Alexandra Stewart Movies
Canadian leading lady Alexandra Stewart studied acting in Paris, where she launched her film career in 1958's Les Monards. An intriguing combination of high intelligence and earthy sensuality, Alexandra quickly became a favorite amongst the New Wave directors of the 1960s. She may well be the only actress who can boast of having been directed by Francois Truffaut (The Bride Wore Black, Day for Night), Roger Vadim (Les Liaisons Dangereuse), Otto Preminger (Exodus), Arthur Penn (Mickey One), and the artist formerly known as Prince (Under a Cherry Moon). On television, Alexandra Stewart was seen in the miniseries Mistral's Daughter (1984) and Sins (1986). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1960
Talented actress and writer Simone Signoret carries this drama about an emotionally deteriorating woman, Roberta, who tries everything she can to win back the affection and interest of her husband, Milan (Reginald Kernan). Milan is a moody race-car driver who is now retired, living with Roberta, married for ten years, and intent on writing his memoirs. Too much togetherness has the couple sniping at each other, so when an attractive young woman joins them for awhile, Roberta eventually sees her as a chance to improve her marriage. Already declining in heavy bouts with the bottle, Roberta thinks that the young woman could awaken her husband's interest in intimacy -- and therefore in Roberta herself. As might be expected, this convoluted and risky plan backfires in the worst possible way. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Simone Signoret, Reginald Kernan, (more)
- 1960
In this drama, two lifelong buddies find their friendship tested when one of them hits the road after being accused of murder. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Paul Belmondo, Alexandra Stewart, (more)
- 1960
Gordon Scott's fifth and last appearance as Tarzan came in this 1960 installment of the long-running movie series featuring the adventures of the legendary ape man. Neither Jane nor son Boy appear in the film. Tarzan is hired to escort a hardened criminal, Coy Banton (Jock Mahoney), through the jungle so that he can be turned over to the police. Also in the party are a group of British visitors including Ames (Lionel Jeffries), whose wife Fay (Betta St. John) falls in love with the prisoner Banton. Tarzan must stop the jungle party from fighting amongst themselves. After this film, Mahoney replaced Scott as Tarzan in subsequent movies, while Scott made several Italian movies playing the role of Hercules. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gordon Scott, Betta St. John, (more)
Produced and directed by Otto Preminger, Exodus is a 212-minute screen adaptation of the best-selling novel by Leon Uris. The film is concerned with the emergence of Israel as an independent nation in 1947. Its first half focuses on the efforts of 611 holocaust survivors to defy the blockade of the occupying British government and sail to Palestine on the sea vessel Exodus. Paul Newman, a leader of the Hagannah (the Jewish underground), is willing to sacrifice his own life and the lives of the refugees rather than be turned back to war-ravaged Europe, but the British finally relent and allow the Exodus safe passage. Once this victory is assured, 30,000 more Jews, previously interned by the British, flood into the Holy Land. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Newman, Eva Marie Saint, (more)
- 1960
In this standard comedy of sex and odd manners, a few men and women converge on a picturesque chateau for the reading of a will and then start pairing off. One of the women lives with her successful photographer-boyfriend, and she arrives at the chateau because she is supposed to have inherited something. Before too long, she has fallen for the lawyer reading the will. In the meantime, her boyfriend arrives in the guise of her brother, and he is attracted in a big way to his girlfriend's cousin. So while she goes after the lawyer, he is occupied with his own pursuits. The maid in the chateau, in turn, is undecided about whether to accept the romantic overtures of a young valet. There are a few potholes in these roads to romance, but given the tone of the proceedings they are not likely to cause serious damage. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bernadette Lafont, Françoise Brion, (more)
- 1960
A routine, wordy romantic drama about far-from-routine relationships, this tale by Pierre Kast looks at the personalities and love life of two couples. One couple is comprised of a writer and his wife, the writer being egocentric and out of inspiration after his one good novel. His wife is occupied with her own obsessions. The other couple is formed by a young diplomat and his tough, hard-nosed spouse. No one is faithful. As the foursome interact with each other, one of the women ends up with both of the men, and the remaining wife gets her husband's land for herself. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Françoise Arnoul, Daniel Gélin, (more)
- 1961
Transference of guilt, a theme near and dear to the heart of French author Georges Simenon, forms the basis of Passion of Slow Fire, adapted from Simenon's novel La Mort de Belle. American student Alexandra Stewart completing her education in France, turns up murdered. The prime suspect is professor Jean Desailly, inasmuch as Stewart was residing with Desailly and his wife Monique Melinard. While the professor is innocent, the impact of the tragedy causes him to kick over the traces, acquire a mistress, and ultimately kill her. Passion of Slow Fire was also released as The End of Belle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Desailly, Alexandra Stewart, (more)
- 1961
Eddie Constantine stars as Napo in this situation comedy. Napo has inherited the care of an old, run-down house from an elderly gentleman. On one of his many adventures, he secures the services of a young but experienced auto mechanic. The two proceed to build a drag strip on the property, as Napo helps the young mechanic with his education. But they both have eyes for a pretty French girl and battle for her affections while fighting some underhanded real estate developers who covet the rebuilt property. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Constantine, Alexandra Stewart, (more)
- 1962
In this convoluted drama, a young woman and two cousins, whom she doesn't know, find that they are named as beneficiaries in their grandmother's will. The young woman, because she's never met them, mistakes a friend of her cousin, for her cousin. Meanwhile a maid begins sleeping with the butler, and the woman's real cousin falls in love with the lawyer. When the real cousin gets there, the mix-up is resolved. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1962
RoGoPaG is an omnibus of short films by Roberto Rossellini, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Ugo Gregoretti and Jean- Luc Godard. Each episode is introduced by a quotation from the Bible which the episode illustrates with a fiction of contemporary life. Rossellini's film, "Illibatezza" ("Virginity"), is the tale of Anna-Maria Rosanna Schiaffino, a beautiful, demure stewardess courted by Joe, an American businessman on a trip to Bangkok. Pasolini's film, "La Ricotta" ("Ricotta Cheese"), concerns a film crew shooting the passion of Christ. The film's director, played by Orson Welles, gives a hilarious interview to a journalist who comes on the set. The scenes from the passion are shot as recreations of renaissance paintings and the landscapes are filled with beautiful boys. Godard's "Il Nuovo Mondo" ("The New World") follows a couple, played by Jean-Marc Bory and Alexandra Stewart, whose relationship ends just after an atomic bomb is exploded high over Paris. The film uses the Paris of the early 1960s as the city of some indefinite future, a technique Godard would use again in Alphaville. Gregoretti's contribution "Il Polo Ruspante" ("The Free Range Chicken") cuts between a speech by a marketing expert (Ugo Tognazzi) and a family's Sunday outing. The expert speaks on mechanisms for promoting sales by keeping the consumer dissatisfied. The family takes a drive through traffic, negotiates an impersonal highway restaurant, and considers buying some land. ~ Louis Schwartz, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alexandra Stewart, Jean-Marc Bory, (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)
- 1963
As young and penniless Rik roams about Rome, he finds lady luck on his side for a spell. Not only does he receive a bounty of coins from a weighing machine, but he also wins cash from a restaurant which awards him as its 10,000th customer. Not to mention the car. And the job. And the women. Before long, however, his luck changes, but not before he finds true love with a journalist. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Thomas Fritsch, Alexandra Stewart, (more)
Maurice Ronet plays an alcoholic writer, Alain Leroy, who is on the verge of suicide (his character is based on writer Jacques Rigaut, who killed himself in 1929). The psychiatrist assigned to Leroy is no help, advising his patient to seek a reconciliation with his wife, who is still smarting from Leroy's recent liaison with Lydia (Lena Skerla). Still obsessed with the notion of taking his own life, Leroy plans to stage his demise on July 23. A last-ditch effort to jolly himself out of his doldrums fails, and Leroy, with a picture of Marilyn Monroe at his side, snuffs himself out. Though a case study of a man victimized by his own isolationism, The Fire Within has some surprising random optimistic moments. The French title for The Fire Within is Le Feu Follet, which was also the title of the novel by Pierre Drieu La Rochelle (another suicide!) from which this film was adapted. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maurice Ronet, Jeanne Moreau, (more)
- 1963
Director Jacques Baratier's Sweet and Sour is an independently produced project with a surprising amount of European movie-industry input. Guy Bedos, a Brando wannabe, plays one of several young French cineastes who take to the streets to make improvisational movies. The "cinema verite" quality of the film is somewhat undercut by the presence of major stars: Anna Karina, Simone Signoret, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Monica Vitti, Claude Brasseur, and many others. After several "spontaneous" vignettes -- a street tennis game, a striptease lesson, a West Side Story style gang rumble -- Guy Bedos announces he will go to Hollywood to film the life of Voltaire. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Guy Bedos, Sophie Daumier, (more)
- 1963
This overdone German film relies on a repetitive plot centered around bedroom antics worthy of daytime dramas. A call girl (Hildegard Knef) teaches the "ways of love" to a boy (Thomas Fritsch). The boy uses the knowledge to seduce the young wife (Alexandra Stewart) of his professor (Martin Held). Meanwhile, the professor carries on with his secretary (Daliah Lavi). The story continues in like fashion, with little else to give it strength. ~ Lucinda Ramsey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lilli Palmer, Nadja Tiller, (more)
- 1965
Often described as a French New Wave film made in Hollywood, Arthur Penn's 1965 art movie enters the unsettlingly paranoid world of a nightclub comic on the run from the Mob. Having fooled around with the wrong blonde and gambled himself into an unpayable debt, an entertainer (Warren Beatty) flees to Chicago, where he hides out and changes his name to Mickey One. He hooks up with Jenny (Alexandra Stewart) and Castle (Hurd Hatfield), the owner of the nightclub Xanadu, but he cannot shake the paralyzing conviction that he's being pursued no matter where he is. After being beaten by unknown assailants, Mickey finally decides that escape is impossible, so he might as well just do his thing. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Warren Beatty, Hurd Hatfield, (more)
- 1966
The Man Called Gringo (Sie Nannten ihn Gringo) is a German western, with the Alps standing in for the Rockies. Crooked lawyer Helmut Schmidt makes it his mission in life to destroy an old rancher. Schmidt hires Gringo (Dan Martin), a rootless soldier of fortune, to either drive the rancher off his property or kill him. But Gringo turns out to be the rancher's long-long illegitimate son. The whole mess is solved by the deux-ex-machina appearance of a shadowy stranger. Alexandra Stewart, George Gotz and Peter Tordy costar in this psychological oater. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1966
Manu (Michel Constantin) is a drifter who becomes wealthy when he finds a lost treasure. He rescues Helene (Alexandra Stewart) by helping her escape from the mansion where she is kept prisoner, and Manu and Helene barely escape a pack of vicious dogs who are hot on their trail. Manu falls for Helene before he discovers she was responsible for turning over her sweetheart to the Nazis during World War II. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Constantin, Alexandra Stewart, (more)
- 1967
It's Funny Face meets Rififi in Maroc 7, starring Cyd Charisse as Louise Henderson, an editor for a slick and chic fashion magazine who utilizes her jet-setting life style as a front for an international jewel-smuggling operation. Abetting her in the scheme is the magazine's top photographer and high-fashion cover model. But instead of "Think pink" it's "Think clink" as secret agent Simon Grant (Gene Barry) is sent in to infiltrate Louise's organization. Posing as a safecracker, Simon convinces Louise to let him in to the gang's next operation: a plan to smuggle a priceless gem out of Morocco. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gene Barry, Cyd Charisse, (more)
This Francois Truffaut thriller is based ona novel by William Irish (aka Cornell Woolrich), whose books had been adapted by Alfred Hitchcock on many previous occasions. Jeanne Moreau stars as a woman whose fiancé is nastily murdered by five men. Utilizing a series of disguises, the cool-customer Moreau tracks down all five culprits, sexually enslaves them, and then engineers their deaths. The ominous musical score was written by Bernard Herrmann, another frequent Hitchcock collaborator. The Bride Wore Black was initially released in France as La Mariee etait en Noir. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeanne Moreau, Claude Rich, (more)
- 1968
This uneven film has Colin (Jacques Perrin) marrying a delicate young girl who soon dies after their wedding. His friend Partre (Samy Frey) is an avid collector of objects belonging to his favorite author, often spending his remaining money on the souvenirs. After Colin's wife dies, he steals her body and disappears, and the banker's daughter kills Parte's favorite author. There are hints of social satire and symbolism in this story taken from the book by Boris Vian. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marie-France Pisier, Jacques Perrin, (more)
