Leslie Caron Movies

Based on the 1997 National Book Award-nominated novel of the same name by Diane Johnson (co-writer of the script for Stanley Kubrick's The Shining), Le Divorce is a romantic comedy from director James Ivory. Revisiting the "Americans in France" theme that Ivory explored in 1998's A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, the film stars Kate Hudson as Isabel Walker. When she receives word that her pregnant poetess sister Roxy (Naomi Watts) has been left by her philandering French husband, artist Charles-Henri de Persand (Melvil Poupaud), Isabel offers her help and moral support. As the depressive Roxy struggles with the separation proceedings -- which include the rights to ownership of a work of art that's a family heirloom -- Isabel takes a job with author Olivia Pace and has a fling with the bohemian Yves (Romain Duris). But things get complicated when the younger, more impudent sister decides instead to pursue Charles' uncle, the snooty, married diplomat Edgar (Thierry Lhermitte), and when a mysterious man (Matthew Modine) starts stalking Roxy. Eventually, the rest of the plucky Walker clan has to come to the aid of the siblings. Stockard Channing and Sam Waterston co-star. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

A group of trailblazing female musicians try to take another shot at success in this musical comedy-drama produced for the premium cable network HBO. In the 1940s, the Blonde Bombshells were the finest all-female jazz band in the U.K., playing hot swing music that helped raise England's spirits during the dark days of WWII. Fifty years later, Elizabeth (Judi Dench), one of the band's sax players, is trying to decide what to do with herself after the death of her husband. Pulling her axe out of mothballs, Elizabeth starts playing again, and after meeting Patrick (Ian Holm), the group's former manager (and drummer-in-drag), they decide to put the group back together for a reunion tour. But they soon discover that putting the band back on the road after over fifty years is no easy task. The Last of the Blonde Bombshells also stars Leslie Caron, Olympia Dukakis, and jazz vocalist Cleo Laine. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Michael Chekhov and George Shdanoff were Russian expatriates who came to Hollywood and became two of the best known and most influential acting coaches in the film industry; Chekhov was nominated for an Academy Award for his work in Spellbound, and as a teacher he and his associate Shdanoff helped guide the careers of Leslie Caron, Patricia Neal, Gregory Peck, Rex Harrison, Marilyn Monroe and Clint Eastwood. From Russia to Hollywood provides a glimpse into their lives and careers as Chekhov flees Russia for Germany after the Communist government expresses its displeasure with his productions for the Moscow Art Theater (Stanislavsky considered Chekhov a genius, but the government considered him ideologically unsound). When the Nazis began to rise to power, Chekhov relocated to the United States, where he taught acting when not busy with his own career on the stage and screen. Here, several of Chekhov and Shdanoff's better known students discuss their work and how their teachings effected a generation of Hollywood actors. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Tommy Fawkes (Oliver Platt) is a struggling stand-up comedian who has tried for years to get out from under the shadow of his father, George Fawkes (Jerry Lewis), himself a famous humorist. Tommy finally scores a showcase spot at a major resort in Las Vegas, but when opening night rolls around, Tommy's act is an unqualified disaster, with the failure made even more painful by his father's presence in the audience. In search of a fresh start, Tommy heads to Blackpool, England, where he was born and raised, to look for a new act. Hoping to buy material from local performers, Tommy auditions a large number of acts, most of whom are utterly hopeless, until he sees a hilarious vaudeville team, the Parker Brothers. Their act seems more than a bit familiar, however, and Tommy soon realizes that they're doing his father's old material. But they have every right to be doing George's schtick -- it seems George stole his act from the Parkers ages ago. What's more, the younger and more eccentric of the Parker Boys, Jack (Lee Evans), is actually Tommy's half brother, the product of a fling with a Blackpool showgirl years ago. Veering between comedy and drama, Funny Bones has more than its share of effective moments on either side of the fence, and features fine supporting performances from Oliver Reed, Leslie Caron and Harold Nicholas. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Filmmaker Jean Renoir (1894-1979) had an extremely long career writing, directing, producing and acting in films, beginning in the silent era, right up until the time of his death, when most of his productions were influenced by the medium of television. He was one of the sons of the famous Impressionist painter August Renoir. This two part documentary was filmed to be released on British television in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of his birth. His influence on French filmmaking in particular was so great that he was sometimes referred to as le patron (which, among other things, means "the boss"), and no further identification was needed. The majority of his more noteworthy films were produced in the 1930s, and the film most people consider to have been his masterpiece, La Règle du Jeu or The Rules of the Game was so scathing in its criticism of 1939 French society that it provoked an outcry and he withdrew it from circulation, only releasing it again after his return to France some years after the Second World War. The documentary makers have coaxed Renoir's son to be interviewed, along with as many surviving contemporaries as could be found. In addition to numerous film clips, the documentary is fleshed out with interviews with more contemporary figures who discuss his importance in the history of cinema. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Adapted from Josephine Hart's spare novel by British screenwriter David Hare and French director Louis Malle, this brooding erotic drama concerns the obsessive sexual relationship between an English politician and his son's lover. Stephen Flemming (Jeremy Irons), an up-and-coming member of Parliament, has a beautiful and loving wife, Ingrid (Miranda Richardson), and two children, including son Martyn (Rupert Graves), a successsful journalist. Sparks fly, however, when Stephen meets beautiful art-world denizen Anna Barton (Juliette Binoche), Martyn's new girlfriend. A measured, seemingly passionless man who believes that life can be controlled, Stephen suddenly finds himself unable to resist brief but intense liaisons with the mysterious, melancholy Anna. Eventually she explains the palpable air of sadness that hangs over her: When she was 15, her beloved older brother committed suicide because he could not possess her. "Remember," Anna warns Stephen, "Damaged people are dangerous. They know they can survive." Drawn to Anna and the passion she engenders in him, Stephen tries to justify his betrayal by telling himself Martyn isn't serious about Anna; he is stunned, then, when the two announce their engagement. On the advice of Anna's mother (Leslie Caron), who sees right through the charade, Stephen tries to break things off. But soon the affair resumes with full force, eventually destroying several lives. Although Damage's stark, frank sex scenes were trimmed to attain an R rating for theatrical release, the original, uncut version is available on video and DVD. Richardson received an Oscar nomination for her work. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

At the same time the last of the free Plains tribes in North America were being herded onto reservations, the Argentinians were similarly engaged on the plains Patagonia. In this drama, set in 1880, a colonel in the Argentine army has come to this remote region with his aristocratic French wife in the hopes of making his fortune while opening this land to European exploitation. The harsh and greedy nature of the conquerers is clearly shown as they oppress everyone in sight, including their own people. One story involves the ultimately unsuccessful efforts of the colonel's wife to repatriate a French girl who has spent the past ten years among the Indians. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this drama, an American art student is trapped amidst the political turmoil of war-torn Europe while visiting Paris and staying at the fabulous Ritz hotel. Rather than cope constructively with it all, the fellow opts to ignore it and continue living the high-life for as long as possible. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Another of the many Sidney Sheldon novels given the TV-miniseries treatment in the 1970s and '80s, Master of the Game yielded a three-part, nine-hour extravaganza, with enough corporate and romantic intrigue to fill an entire television season. Covering nearly 100 years, the story (which remained astonishingly faithful to the book) begins in the late 19th century, when ruthless young Scottish entrepreneur Jamie McGregor (Ian Charleson) emigrates to South Africa, in hopes of accumulating enough wealth and power to get even with his longtime enemy, Dutch merchant Van der Merwe (Donald Pleasence). Thanks to an extremely prolific diamond mine, the money comes quickly -- as does vengeance, when McGregor deflowers Van der Merwe's convent-educated daughter, Margaret (Cherie Lunghi). The result of this indiscretion is a daughter named Kate (Dyan Cannon), who turns out to be the "Master" of the title. Upon attaining adulthood, Kate assumes control of her father's vast financial empire, ruling her inherited international conglomerate, and her husband, David Blackwell (David Birney), with an iron fist. The story continues into the next several generations, with Kate's lily-livered son, Tony (Harry Hamlin), giving birth to twin daughters, Eve and Alexandra (both played by Liane Langland). One is good, the other evil; the evil twin threatens threaten to destroy everything that Kate has so painstakingly built up. Eventually, they both become the victims of a sneering, malevolent gigolo (Fernando Allende) with a penchant for beating young women senseless. Told in flashback, the narrative comes to a head during Kate's 90th birthday celebration, an event tainted by the efforts of a mysterious killer to wipe the domineering matriarch and her family from the face of the earth. Largely filmed on location, Master of the Game was telecast by CBS from February 19 to 22, 1984. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Polish director Krzysztof Zanussi once more explores the dilemma of intellectualism at the expense of humanity in 1982's Imperative. The story concerns math professor Robert Powell, who feels that there is something lacking in his ever-so-precise life. What is missing is truth, specifically philosophical truth. Thus he philosophizes at great length, allowing director Zanussi plenty of room for didactic but little room for warmth. Leading ladies Brigette Fossey and Leslie Caron occasionally melt through the cold logic of Imperative. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Students of the Paris music conservatory work at putting on an evening's entertainment in this musical comedy which has less of a lift than the dancers in some of the performances. While the students, of varying talent and origins, get their respective acts together, the mother (Leslie Caron) of one of them dallies with her daughter's boyfriend. Svelte and fit as the dancer she once was, the mother turns out to be the most talented of the lot -- though that is not a part of the storyline, just an observation. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

When he suddenly dies and is buried, the late Bertrand Morane (Charles Denner), an aeronautical engineer from Montpelier, receives funeral visitation from hundreds of women. Little wonder: in life, Morane simply couldn't keep his mind off of women -- one glance at a well-turned ankle and he was lost. Astonishingly, women felt the same way about him. Though more than one paramour held it against Bertrand when his eyes wandered, he never considered his promiscuousness a shortcoming -- which led him into amorous relationships with such colorful characters as a married sociopath (with a taste for lovemaking in risky places), a shapely blonde babysitter, an introspective book editor, and dozens of others. Ironically, Morane's success with women hardly represented a gift, for a deep, abiding loneliness lingered within him, resulting from his utter inability to love one woman. Bertrand (who eventually decided to write and publish his autobiography, "The Man Who Loved Women," as a form of self-analysis), could never quite pinpoint the source of his lack of romantic faithfulness, until a fateful and utterly unexpected chance encounter with someone from his past. Read by many as a thinly disguised film à clef for writer/director François Truffaut, The Man Who Loved Women mixes sharp, witty comedy with scenes of gentle poignancy; Truffaut uses the tale to make some deep and tremendously profound comments about love, sex, fidelity, and the underlying differences between men and women. The picture was thinly remade in 1983 by Blake Edwards, with Burt Reynolds as the irresistible hero and Julie Andrews as his therapist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide