Jeanne Moreau Movies
One of the most recognizable faces of the French cinema, and also one of its most celebrated, Jeanne Moreau is a legend in her own right. Combining off-kilter beauty with strong character, Moreau came to embody forthright, devil-may-care sensuality in such films as Jules and Jim and The Bride Wore Black. Comparing her to some of her best-known colleagues, Ginette Vincendeau noted, "Where Brigitte Bardot was sex and Catherine Deneuve elegance, Moreau incarnated intellectual femininity."Born in Paris on January 23, 1928, Moreau was the daughter of an English dancer and a French barman who divorced when she was eleven. Growing up in Nazi-occupied Paris, she began to discover her love of literature and the theatre, and, opposing her father's wishes, she decided to become an actress. While still a student at the Paris Conservatoire, Moreau made her stage debut at the 1947 Avignon Theatre Festival. Shortly thereafter, she was invited to join the prestigious Comédie-Française, becoming on her twentieth birthday the youngest full-time member in the company's history. She stayed with the company for four years, appearing in almost all of their productions during that time. She left in 1951, finding it too restrictive and authoritarian, and joined the more experimental Théâtre Nationale Populaire.
During this time, Moreau began to take bit parts in various films, particularly B-movie melodramas. Initially not considered attractive enough to be a movie star--thanks in part to her lack of interest in make-up--she was fortunate enough to make the acquaintance of a director who found her natural attributes to be just what he was looking for: Louis Malle, who directed the actress in her breakthrough film, the New Wave murder mystery Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (Elevator to the Gallows) (1957). Following this film, Moreau remained Malle's favorite actress and off-screen lover for the next several years. The pair made headlines with their 1959 collaboration, Les Amants (The Lovers); the steamy tale of a bored housewife's extramarital affair pushed the boundaries of censorship on its U.S. release and led certain American gossip columnists to tag Moreau "the new Bardot." The actress' biggest international success was as the exuberant, free-spirited heroine of François Truffaut's Jules et Jim (1962); five years later, she worked again with Truffaut, starring as an icy murderess in the popular Hitchcock homage The Bride Wore Black (1967). Throughout the 1960s, Moreau worked with some of the cinema's most notable directors, collaborating with Peter Brooks on the 1960 Moderato Cantabile (for which she won a Best Female Performance award at the Cannes Film Festival), Michelangelo Antonioni on La Notte (1961), and Luis Buñuel on Le Journal d'une Femme de Chambre.
Throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, Moreau continued to work regularly, largely forgoing Hollywood fare in favor of European films. She made some of her more notable appearances in Bertrand Blier's Les Valseuses (1974), Luc Besson's La femme Nikita (1990), and Wim Wenders' Until the End of the World (1991). She also played minor but pivotal roles in The Lover (1992), to which she lent her sandpaper-and-whisky voice as the narrator; Antonioni's Beyond the Clouds (1995), in which she appeared with Marcello Mastroianni in one of his last roles; and Ever After (1998), one of her few Hollywood outings.
Linked romantically with dozens of high-profile men over the decades, Moreau was for a brief period married to Exorcist director William Friedkin. In addition to her acting pursuits, Moreau put her talents to use behind the camera, directing Lumière (1976) and L'adolescente (1979). She has also served twice as the president of the Cannes FIlm Festival jury (1975 and 1995) and has won a number of honors, including a Golden Lion for career achievement at the 1991 Venice Film Festival and a 1997 European Film Academy Lifetime Achievement Award. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
John Frankenheimer directs Burt Lancaster in the tense spy thriller The Train. Lancaster plays Labiche, a French railway inspector. Allied forces are threatening to liberate Paris, so Col. Franz von Waldheim (Paul Scofield) is ordered to move the priceless works of art from the Jeu de Paume Museum to the fatherland. The head of the museum (Suzanne Flon) attempts to convince Labiche that he should sabotage the train on which they are transporting the art. Labiche is more focused on destroying a trainload of German weapons. After his friend is killed trying to stop the train with the art, and after a consciousness-raising conversation with a hotel owner (Jeanne Moreau), Labiche resolves to save the antiquities. Lancaster and Frankenheimer had worked together previously on both Birdman of Alcatraz and Seven Days in May. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Lancaster, Paul Scofield, (more)
Two of the most beautiful women in the European cinema of the 1960s -- Brigitte Bardot and Jeanne Moreau -- team up under the direction of Louis Malle in this engaging comedy/adventure. Maria Fitzgerald O'Malley (Bardot) is the daughter of an Irish political dissident who has traveled to Latin America with her father to take part in an anarchist political uprising. When her father is killed, Maria, left to her own devices, happens upon a traveling circus, where she strikes up a friendship with one of the performers, also named Maria (Moreau). Maria O'Malley joins up with the carnival, and she works up a dance routine with Maria; the act is a smash hit, especially after the Irish Maria accidentally loses part of her costume during a performance. Despite their success, the two Marias find themselves increasingly distressed with the poverty and brutality of the peasants' lives, and they soon decide to use their talents in support of revolutionary leader Flores (George Hamilton). Viva Maria!'s original ending was trimmed slightly for its American release, but the complete version was later released in the United States on DVD. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brigitte Bardot, Jeanne Moreau, (more)
The second screen version of Octave Mirbeau's novel (originally filmed in 1946 by Jean Renoir), Diary of a Chambermaid charts the ambitions of Celestine (Jeanne Moreau), a woman who comes to work in the 1930s for a Normandy estate occupied by Monsieur Rabour (Jean Ozenne), his daughter (Francoise Lugagne), and the daughter's husband, Monsieur Montiel (Michel Piccoli). Celestine quickly learns that M. Rabour is a more or less harmless boot fetishist, his daughter a frigid woman more concerned with the family furnishings than in returning the affections of her husband, who, in turn, can't keep his hands off the servants. The gamekeeper, Joseph (Georges Geret), is a fascist who keeps his masters informed of all the doings downstairs, and the next-door neighbor (Daniel Ivernel) is a veteran who can't stand Monteil and is sharing a bed with his housekeeper. Celestine picks her way through this minefield carefully, spurning the advances of all of the men until it's convenient for her. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeanne Moreau, Michel Piccoli, (more)
In this drama, from director Anthony Asquith, the lives and stories of three different people are linked together by their possession of an unusual car, a yellow Rolls Royce Phantom II. Lord Frinton (Rex Harrison) is a diplomat who purchases the exquisite auto as a gift for his wife (Jeanne Moreau). After Frinton's horse wins the Royal Gold Cup, Lady Frinton incurs the Lord's wrath when she is caught in the back seat of the Rolls with his underling John Fane (Edmund Purdom). In the 1930s, the car is bought by Italian gangster Paolo Maltese (George C. Scott), who is carrying on with the hatcheck girl Mae Jenkins (Shirley MacLaine). The two take a tour of Italy and see all the historic sights, but Mae is less than impressed. While Paolo is in the United States on one of his frequent hit-man assignments, Mae and a street photographer try out the back seat for comfort and carnal pleasure. Art Carney plays Paolo's associate Joey. In the final episode, Gerda Millett (Ingrid Bergman) is the married American woman who buys the car in 1942. With Hitler attacking Yugoslavia the brave and brazen beauty helps fight the Nazis by smuggling Davich (Omar Shariff) across the border, and this duo also find themselves in the back seat for a roll in the Rolls. Davich shows his gratitude by shipping the car along with Gerda back to the United States. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rex Harrison, Jeanne Moreau, (more)
Much of Orson Welles' latter-day reputation as an "unfathomable" genius rests upon his seeming unwillingness to tell a story in clear, precise fashion. Sometimes, as in such films as Touch of Evil, Welles' spotty storytelling skills can be forgiven in the light of the excellent visuals. In other cases, as in his 1962 adaptation of Kafka's The Trial, Welles'style comes across as empty virtuosity, precious and petulant when it should be profound. Anthony Perkins plays Joseph K, a man condemned for an unnamed crime in an unnamed country. Seeking justice, Joseph K is sucked into a labyrinth of bureaucracy (Welles once described the character as being a "little bureaucrat" himself, who deserves to be punished. This is never clearly expressed in the finished film). Along the way, he becomes involved with three women -- Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider, Elsa Martinelli -- who in their own individual ways are functions of the System that persecutes him.
While Welles considered The Trial one of his finest films, this enthusiasm is not universally shared; even his most fervent admirers have been known to emerge from a screening of the film with quizzical, disappointed expressions on their faces. On the plus side, Welles and his cinematographer Edmond Richard perform miracles in transforming an abandoned French railway station into the headquarters of a totalitarian, red tape-ridden society. It's also fun to hear Welles' voice emanating from several of the supporting characters (his post-dubbing budget was nil). All in all, however, The Trial never truly works; it is unfair, however, to lay the blame for this entirely on Welles, inasmuch as the 1948 and 1994 attempts to cinematize the original Kafka novel likewise came a cropper. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
While Welles considered The Trial one of his finest films, this enthusiasm is not universally shared; even his most fervent admirers have been known to emerge from a screening of the film with quizzical, disappointed expressions on their faces. On the plus side, Welles and his cinematographer Edmond Richard perform miracles in transforming an abandoned French railway station into the headquarters of a totalitarian, red tape-ridden society. It's also fun to hear Welles' voice emanating from several of the supporting characters (his post-dubbing budget was nil). All in all, however, The Trial never truly works; it is unfair, however, to lay the blame for this entirely on Welles, inasmuch as the 1948 and 1994 attempts to cinematize the original Kafka novel likewise came a cropper. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Perkins, Jeanne Moreau, (more)
- 1963
An epic and unusual anti-war drama about WWII, writer-director Carl Foreman's heavily ironic saga is loosely based on the novel The Human Kind by Alexander Baron. It follows the adventures of an American infantry platoon based in Sicily that participates in the invasion of France, marches into Germany, and remains there for the Allied post-war occupation. Interspersed during the nearly three-hour film are vignettes of silly newsreel scenes from the home front. These are contrasted with disturbing incidents from the war. George Peppard plays Corporal Chase, who has an affair with a woman who wants him to desert to help her run a black market business. He visits the wounded Sergeant Craig (Eli Wallach) in the hospital and finds that most of his face has been blown away. Sgt. Trower (George Hamilton) takes up with a woman who turns out to be a prostitute The plot is highly episodic, with characters coming and going. Originally released at 175 minutes, the picture was withdrawn from distribution and edited down to 156 minutes to place greater emphasis on onscreen action. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Hamilton, George Peppard, (more)
Bay of the Angels (La Baie des anges) stars Jeanne Moreau as a middle-aged Parisian gambling addict who leaves her husband and children and heads for the roulette tables of Nice. There she meets young and handsome Claude Mann--a meeting which coincides with Moreau's first winning streak. She latches onto Mann in the belief that he's a good luck charm, and remains with him even when she starts losing heavily. Mann, emotionally drained, walks out of the relationship. The film ends with Mann entreating Moreau to return with him to the bourgeois existence that she'd escaped in the first scene. Bay of the Angels was directed by Jacques Demy, just before he achieved international fame with his musical films Young Girls of Rochefort and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeanne Moreau, Claude Mann, (more)
Maurice Ronet plays an alcoholic writer, Alain Leroy, who is on the verge of suicide (his character is based on writer Jacques Rigaut, who killed himself in 1929). The psychiatrist assigned to Leroy is no help, advising his patient to seek a reconciliation with his wife, who is still smarting from Leroy's recent liaison with Lydia (Lena Skerla). Still obsessed with the notion of taking his own life, Leroy plans to stage his demise on July 23. A last-ditch effort to jolly himself out of his doldrums fails, and Leroy, with a picture of Marilyn Monroe at his side, snuffs himself out. Though a case study of a man victimized by his own isolationism, The Fire Within has some surprising random optimistic moments. The French title for The Fire Within is Le Feu Follet, which was also the title of the novel by Pierre Drieu La Rochelle (another suicide!) from which this film was adapted. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maurice Ronet, Jeanne Moreau, (more)
In this lightweight French comedy a pair of sharpers, Cathy (Jeanne Moreau) and her ex-husband Michel (Jean-Paul Belmondo) attempt to bilk a miserly millionaire out of his fortune during his visit to the French Riviera. Unfortunately for them, he is just as crafty as they are. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeanne Moreau, Jean-Paul Belmondo, (more)
Acclaimed French director François Truffaut's third and, for many viewers, best film is an adaptation of a semi-autobiographical novel by Henri-Pierre Roché. Set between 1912 and 1933, it stars Oskar Werner as the German Jules and Henri Serre as the Frenchman Jim, kindred spirits who, while on holiday in Greece, fall in love with the smile on the face of a sculpture. Back in Paris, the smile comes to life in the person of Catherine (Jeanne Moreau); the three individuals become constant companions, determined to live their lives to the fullest despite the world war around them. When Jules declares his love for Catherine, Jim agrees to let Jules pursue her, despite his own similar feelings; Jules and Catherine marry and have a child (Sabine Haudepin), but Catherine still loves Jim as well. An influential film that has grown in stature over the decades, Jules et Jim was often viewed by the counterculture of the 1960s as a cinematic proponent of the free-love movement, but in actuality the picture is a statement against such a way of life. Despite the bond shared by Jules, Jim, and Catherine, their ménage à trois is doomed to fail; and Catherine's inability to choose between the two men leads to tragic consequences for all three. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeanne Moreau, Oskar Werner, (more)
Joseph Losey's turbulent melodrama concerns a phony writer, Tyvian Jones (Stanley Baker), who has recently sold the film rights to his autobiography as a Welsh coal miner (actually penned by his deceased brother). Tyvian is engaged to Francesca (Virna Lisi), an alluring screenwriter, but then Eva (Jeanne Moreau) walks into his life. Eva and her lover had sought shelter from a thunderstorm in his apartment and Tyvian is immediately attracted to her. He follows her to Rome, where Eva demands an elaborate hotel suite, tons of gambling money, and a bonus for sexual favors. When Tyvian assents in gratifying her wishes, Eva just laughs at him. Tyvian then has to rush back to Francesca, since they are going to be married. But Tyvian forsakes her on their honeymoon and takes up with Eva again. Finding Tyvian and Eva together, Francesca is heartbroken and she commits suicide. After the funeral, Tyvian sets his sights on killing Eva, but, when he sees her, he finds that he is still obsessed with her. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeanne Moreau, Stanley Baker, (more)
Director Jean-Luc Godard's deceptively blithe tribute to the musical comedy features Anna Karina as an exotic dancer who decides that it is time for her to have a child. When her lover refuses to commit to the decision, she turns her romantic attentions to his best friend. This being a Godard film, the straightforward story serves as a framework for improvisation and stylistic experimentation, allowing for odd interludes and unexpected images. Rather than the sometimes alienating, dense intellectualism of later Godard works, Une femme est une femme offers aesthetic pleasure through luxurious visuals and a charming musical score by Michel Legrand. Against this bright backdrop, Karina proves particularly fetching, capturing the film's frolicsome mood in an unforced manner. While not one of Godard's most groundbreaking or influential films, Une femme est une femme is one of his most appealing and pleasurable efforts. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Karina, Jean-Paul Belmondo, (more)
La Notte is another of Michelangelo Antonioni's cinematic interrupted journeys. Just as no one solved the central mystery in Antonioni's L'Avventura, neither does anyone truly enjoy the literary party that is La Notte's centerpiece. The party is being thrown to celebrate the publication of author Marcello Mastrioanni's new novel. But before he even reaches the door of the house, Mastrioanni's evening is ruined when his wife Jeanne Moreau announces suddenly she is disgusted with him--this reaction evidently triggered by an earlier visit to a dying friend. Moreau skips out on the party to wander the streets, searching for...for what? Meanwhile, Mastrioanni tries to inaugurate an empty affair with Monica Vitti, the daughter of a wealthy industrialist. The very elements that drive Mastrioanni and Moreau apart at the beginning of the film reunite them at the end. Maybe. L'Avventura and La Notte were the first two chapters in Antonioni's "barreness and alienation" trilogy; the third, L'Eclisse, was released two years later. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marcello Mastroianni, Jeanne Moreau, (more)
- 1960
In this drama, an industrialist's wife finds herself bored by her opulent existence. One day, while she waits for her son to finish his music lesson, she hears a woman scream at a nearby bistro. She then sees a man being hauled away from a woman's body. Her curiosity piqued, she becomes a regular at the cafe. There she meets one of her husband's workers. Over drinks, they talk about the murder. As they converse, the worker realizes that the woman herself wants to die, and he abandons her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Paul Belmondo, Didier Haudepin, (more)
- 1960
Once branded himself by the House Un-American Activities Committee, award-winning director Martin Ritt focuses on the cruel branding of five women in this standard wartime drama. Some of his better-known films (The Spy Who Came In from the Cold, Norma Rae) also deal with the question of social and ethical choices in the face of pressure. In this story, the savagery of the Yugoslav partisans as they fight off Nazi occupation forces is also vented on five women accused of Nazi sympathies because of their sexual association with one German officer. The women (played by Silvana Mangano, Vera Miles, Barbara Bel Geddes, Jeanne Moreau, and Carla Gravina) have their heads shaved in order to brand them as traitors. What the partisans did to the German officer (Steve Forrest) in revenge for sleeping with these women was much worse. Intermittently shocking, the film with its excess cruelty and hatreds stands as a good indictment against war and its causes. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Silvana Mangano, Vera Miles, (more)
- 1960
This drama about the Carmelite order of nuns is set during the French Revolution. A young woman seeks refuge with the Carmelites because she is terrified of dying during the upheaval. The longer she associates with the nuns the more she is transformed by their faith and devotion. When the nuns are rounded up to be guillotined for their beliefs, the young woman finds enough courage to not only overcome her fear of dying, but to substitute herself for one of the nuns so that the order can continue in that one life that was saved. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeanne Moreau, Alida Valli, (more)
- 1959
Pierre Ambroise Francois Choderlos de Laclos's 18th century novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses was filmed several times. In Roger Vadim's version, Jeanne Moreau coerces her husband Gerard Philippe into ruining the reputation of pious Annette Vadim (the director's wife at the time). Philippe spoils Moreau's nasty little plan by falling in love with his intended victim. While the novel merely humiliated Moreau's character for her misdeeds, Vadim comes up with a far more painful and permanent punishment. Since the release of the 1988 Dangerous Liaisons, Vadim's film has travelled under the title Dangerous Liaisons 1960 (even though it was technically completed in 1959, and released to the U.S. in 1961). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gérard Philipe, Jeanne Moreau, (more)
For his feature-film debut, critic-turned-director François Truffaut drew inspiration from his own troubled childhood. The 400 Blows stars Jean-Pierre Léaud as Antoine Doinel, Truffaut's preteen alter ego. Misunderstood at home by his parents and tormented in school by his insensitive teacher (Guy Decomble), Antoine frequently runs away from both places. The boy finally quits school after being accused of plagiarism by his teacher. He steals a typewriter from his father (Albert Remy) to finance his plans to leave home. The father angrily turns Antoine over to the police, who lock the boy up with hardened criminals. A psychiatrist at a delinquency center probes Antoine's unhappiness, which he reveals in a fragmented series of monologues. Originally intended as a 20-minute short, The 400 Blows was expanded into a feature when Truffaut decided to elaborate on his self-analysis. For the benefit of Truffaut's fellow film buffs, The 400 Blows is full of brief references to favorite directors, notably Truffaut's then-idol Jean Vigo. The film won the 1959 Best Director prize at the Cannes Film Festival, even though Truffaut had been declared persona non grata the year before for his inflammatory comments about the festival's commercialism. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Pierre Léaud, Robert Beauvais, (more)
- 1958
Echec au Porteur (Not Delivered) is a nail-biting suspense tale in the Hitchcock manner. The disgruntled protagonist decides to kill an old enemy with a bomb concealed in a football. The bomb is misdelivered, ending up in the hands of a young boy. The rest of the picture is a race against time as the boy innocently plays with his pigskin booby trap. Co-adapted by Noel Calaf from his own novel, Echec au Porteur boasts excellent performances from Jeanne Moreau, Serge Reggiani, Paul Meurisse and Gert Froebe; incredibly, Variety felt that the cast lacked "name value." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Serge Reggiani, Jeanne Moreau, (more)
- 1958
Les Louves was also released as Demoniaque and She Wolves. By any name, it's a puzzler, at least until the final fast-paced scenes. Gervais (François Perier) escapes from a German concentration camp and assumes the identity of a recently deceased fellow prisoner. Knowing that the dead man has been carrying on a romance by correspondence with Helene (Micheline Presle), a woman whom he has never seen, Gervais makes the acquaintance of the woman and moves in with her. The woman's sister, Agnes (Jeanne Moreau), dabbles in the black arts, which should be warning enough for Gervais to make himself scarce. But he sticks around, intrigued that the dead man's sister, Julia (Madeleine Robinson), refuses to blow the whistle on him. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- François Perier, Micheline Presle, (more)
- 1958
Trois Jours a Vivre (Three Days to Live) takes off with a bang when two-bit actor Daniel Gelin witnesses a murder. He didn't see the killer, but that doesn't stop him from claiming that he did in order to get his name into the papers. Sure enough, the murderer targets Gelin as his next victim. Our hero is temporarily rescued by Jeanne Moreau, an aspiring actress who has always had a crush on him. Unfortunately, Moreau is likewise slated for extinction by the mystery murderer. Based on a novel by Peter Vanett, Trois Jours a Vivre was a bit too talky for American action fans. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Gélin, Jeanne Moreau, (more)
The Lovers (Les Amants) furthered the reputations of both director Louis Malle and star Jeanne Moreau -- and also pushed the boundaries of American censorship (1959 vintage) to the breaking point. Moreau plays a humdrum housewife whose life brightens considerably when she meets a handsome young archeologist (Jean-Marc Bory). The two enjoy an exquisite evening in the boudoir, and when comes the dawn, Moreau has gained a whole new outlook on things. She abandons her family in favor of Bory, even though neither has the slightest notion of what the future will hold. The Lovers gained notoriety upon its first release as the Movie With the Nude Scene: though a model of decorum by today's standards (the most suggestive moment is a shot of Moreau's hand falling limply on the bedsheets), the scene provided fodder for outraged guardians of public morals for several years. One hapless Cleveland theatre owner was arrested on an obscenity charge, a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court. The Venice Film festival took a more liberal stance on the matter, awarding The Lovers a special jury prize. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeanne Moreau, Alain Cuny, (more)
- 1958
When Jacques Decret (Gérard Oury) discovers that his wife Gloria (Jeanne Moreau) has been unfaithful, he devises an all-too-clever scheme of revenge in Edouard Molinaro's Le Dos au Mur (Back to the Wall): he sends her an anonymous blackmail letter. After she ignores the threat, he cranks up the pressure and sends incriminating photographs. While Gloria does send him the money, she and her lover Yves (Philippe Nicaud) try to fight back. But Jacques outsmarts them by turning the lovers against each other. Not surprisingly, the plan spirals out of control, and the results are even more sordid than Jacques had intended. ~ Steve Press, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeanne Moreau, Gérard Oury, (more)
- 1957
This French crime melodrama was released outside of Europe as Until the Last One. The film begins with a daring robbery, masterminded by a gang of clever thieves. Unfortunately, once the heist is a fait accompli, the crooks begin bickering with one another. Gradually, the crooks kill each other off until only two are left. The thrilling climax takes place in a gaudy travelling carnival. Enabling Jusqu'au Ernier to get good American bookings was the presence of leading lady Jeanne Moreau, here enticingly cast as a sideshow dancer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Raymond Pellegrin, Jeanne Moreau, (more)
The feature-film debut of famed director Louis Malle is an interesting, modern film noir with the classic theme of lovers plotting to kill the husband and make it look like suicide (reminiscent of The Postman Always Rings Twice). Jeanne Moreau, as Florence Carala, gives an astonishing performance, perverse but naive as she leads her young lover down a path that can only lead to doom for both of them. Malle and his cinematographer Henri Decae make extensive use of Paris at night, giving the film the feel of claustrophobia and desperation reminiscent of the classic noir films. The excellent score by Miles Davis adds to the entire effect of this mystery thriller. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeanne Moreau, Maurice Ronet, (more)
