Jacques Sernas Movies
As a child, Lithuanian-born Jacques Sernas was brought to Paris, where he received his formal education. Active in the French Resistance during the war, Sernas was captured by the Nazis, then endured a harrowing year as an inmate at Buchenwald. After the war, Sernas pursued a career as a journalist (after dropping plans to enter medicine), but was sidetracked into film acting. He made his first film, Miroir, in 1946, and quickly rose to leading-man status. Efforts in the mid-'50s to convert him into an assembly line Hollywood movie star resulted in such lukewarm efforts as Helen of Troy (1955) and Jump into Hell (1956). He returned to Europe, where his mastery of four languages enabled him to thrive as a much in-demand character actor. His career peaked with his performance as a has-been film idol in La Dolce Vita (1961). Jacques Sernas has spent the last three decades living and working in Rome. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1949
Barely seen in the US at the time of its release, the Italian Lure of the Sila (IL Lupo Della Sila) became a television mainstay in the 1960s. Vittorio Gassman plays a man whose life is ruined when he is accused of murder. Gassman's tragedy is broadcast throughout Italy, "glorified" in song and story. Forced to assume a new identity, Gassman's sister Silvana Magnano quietly plans her revenge. It's best to see Lure of the Sila in an uncut, subtitled version; the dialogue in the 72-minute English-dubbed version is downright puerile at times, totally unworthy of this compelling melodrama. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Silvana Mangano, Amedeo Nazzari, (more)
- 1949
The Italian The Sky is Red (Il Cielo e Rosso) details the romantic adventures of two postwar couples. Despite being confined to a quarantined zone (quarantined for political, rather than health reasons), love finds a way. The neorealistic elements are passable, but what really "sold" this film abroad was its graphic-for-its-times sexual content. The cast is headed by Jacques Sernas and Marina Berti, another step in the right direction box office-wise. One of the young romeos is played by Mischa Auer Jr., son of the famed Russian comic actor. Among the many screenwriters of The Sky is Red is frequent De Sica and Fellini collaborator Cesare Zavattini. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marina Berti, Jacques Sernas, (more)
- 1949
Il Mulino del Po was based on a novel by Riccardo Baccheli. Essentially an elaborate retelling of the old one about a pair of young lovers kept separated by family rivalries, the film is distinguished by its evocative location photography and tight, mathematically precise editing. Director Alberto Lattuada also manages to insert what one historian has labelled his "progressive ideology" into the proceedings. The romantic plotline is placed in context within the events leading up to the famous Po Valley farmers' strike of 1876; characteristically, Lattuada offers a topical political slant to the facts at hand. As in his other neorealist exercises, Lattuada manages to bridge the gap between "art" and box-office appeal in Il Mulino del Po. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carla Del Poggio, Jacques Sernas, (more)
