Gérard Philipe Movies
If it is true that Gerard Philipe entertained thoughts of becoming a physician, he'd purged himself of such notions before his teen years were over. After studying acting in his native Cannes with Jean Wall and Jean Huet, Philipe was discovered for the stage by veteran performer Claude Dauphin. Philipe's first theatrical success, at age 20, was the title role in Camus' Caligula. In 1947, after a few negligible movie roles, he exploded upon the European film scene in Autant-Lara's Le Diable a Corps, playing Francois Jaubert, a callow youth in love with much-older and very married Micheline Presle. Superstardom followed almost immediately: female filmgoers doted upon Philipe's sensitive, handsome features and strapping physique, while men identified with his soulfulness and introspection. Far more versatile than your average romantic lead ("Whenever you thought he had reached his limit, there was still more," enthused director Rene Clair), Philipe contributed a wealth of highly varied film characterizations: Faust in Beauty and the Devil (1950), the tongue-in-cheek titular swashbuckler in Fanfan the Tulip (1952), the artist Modigliani in Montparnasse 19 (1957), and so on. And let us not overlook Philipe's inspired performances as the hedonistically ambitious antiheroes in the Stendhal adaptations La Chartreuse de Parme (1947) and The Red and the Black (1954). In 1956, Phillipe both directed and starred in a filmization of the old folk tale Till Eulenspiegel. While working on Bunuel's Le Fievre Monte a El Pao (1959), Philipe either succumbed to cancer or was stricken by a fatal heart attack; he was one week shy of his 37th birthday. Like Rudolph Valentino, Jean Harlow and James Dean before him, Phillipe passed from the scene at the peak of his popularity and with his legend intact. In 1961, his image was used on a French commemorative stamp--an honor hitherto bestowed upon only one other actor, the immortal Raimu. Gerard Philipe's widow Anne has written two memoirs of her husband's life: Souvenirs (1960), No Longer Than a Sigh (1964). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1949
Some film historians regard Yves Allegret's Une si Jolie Petite Plage (aka Such a Pretty Little Beach and Riptide) as the French director's finest work. Yet, it was twice ignored by American filmgoers when it was released in the U.S. in February and July of 1949. Perhaps those filmgoers weren't prepared for Allegret's merciless, almost sadistic assault on audience sensibilities. Gerard Phillipe plays Pierre, who escapes to a coastal village in Northern France after accidentally killing a famous singer. Pierre had grown up in the village and had hoped to find inner peace by returning to his roots. Instead, the grotesque pettiness of the local townsfolk, the duplicity of friends and "loved ones," and the relentlessly rotten weather conjoin to drive Pierre to desperation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gérard Philipe, Madeleine Robinson, (more)
French filmmaker Christian-Jaque directs the 1948 melodrama La Chartreuse de Parme. Gérard Philipe plays the Marquis Fabrice del Dongo, a member of the clergy who chooses love over the church. Unfortunately, this sets off a lot a problems for both him and his sweetheart, the Dutchess Gina de San Servina (Maria Casarés). The original musical score is by Renzo Rossellini. This black-and-white film won the best cinematography award at the 1948 Locarno Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gérard Philipe, Renée Faure, (more)
- 1947
Released in France as Le Diable au Corps, The Devil in the Flesh stars Micheline Presle as a nurse at a French military hospital during World War I. Gerard Philipe costars as a high school student who carries a torch for the older Presle. Under pressure from her parents to marry, Presle begins an affair with the boy, but gives up on him when he proves to be far too immature and jealous for her tastes. After a deliberately inconsiderate act on Philipe's part, Presle opts for a loveless marriage with a soldier who is about to head for the front. When Philipe selfishly reenters her life, she resumes the affair, becoming pregnant by the boy. The end result of Philipe's callous behavior is tragedy for all concerned. The Devil in the Flesh is based on a semi-autobiographical novel by Raymond Radiguet, who died of typhoid fever at the age of 20. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Micheline Presle, Gérard Philipe, (more)
- 1946
This is just a casual observation, but it's highly possible that more film adaptations of the works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky were made in France than in Russia. In 1946 there appeared a faithful (if by necessity truncated) French version of the Russian novelist's The Idiot. Gerard Philipe plays the title character, Russian prince Myshkin, who returns to St. Petersburg after a stay in a Swiss mental hospital. The Prince is not literally a mental midget; he is considered an idiot because, as an honest and upright person, he cannot keep pace with the evil in the world. He busies himself with the petty problems of his aristocratic friends, which drive him back into the recesses of insanity. Edwige Feuillere costars as Nastasia, the woman of loose morals who turns out to be the only person who truly cares about Myshkin's welfare, while Lucien Coedel plays the nominal villain of the piece, an iconoclastic flour merchant named Rogozhin, whose passion for Nastasia culminates in tragedy. L'Idiot was remade in Japan by Akira Kurosawa in 1951, and in Russia in 1959. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gérard Philipe, Edwige Feuillère, (more)
- 1945
Having been forced to put his directorial career on hold during WWII, Georges Lacombe returned to the screen with Le Pays Sans Etoilles (Land Without Stars). Based on a novel by Pierre Vary, the film utilizes the old gimmick of featuring the same cast of characters in two different parallel-development stories. The protagonists weather a crisis in contemporary times, then undergo much the same experiences as different characters a hundred years earlier. The flashback-within-flashback structure would seem to be inspired by such American films as Citizen Kane and Passage to Marseilles, though neither film was in general distribution in France during the war years. Le Pays Sans Etoilles was released at the same time as Etoile Sans Lumiere (Star without Light), leading some critics to confuse the two films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jany Holt, Pierre Brasseur, (more)
