Dorothée Blanc Movies
- 1987
Roger Coggio wrote, directed and starred in this black comedy. The sexual frustration and social climbing of a lowly clerk from St. Petersburg leads to sensual sensory overload and insanity. He suffers from erotic hallucinations and Freudian imagery to the point that he must be institutionalized. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roger Coggio, Dorothée Blanc, (more)
- 1969
- R
In this drama, framed by the student unrest in Prague during the late '60s, a politically active French sociology student marries a drama student, but ends up falling for a French-language professor, who shares her philosophy and eventually her bed while studying abroad. Things go well, until he learns her marital status. She then returns to Paris to ask for a divorce. But her husband, deeply wounded, refuses to grant her one, and so she again returns to Paris to seek out her lover. Unfortunately things have changed between them. He is now beginning to support the government she strongly opposes. She calls her husband in Paris to reconcile, but alas, it is too late, as his acting career is taking off and he does not want a wife to hinder him. Meanwhile, there is a student uprising in France. She finally accepts the fact that her new lover and she will never agree, and she returns to join the other French rebels. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Thalie Fruges, Vit Olmer, (more)
Jacques Demy directed this frothy tribute to the Hollywood musicals of the 1940s, a follow-up to his earlier success The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964). Twin sisters Delphine and Solange (played by real-life sisters Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorleac) live in the small coastal town of Rochefort, where they run a school teaching dancing and music. Both feel frustrated in Rochefort, and they dream of travelling to Paris, where they believe romance and opportunity awaits them. Meanwhile, their single mother, Yvonne (Danielle Darrieux), who runs a cafe in town, pines for her lost love, Simon (Michel Piccoli). One day, one of Yvonne's regular customers, a sailor with an artistic bent named Maxence (Jacques Perrin), shows her a painting of the imaginary girl of his dreams, and she looks just like Delphine, whom he's never met. Meanwhile, Simon has returned to Rochefort, bringing with him a close friend, American pianist Andy Miller (Gene Kelly); Simon has made friends with Solange and introduces her to Andy, who immediately falls in love with her. Sadly, Les Demoiselles de Rochefort was Françoise Dorleac's last film; she died in an auto accident shortly after completing the picture. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Catherine Deneuve, George Chakiris, (more)
- 1965
It is only with some reluctance that big-time hood Alphonse (Lino Ventura) allows himself to be persuaded that a major painting-theft planned by some formerly small-time gangsters is a good idea. He gives the idea his backing and support and winds up holding the bag for the crime as the others escape. On emerging from prison, he wreaks havoc on his betrayers, until a pretty girl stops him in his tracks. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lino Ventura, Charles Aznavour, (more)
Jacques Demy's 1964 masterpiece is a pop-art opera, or, to borrow the director's own description, a film in song. This simple romantic tragedy begins in 1957. Guy Foucher (Nino Castelnuovo), a 20-year-old French auto mechanic, has fallen in love with 17-year-old Geneviève Emery (a luminous Catherine Deneuve), an employee in her widowed mother's chic but financially embattled umbrella shop. On the evening before Guy is to leave for a two-year tour of combat in Algeria, he and Geneviève make love. She becomes pregnant and must choose between waiting for Guy's return or accepting an offer of marriage from a wealthy diamond merchant (Marc Michel, reprising his role from Demy's masterful debut, Lola). A completely sung movie, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is closest in form to a cinematic opera. Composer Michel Legrand composed the score, modeling it around the patterns of everyday conversation. Umbrellas was re-released in 1997. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Catherine Deneuve, Nino Castelnuovo, (more)
- 1963
The "vice and virtue" of the title of this wartime drama directed by Roger Vadim are exemplified in the personae of two very attractive women: Juliette (Annie Girardot) and Justine (Catherine Deneuve). Juliette is a collaborator and Justine supports the resistance movement, yet when her husband is arrested on her wedding day, she goes to Juliette to ask for help. That simple plan is nixed by a series of unfortunate circumstances that send Justine to a brothel for German soldiers and make Juliette the mistress of a brutal Nazi officer. The symbolism in this tale harks back to two stories by the Marquis de Sade, one titled "Juliette" and the other, "Justine." Vadim seems to have been caught between creating symbolic characters versus creating believable women since as the story unfolds, Juliette is not exactly vice incarnate, nor is Justine a model of pristine virtue. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Annie Girardot, Robert Hossein, (more)
Cleo From 5 to 7 (Cleo de cinq a sept), per its title, concentrates on two hours in the life of a woman. Those hours are desperate ones, in that Cleo, a pop singer, awaits the results of her tests for cancer. Director Agnes Varda stages the film in "real" rather than subjective time, its various episodes divided into chapters, using significant Tarot cards. During the allotted time, Cleo visits her friends, tries to sing her worries away, spends money, and cries. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Corinne Marchand, Antoine Bourseiller, (more)
Jacques Demy's auspicious debut -- "a musical without music" set in the port city of Nantes -- stars Anouk Aimée as the title character, a cabaret singer awaiting the return of Michel (Jacques Hardin), her long-absent lover and the father of her child. Michel went to America seven years ago and promised to return when he became rich. In Michel's absence, Lola is being courted by her childhood friend Roland (Marc Michel) and American sailor Frankie (Allan Scott). At some point, it seems that Lola will settle down with one of them, but her heart still belongs to Michel. The film is dedicated to Max Ophüls and the film title obviously alludes to Ophüls' Lola Montes as well as to the heroine of Josef Von Sternberg's The Blue Angel. Marc Michel makes a reference to his unrequited love towards Lola when he reappears in Demy's The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964). ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anouk Aimée, Marc Michel, (more)
