Jean-Louis Allibert Movies
- 1954
Sacha Guitry's Si Versailles M'Etait Conte (If Versailles Were Told to Me) is best known by its American title Royal Affairs in Versailles. In addtion to writing and directed the film, Guitry reserves for himself the plum role of Louis XIV. Concentrating on the palace of Versailles over a period of 300 years, the storyline concentrates on the various amorous and political intrigues of three French kings. The plot manages to wend its way through the French revolution, coming to a halt in "the present". The star-studded supporting cast includes Jean Marais as Louis XV, Claudette Colbert as Mme. Montespan, Micheline Presle as Mme. Pompadour, and, best of all, Orson Welles as a gouty Ben Franklin. Most currently available prints of Si Versailles M'Etait Conte are severely edited, and fail to do justice to the rich Eastmancolor hues of the original version. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sacha Guitry, Jean Marais, (more)
- 1949
Jacques Becker's Rendez-vous de Juillet has been credited as the first postwar European film to accurately depict the Continental "youth culture." Teenaged Lucien (Daniel Gelin) aspires to become a filmmaker, and to that end organizes his friends into a film unit. The young cineastes hope to make a journey into Africa, there to film an uncompromisingly realistic documentary. Amusingly, Lucien and his friends are shown to be rather ill-equipped for "real life," shuttling as they do between theatre classes, jazz bars and coffee houses. Also, Lucien will have to overcome some family problems before he can embrace the responsibilities of adulthood. The winner of a critics' award at the Cannes Film Festival, Rendez-vous de Juillet was released in the U.S. as Appointment with Life. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Gélin, Maurice Ronet, (more)
- 1948
L'Ecole Buissoniere could be described as a small-scale Gallic version of Goodbye Mr. Chips. Bernard Blier stars as Pascal, a head-in-the-clouds teacher forced to come down to earth when he is assigned a woebegone rural school. Hoping to stimulate his students, Pascal digresses from the established curriculum, only to run afoul of the hidebound adults in the vicinity. Eventually, however, he is successful with his students--all but one. The climax finds Pascal desperately trying to turn his lone "problem student" around before his license is revoked. The film works best in the one-on-one scenes between Bernard Blier and recalcitrant schoolboy D. Caron. The 115-minute running time was trimmed considerably when L'Ecole Buissoniere made it to American television in the mid-1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bernard Blier, Edouard Delmont, (more)
- 1937
Jean Renoir's epic account of the French Revolution juxtaposes the opulent life of King Louis XVI with the poverty of the commoners who rose up to overthrow the monarchy in 1789. The film's title comes from the rallying song which grew out of the peasants' march on the Bastille, the song that ultimately became the French national anthem. Filmed with a cast of thousands, the focus is on two members of a large volunteer battalion who help the revolutionary army in its takeover of the Tulleries, which resulted in the publication of the Brunswick Manifesto and ultimately led to King Louis' downfall. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi
- Starring:
- Pierre Renoir, Lise Delamare, (more)
