Vladimir Pozner Movies
- 2001
This program is part of a series from the popular PBS science show NOVA. This episode takes a close-up look at who is minding the store of Russian nuclear weaponry. Are the people on the other side similar to their American counterparts in training and philosophy? Some of the answers are surprising. Interviews with Russian scientists and workers are presented, along with archival films and photographs. ~ Rose of Sharon Winter, All Movie Guide
- 1981
In the original story of Camille by Alexandre Dumas, Jr. La Dame aux Camelias, a beautiful Parisian courtesan, Marguerite Gautier, (called "Camille" because of her love for camelias) is supported by a series of aristocratic lovers, but does not fall in love until she meets Armand Duval. Armand's father lets it be known that Camille would ruin Armand because of her "low" past, and she leaves to save his reputation, saying she does not love him anymore. She soon contracts tuberculosis, and Armand hears that she is dying. He rushes to her side, finds out she has loved him all along, and she dies knowing he has always loved her. The True Story of Camille uses the ploy of Alexandre Dumas, Jr. doing his version of "Camille" at the turn of the 20th century, as a means of introducing a flashback to the "real" story behind the "real" Camille, Alphonsine Plessis. In the film, Alphonsine (Isabelle Huppert) - a country girl - was sold by her father to a wealthy neighbor, which starts her off on a round of living in expansive palaces and keeping company with wealthy aristocrats and eventually, Alexandre Dumas, Jr. himself. But that trajectory did not happen all at once. Alphonsine first survives, barely, as a seamstress in Paris. Then she becomes a prostitute, after which a Count Peregaunts (Bruno Ganz) marries her, then more or less disappears, leaving her to become a high-class courtesan. As she makes her way from one handsome, aristocratic client to the next, a noble protector, Count Stechelberg (Fernando Rey) keeps her out of harm's way. By the time she and Dumas meet, she has become infected with tuberculosis - and she has created the inspiration for Dumas' story of Camille. Her father comes along at this point, however, ready to trounce Dumas for romanticizing his daughter's wretched life - the same father that sold her off in the first place. If the viewer can remember that the characters of Marguerite Gautier (Carla Fracci) and Armand Duval from Dumas' story of Camille have been given their "real" personas as Alphonsine Plessis and Dumas in this film, then the story within a story make more sense. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Isabelle Huppert, Gian Maria Volontè, (more)
In Nicholas Ray's WWII drama, two British officers, Captain Leith (Richard Burton) and Major Brand (German character actor Curd Jürgens, who would later play Bond foe Karl Stromberg in The Spy Who Loved Me), a South African, are being considered to lead a daring raid to steal crucial documents from a Nazi stronghold in Libya. The two don't seem particularly fond of each other. Brand's wife, Jane (Ruth Roman of Strangers on a Train), arrives on the base. There's an odd awkwardness when Brand introduces her to Leith at the officers' club. It turns out the two already know each other, intimately. They were romantically involved long ago, until Leith broke it off without warning. Jane later met Brand. Leith and Jane keep their relationship a secret from Brand, but he realizes something's up when he goes out for a bit and comes back to find them dancing together. He later gets angry when his wife slips up and refers to Leith as "Jimmy." Brand and Leith are chosen to lead the mission together. Jane says goodbye to Leith, and Wilkins (Nigel Green of The Ipcress File) and some other soldiers see them together. The raid goes fairly smoothly, until Brand can't bring himself to kill a German sentry, and Leith feels compelled to step in and do it for him. Brand's resentment of Leith grows. The team steals the documents and heads out across the desert to make their escape. They're attacked by a German patrol, and after the melee, Brand arouses suspicious when he orders Leith to stay with three badly wounded soldiers while the rest of the group leaves for the rendezvous point. Bitter Victory is based on the novel by René Hardy. Jean-Luc Godard famously said of the film in his review, "Nicholas Ray is cinema." ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Burton, Curd Jürgens, (more)
- 1955
Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti (aka Herr Puntila and his Chauffeur Matti and Puntilla and His Hired Man) is based on the same-named play by Bertoldt Brecht. Curt Bois, best remembered as the oily pickpocket in Casablanca, stars as Puntila, a nasty Finnish landlord who turns into a nice guy whenever he's drunk (shades of Chaplin's City Lights). Puntila's chauffeur Matti (Heinz Engelman) shares several ribald adventures with his master, and at one point finds himself engaged to Puntila's nubile daughter Eva (Maria Emo). Brecht's merciless satire of class distinctions isn't quite as pungent as in the original, but audiences will get the point. Herr Puntila und sein Knect Matti was adapted for the screen by Vladimir Pozner (yes, that Vladimir Pozner!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Curt Bois, Heinz Engelmann, (more)
- 1954
This film is comprised of three vignettes focusing upon women and war. The first episode, set in WW II, chronicles the sad journey of an American woman who goes to Italy to bring her husband's body home. In Italy she makes a heart-wrenching discovery: he had been living with an Italian family and had impregnated their daughter and sees the child. The second story chronicles the abandonment of Joan of Arc, by her king and her soldiers. The third episode is a humorous adaptation of "Lysistrata," the Greek play where Athenian wives refused to sleep with their husbands until they stopped making war. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1949
Veteran French filmmaker Louis Daquin was the recipient of worldwide plaudits for his realistically detailed drama Le Point du Jour. Shot on location in a mining town, the film relates the story of a young miner named Larzac (Rene Lefevre). Unlike his elders, Larzac is terrified at the prospect of going deep into the bowels of the earth to earn his keep. After several dramatic complications related to his plight, Larzac overcomes his fear and gains pride of place. Le Point du Jour might make a fascinating double feature with John Ford's How Green Was My Valley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Desailly, René Lefèvre, (more)
- 1948
Another Part Of The Forest begins some twenty years before the events of Lillian Hellman's play and movie The Little Foxes and shows how that film's Hubbard family became the ruthless, greedy lot they were. It's fifteen years after the Civil War, and the Hubbards dominate their small Southern town financially, if not socially; The patriarch of the family (Fredric March) sold salt for $8 a pound to the Confederate Army at a time when they needed it most. Edmond O'Brien and Dan Duryea play his sons, the former as mean as his father, the latter and younger one a weakling. When the elder child finds out that his father was responsible for the death of Southern troops during the war, he threatens to expose the truth unless the family fortune is placed in his hands. In the end, only Hubbard's wife (Florence Eldridge) stands by her husband during his inevitable fall, and she banishes her own children from their house. Brilliant acting by all, especially March, Duryea, and O'Brien, plus a sharp script, make this unrelentingly grim melodrama fascinating to watch. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fredric March, Dan Duryea, (more)
Olivia De Havilland, with the assistance of some eye-popping special photographic effects, plays twins in The Dark Mirror. One twin commits a murder: The "good" twin is blamed, but provides no alibi in her own defense, since she can't believe that the "bad" twin is guilty. Psychologist Lew Ayres and detective Thomas Mitchell try to get to the truth, a task made difficult by the bad twin's habit of imitating her sister to perfection. Ayres solves the mystery and sorts out which twin is which, but not before nearly ending up on a slab in the morgue himself. Based on a novel by Vladimir Pozner (the same), The Dark Mirror was remade for television in 1984, with Jane Seymour in the lead--er, leads. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Olivia de Havilland, Lew Ayres, (more)
- 1944
This Casablanca-esque spy thriller set during WWII centers on the exploits of the notorious "Flying Dutchman," a fugitive resistance leader from Holland who heads for Lisbon where he hooks up with other members of the underground. One of them is a beautiful young woman, and none of the others trust her because she is married to an important German official. For the resistance leader, real trouble comes when he is framed for the murder of a fellow agent. Still he escapes from prison and hides out with his other colleague while he works to prove that he is innocent and carry out a major secret mission for the resistance. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hedy Lamarr, Paul Henreid, (more)
