Charles Blavette Movies

In this drama of lost love, Therese (Alida Valli) is a woman who runs a café in Paris; she lost her husband when he disappeared sixteen years earlier, and, while time has healed some of her wounds, she's still a lonely person. One day, a tramp (Georges Wilson) passes by humming a familiar tune, and Therese is convinced that the vagabond is her husband. She follows him to his home, a tiny shack by the river, and tries to question him about his past. She discovers that the tramp suffers from amnesia and has no clear memory of his past. Therese brings him back to her cafe in hopes of jogging his memory and renewing the love they once knew. Une Aussi Longue Absence was well-received at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival, where it shared the Golden Palm with Luis Buñuel's very different Viridiana. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Jean Renoir never made any secret that Picnic on the Grass (Le Dejeuner sur L'Herbe) was inspired by the impressionist paintings of his father Auguste Renoir, and also of Edouard Monet. The near-surrealistic plotline concerns priggish US presidential candidate Paul Meurisse, who carries on a sterile, clinical courtship with Ingrid Nordine. Proposing that he and Nordine have an image-boosting "picnic on the grass", the scientifically-oriented Meurisse is distracted by the visceral charms of country girl Catherine Rouvel. Previously a strong advocate of "artificial sex", Meurisse changes his mind after dallying with the lusty Rouvel. Almost childlike in its approach to the material at hand, Picnic on the Grass is one of Renoir's most playful efforts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

French novelist-turned-film director Marcel Pagnol made this black and white feature in 1953, He later wrote a novel based on his original script, which in turn was the source material for two much better known films made by director Claude Berri in 1986 - - Jean de Florette and Berri's own version of Manon des sources. Released uncut for the first time in 1988, Pagnol' s feature has a hefty running time of over four and a half hours. The story concerns the efforts of the beautiful shepherdess Manon Cadoret (played by the director's wife Jacqueline Pagnol) to avenge the death of her father Jean de Florette. The chief culprit in that death is a hapless peasant (played by veteran Marseilles comic Rellys), who, sadly, is desperately in love with Manon. Manon's revenge involves cutting off the town's water supply, drawing the wrath of the villagers. Her only ally is the town's somewhat haughty schoolteacher (Raymond Pellegrin), who she eventually marries. The action of this film corresponds roughly to Berri's version of Manon des sources. His Jean de Florette focused on events surrounding the father's death, which is here covered mostly in dialogue. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Both controversial and compelling, this is the story of a naive peasant girl who becomes pregnant after being seduced by a shepherd and believes that she is carrying a specially blessed child. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

Following a three-year suspension from filmmaking after his Le Corbeau (1943) was judged too critical of his native France, director Henri-Georges Clouzot returned with this thriller that's equal parts crime drama and character study. Suzy Delair stars as Jenny Lamour, an ambitious music hall singer who wants to be a star and is willing to befriend the lecherous old men who ogle her act, inspiring the jealousy of Jenny's husband Maurice Martineau (Bernard Blier). One particular fan of Jenny's is a wealthy financial backer who extends repeated invitations to the entertainer to join him at fine restaurants and his expansive mansion. Armed with a gun, Maurice goes to the estate to confront his rival one night but discovers that the master of the house is already dead, his wife having smashed a bottle of champagne over his head to stave off a sexual advance. Soon, a gruff but dedicated detective, Inspector Antoine (Louis Jouvet) is on the case, with Maurice taking the heat for Jenny. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Originally filmed and released in 1941 as Remorques, this heavy-breathing French melodrama was distributed stateside in 1946 as Stormy Waters. The film was a typical Jean Gabin vehicle, replete with two-fisted action, star-crossed romance and intense emotional turbulence. Gabin plays Laurent, a salvage-boat captain who rescues a merchant vessel from a storm-tossed sea. The vessel's far-from-grateful captain (Jean Marchat) manages to skip without paying Laurent his salvage money, leaving behind his wife Catherine (Michele Morgan). Tending to Catherine's injuries until they reach port, Laurent falls in love with the woman, despite the fact that he is already married to the seriously ill Yvonne (Madeleine Renaud). It takes a lot of doing, but Laurent eventually ends his affair and allows his own wife to expire believing that he's been 100% faithful. An enormous success in France, Stormy Waters was picked up for American distribution by MGM, which surprisingly buried the film in its second-string houses. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Baker's Wife (La Femme de Boulanger), though based on a novel by Jean Giono, was specially tailored by writer/director Marcel Pagnol for the talents of the incomparable Raimu. The star plays the new baker in the French community of Provence. One of Raimu's first customers is shepherd Charles Moulin, who is immediately smitten by the middle-aged baker's young, toothsome wife Ginette LeClerc. In short order, Ginette runs off with Moulin, a turn of events that the stubborn Raimu refuses to acknowledge. As he grows more taciturn, he neglects his work, and soon the whole village anxiously awaits the wife's return, else they'll never see another loaf of bread. The local Marquis (Charpin) takes matters in hand by leading the townsfolk in a search party for the wayward wife. The charms of The Baker's Wife are both captivating and fragile; an attempt in 1976 to turn the property into a Broadway musical proved the fragility by ignoring the charm. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Director Jean Renoir returns to the "people of the soil" of his previous Toni in People of France! (originally La Vie est a nous, or A Life for Us). Using a cast of nonprofessionals, Renoir pontificates on the dehumanization of the capitalist system. The film opens as a group of schoolchildren come across the fact that France is controlled by 200 wealthy families. As the kids put together a scrapbook detailing the lives of these movers and shakers, Renoir cuts away to the emotional damage wrought both intentionally and unintentionally by the insensitivity of the Elite. Not surprisingly, the film concludes with a rally of the French Communist Party. People of France! was in fact financed by the communists, a fact Renoir attributed to his eagerness during this period to work with anyone who espoused an anti-Nazi viewpoint (he also effectively disowned the picture, insisting that while he physically directed it, he really had nothing to do with it creatively). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

French writer/director Marcel Pagnol didn't do much editing when he transferred Jean Glono's excessively long novel Angele to film. Orane Demaziz plays the title role, an innocent country girl who becomes a Parisian streetwalker thanks to a smooth-talking pimp. Angele's father fetches her back to the farm, forcibly locking the girl and her newborn baby in his cellar. Her faithful rustic boyfriend rescues Angele, and together the two attempt to escape for a new life. But Angele still loves her father and returns home, whereupon daddy does an about-face and welcomes her with open arms. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide