Maurice Sarfati Movies
In this wartime melodrama, Lieutenant Colonel Raspeguy (Anthony Quinn) is a French peasant who has worked his way up the military ladder during the French involvement in Indochina. Sent to Algeria, Raspeguy must mold a group of raw recruits into a competent fighting unit. He calls on Esclavier (Alain Delon), his sensitive assistant who eventually deserts the military out of frustration over the pointlessness of war. Raspeguy's other assistant is Boisfeuras (Maurice Ronet), the affable officer whose outside demeanor hides the heart of a vicious killer who loves the bloodlust of battle. Raspeguy takes up with Countess De Clairefons (Michele Morgan), the widow of a respected general. She promises Raspeguy she will marry him if he comes back from the conflict as a general. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Quinn, Alain Delon, (more)
- 1963
An ex-convict struggles to survive by brute force alone in a turn-of-the-century slum in Bucharest. Codine (Alexandre Virgil Platon) is the thug who served 10 years for murdering a friend. He returns home to his miserly mother, whose penny-pinching ways infuriate her son. A young boy looks up to Codine, and through the man's eyes he sees the economic and social injustices from an adult perspective. When Codine kills another man who violated his trust, his mother becomes more unhinged and paranoid. Thinking her son will steal her hoarded money, she plots to kill her only son. The impressionable child watches in horror and amazement at the cruel machinations of the adult work that surrounds him. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Françoise Brion, Nelly Borgeaud, (more)
- 1962
This is a story that is less a developed tale than a thumbnail sketch about imaginary events on a kibbutz in Palestine. Set in the period just before Israel gained its status as an independent nation, the drama shows the occupants of the kibbutz engaged in typical hard work. They have to find a source of water, construct their buildings, and do all the chores needed to stay alive, and these pressures as well as the times in which they live cause tensions to rise. The mix of kibbutzim covers a wide range of personality types, from the deeply religious to the ingrained soldier. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pascale Audret, Jacques Riberolles, (more)
- 1962
This uneven drama by Argentine director Leopoldo Torre-Nilsson, co-scripted with his wife Beatrice Guido, focuses on the problem of accepting unpleasant truths -- or not. Four women have suffered the loss of their missionary husbands at the hands of some Native Americans along the Amazon. Now the four are making a pilgrimage to the site of the murders to pay homage to their spouses and participate in a reunion of various church groups. A journalist tags along for the story and interviews each woman in turn in order to gather background on their husbands. But when someone shows up who witnessed the deaths, the truth sends one grieving wife over the edge. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maurice Sarfati, Alida Valli, (more)
- 1959
The two romantic leads in this standard but well-acted political drama renew a famous pairing that began with The King and I in 1956. Deborah Kerr is Lady Diana Ashmore, caught at the wrong side of the Hungarian-Austrian border in 1956, and Yul Brynner is Major Surov, a Russian commander who works at the border crossing. With the outbreak of the 1956 rebellion, the Budapest airport is shut down and Diana, along with other international travellers, are forced to reach Vienna by bus. Along for the ride is one of the Hungarian dissenters hunted by the police, Paul (Jason Robards, Jr. in his screen debut). Diana and Paul are in love and she is determined to protect his secret. Major Surov suspects a rebel is hidden on the bus, but he does not know which passenger is the guilty one. As interaction continues at the border, Diana is attracted to the Major and his complex character, even against her will. Their developing relationship and strong personalities carry the story from start to finish. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yul Brynner, Deborah Kerr, (more)
- 1958
The heroine in L'Eau Vive is the unwilling heir to a fortune. Young Hortense (Pascale Audret) has always known that her family was greedy, but until she inherits her father's hidden millions she has no idea how loathsome her relatives could be. Surrounded on all sides by grubby, outstretched hands, Hortense takes some comfort in the fact that her legacy is still missing. When the money is finally recovered, our heroine does the "right thing" with her windfall, leaving her mercenary family empty-handed. Throughout the film, Hortense's dilemma is likened to a government dam project not far from her home; as the bridge grows in size, so too does Hortense's resolve to rise above the nastiness all around her. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pascale Audret, Charles Blavette, (more)
Better known as The Hunchback of Notre Dame, this opulent French production is the second talkie version of Victor Hugo's famous novel. Buried under mounds of latex, Anthony Quinn does his best as the deformed bellringer Quasimodo, though he comes off more as a punchdrunk ex-pug than a literal interpretation of Hugo's tragic protagonist. Somewhat more effective within the film's framework is Gina Lollobrigida as gypsy dancing girl Esmerelda, whose friendship with Quasimodo motivates the story. As in previous adaptations of the Hugo novel, the villain Frolio (Alain Cluny), originally a priest, is given a less-controversial station in life: in this case, he is an alchemist rather than a man of the cloth. Otherwise, Notre Dame de Paris is one of the more faithful renditions of the original novel, even unto retaining Hugo's unhappy ending. When first released in the U.S. by Allied Artists, the film was titled Hunchback of Paris, to avoid a copyright conflict with RKO's 1939 adaptation of Hunchback of Notre Dame. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gina Lollobrigida, Anthony Quinn, (more)
