Jean Giraudoux Movies

Taken from the popular play by Jean Giraudoux, The Madwoman Of Chaillot has an international all-star cast, but the final result falls short despite the talents of the celebrated thespians. The madwoman in question is the extremely eccentric Countess Aurelia (Katherine Hepburn). Roderick (Richard Chamberlain) is the peace-loving activist who, along with a local rag picker (Danny Kaye), warns the Countess of a plot to destroy the city. A quartet of villains led by the Chairman (Yul Brynner) are after the oil reserves that bubble under the water supply. Along with the Broker (Charles Boyer), the Commissar (Oscar Homolka), and the Prospector (Donald Pleasence), the evil developers plan to secure the oil rights to the region with or without the consent of the unsuspecting public. The Countess invites Josephine (Dame Edith Evans) to judge the villains, who are locked in the Countess's cellar for their crimes against the people of Paris in this lethargic film. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Robert Bresson's first feature film is the story of two novice nuns in a monastery that recruits sisters from a woman's prison. Anne-Marie (Renée Faure) comes to the convent from a middle-class family eager to take up her vocation, but other nuns begin to resent her earnestness, and they accuse her of pride. Anne-Marie makes it her mission to watch over Thérèse (Jany Holt), a novice who joined the order after her release from prison. Unbeknownst to the other nuns, between the time she left jail and when she arrived at the convent, Thérèse shot the man who sent her to prison. Bresson presents the relationship between these two women with maximum psychological intensity. The contrast between Anne-Marie and Thérèse's inner turmoil and their demure behavior heightens the film's dramatic tension as Bresson develops the themes of sin and grace that will preoccupy him throughout his career. Although it follows the rules of mainstream 1940s French cinema, Les Anges du péché introduces an elegant, pared-down style that forms the basis for the completely original minimalism of Bresson's later films. ~ Louis Schwartz, All Movie Guide