Lucien Hubert Movies
One of the first films to see the horrors of war through the eyes of children, Forbidden Games was a critical smash, winning prizes from the New York Film Critics, the British Academy, and the Venice Film Festival. Adapted by Francois Boyer, director Rene Clement, and two others from Boyer's novel, the story focuses on Paulette (Brigitte Fossey), a five-year-old refugee from Paris taken in by a peasant family after her parents are killed during a bombardment of a civilian convoy. Michel Dolle (Georges Pujouly), the family's 11-year-old son, becomes her best friend, and they create a cemetery in which Paulette's dog is interred, along with other animals and insects, some of whom the children kill themselves. The Dolle family is too busy feuding with the Gouards, their neighbors, to notice the absence of the children. Eventually, authorities locate Paulette and insist that she be placed in an orphanage for legal adoption. Unsentimental and yet heartbreaking, Forbidden Games demonstrates the strategies of children who witness war to deal with the constant presence of death. It's also a bitter condemnation of the selfishness of adults who could offer their charges more love and protection. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brigitte Fossey, Georges Poujouly, (more)
The grim Emile Zola "naturalist" novel Therese Raquin has been vividly cinematized by director Marcel Carne. Simone Signoret plays the title character, the long-suffering housewife who dreams of a more romantic life-partner than the bourgeois Camille (Jacques Duby). Therese enjoys a torrid affair with burly truck-driver Laurent (Raf Vallone), only to realize the true emptiness of her aspirations. Ultimately, Therese brings about her own destruction, never truly learning to appreciate what she already has. In the U.S., Therese Raquin was released under the come-on cognomen The Adulteress. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Simone Signoret, Raf Vallone, (more)
- 1954
Brigitte Bardot is the sensual gamine once more in Light Across the Street. She pouts and purrs her way through a romantic triangle involving herself, her injured truck driver husband, and a handsome interloper. The fun comes crashing to a halt when murder is committed. Released in France as La Lumiere d'en Face, this film was first issued to the US as The Flame and the Flesh. But this caused confusion with a 1954 Lana Turner vehicle of that name, hence the more antiseptic cognomen The Light Across the Street. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Raymond Pellegrin, Roger Pigaut, (more)
- 1956
In this frothy romantic comedy, the lovely Brigitte Bardot plays Chouchou, a successful model. Chouchou is single but hoping to change that soon; she's become infatuated with Michel (Louis Jordan), the editor of a fashion magazine, but Michel, apparently unaware of an opportunity when it presents itself, seems unaware of her interest in him. The harder Chouchou tries to make herself noticed, the less Michel seems to understand, until she takes drastic measures by making him chase her though the woods while she wears sheer lingerie which leaves little to the imagination. La Mariée est trop belle was one of a number of light comedies starring Brigitte Bardot which arrived in American theaters after the international success of ... And God Created Woman. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brigitte Bardot, Micheline Presle, (more)
Emile Zola's obscure novel entitled "L'Assommoir" has been made into several films. This is one of the best. In this two hour movie an entire mini-series worth of problems have been compressed about a young woman to whom life has dealt hard blows. Set in the 19th-century, this woman deals with an alcoholic husband while doing everything within her power to keep the family together. An incredibly depressing movie in which the protagonist keeps on trying no matter what besets her, the performances are creditable and the direction superb. Self-involved characters give viewers no one to cheer for, but this movie received multiple awards, ranging from Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival to an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film. The music was composed by Georges Auric. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maria Schell, François Perier, (more)
French director Georges Franju's Eyes Without a Face (Les Yeux Sans Visage) is an unsettling, sometimes poetic horror film. Pierre Brasseur plays a brilliant plastic surgeon, Prof. Genessier, who has vowed to restore the face of his daughter, Christiane (Edith Scob), who was mutilated in an automobile accident. With the help of his assistant (Alida Valli), he kidnaps young women, surgically removes their facial features, and attempts to graft their beauty onto his daughter's hideous countenance. This naturally has an adverse effect on the "donors," some of whom commit suicide rather than go through life faceless. Franju's haunting, muted handling of basic horror material is what lifts Eyes Without a Face out of the ordinary and into the realm of near-classic. When the film failed to draw crowds under its original title, however, the distributors decided to exploit it as a two-bit "scare" flick with the new title The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierre Brasseur, Alida Valli, (more)
- 1973
Though his father is a collaborator, and the Germans have wrought havoc in his part of southern France, Perret (Philippe Leotard) wants nothing to do with either side in the war. In this French World War II action/adventure Perret is forced to kill a German in self-defense, so that his desire to remain neutral becomes irrelevant; by necessity he joins up with a resistance group. At first he does as little as he decently can, but gradually he transforms into a committed partisan. This, even though his new comrades are dying in great numbers around him. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
