Jean Anouilh Movies
Jean Anouilh was a French playwright, screenwriter, and director. Before entering the film industry, he received an education in law and worked as an advertiser, where he occasionally made commercials. He then became a theatrical administrator before beginning to write plays in 1912. Many of his distinguished theatrical dramas became films. Anouilh has been collaborating on screenplays since 1936. During his long career, he also directed two films. Catherine Anouilh, his daughter, is an actress of stage and screen. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 1971
A play by Jean Anouilh is the basis for A Time for Loving. In this Gallic blend of La Ronde and Plaza Suite, a single Paris flat is the scene for three separate romantic stories, bookended by a fourth. Star Mel Ferrar also functioned as producer; it must have taken some fast talking to keep him from directing as well. Filmed in 1970, A Time for Loving made the international rounds one year later, after some judicious editing. It has also been released as Paris Was Made For Lovers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1965
Dany Carrel is an amnesiac girl who is supposed to be a rich heiress. Her guardian Jeanne (Madeleine Robinson) tries to help her to regain her memory. The mystery unfolds in a series of flashbacks in which the girl finally realized who she is. This psychological mystery is based on the bestselling, virtually unfilmable novel by Sebastien Japrisot. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dany Carrel, Madeleine Robinson, (more)
A high-class costume drama with a substantive historical basis, Becket is the true story of the friendship between King Henry II (Peter O'Toole) and Thomas à Becket (Richard Burton), a royal courtier and confidant whom Henry appoints as Archbishop of Canterbury. As Becket takes his duties with the Church seriously, he finds himself increasingly at odds with the King, who finally orders the death of his once-close companion when he continues to defy the throne. Burton is very good and O'Toole is even better: both men were nominated for the Best Actor Oscar, while Edward Anhalt's screenplay, based on the stageplay by Jean Anouilh, won for Best Adapted Screenplay. The basic theme of separation of church and state still reverberates today, while the top-notch production values ensure Becket's place as one of Britain's better historical epics. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Burton, Peter O'Toole, (more)
This uneven remake of the 1950 Max Ophuls feature from the play by Arthur Schnitzler takes place in Paris just before World War I instead of Vienna at the turn of the 20th century. A soldier (Claude Giraud) sleeps with a prostitute (Marie Dubois) before he seduces Rose (Anna Karina), and a willing but married Sophie (Jane Fonda). A night of drinking finds the soldier back with the prostitute again in this feature directed by Roger Vadim. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Claude Brialy, Jane Fonda, (more)
- 1962
Fitzjohn (Peter Sellers) is a retired general who is miserable at home with his shrewish wife Emily (Margaret Leighton). He dreams of younger days when he enjoyed the platonic company of the beautiful Ghislaine (Dany Robin). After many years, she shows up at his door and expresses her desire to take their relationship beyond the platonic level. When his plans are temporarily postponed, he leaves her in care of his right hand man. His aid and Ghislaine fall in love, prompting Fitzjohn to begin court-martial proceedings against his unfaithful aide. When the lineage of his aide is discovered, he tries to halt the trial in this ironic comedy taken from the play by Jean Anouilh. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Sellers, Dany Robin, (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)
- 1953
Set in India, this romantic drama tells the melodramatic tale of a young couple who travel to a remote jungle village to announce their betrothal to the bride's parents. Unfortunately, while there, the groom becomes attracted to his love's free-spirited sister who lives in the jungle causing the fiancee to try to kill herself. Seeing that she has inadvertently harmed her sister, the jungle girl returns to the forest and the shamed groom returns to his fiancee. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ursula Thiess, Diana Douglas, (more)
- 1953
When first released in the US, this Gallic drama was given the pun-ny title Knight of the Night. Thus, the viewer was left unprepared for the grimmer aspects of this romantic period piece. Renee St. Cyr plays Bella, the ballerina wife of Georges (Jean-Claude Pascal). Once the bloom is off the rose of her marriage, Bella yearns to rekindle the flames of passion. At this point, her husband splits into two distinct personalities: the "good" Georges and the "bad" Chevalier de la Nuit. Thrilled at first, Bella is eventually nagged by guilt and doubt: by falling in love with her husband's bad side, is she being unfaithful to the man she married? Playwright Jean Anouilh was responsible for the film's perplexingly multitextured screenplay. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1952
Playwright Jean Anouilh was the guiding force behind the unorthodox murder mystery Le Rideau Rouge (The Red Curtain) During a provincial theatre production of Macbeth, several tragedies occur. The actors attribute these calamities to the "curse" supposedly hanging over the Shakespeare play, but police inspector Jean Brochard doesn't buy this. The plot's framework allows Anouilh to explore the differences and similarities between life on the stage and life in earnest. The cast includes Michel Simon as a despicable director (and first murder victim), Moneille Valentin as Simon's drug-addicted mistress, and Pierre Brasseur as a weakling actor who hides his failings by putting on a charade of bravado. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Simon, Pierre Brasseur, (more)
- 1952
Martine Carol, the star of the popular period romp Caroline Cherie, once more dons low-cut 18th-century gowns for the 1953 sequel Un Caprice de Caroline Cherie. This time, the toothsome Caroline arrives in Italy with her military officer husband Salange (Jacques Dacquimine). When the country is thrown into turmoil by a political upheaval, Caroline and Salange are rescued by countess Pauline (Vera Norman), who has designs on the husband. Jealous, Caroline decides to dally with handsome ballet-dancer Olivio (Jean-Claude Pascal). It's upstairs, downstairs, in m'lady's chamber for the next eight reels. American distribution of Un Caprice de Caroline Cherie was boosted by the presence in the film of several curvaceous young ladies wearing very little indeed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martine Carol, Jean Pascal, (more)
- 1951
Also known as Dear Caroline, Caroline Cherie is one of the best of Martine Carol's movie vehicles. Set during the French revolution, the film relates the story of Caroline (Carol), who, to dredge up a couple of old clichés, is no better than she ought to be but is more sinned against than sinning. Faithful in her fashion to a young nobleman, Caroline undergoes several amorous misadventures before she is reunited with her true love. She also wears a variety of lavish period costumes, each one more eye-popping than the last. The screenplay for Caroline Cherie was written by playwright Jean Anouilh, whose light and delicate touch is most welcome. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martine Carol, Marie Déa, (more)
- 1951
Twice during his long and fruitful career, French playwright Jean Anouilh tried his hand at film directing. The second of these endeavors was Deux Sous de Violettes, released in 1951. Co-adapted by Anouilh from a story by Monelle Valentin, the film stars Dany Robin as teenager Therese Desforges. Uncommonly beautiful, Therese is forced to fend off the advances of various lechers and satyrs. Eventually she gives in to a much-older man, and the result is an unwanted pregnancy. After losing the baby, Therese considers herself damaged goods, but salvation is at hand in the form of a young and patient swain who has truly loved her all along. Some comic relief is provided by Michel Bouquet as Therese's doggedly good-for-nothing brother. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dany Robin, Helena Manson, (more)
- 1949
In the traditions of Jean Renoir and Jean Cocteau, Pattes Blanches is a heady mixture of stark realism and fairytale artifice. The title translates to "white spats", said spats being worn constantly by the wealthy, eccentric Fernand Ledoux. Already an object of derision from the villagers, Ledoux is in danger of physical assault when he begins making advances towards the girl friend of the town's saloon keeper. The lady in question is played by Suzy Delair, a vibrant actress who (as proven in this film) should not be judged by her lackluster performance in Laurel and Hardy's Utopia (1951). Pattes Blanches is a freeflowing adaptation of a play by Jean Anouilh. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernand Ledoux, Suzy Delair, (more)
This 1948 adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina was produced in England by Alexander Korda, and released in the US by 20th Century-Fox. Vivien Leigh plays the title role, a 19th-century Russian gentlewoman married to Czarist official Ralph Richardson. Though her marriage is not intolerable, Anna is swept off her feet by dashing young military officer Vronsky, played by Kieron Moore. The ensuing scandal ruins Anna's status in society. Anna Karenina had previously been filmed twice in Hollywood, with both versions starring Greta Garbo. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vivien Leigh, Ralph Richardson, (more)
Pierre Fresnay stars as St. Vincent De Paul in this reverent but realistic French biopic. The film traces "Monsieur Vincent's" progress from his days of forced servitude in Algiers to his entry into the priesthood, culminating with his Herculean efforts on behalf of the ill and destitute in early 17th-century France. Featured in the huge cast are Aime Clairimond as Cardinal de Richelieu and Germaine Dermoz as Queen Anne of Austria. Made under the most trying of conditions over a two-year period, Monsieur Vincent remains the chef d'ouevre of director Maurice Cloche. The film won France's Grand Prix award in 1947, and the following year was honored with Hollywood's "best foreign picture" Oscar. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierre Fresnay, Lise Delamare, (more)
- 1943
Directed and adapted from his own 1936 play by Jean Anouilh, Le Voyageur Sans Bagages centers around a man who lost his memory over a decade earlier due to a war injury. Called Gaston (although no one knows his real name), he has spent the interval in a mental institution, where he has been quite happily tending to plants. An amiable, well-liked man, he seems content with no memory, but his doctor insists on discovering his identity. To this end, the doctor has located a family who, upon inspecting Gaston, feels quite certain that he is their Jacques, long since believed lost in the war. Rather than providing joy to Gaston, however, this possibility disturbs him, as it is revealed that the family itself is highly dysfunctional. Worse, Jacques seems to have been a horrid man, a person who thinks nothing of sleeping with his brother's wife and thoughtlessly killing animals. As the evidence piles up that he may indeed be the appalling Jacques, Gaston must decide what he will do with this information and how he will live his future life. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Blanchette Brunoy, Marguerite Deval, (more)
