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French films of the 1960s
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Over forty years after making his landmark epic Napoléon , Abel Gance returns to the life of France’s most famous general in this lavish production which focuses on one comparatively short but decisive point in his life. Whilst Austerlitz is visually impressive, with great attention to period detail, and is historically about as accurate as a film can be...
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Abel Davos, an ageing crook hunted by the police, decides to give up his life of crime, but only after having pulled off one last hold-up in Italy. The robbery is a success and he flees with the loot, accompanied by his wife and two sons. They get as far as the French border but are apprehended by customs inspectors. Although Davos and his two sons manage to escape...
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Just as French cinema was going through its most significant upheaval for decades, FBI agent Lemmy Caution made a welcome return to cinema screens after an absence of nearly five years. Forget the French New Wave; we are back in the safe, familiar world of sauve secret agents, svelte and seductive women, guns and fist fights...
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Jean Giono is one of France’s most respected writers, famous for his enduring descriptions of Provence life. Many of his novels have been adapted for cinema – most successfully by Marcel Pagnol. Crésus was Giono’s first and only attempt to direct a film – a simple, unambitious film which appears to have fallen through a time warp from the 1930s...
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Carmilla von Karstein becomes anxious when she hears the legend of an ancestor of hers, Millarca, who escaped the grisly death reserved for vampires. During a lavish party organised by her cousin Leopoldo to celebrate his engagement to Georgia Monteverdi an explosion destroys a nearby abbey. A secret passage is revealed...
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Fortunat is an engaging tragicomic melodrama which paints a realistic and moving picture of life for ordinary folk living in France during the Occupation. The film stars two of France’s acting legends, Michèle Morgan and Bourvil, both of whom are on fine form, with Bourvil in particular giving one of his most sympathetic and captivating screen performances...
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Les Honneurs de la guerre is a simple, little known film, made on a modest budget, but, it must surely rate as one of the most powerful and memorable anti-war films ever made. The sheer mad absurdity of war and the ease with which humankind can, through a combination of fear, distrust and desire for revenge, succumb to the evil impulse for blood lust are illustrated with heart-breaking effect...
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One day, Michel Ferréol reluctantly meets up with an old school friend, Antoine Fiesco. Michel didn’t like Antoine much when they were at school and tries to get away by making an excuse. He changes his mind when Antoine introduces him to his wife, a beautiful brunette named Christine. From the latter’s revelations about her husband...
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Bored with her marriage to businessman Daniel Marechal, Cora falls for the charms of Henri, the owner of a garage that sells second hand cars. She is impatient to live with Henri and plans to kill her husband. Even though she knows that Daniel suspects her of being unfaithful, Cora slips up by calling Henri. She is unaware that her husband is eavesdropping on another phone...
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The seven stages of woman – seven stories about French women and love in the sixties. Childhood: A seven-year-old girl wants to know the secrets of birth. Her parents do not know how to explain such a delicate matter... Adolescence: A sixteen-year-old girl is flirting with several admirers. Her parents must help her to find the right way.....
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Josépha is bored with her life in a dull provincial town. She lives with her uncle and looks on in envy at the gang of young people who drive past her house on their motorcycles. She would do almost anything to join the gang, even give false testimony that will have an innocent man convicted of the rape and murder of a young woman......
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Dominique Marceau is in jail, charged with the murder of her lover, Gilbert Tellier. As her trial proceeds, she calls to mind the past events that led to her present predicament. We see her life with her parents and her sister Annie, who was Gilbert’s fiancée. Dominique seduced Gilbert for fun and lived her own life...
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Brittany, Christmas 1943. Herta von Stauffen, a German soldier, makes an attempt to join her husband, Colonel von Stauffen, whom she has not seen since their wedding day. But Von Stauffen has orders to celebrate Christmas with his troops and so Herta is sent to the house of the widow Parisot, an old woman who regards Herta as an enemy because she is a German...
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André Hunebelle directs this swashbuckling historical romp with gusto and a characteristic cheerfulness, giving French cinema one of its enduring popular classics. The film stars Jean Marais, an iconic figure in French cinema who, having earned a reputation as a serious actor in the 1940s under the tutelage of his friend and mentor Jean Cocteau...
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After the enormous success of Le Bossu in 1959, director André Hunebelle brought together Jean Marais and Bourvil for a second time in a similar kind of swash-buckling historical adventure film. Although the film doesn’t exactly break new ground in its genre (except for the inclusion of two badly fitting musical numbers sung by Bourvil)...
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In May 1789, two young women enter a Carmelite convent in the town of Compiègne, France. One of the girls, Sister Constance, is a happy soul who willingly offers herself up to the austere life of the community. The other, Sister Blanche, is fearful and obsessed with death. Not long after the revolution begins, Sister Blanche’s brother...
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Le Mouton is unapologetically one of those slapdash low budget comedies intended to showcase the talents of a popular comedian of the day, in this case Fernand Raynaud. Although the script is awful, a concoction of silly situations that barely resembles a plot, Raynaud’s presence more than makes up for this and, whilst clearly not a masterpiece...
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Paris, 1939. War is about to be declared any day. Roger works in a bakery and Jean is a reporter for the magazine L’Espoir. The two men have nothing is common other than the war which is soon to engulf their lives. Although Jean is engaged to be married, he is determined to fight for freedom and does not hesitate to enlist in the army...
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Jean Cocteau’s final film is a fitting conclusion to a remarkable artistic career spanning over fifty years. The film manages to encompass all aspects of Cocteau’s creative genius and it is perhaps the best homage that cinema could offer him, whilst being a stunning work of art in its own right. As the title suggests...
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Le Trou, Jacques Becker’s last film, is undoubtedly the director’s best work and was hailed at the time (particularly by the New Wave directors such as François Truffaut) as a masterpiece. Today, it remains a compelling film, superbly directed and photographed with a remarkable attention to detail. The film bears some similarity to Robert Bresson’s 1956 film Un condamné...
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