Magali Noël Movies
Turkish actress Magali Noel began appearing in European films in 1952. Among her more prestigious 1950's credits were Dassin's Rififi (1955) and Renoir's Paris Does Strange Things (1957). She was also prominently featured in the films of Federico Fellini, most memorably La Dolce Vita (1961), Satyricon (1970), and Amarcord (1974), appearing in the latter as the "rite of passage" whore who'd been a recurring character in Fellini's best works. Magali Noel was still active in television well into the 1990s, appearing in the American cable-TV series The Ray Bradbury Theater, among other projects. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1967
This sweet coming-of-age film concerns a pair of Italian teenagers, Gabriele (Jacques Perrin) and Giovenella (Rosemarie Dexter), whose parents attempt to keep them apart. Gabriele's father (Folco Lulli) goes so far as to take his son to a prostitute, and when that fails, considers letting the youngster sleep with his own mistress. Gabriele finally rents an apartment, where he and Giovenella consummate their love. A surprisingly prim coda involves a warning by a policeman and the couple's vows to refrain from further physical intimacy until marriage. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rosemarie Dexter, Jacques Perrin, (more)
Federico Fellini's warmly nostalgic memory piece examines daily life in the Italian village of Rimini during the reign of Mussolini, and won the 1974 Academy Award as Best Foreign Film. The film's greatest asset is its ability to be sweet without being cloying, due in great part to Danilo Donati's surrealistic art direction and to the frequently bawdy injections of sex and politics by screenwriters Fellini and Tonino Guerra. Fellini clearly has deep affection for the people of this seaside village, warts and all, and communicates it through episodic visual anecdotes which are seen as if through the mists of a favorite dream, playfully scored by Nino Rota and lovingly photographed by Giuseppe Rotunno. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruno Zanin, Pupella Maggio, (more)
- 1957
Assassins et Voleurs (Killers and Thieves) was the penultimate offering from French filmmaker Sacha Guitry. Though seriously ill and confined to a wheelchair, Guitry was still able to invest a great deal of energy in the project. Surprised by a burglar (Michel Serrault), the doleful Philippe (Jean Poiret) regains his composure, then asks the thief for his assistance. It seems that Philippe wants to commit suicide but hasn't the nerve to pull off the deed himself. In flashback, Philippe recounts the events that led up to this critical and anxious moment. As it turns out, our "hero" is a bigger criminal, both actual and moral, than the nonplused burglar could ever be. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Serrault, Jean Poiret, (more)
- 1961
As in François Truffaut's award-winning first picture, 400 Blows, Jean-Pierre Leaud once again takes up the role of a besieged and troubled teen in Boulevard. But that ends the points of similarity between the dramas, since this is a routine and uneven film, not up to director Julien Duviver's usual standard. This time around, the young hero is a sixteen-year-old by the name of Georges whose problems do not stem as much from himself as from the people around him. After running away from home, he has rather shattering encounters with an oversize striptease diva and two aggressive gay men, as well as an on-going antagonism with a boxer who is as pleasant as a wounded bull. These run-ins with life on the streets inevitably have their effect on Georges, no longer as naive as when he first left home. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Pierre Léaud, Magali Noël, (more)
- 1975
- R
This sequel to the blaxploitation hit Cleopatra Jones mixes in elements of the kung-fu genre and James Bond-styled spy adventures as it sends its colorful heroine to a high-flying adventure in an exotic locale. When fellow operatives (and childhood friends) Matthew Johnson (Albert Popwell) and Melvin Johnson (Caro Kenyatta) disappear during an undercover mission in Hong Kong, Cleopatra Jones (Tamara Dobson) travels there to find them. With the help of local detective Mi Ling (Tanny), Cleopatra discovers that her friends' disappearance has to do with The Dragon Lady (Stella Stevens), a much-feared woman who runs a Macao casino and controls a major chunk of the local drug trade. The finale finds Cleopatra and Mi Ling squaring off against the Dragon Lady and her minions in an explosive casino battle that involves kung-fu, gunplay, and roaring motorcycles. Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold didn't reach the same heights of success of its predecessor, but its colorful barrage of action has made it an enduring favorite amongst blaxploitation aficionados. Director Chuck Bail would go on to bigger success next year with the car-chase hit The Gumball Rally and star Dobson continued to play tough heroines in films like Chained Heat. ~ Donald Guarisco, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tamara Dobson, Magali Noël, (more)
- 1959
In this drama, the hero finds himself beaten by gang members whose operation involves capturing young women and selling them as prostitute/slaves. When the hero's own fiancee ends up involved, he does everything he can to save her. Fortunately the police intervene, with guns blazing, and the day is saved. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Hossein, Philippe Clay, (more)
- 1985
Set in the near future when a subterranean world is ruled over by a totalitarian psycho, this tame story about the macho hero Diesel (Gerard Klein) and the woman he saves (Agnes Soral) is too cliched to convince for long. When the woman, a prostitute, has to run for her life because she witnessed a murder, Diesel comes to her rescue, and a series of chases and confrontations follows. From the three gangsters after the woman, to the ruler of the city, the characters tend to be surface sketches and the situations predictable. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gerard Klein, Agnes Soral, (more)
- 1956
In the 1950s, French films were considered the ne plus ultra in naughtiness by certain impressionable filmgoers. It was to these movie fans that the American distributor of Jean Renoir's Elena et les Hommes (Elena and the Men) catered when it provocatively retitled the picture Paris Does Strange Things As further grist to the mill for American publicity hacks, the film starred Ingrid Bergman, who had recently returned to Hollywood after her career was nearly ruined by a marital scandal. Actually there was nothing overtly erotic about Paris Does Strange Things. The film was a sweet romantic comedy wherein Bergman plays a poverty-stricken Polish princess, who is wooed by eligible admirers Mel Ferrer and Jean Marais. Will she marry for love, or merely to restore her wealth? The suspense is bearable. Inexpertly cut to 86 minutes for its American showings, Paris Does Strange Things was restored to its full 98 minutes in 1986 and its title reverted to Elena et les Hommes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ingrid Bergman, Jean Marais, (more)
- 1986
This drama concerns two lovers who clearly do not get along, though not everything else is quite that clear. Olivia (Frederique Hender) is a stripper in a downbeat nightclub and Dutch (Philippe Leotard) is her lover. When Dutch is not drinking himself into oblivion in-between Olivia's strip routines, the couple endlessly scream at each other. After this jarring introduction, the film segues to a garbage dump that is the home of Olivia's presumed parents. Olivia travels there to go back to live with her parents, but Dutch is hot on her heels. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frederique Hender, Philippe Léotard, (more)
Federico Fellini makes his most decadent, undisciplined work in this free adaptation of Petronius' famous farcical chronicle of ancient Roman life. The film opens with Encolpio (Martin Potter) vying with his friend Ascilto (Hiram Keller) for the affections of a young effeminate lad named Gitone (Max Born). When the youth chooses his rival or him, Encolpio begins a journey that has him encountering Romans of every stripe and color. He drops in on an orgy thrown by Trimalchio (Mario Romagnoli), a wealth-loving ex-slave who has spurned his wife in favor of a pleasures of a young boy; he toils on a slave galley, fighting off the advances of Lichas (Alain Cuny) -- the ship's burly wall-eyed captain; he steals an albino hermaphrodite demi-god who is reputed to be able to tell the future; and fails to summon the enthusiasm to make love to a whore-priestess. Along the way, we witness a parade of prostitutes in ancient Rome's pleasure quarters; watch performance by Vernacchio (Fanfulla), an actor whose on-stage specialties include farting and public amputation; and the wonton devouring of a human corpse for financial gain. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martin Potter, Hiram Keller, (more)
- 1967
In this exploitation drama, a young woman's dreams of marital bliss with a handsome playboy are shattered when she finds out that he is a white slaver who wants her to be his newest hooker. He sends her to a client aboard a yacht. She tries to flee but gets caught and is sent to a hellish punishment place called "The Hole." Meanwhile the playboy is left to sort out his feelings for her. Unbeknownst to him, the cops are hot on his trail. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1962
The Secret Mark of D'Artagnan borrows a handful of the characters and little else from the works of Dumas. Like many Italian films of the early 1960s, this swashbuckler stars an American actor, George Nader, in hopes of broadening its market. Nader plays D'Artagnan along more mature lines than most actors; he's even something of a ladies' man, a fact which very nearly gets him killed on several occasions. Confounding D'Artagnan's efforts to work on behalf of Louis XIII is Magali Noel as a buxom Milady De Winter. The Secret Mark of D'Artagnan became an American TV standard in the late 1960s thanks to its sumptuous color photography. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
This comedy takes sharp aim at the hypocritical behavior of supposedly celibate Roman Catholic clergy. Keeping to the middle ground, neither too "holy" nor too critical, it was a hit in native Italy. Don Clemente (Lando Buzzanca) has done too good a job as a priest in his rural parish and is promoted to a wealthy parish in Rome. Along with the new job come new temptations, most prominent of which is the desire to embrace the problems of Silvia, a beautiful young prostitute with a yen for married life (Rossana Podesta). Their relationship develops until he must choose between his calling and marrying Silvia. As he is growing accustomed to life in the city, he gains insight into his romantic temptations by observing how his peers and superiors in the church respond to theirs. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1971
The lives of many are in the hands of Italian Police Commissioner Castroni, who is challenged by four young terrorists who are wreaking havoc upon the entire community. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1962
L'Accident is another variation on the Diabolique theme. Georges Riviere is in love with Magali Noel. Only one obstacle stands in the way of Riviere's happiness: his wife. Maybe things would be better if she had an accident...which he is willing to arrange. But this is only the launching pad for an unstettling series of plot detours and unexpected twists. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Magali Noël, Georges Riviere, (more)
- 1969
After serving time in prison for an undisclosed crime, a woman keeps herself alive by resorting to robbery and prostitution. She often waits for her boyfriend, an ex-convict who is forbidden to spend any time in Paris according to his probation agreement. She escapes jail only to break her ankle bone, hiding out from the authorities until the unbearable pain forces her to return to the prison hospital for surgery. She takes temporary solace in a lesbian affair at the prison before once again following her no-good boyfriend into the gutter as the two use each other for sex to avoid their legal and moral responsibilities. The story is taken from the novel by the late Albertine Sarrazin. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marlène Jobert, Horst Buchholz, (more)
- 1958
A so-so drama with uneven acting, this is a tale of three women and one man trapped on a deserted island in World War II after a shipwreck. Christian Marquand is Patrick, the lone man who cannot but develop a relationship with all three women. Their fates are not what might be expected, as the women slowly reveal their true natures. One tries to get to another island to find help, and one turns out to be pathologically homicidal. She kills the only other woman, leaving two choices for her murderous inclination -- herself or Patrick or both. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rossana Podestà, Dawn Addams, (more)
In one of the most widely seen and acclaimed European movies of the 1960s, Federico Fellini featured Marcello Mastrioanni as gossip columnist Marcello Rubini. Having left his dreary provincial existence behind, Marcello wanders through an ultra-modern, ultra-sophisticated, ultra-decadent Rome. He yearns to write seriously, but his inconsequential newspaper pieces bring in more money, and he's too lazy to argue with this setup. He attaches himself to a bored socialite (Anouk Aimée), whose search for thrills brings them in contact with a bisexual prostitute. The next day, Marcello juggles a personal tragedy (the attempted suicide of his mistress (Yvonne Furneaux)) with the demands of his profession (an interview with none-too-deep film star Anita Ekberg). Throughout his adventures, Marcello's dreams, fantasies, and nightmares are mirrored by the hedonism around him. With a shrug, he concludes that, while his lifestyle is shallow and ultimately pointless, there's nothing he can do to change it and so he might as well enjoy it. Fellini's hallucinatory, circus-like depictions of modern life first earned the adjective "Felliniesque" in this celebrated movie, which also traded on the idea of Rome as a hotbed of sex and decadence. A huge worldwide success, La Dolce Vita won several awards, including a New York Film Critics CIrcle award for Best Foreign Film and the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marcello Mastroianni, Yvonne Furneaux, (more)
- 2000
Maverick auteur Andrzej Zulawski directs this flamboyant adaptation of classic French novel La Princesse de Cleves, complete with dirt bike races, hot sex, and naked hockey players. Talented Canadian photographer Clelia (Sophie Marceau) lands a financially lucrative job in Paris at a rumor-mongering tabloid called La Verite run by Rupert MacRoi (Michel Subor). Though she finds most of her coworkers to be disillusioned and perverse, she happens upon Cleve (Pascal Greggory), a bumbling middle-aged children's book publisher. Cleve is days away from marrying MacRoi's daughter to bolster his flagging publishing house. Nonetheless, Clelia and Cleve retire to his office to make love almost immediately upon meeting. Though MacRoi has already bought his company, Cleve breaks off his wedding plans and proposes to Clelia. Enter Nemo (Guillaume Canet), a sexy young photographer who promptly propositions her upon their first encounter. In spite of her ferocious sexual attract to Nemo, Clelia marries Cleve and resolutely keeps to her wedding vows in the face of her suitor's continued advances. Madame de la Fayette's novel, from which this film draws inspiration, has already been adapted twice: the 1961 version was directed by Jean Delannoy and starred Marina Vlady, and the 1999 take, entitled The Letter was directed by Manoel de Oliveira and featured Chiara Mastroianni. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sophie Marceau, Pascal Greggory, (more)
