Mila Parély Movies

Adrien (Remi Martin) does not see eye to eye with his patrician father about much. It is 1912, and the old man still believes in the old rules which strait-jacket "men of class." He believes that the elite have the right to conquer where they can, that they should refrain from publicizing their improprieties, and he is rabidly pro-military. Adrian, kicked out of his military school for his own improprieties (and hiding that from his father), is naturally drawn to Vicky (Maruschka Detmers) a beautiful divorced woman and friend of the family who is staying at their mansion. The family tutor, a man of ordinary background (with some ideas which seem radical in this household) is similarly smitten. On the basis of their shared attraction, the two men form a friendship. Meanwhile, the object of their affection finds it diverting to toy with them. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This curiously little-known British mystery stars Tom Conway as an American FBI agent. Conway is sent to England to investigate the death of a model. It just might be that enemy agents are involved, and our hero wants to find out as much as possible before putting his own life on the line. The most familiar faces in the supporting cast belong to Delphi Lawrence, Eric Pohlmann and Richard Wattis. Three Stops to Murder is one of the earliest efforts of future "house of horror" Hammer Films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A frequent visitor to the Late Late Show, the Anglo-American Snowbound is set in the frozen Alps. Robert Newton and Dennis Price head an expedition in search of a fortune of gold, stashed away by the Nazis in the last days of the war. Snowed into an old cabin, the men quickly get on one another's nerves. Just when tension reaches the boiling point, one of the party saves the day. He happens to be a movie screenwriter, who uses his cinematic knowhow to reach a solution to their dilemma. Snowbound is based on The Lonely Skier, a novel by Hammond Innes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Etoile Sans Lumiere (Star Without Light) represents a rare screen appearance by French singing sensation Edith Piaf. The plot is something of a predecessor to Hollywood's Singin' in the Rain (1952), albeit with a less happy denouement. Piaf plays an aspiring singer who tries to break into films during the early talkie era. She is hired to dub the singing and speaking voice of a silent-movie favorite (Mila Parely). Sworn to secrecy, the fill-in must stand by in silence as the star receives all the praises and plaudits. When the truth is revealed, the result is disastrous for everyone concerned. Etoile Sans Lumiere is chiefly memorable as the screen debut of Edith Piaf's protégé Yves Montand. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Robert Bresson's first feature film is the story of two novice nuns in a monastery that recruits sisters from a woman's prison. Anne-Marie (Renée Faure) comes to the convent from a middle-class family eager to take up her vocation, but other nuns begin to resent her earnestness, and they accuse her of pride. Anne-Marie makes it her mission to watch over Thérèse (Jany Holt), a novice who joined the order after her release from prison. Unbeknownst to the other nuns, between the time she left jail and when she arrived at the convent, Thérèse shot the man who sent her to prison. Bresson presents the relationship between these two women with maximum psychological intensity. The contrast between Anne-Marie and Thérèse's inner turmoil and their demure behavior heightens the film's dramatic tension as Bresson develops the themes of sin and grace that will preoccupy him throughout his career. Although it follows the rules of mainstream 1940s French cinema, Les Anges du péché introduces an elegant, pared-down style that forms the basis for the completely original minimalism of Bresson's later films. ~ Louis Schwartz, All Movie Guide

WW2 seems light years away in the French romantic comedy They Met on Skis. Directed by Henri Sokai, a past master of "mountain" films, the story is set in the French Alps in late 1939. A rivalry between two elderly innkeepers seriously threatens the romance between their respective offspring, Helene (Wissia Dina) and Michael (Henri Presles). After a while, however, no one really cares about the plot, what with the gorgeous female members of the Paris Ski Club cavorting before the cameras. Also adding to the box-office appeal of They Met on Skis is an extended guest appearance by Louis Agnel, French ski-racing champion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Now often cited as one of the greatest films ever made, Jean Renoir's La Règle du jeu/Rules of the Game was not warmly received on its original release in 1939: audiences at its opening engagements in Paris were openly hostile, responding to the film with shouts of derision, and distributors cut the movie from 113 minutes to a mere 80. It was banned as morally perilous during the German occupation and the original negative was destroyed during WWII. It wasn't until 1956 that Renoir was able to restore the film to its original length. In retrospect, this reaction seems both puzzling and understandable; at its heart, Rules of the Game is a very moral film about frequently amoral people. A comedy of manners whose wit only occasionally betrays its more serious intentions, it contrasts the romantic entanglements of rich and poor during a weekend at a country estate. André Jurieu (Roland Toutain), a French aviation hero, has fallen in love with Christine de la Chesnaye (Nora Gregor), who is married to wealthy aristocrat Marquis Robert de la Chesnaye (Marcel Dalio). Robert, however, has a mistress of his own, whom he invites to a weekend hunting party at his country home, along with André and his friend Octave (played by Jean Renoir himself). Meanwhile, the hired help have their own game of musical beds going on: a poacher is hired to work as a servant at the estate and immediately makes plans to seduce the gamekeeper's wife, while the gamekeeper recognizes him only as the man who's been trying to steal his rabbits. Among the upper classes, infidelity is not merely accepted but expected; codes are breached not by being unfaithful, but by lacking the courtesy to lie about it in public. The weekend ends in a tragedy that suggests that this way of life may soon be coming to an end. Renoir's witty, acidic screenplay makes none of the characters heroes or villains, and his graceful handling of his cast is well served by his visual style. He tells his story with long, uninterrupted takes using deep focus (cinematographer Jean Bachelet proves a worthy collaborator here), following the action with a subtle rhythm that never calls attention to itself. The sharply-cut hunting sequence makes clear that Renoir avoided more complex editing schemes by choice, believing that long takes created a more lifelike rhythm and reduced the manipulations of over-editing. Rules of the Game uses WWI as an allegory for WWII, and its representation of a vanishing way of life soon became all too true for Renoir himself, who, within a year of the film's release, was forced to leave Europe for the United States.. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Shanghai Drama was originally released in France in 1938 under the title Le Drame de Shanghai. Director G. W. Pabst, best known for the erotic classics Diary of a Lost Girl and Pandora's Box, seems artistically subdued in this standard tale of pre-WW2 intrigue. The villains are the Japanese, who inveigle a group of exiled White Russians to aid in the subjugation of China. Trapped in the web of deceit is nightclub chanteuse Kay (Christine Mardayne), whose efforts to break away from a sinister Black Dragon-like society are doomed to failure. The film's only ray of hope is manifested in the character of Kay's daughter Vera (Suzanne Dempers), who is afforded the opportunity to start life anew with journalist Franchon (Raymond Rouleau). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide