Pierre Brasseur Movies

Pierre Prevert directed this amusing comedy, one of three which he co-wrote with his better-known brother Jacques Prevert. Pop singer Charles Trenet stars as a rich moron who is targeted for murder by a shady enemy (Pierre Brasseur). Brasseur blackmails a criminal (Julien Carette) into killing Trenet, but both escape into the countryside, where they encounter some funny situations and odd locals. Prevert was forced by the film's producer to cast Trenet, and rumors of trouble on the set were plentiful, but none of it appears to have affected the film, which remains a light and engaging romp. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Based on a stage play by D'Hennequin and Veber, the saucy 1936 sex farce Avez Vous N'Avez Rien a Declarer? was released in the US five years later as Confessions of a Newlywed. The original title translates as Having You Nothing to Declare, a double-entendre referring to the sexual prowess-or lack thereof-of entymologist Pierre Brasseur. Overly preoccupied with his work, Brasseur seems unwilling or unable to satisfy the carnal urges of his young bride Sylvia Battalie. When a week passes without marital consummation, Brasseur asks Battalie's scientist father Raimu for advice. A subsequent visit to a psychiatrist and a nightclub, followed by a tete-a-tete with Brasseur's former lover (Germaine Aussey), seems to straighten things out (if that is the appropriate choice of words), while the connubial progress of the newlyweds is paralleled (and gently mocked) by a pair of insects in Brasseur's laboratory. Confessions of a Newlywed was directed by Leo Joannon, who seems far more at home with this sort of material than he would with Laurel & Hardy in 1951's Atoll K. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a novel by Colette, Claudine stars Blanchette Brunoy as the title character. The 16-year-old heroine finds herself the romantic bone of contention between two of her schoolteachers. Eventually tiring of the tug of war, Claudine finds happiness in the arms of handsome young doctor Dubois (Pierre Brasseur). The "naughtier" aspects of the Colette original were apparently dispensed with long before Claudine went before the cameras. As a result, this was one of the few French films of the early 1940s that could be released in the U.S. with virtually no censorial cuts at all. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Giuseppe Verdi was also released as The Life of Verdi for the benefit of filmgoers who had trouble grasping the obvious. Fosco Giachetti stars as the title character, aging nearly 30 years in the course of the film. The story begins when the teenaged Verdi leaves his hometown behind to study music in Milan, only to face rejection from the school's hide-bound board of directors. He is forced to endure several subsequent setbacks until he is helped along the road to success by sympathetic opera diva Giuseppina (Gaby Morlay), whom he eventually marries. An amusing later moment finds Verdi and a pompous tenor (Beniamino Gigli) rehearsing the La Donna e Mobile aria from Rigoletto, all the while attempting to keep this composition secret from potential music thieves. The film ends with the triumphant premiere of Aida in Egypt, in commemoration of the opening of the Suez Canal. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Adapted from a novel by Jacques Prevert, Port of Shadows (Quai des brumes) stars that eternal victim of society, Jean Gabin. Having deserted the French army, Gabin ducks into a back alley and meets the lovely Michelle Morgan. He becomes her champion by taking on her evil "protectors" (Michel Simon, Pierre Brasseur), but loses his last bid for freedom--and his life--in the process. Irredeemably gloomy, Port of Shadows was a primary influence in the "film noir" genre pursued by Hollywood in the 1940s. The film was the first of three collaborations between writer Jacques Prevert and director Marcel Carne, culminating in the incomparable Les Enfants du Paradis (1944). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide