Alexandre Rignault Movies
French actor Alexandre Rignault began his long screen career working with filmmaker Julien Duvivier in the 1932 film La Tete D'Un Homme. Prior to that, he had been a stage actor. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1937
Courier Sud (Southern Carrier) dramatizes the exploits of a French commercial airline, making the treacherous run from Paris to Africa and back. Much of the drama takes place on solid ground, as pilot Jacques (Pierre Richard-Willm) tries to rekindle a romance with old flame Genevieve (Jany Holt), now married to a prominent foreign ambassador (Charles Vanel). Planning a illicit tryst with Genevieve, Jacques persuades his pal Hubert (Alexandre Rignault) to substitute for him during the weekly flight to Africa. Sure enough, Hubert crash-lands in the desert, forcing a guilt-stricken Jacques to vainly attempt a rescue. To make a long story short, those left alive do not live happily ever after. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Vanel, Jany Holt, (more)
- 1935
This French filmization of Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment stars Pierre Blanchar as sociopathic student Raskolnikov and Harry Baur as humanist detective Porfiry. Believing himself intellectually above the law, Raskolnikov kills a despicable old shopkeeper. He is certain that he has no conscience to bother him, but he is eventually forced to confront himself by the kindly but diligent Porfiry. The like-vintage Hollywood version of Crime and Punishment ended with Raskolnikov's surrender. The French version (original title: Crime et Chatiment) adheres to the original novel, detailing the student's lifelong search for forgiveness after he is released from prison. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harry Baur, Pierre Blanchar, (more)
- 1968
An expensive collaboration between Radio-Canada and similar broadcast operations in France, Belgium, and Switzerland, the weekly CBC historical drama D'Iberville was one of the few French-language programs to be telecast over the Canadian network's English-language service. Albert Millaire headed the large and distinguished cast (175 speaking parts!) as Pierre Lemoyne, aka Sieur d'Iberville, eminent 17th century Canadian soldier, naval commander, explorer, and patriot. Despite his preoccupation with matters of war and the inner workings of the Hudson's Bay company, Lemoyne found ample time for romance with several French-Canadian beauties. Although the CBC was predominantly a black-and-white TV service when the series was produced, D'Iberville was lensed in color, in hopes of future international rerun sales. Following a documentary about the making of the series, which aired on August 7, 1967, the 39-week D'Iberville aired on Monday afternoons from October 7, 1968 to June 23, 1969, then was retelecast in 1970. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1936
In this comedy that takes a sharp poke at problems within the medical profession, Dr. Knock opens a practice in a small village. He buys it from a conniving old physician who thinks he really duped the earnest young medic. The young doc is not so easily fooled. Using a wide variety of modern equipment and fancy doctor talk, he soon scares the ignorant villagers into believing that they are all very sick with a wide assortment of strange illnesses. His ruse works and soon his practice is booming. The old doc is shocked. He returns to the village to expose the young quack. Unfortunately after listening to the silver-tongued medic, the older man is convinced that he too is terribly ill. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louis Jouvet, Palau, (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)
- 1983
In this plodding drama about a man searching for his friend's wronged lover, there is neither high action nor high suspense to keep -- or even reach -- a quick-paced storyline. A shallow womanizer (Jean Rochefort) plays the trumpet in an orchestra conducted by his steady and stable friend (Philippe Noiret). One day a woman bursts into the womanizer's dressing room and tries to shoot him down for what he did to her sister. As he goes into hiding for his own safety, he asks the orchestra leader to find out who he wronged, and try to help him correct the problem. The rest of the film concerns that search, and its resolution. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Philippe Noiret, Jean Rochefort, (more)
- 1943
Eternal Return (L'Eternel Retour) translates the Tristan and Isolde legend into contemporary (e.g. 1939) terms. The Tristan counterpart, Patrice (Jean Marais), falls in love with the modern-day Isolde, named Nathalie. Actually he has fallen for two Nathalies: when Nathalie I (Madeleine Sologne) spurns his offer of marriage, he turns his attentions to Nathalie II (Junie Astor). Still carrying a torch for Nathalie I, Patrice attempts a nocturnal rendezvous with his true love on the eve of his wedding. Because of a tragic blunder, Patrice and Nathalie I are reunited only in death. The dream-like quality of Eternal Return is due more to the input of screenwriter Jean Cocteau than director Jean Delannoy. The film, with its mystical trappings and ethereal performances, can now be viewed as a precursor to Cocteau's own Beauty and the Beast. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Marais, Madeleine Sologne, (more)
- 1982
Alain Tescique (Jean Rochefort) is in Paris on a brief vacation from his job on a North Sea oil rig, and while he is playing around with a ham radio set he bought for his son, he picks up some suspicious conversations in a neighboring apartment. After some more eavesdropping, he hears about an important rendezvous and then manages to steal a coded message that seems to be about an imminent assassination. His worries increase when the couple in the nearby apartment are found murdered, and their assassin is described as someone who looks just like himself. Although he is upset and indecisive, his fears are assuaged by Daniel, the neighbor across from him (Jean-Pierre Marielle) and Beatrice (Dominique Sanda), a new romantic interest he met by accident. What he does not know is that Beatrice and Daniel were planted by an underground organization to get their hands on the coded document and force him into suicide. Without knowing it, his situation is much worse than what he had imagined and it seems like only a miracle can save him now. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Rochefort, Dominique Sanda, (more)
- 1933
L'Odonnance (The Orderly) is based on the Guy de Maupassant story of the same name. After the sudden and unexpected suicide of his wife Helene (Marcelle Chantal), a grief-stricken Colonel (Jean Worms) comes into possession of a letter left behind by his wife. In flashback, the audience is apprised of the events leading up to Helene's demise. It seems that in the Colonel's absence, Helene entered into a brief affair with a young lieutenant (Claude Lehmann). This indiscretion was witnessed by Phillipe (Alexandre Rignault), the Colonel's orderly, who demands a great deal of money to keep his mouth shut. Phillipe's villainy reaches its summit when he takes advantage of the lieutenant's absence by offering himself as Helene's lover -- again threatening to reveal all to the Colonel if Helene does not accede to his wishes. Unable to withstand the shame, Helene drowns herself. Upon being apprised of all the facts, the Colonel takes matters in his own hands, bringing Philippe's blackmailing career to a violent end. L'Odonnance was a remake of a 1921 film, also directed by Victor Tourjansky. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marcelle Chantal, Paulette Dubost, (more)
- 1931
Jean Renoir's first sound film was a bitter and highly controversial psychological drama, so controversial that it was never shown in the United States until 1975, 44 years after its original French release. Maurice (Michel Simon) is a meek bank clerk trapped in a marriage with a harridan named Adele (Magdelaine Berubet). Maurice's sole pleasure in life is painting, a hobby he avidly pursues on weekends. One day, Maurice sees a woman on the street being beaten by a man; he steps in to rescue her, and strikes up a friendship with her. Maurice soon falls in love with Lulu (Janie Pelletier), unaware that she's a prostitute and that the man who was beating her is her pimp, Dede (Georges Flamant). Lulu admires Maurice's paintings, and he gives her several canvases; Lulu and Dede then invent an American artist named Clara Wood and place Clara's signature on Maurice's works before selling them to an art dealer, who is quite impressed. Maurice keeps giving money and artwork to Lulu, forgiving her even after he finds out that she's been selling paintings by "Clara Wood" that are earning high prices and enthusiastic reviews. However, Maurice is unaware that Lulu's a streetwalker or that she truly loves Dede until he catches the two in bed together; eventually, love leads to jealous violence and a tragic conclusion. While Pelletier gave a remarkable performance in La Chienne, she was unable to enjoy the film's wide acclaim; she died in an auto accident only a few weeks after shooting was completed. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Simon, Janie Mareze, (more)
- 1937
The Citadel of Silence is set in Poland in the years just before WWI. Involved in an abortive insurrection against the occupying Russians, hero Cesar Birsky (Bernard Lancret) is sentenced to a prison where the inmates are never permitted to speak (hence the film's title). Birsky's sweetheart Viana (Annabella) is so anxious to stay close to her lover that she is willing to become the bride of the prison commandant (Pierre Renoir). All loose plot ends are tied up when Birsky spearheads a mass escape from the Citadel of Silence. It is likely that this entertaining but unremarkable film might never have been released in the U.S. had it not been for the recent marriage of its leading lady Annabella to Hollywood's Tyrone Power. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierre Renoir, Annabella, (more)
- 1952
Holiday for Henrietta (originally released in 1952 as La Fete a Henriette) is a Pirandellian comedy about the art of moviemaking. Louis Seigner and Henri Cremieux play a team of screenwriters whose latest project is stuck in a mire of indecision. Should fictional heroine Henriette (Dany Robin) be permitted a happy ending as the romantic Seigner insists, or suffer an unhappy one as "film noir" specialist Cremieux demands? While the screenwriters hash out their contrasting points of view, we see a film-within-a-film, dramatizing the formulating screenplay and its abrupt changes of mood and direction. Finally reaching a compromise, the writers are interrupted by one of the actors in their imaginary movie, who informs them that their "original" plot has already been filmed! When Hollywood got hold of Holiday for Henrietta, it pumped up this modest project into a bloated star vehicle for Audrey Hepburn and William Holden, titled Paris When It Sizzles (63). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Auclair, Dany Robin, (more)
- 1936
One of the earliest French color films, La Terre qui Meurt (The Land That Dies) tells the story of farmer Luminau (Pierre Larquey) and his restless offspring. Hoping to keep his sons and daughters home with him so that they can eventually take over his farm, Luminau is both angered and disillusioned when they leave him one by one. The story then goes off in several tangents, detailing the hardships (and occasional triumphs) facing Luminau's progeny as they assert their independence. The most tragic of the subplots concerns the farmer's daughter Felicite (Germaine Sablon), who is ultimately forced into a life of prostitution. The Francia Color process tends to blur the images, but nothing can dull the edge of the film's poignancy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Line Noro, Simone Bourday, (more)
- 1938
Made in France with an international cast, Le Puritan was scripted by, of all people, Irish poet-dramatist Liam O'Flaherty. Jean-Louis Barrault plays Ferriter, the "puritan" of the title, whose warped sense of justice is second only to his paranoia. When he is spurned by the woman he loves, Ferriter kills her, convinced that "justice" has been served. He then squanders his family's money on liquor, wandering from one gin mill to another to "explain" his actions. Everyone considers Ferrier a harmless eccentric, but eventually he spills too much to the wrong person and is thrown in jail. Even as the cell door closes on him, Ferrier is triumphant, convinced that his perverse brand of justice absolves him of all his sins. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Louis Barrault, Viviane Romance, (more)
- 1953
Retour de Don Camillo (The Return of Don Camillo) is the sequel to the internationally popular French comedy The Little World of Don Camillo. Fernandel returns as the title character, a resourceful, pugnacious Italian village priest. Because of his previous run-ins with communist mayor Peppone (Gino Cervi), Don Camillo is sent to another parish by the Church. Soon, however, all the villagers -- Peppone included -- realize that the priest is indispensable, and they demand his return. In one of the film's funniest moments, an elderly citizen steadfastly refuses to die until Don Camillo administers last rites. Like its predecessor, Retour de Don Camillo is based on a novel by Givoanni Guareschi -- and, also like the earlier film, Retour was a worldwide hit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernandel, Gino Cervi, (more)
