malet) and his buddy Freddie (Michel Montanary) are the shiftless louts who frequent a bar run by Madga (Annie Girardot). Magda is Jacco's mistress, and she looks out for him like a surrogate mother. When Jacco meets Magda's daughter Lise (Evelyne Bouix), he drops Magda and Freddie to concentrate on seducing the young woman. The weak-willed Lise is married off to a businessman by her domineering mother. When Freddie dies, Jacco finds himself all alone and crawls back to Magda -- and is supposedly wiser for his experience. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laurent Malet, Annie Girardot, (more)
- 2006
This French-language feature, starring and directed by the acclaimed blues maestro Richard Bohringer, was loosely adapted from the musician's roman-a-clef, and almost completely omits a central narrative. In it, a young writer pursues an idolized artist through the various experiences and exotic locales of his continual wanderings, from Paris to Mareille to Africa. Bohringer thus attempts to capture various moods and feelings, with a heavy emphasis on nocturnal events. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
Paranoia grips a bourgeois European family when a series of menacing videotapes begin turning up on their doorstep in Piano Teacher director Michael Haneke's dark drama. From the outside, Georges (Daniel Auteuil), Anne (Juliette Binoche), and son Pierrot (Lester Makedonsky) are the typical middle-class European family, but when a series of mysterious videotapes accompanied by morbid drawings reveal that someone has been monitoring their house, Georges begins to suspect that his past has come back to haunt him. It was during France's occupation of Algeria that Georges wronged a young Algerian boy named Majid (Maurice Bénichou), and as the enraged father and husband begins tracking down his former friend, the line between victim and predator becomes increasingly blurred. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Auteuil, Juliette Binoche, (more)
- 1988
In this reportedly autobiographical piece, Michel Legrand makes his directorial debut. He is much better known for his orchestral scores for other movies. In this story, he is fourteen and living in Paris under the German occupation. It is June of 1944, and he and his mother, along with a young woman (who despite her youth is nearly twice his age), steal some bicycles at the train station and cycle their way to a town on the seaside at Normandy just as the invasion is getting underway. Curiously, the woman finds time to initiate the boy into sexual life in an unlikely location: under a bush in a field littered with corpses of the newly dead. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Annie Girardot, Sabine Azéma, (more)
- 1970
An unsettled teen (Jacques Portet) who was born in Tunisia but brought to France for adoption in early childhood searches to discover his North African roots. Leaving France, he is cared for by an elderly woman who delights in giving him tours of Tunis. When he feels that time is passing him by too quickly, he sets out to earn enough money to return to continue his journey of self discovery. The woman tries to tell him that time will pass no matter what happens, but the boy is determined to travel. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick Jouane, Jacques Portet, (more)
- 1989
The very busy actor Michel Serrault lends his talents to the depiction of a monstre sacree of French literature, the extremely repugnant but very clever Paul Leautaud, who was famous for his rude, clever observations and his epigrams. Although unkempt and very mean, his rapier-like wit and strong lust were sufficiently magnetic that at the time of this film he was engaged in a long-term relationship with his equally vile mistress (Annie Girardot), and a new relationship with a librarian (Aurore Clement) who is a fan of his writing. The story is based on the author's personal diaries from the period. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Serrault, Annie Girardot, (more)
- 1976
In this romantic comedy, two separate people place "mate wanted" ads in the newspaper personals. Jacqueline (Annie Girardot) is a dog-groomer, and Jean-Pierre (Jean-Pierre Marielle) is a tax-collector. There are a number of quite substantial obstacles to their getting together: she has a lot of rowdy dogs, he has an office girlfriend and a tyrannical boss. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Annie Girardot, Jean-Pierre Marielle, (more)
- 1969
This offbeat combination of reality and fantasy finds Glauco (Michel Piccoli) returning home from his job as an industrial engineer to find his wife (Anita Pallenberg) in bed with a headache. Deciding to fix dinner for himself, he reads from a gourmet cookbook as he watches television, or listens to the radio. He runs across an old .45 caliber handgun and he cleans the weapon between attending to his culinary creation. He later goes to bed, but rises when he is restless and goes to make love with the maid (Annie Girardot), after which he examines the newly painted revolver. After shooting his wife to death, he imagines he is driven to the ocean where he swims out to a boat bound for Tahiti and takes a job as a cook. The title is a reference to the notorious American gangster who could shoot his way out of any place but the police line in front of Chicago's Biograph Theater. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Piccoli, Anita Pallenberg, (more)
- 1975
A doctor gains a new perspective on her life and career when she faces a life-threatening illness in this drama. Francoise (Annie Girardot) is a French physician with a very busy schedule. While she's well respected by her patients and colleagues, she has precious little time to spend with her husband Gerard (Francois Perier), her pregnant teenage daughter Elisabeth (Isabelle Huppert), or her sullen son Julien (William Coryn). She somehow manages to find time for her lover Daniel (Jean-Pierre Cassel), but Francoise's life is already starting to fray at the edges when she receives the upsetting news that she has cancer. Francoise, however, learns to put on a brave face and faces her disease and its difficult treatment with optimism and a fierce resolve. Annie Giradot's performance in Docteur Francoise Gailland earned her a Cesar (the French Academy Award). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Annie Girardot, Jean-Pierre Cassel, (more)
- 1970
This offbeat satirical comedy finds a beautiful and talkative housekeeper (Annie Girardot) working for several colorful employers. One is a former prostitute living with a prominent politician. Also included is a ribald bank teller and a strange man who helps out at a church for wayward boys and sings at a homosexual nightclub. The housekeeper's verbose nature leads to blackmail for her clients, with the two men meeting their deaths and the ex-prostitute wedding plans put in jeopardy. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Annie Girardot, Bernard Blier, (more)
- 1972
In this satirical French comedy, Rosemunde (Annie Girardot) earns her living selling relics to the Catholic church. She manufactures them using a specialized machine made by her grandfather, which transforms corpses into bone. Needless to say, since she must have dead bodies in order to do this, the police take an interest in her affairs. In order to fend off their inquiries, she concocts a scheme using a hippyish Jesus-cultist, who is a dead-ringer for conventional notions of how Jesus looked. To everyone's surprise, he has some supernatural gifts of his own. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Annie Girardot, Bernard Blier, (more)
- 1969
A married woman in her 30s tries to spice up her sex life with her distracted husband. Annie (Annie Girardot) buys clothes to entice her husband Philippe (Jean Yanne) who is preoccupied with an upcoming tax audit. Even the presence of a beautiful fashion model who visits with Phillipe's brother fails to divert his attention. The title is taken from one of several advertisements seen by Annie who is desperate to regain her husband's attention. This feature is the official French entry at the 1969 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Annie Girardot, Jean Yanne, (more)
- 1976
Jip (Julien Clerc) is a piano teacher with two girlfriends who live in entirely different worlds. One is a young, kooky lass (Miou-Miou), the other is an older, middle-class married woman (Annie Giradot). The occasional juxtaposition of these two worlds, as narrated by Jip, fuel the laughs in this French comedy. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Annie Girardot, Miou-Miou, (more)
- 1965
La Guerre Secrete is divided into four separate vignettes, each scene representing a day in the life of international espionage agents. Stories involve a secret agent (Vittorio Gassman) who goes undercover as a kidnapper, an attempt to impede a Russian attack on two submarines, and an undercover agent confronting a traitor in the Berlin offices of the CIA. Linking the stories is Robert Ryan as a US Intelligence chief. Terence Young directed the English-language sequences, while Christian-Jacques and Carlo Lizzani handled the French and Italian sequences, respectively. German director Werner Klinger's name does not appear on the US credits of The Dirty Game, inasmuch as his scenes were cut from all American prints. Dirty Game sank without a trace on its initial release, only to pop up on television, intermittently, throughout the '70s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bourvil, Robert Ryan, (more)
- 1997
Based on the sprawling novel by Vicki Baum, this convoluted melodrama follows nine people whose lives converge during the days leading up to the tragic August 14, 1937 "Bloody Sunday" bombing in which a major downtown Shanghai hotel was demolished by the Japanese, an event that launched the Sino-Japanese War. The guests include Helen Russell, an enigmatic Russian noblewoman, her alcoholic British spouse Bobbie and Sir Kingsdale Smith, a royal emissary. Other guests are Hutchinson, a wheelchair-bound travel writer and the gossipy Mme. Tissaud. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Agnieszka Wagner, Annie Girardot, (more)
