Anne Tonietti Movies

Released in Europe as Histoires Extraordinaires and Tre Passi Nel Delirio, this is a portmanteau picture, comprised of three supernatural playlets based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. "Metzengerstein," directed by Roger Vadim, stars the director's then-wife Jane Fonda as a medieval woman prone to acts of vengeance. Her brother Peter Fonda is somewhat perversely cast as her cousin, for whom she holds incestuous yearnings. When he gives her the cold shoulder, she spitefully sets fire to his stable of horses. He is himself killed in the blaze, but it seems that he has been reincarnated as a horse. In "William Wilson," directed by Louis Malle, a sadistic Austrian officer (Alain Delon) commits various S&M misdeeds upon a variety of victims, including a woman (Brigitte Bardot) with whom he plays cards. The officer himself comes to grief when he finds that the Church will not allow him to say an act of contrition. And "Never Bet Your Head," directed by Federico Fellini, updates the Poe original by casting Terence Stamp as a self-indulgent movie star. Driving drunk one evening, the actor literally bets his head that he can escape a potentially fatal accident. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The scene is the French Riviera. Based on eyewitness testimony, three identically dressed men are accused of kidnapping and murdering a child, but two of them can possibly be guilty. Is the innocent party Anthony Perkins, an American who has fled to France in the wake of a sex scandal? Is it Italian Renato Salvatori, whose bad reputation with women has preceded him? Or is it Jean-Claude Brialy, a French businessman whose sister uses her sexual wiles to clinch her brother's big business deals? We'll never know...because Two Are Guilty director Andre Cayatte, a longtime critic of the French justice system, contrives to have all three suspects killed by an out-of-control mob. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The joie de vivre of a young Parisian provides the basis for this romantic tale. The hero truly loves everything about life. He is especially fond of young women with he frequently falls in love. The lad lives with his supportive uncle, his brother, and his brother's wife, a former lover of the young man. Also living in the manse is a maid, four enormous dogs, and the man's two illegitimate children whom he adores. His life takes a downward turn when he meets an industrialist's lovely wife and falls in love with her. Unfortunately she does not return his affections. The devastated fellow reacts by playing sad songs on his bassoon while he waits for death. This eccentric behavior charms the woman into changing her mind and running off with him. His restored exuberance is again dampened when he discovers that this beautiful woman is not only a whiner, she is stone cold dead in bed. At the end of the film the fellow is seen flitting off with a new love, a tender young waitress. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi