Julien Duvivier Movies
Briefly enrolled at the University in his home town of Lille, France, Julien Duvivier dropped out to study acting in Paris. Hired by Andre Antoine's Theatre Libre, Duvivier was retained as Antoine's assistant when the latter began directing films in 1916. After apprenticing under several notables of the French cinema, Duvivier was allowed to direct his first feature, Haceldama ou le Prix du Sang (1919). Working steadily and successfully throughout the 1920s, Duvivier emerged as one of the major French film talents of the early talkie era. He was particularly adept at handling multi-storied films, all-star efforts in which several short vignettes were tied together by a central theme. His two biggest European hits, Un Carnet du Bal (1935) and Pepe le Moko (1937), won Duvivier his first Hollywood contract. He made his American bow with a stylized and heavily romanticized biography of Johann Strauss, The Great Waltz (1938). Duvivier's best-remembered Hollywood efforts of the 1940s were his multi-storied Tales of Manhattan (1942) and Flesh and Fantasy (1943); on these and most of his other films, he was also credited as one of the screenwriters. At the end of World War II, Duvivier returned to Europe, continuing to turn out moneymaking films. His The Little World of Don Camillo (1953) won him an award at the Venice Film Festival. Not long after helming his last picture, the enigmatic amnesia drama Diabolically Yours (1967), the 71-year-old Julien Duvivier was killed in a car accident. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
In his last film effort (he was killed in a car accident shortly after its completion), veteran French filmmaker Julien Duvivier manages to spin gold from dross in Diabolically Yours. Alain Delon stars as an amnesiac, unable to remember he is man of wealth, or where he keeps his wealth. The doctors are flummoxed by Delon's total blackout. On the other hand, Delon's wife Senta Berger doesn't believe it, nor does the family's best friend. This fitfully entertaining puzzler succeeds in leading the audience--and the characters--down several garden paths. A French/Italian/German coproduction, Diabolically Yours was originally titled Diaboliquement Votre. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Senta Berger, Alain Delon, (more)
Richard Quine directs George Axelrod's acerbic script (adapted from Julien Duvivier's La Fête à Henriette) in this romantic comedy that reunites William Holden and Audrey Hepburn for the first time since 1954's Sabrina. Holden plays Richard Benson, a Hollywood screenwriter being pressured by movie producer Alexander Meyerheimer (Noël Coward) to finish his script entitled "The Girl Who Stole the Eiffel Tower." Meyerheimer gives Richard a two-day ultimatum to complete his work, unaware that Richard has yet to even start on the script. In an effort to get moving on his project, Richard hires a live-in secretary, Gabrielle Simpson (Audrey Hepburn), to help him. Soon enough, the two fall in love and spend the time enacting various scenes from the unwritten screenplay as the time slips away and Richard's deadline looms. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- William Holden, Audrey Hepburn, (more)
- 1963
In this French crime drama, two safe-crackers are breaking into a safe when they are caught in the act by a guard. One of the crooks kills the guard and flees leaving his partner behind. The abandoned accomplice is captured and convicted. One year passes before the convict is able to escape from prison and set out to exact his revenge. As he flees, he becomes friends with a gas station owner married to a gold-digging ex-hooker. When the wife learns that the hero is a fugitive she blackmails him into cracking her husband's safe. Unfortunately, they are captured by the owner who is killed in the ensuing scuffle by his wife. The fugitive hero then buries the body. He refuses to open the safe. As fate would have it, the fugitive's ex-partner happens upon the scene, but he too will not open the save. A short time later, the wife leaves. The partners then attempt to open it, but are surprised when the murderous wife returns with a shotgun. The fugitive's partner kills the girl, but as he tries to flee the police, his car careens into the gas pumps and explodes in a tremendous ball of fire. Fortunately, the hero escapes at the very last second. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Robert Hossein, Catherine Rouvel, (more)
- 1962
Filmmaker Julien Duvivier returns to the multistoried format of his earlier omnibus films Tales of Manhattan and Flesh and Fantasy with the 1962 French production The Devil and the Ten Commandments. Actually, there are only seven separate episodes in the film, covering such commandments as "Thou Shalt Not Have Any Gods Before Me", "Thou Shalt Not Steal" and "Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother." Each of the vignettes seems to owe more to O. Henry or DeMaupassant than the Book of Exodus, with twist endings carrying the day. The all-star cast includes Michel Simon (Episode One), Dany Saval (Episode Two), Charles Aznavour and Lino Ventura (Episode Three), Micheline Presle, Mel Ferrer and Claude Dauphin (Episode Four); Fernandel (Episode Five); Alain Delon and Danielle Darrieux (Episode Six) and Jean-Claude Brialy (Episode Seven). Best of the batch is the fifth episode, wherein horse-faced Fernandel declares that he is God. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michel Simon, Jean-Claude Brialy, (more)
- 1962
Set in an old German castle where an elderly paterfamilias lies on his deathbed, this conventional murder mystery by director Julien Duvivier has a veneer of the supernatural about it. As the heirs to the dying man's estate come together at the castle, a woman among them stands out for her heritage. It so happens that an ancestor of the dying man betrayed one of her long-dead female relatives, and after the old man finally dies, the woman starts having strange visions. At the same time, it begins to look like the old man did not die a natural death, but was in fact, murdered. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jean-Claude Brialy, Perette Pradier, (more)
- 1961
As in François Truffaut's award-winning first picture, 400 Blows, Jean-Pierre Leaud once again takes up the role of a besieged and troubled teen in Boulevard. But that ends the points of similarity between the dramas, since this is a routine and uneven film, not up to director Julien Duviver's usual standard. This time around, the young hero is a sixteen-year-old by the name of Georges whose problems do not stem as much from himself as from the people around him. After running away from home, he has rather shattering encounters with an oversize striptease diva and two aggressive gay men, as well as an on-going antagonism with a boxer who is as pleasant as a wounded bull. These run-ins with life on the streets inevitably have their effect on Georges, no longer as naive as when he first left home. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jean-Pierre Léaud, Monique Brienne, (more)
- 1959
This suspensful drama finds ten members of the underground uniting fifteen years after the end of World War II. Nine men and a woman come together to expose a traitor among them. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jeanne Fusier-Gir, Danielle Darrieux, (more)
- 1959
Brigitte Bardot was only twenty-four when she was featured in this typical sexual drama yet she was already a star on the international film scene. In this story she is Eva, a perfect blonde who has all the men in Seville, Spain chasing after her, though she is not interested in any of them. Even when the wealthy Don Mateo (Antonio Vilar) falls hard for her charms, he cannot turn her head in his direction. He gives up everything for her and then finds that persistence and a few rough times pay off in the end as the imperious blond begins to reconsider her attitude -- slightly. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Brigitte Bardot, Antonio Vilar, (more)
- 1959
Beginning with the declassé premise of this ostensible, unconvincing slice-of-life comedy -- that the heroine's overriding objective in life is to find THE man for her -- French director Julien Duvivier already has problems. Doris (Giulietta Masina) is a woman not prone to deep thinking, whose quest for the perfect mate leads her to break apart friends' relationships while trying out "their" men. She also goes in and out of dependent relationships with men in which she essentially lives off their largesse. Neither of these types of sexual-romantic adventures are very commendable, and that among other factors, takes away much of the comic sheen meant to liven these exploits. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Giulietta Masina, Agnes Fink, (more)
- 1957
Jean Gabin stars in Voici le Temps des Assassins as Chatelin, a soft-spoken, middle-aged restauranteur. His life is unexpectedly complicated when Catherine (Daniele Delorme), the daughter of his ex-wife, pays a visit. Catherine tells Chatelin that her mother is dead, and that she's all alone in the world. The good-hearted Chatelin comes to regret his decision to allow the girl to stay when it develops that she's not only a liar, but a psychotic, who plans to murder him. Voici le Temps des Assassins was released in the US as Deadlier Than the Male. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jean Gabin, Danièle Delorme, (more)
- 1957
The raincoated gent of the title is horse-faced French comedian Fernandel, who plays luckless jazz musician Albert Constantin. Thanks to the chicanery of a slick gangster boss, Albert finds himself up to his ears in murder and treachery. The farcical elements of the film are juxtaposed with moments of startling violence, but in the end laughter wins out. American actor John McGiver, in France to film his supporting role in Billy Wilder's Love in the Afternoon, is herein cast as a pivotal character. The Man in the Raincoat (L'Homme à l'Impermeable) was not officially remade as The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe (1972), though the similarities between the two films are quite pronounced. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Fernandel, Jean Rigaux, (more)
- 1957
The second of director Julien Duvivier's two cinematic contributions of 1957 was Pot-Bouille (Boiling
Pot). Based on a novel by Emile Zola, the film stars Gerard Philipe as Octave, an opportunistic Parisian youth who hops from bed to bed -- and from bedmate to bedmate. Young or old, plain or beautiful, Octave loves and leaves 'em all. His romantic rovings come to a halt when he meets pragmatic businesswoman Mme. Hedouin (Danielle Darrieux). Apparently impervious to Octave's charms, Mme. Hedouin nonetheless marries the boy and transforms him into a useful (and least to her) member of society. Director Duvivier never misses an opportunity to contrast the respectable facade of Civilization with the unvarnished, often depraved truth beneath the surface. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Pot). Based on a novel by Emile Zola, the film stars Gerard Philipe as Octave, an opportunistic Parisian youth who hops from bed to bed -- and from bedmate to bedmate. Young or old, plain or beautiful, Octave loves and leaves 'em all. His romantic rovings come to a halt when he meets pragmatic businesswoman Mme. Hedouin (Danielle Darrieux). Apparently impervious to Octave's charms, Mme. Hedouin nonetheless marries the boy and transforms him into a useful (and least to her) member of society. Director Duvivier never misses an opportunity to contrast the respectable facade of Civilization with the unvarnished, often depraved truth beneath the surface. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gérard Philipe, Danielle Darrieux, (more)
- 1954
Peter De Mendelssohn's novel Marianne of My Youth was the source for this mystical romantic drama. Marianne (Marianne Hold) is the Bavarian sweetheart of wealthy young Argentinian finishing-school student Vincent (Pierre Vaneck). Hero meets heroine when his schoolmates lock him in a crumbling mansion as part of a fraternity initation. The ethereal Marianne insist that she's the prisoner of the ogre of the castle--her ageing, debauched lover. An idyllic romance follows. . .but is Marianne all that she claims to be? Can it be that Marianne is merely a figment of Vincent's youthful imagination? ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Marianne Hold, Pierre Vaneck, (more)
- 1953
Retour de Don Camillo (The Return of Don Camillo) is the sequel to the internationally popular French comedy The Little World of Don Camillo. Fernandel returns as the title character, a resourceful, pugnacious Italian village priest. Because of his previous run-ins with communist mayor Peppone (Gino Cervi), Don Camillo is sent to another parish by the Church. Soon, however, all the villagers -- Peppone included -- realize that the priest is indispensable, and they demand his return. In one of the film's funniest moments, an elderly citizen steadfastly refuses to die until Don Camillo administers last rites. Like its predecessor, Retour de Don Camillo is based on a novel by Givoanni Guareschi -- and, also like the earlier film, Retour was a worldwide hit. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Fernandel, Gino Cervi, (more)
- 1952
Holiday for Henrietta (originally released in 1952 as La Fete a Henriette) is a Pirandellian comedy about the art of moviemaking. Louis Seigner and Henri Cremieux play a team of screenwriters whose latest project is stuck in a mire of indecision. Should fictional heroine Henriette (Dany Robin) be permitted a happy ending as the romantic Seigner insists, or suffer an unhappy one as "film noir" specialist Cremieux demands? While the screenwriters hash out their contrasting points of view, we see a film-within-a-film, dramatizing the formulating screenplay and its abrupt changes of mood and direction. Finally reaching a compromise, the writers are interrupted by one of the actors in their imaginary movie, who informs them that their "original" plot has already been filmed! When Hollywood got hold of Holiday for Henrietta, it pumped up this modest project into a bloated star vehicle for Audrey Hepburn and William Holden, titled Paris When It Sizzles (63). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michel Auclair, Dany Robin, (more)
- 1951
Orson Welles provides the voice of God in this farce starring Fernandel as Don Camillo, a vicar who causes trouble for the town's communist-leaning mayor. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi
- Starring:
- Fernandel, Gino Cervi, (more)
- 1950
A French-American cooperative film about drug smuggling on the French Riviera. ~ Rovi
- 1950
Sous le Ciel de Paris was the second of director Julien Duvivier's brace of 1950 French films. In episodic fashion, the story follows the grim and bloody path trod by an unknown psycho killer. Duvivier cannily plays the film's melodrama against the glamorous backdrops of fin de siecle Paris, concentrating on a handful of people whose lives are profoundly affected, directly and indirectly, by the fugitive murder. The best vignettes feature elderly character actress Sylvie as a spinster devoted to her houseful of cats, and Brigitte Auber as a wide-eyed country lass. Julien Duvivier's previous multistoried films include Un Carnet du Bal, Tales of Manhattan and Flesh and Fantasy. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Brigitte Auber, Jean Brochard, (more)
- 1949
French filmmaker Julien Duvivier had trouble regaining his popularity after the war; thus, he tried all sorts of subject matter, hoping to land the one plotline that would reap box-office success. In Au Royaume des Cieux, Duvivier aims his sights at a girl's reformatory. Falsely imprisoned after resisting the advances of a wealthy man, Maria (Suzanne Cloutier) is subjected to the spiteful behavior of unbalanced reform-school headmistress Mlle. Chamblas (Suzy Prim). When Maria's true love Pierre (Serge Reggiani) arrives with an escape plan at the ready, the other inmates try to help the couple elude the authorities. A tense, fog-laden climax caps this well-crafted melodrama. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Serge Reggiani, Suzanne Cloutier, (more)
- 1949
Alternately titled Captain Black Jack, this Franco-American coproduction stars George Sanders as a sophisticated scoundrel living by his wits on the Riviera. Sanders lets those around him believe that he's a secret agent; actually he's a notorious drug smuggler known as Captain Black Jack. Herbert Marshall plays a doctor who appears to swallow Sanders' story. In truth, Marshall is a detective, sworn to track down and capture Sanders. Filmed in Spain, Black Jack was released in the US three years after its completion--and then only after 15 minutes had been shorn from its running time. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- George Sanders, Patricia Roc, (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, Rovi
- Starring:
- Vivien Leigh, Ralph Richardson, (more)
- 1946
For his first French film in nearly a decade (he'd spent the war years in Hollywood), filmmaker Julien Duvivier chose to adapt Les Fiançailles de Monsieur Hire, a novel by Georges Simenon. Panique, as Duvivier's version was titled, is a twisted tale of murder, subterfuge and revenge from "Beyond." Middle-aged loner Monsieur Hire (Michel Simon) falls for his neighbor Alice (Viviane Romance) only to be framed for the murder commited by Alice's lover Alfred (Paul Bernard). The ending suggests that the actual culprits are going to get their well-deserved comeuppance, though exoneration comes a shade too late for the luckless Monsieur Hire. The Simenon book was filmed again in 1989, as the excellent Monsieur Hire, directed by Patrice Leconte, a film as bleakly pessimistic as the original, more in keeping with the style and tone of the literary source. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michel Simon, Viviane Romance, (more)
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