Lucia Bosé Movies

Since Moliere's plays are national classics of France, an air of reverence surrounds them. However, they are for the most part comedies based on older commedia del'arte storylines and acting conventions (which most closely resemble the broad humor of the American vaudeville or the British music halls). Moliere's big innovation was to give the stock characters from these ancient themes an actual script to follow, rather than leaving them to improvise their own lines. His lines were usually much, much wittier. Otherwise, these tales are every bit as farcical (and sometimes slapstick) as anything from The Three Stooges or, for that matter, the classical farces of Plautus. However, when the actors ham it up in their parts too much, eyebrows are raised. This multinational production of Moliere's classic L'Avare, or The Miser is an excellent case in point. The lead role of Arpagone, the miser, is played exhuberantly by Alberto Sordi, who for years has traded (on and off the stage) on his pinched, miserly appearance and his romantic skittishness - somewhat akin to the shtik perfected by Jack Benny in the U.S. These characteristics also fit the role to a "T." In the story, the miserly widower is trying to arrange things for the maximum safety of his funds and to prevent his children from doing something stupid, like marrying poor people. In the meantime, his well-known wealth has made him the target of sinister matrimonial designs by the murderous sister of a powerful cardinal. He decides to find a suitable bride for himself to stave off this unhappy prospect, and at the same time arrange good marriages for his son and daughter (who have other people in mind). A triple wedding will cost little more than a single one, and will save him lots of money. Needless to say, everything goes wrong (and finally goes right) in this romantic farce. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Also known as The Moon Child, El Niño de la Luna stars Enrique Saldana as a peculiarly gifted young boy. The youngster's supernatural skills bring him to the attention of a group of occult researchers. Whisked away to a research center, the boy is held prisoner while the scientists scheme to harness his talents for their own purposes. Saldana manages to escape with two other "moon children" and head to Africa, with their captors in hot, potentially homicidal pursuit. Director Agustin Villaronga doubled as screenwriter for El Nino de la Luna. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Brazilian teenager Vera (Ana Beatriz Nogueria) is released from the orphanage where she has spent most of her life. Her brutal experiences while a ward of the State have caused her to adopt masculine dress and mannerisms--a successful effort to wield power over her fellow orphans. On the outside, Vera finds shelter and a job through the auspices of a benevolent professor (Raul Cortez). While still in male garb, Vera develops a chaste relationship with a female coworker (Aida Leiner). Unable to consummate the relationship, Vera undergoes a great deal of inner torment, at one point considering a sex change. The end of this provocative but non-sensational film finds Vera coming to grips with her femininity, even though her future happiness is still up in the air. 18-year-old Ana Beatriz Nogueria won a Berlin Film Festival best actress award for her astonishingly mature performance in Vera. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Actress Jeanne Moreau made her directorial debut with this tale about a gathering of actresses who, over the course of an all-night conversation, come to reassess their careers and romantic lives. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

In this dreamlike and erotic picture, a middle-aged couple have invited a number of people to dinner. As the dinner proceeds, accompanied by liturgical music, the meal is transformed into an erotic fantasy as the guests make love to one another; the wife has an incestuous union while her husband and their daughter look on, and then the wife and another woman do some extraordinary things with and to the husband. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

With little or no embellishment, filmmaker Marguerite Duras offers a simple, often wordless chronicle of a woman's day. She and her friend are seen doing yard work, talking about their families and receiving the occasional visitor. The brightest spot in the day is when a washing machine salesman comes to call. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This Spanish/Italian melodrama concerns the rivalry between a mother and her daughter for the affections of a rakish drifter. The mother has known his affection before, but on this particular journey through their town, he is drawn to the girl instead. He takes her to his favorite assignation place, a nearby whorehouse, and they begin to see one another regularly, until one day the mother takes her place. The girl's response to this is somewhat drastic. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

The cigar-smoking French writer, George Sand (Lucia Bose) and her lover, the composer-pianist Chopin (Christopher Sandford) have rented a former monastery in Mallorca as a winter retreat. They have even shipped a piano to the site, so that Chopin can continue his work. However, what promised to be a warm, sunny vacation turns sour as the locals disapprove of Sand, the servants are surly and mysterious, and the monastery is cold. She has her revenge, however. She wrote the book A Winter in Mallorca about her miserable winter retreat. This film follows that book closely, with concern for historical accuracy, which did not increase the Spanish filmmakers' popularity with their countrymen. This is a Spanish language film, with no dubbing or subtitles. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Metello (Messimo Ranieri) is the son of an anarchist who shares his father's passion for justice. After he is introduced to love by the young widow Viola (Lucia Bose), he falls in love and marries Ersilia (Ottavia Piccolo). Labor unrest leads to a strike by workers, and Metello is thrown in jail. Upon his release, he lies to officials when he says he will abandon political causes. He tries to balance his family life and remain true to his ideals in the changing political climate in Florence at the turn of the 20th century. Ennio Morricone provides the music for this feature that appeared at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

This symbolic film underscores the struggles between a group of visionaries versus the Establishment while wondering about the survival of humankind. A group of young men manage to escape a volcano eruption on their small island. Seeking a new life, they stop at an island between their destroyed island and the mainland. This island is run by Renno, the community leader who offers the men help and a boat to continue their journey. The group conspires to panic the islanders with fear of another volcano eruption in order to take over the abandoned island. Renno has the men jailed for creating a disturbance, but after their terms are served, the men betray Renno by killing off the male population and escaping with the surviving women. The two apparently go off to pursue their utopian ideals where there is one woman for every two men. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

In his final film, Jean Cocteau brilliantly evokes memories of his past triumphs, Blood of a Poet (1930) and Orpheus (1949). Cocteau casts himself as an aging poet who knows he is dying (as indeed he was); his greatest desire is to be reborn so that he can qualify for celestial immortality. The stellar cast includes such French film favorites as Jean-Pierre Léaud, Jean Marais, and François Perier, along with Hollywood's Yul Brynner and such Cocteau friends and admirers as Pablo Picasso, singer Charles Aznavour, and bullfighter Luis Miguel Dominguen. Given the influence Cocteau's influence over the French New Wave directors of the 1950s and 1960s, it is altogether appropriate that the producer of Testament of Orpheus was François Truffaut. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi