01/18/10: SUNDAY ENCOUNTER (Marc Allegret, 1958) 
Yet another slight French film from a director past his prime; presciently, at the same time, it signaled the debut of one of the major icons of the “Nouvelle Vague” – actor Jean Paul Belmondo, who somewhat inconsequentially here plays the second romantic lead. Two of the three stars involved, in fact, had been leading ladies since the late 1930s (Danielle Darrieux and Arletty) and whose careers had understandably started dwindling by now; the third is comic Bourvil whose career would peak during the next decade. The film is a bittersweet romance with Bourvil still pining for the woman (Darrieux) whom he had met during WWII and who had left him 5 years previously: unbeknownst to him, she is currently in a relationship with one of his war buddies and, by chance, he notices her aboard a bus and catches up with her but they part ways soon after; however, he follows her and storms the office she had entered – where he comes face to face with his ex-colleague, but then leaves in dismay. So, Bourvil concocts a plan – with the help of his landlady (Arletty), her daughter and the latter’s unruly trumpeter boyfriend (Belmondo) – by which he gives appointment to Darrieux, ostensibly to discuss their divorce settlement, at his office (where he purports to impress his ex-wife by letting her believe he is top man) and, later, at a country villa actually owned by Arletty (having also borrowed his real boss’ swanky car for the occasion)! Incidentally, Bourvil has to act quickly if he wants to regain the woman he loves back – since Darrieux (who even gets to sing here) is to emigrate to Canada on that same day; the titular outing, then, is fraught with incident (having taken a gun and toyed with the idea of killing her if she insists on leaving, Arletty & Co. embark on a race-against-time to stop him) but also reminiscences of their life together. Of course, this being an old-fashioned French film, our couple gets back together in the end – with Darrieux even happy that Bourvil still owns his rickety ancient car. A pleasant enough effort, then, if strictly minor (and, ultimately, pretty forgettable) fare.
01/20/10: COME DANCE WITH ME (Michel Boisrond, 1959)
This and another early Brigitte Bardot vehicle, UNE PARISIENNE (1957), had been available for rental at a local DVD store for a long time but I kept postponing getting to either, believing them to be minor frothy affairs; however, having just acquired and being on the point of watching a similar effort of hers – Marc Allegret’s MADEMOISELLE STRIPTEASE aka PLUCKING THE DAISY (1956) – I thought I might as well check them out too while I am at it. Anyway, I opted to start with this one being ostensibly a thriller and, while I was expecting it to involve some nudity from the star (which technically there is none), I was surprised – especially when considering the film’s essentially light touch – at the amount of sleaze on display (from explicit situations and dialogue to a subplot involving gay bars and drag queens!). The premise, in fact, revolves around the Police investigation into the murder of blackmailing dance teacher Dawn Addams; incidentally, the Inspector on the trail of the assassin is Luis Bunuel regular Paul Frankeur and Serge Gainsbourg, popular yet controversial singer/songwriter and later film-maker, makes an early appearance as the victim’s accomplice (photographing her in compromising positions with wealthy patrons). Their latest victim is dentist Henri Vidal (whose last film this proved to be, expiring from a heart attack at the young age of 40 – he was married to star Michele Morgan, having met on the set of his best-remembered movie i.e. the Italian spectacle FABIOLA [1948]); Bardot is his wife, whose father (Noel Roquevert, from a number of H.G. Clouzot titles) is an industrialist. Vidal had run into Addams at a nightclub after a row with his bride: she even goes to his clinic, where Bardot works as his assistant, and supplies him with incriminating photos of their dalliance. On his part, not intending to pay, he visits Addams at her studio and causes a scene – but then relents and makes an appointment for the next day at the same place; when he arrives, Vidal finds the woman dead and is then surprised in the room by Bardot who had followed him there! Of course, he has to confess everything and though Roquevert does not readily believe him, Bardot does and determines to establish his innocence (since his description was given to the Police by Addams’ dance colleagues) by finding the real killer. To this end, she takes a job as a dance teacher there and even ingratiates herself with Frankeur; incidentally, it appears that the killer could not have exited the room before Vidal’s entrance as there is no other way out: this actually reminds Bardot of the Gaston Leroux novel “The Mystery Of The Yellow Room” (whose 1930 film adaptation by Marcel L’Herbier, along with its sequel THE PERFUME OF THE LADY IN BLACK – nothing whatsoever to do with the atypical Italian giallo from 1974 – I have also just gotten my hands on!) and from here on in, as the saying goes, the plot thickens. Despite the generic and downright misleading title, this is a fairly enjoyable picture (especially easy to take in pleasant color); mind you, the suspense reaches no great heights (given that the murder method is given away all too soon and the motive emerges to be characteristically weak) – and, yet, the viewer’s attention is engaged throughout and one is genuinely curious to discover the guilty party’s identity (what with the variety of suspects being fingered along the way).
01/21/10: UNE PARISIENNE (Michel Boisrond, 1957)
Even more frivolous, thus less rewarding, than COME DANCE WITH ME (1959; see my review elsewhere), this is really nothing more than a Hollywood-type sex comedy (with the heroine – once more, Brigitte Bardot – forsaking true love temporarily for a fling with a suave but ageing prince played by Charles Boyer, no less!) spiced up with the new-fangled French naughtiness. Actually, the movie’s two halves barely jell together as we first see the central couple (the man, by the way, is COME DANCE WITH ME’s Henri Vidal and, throughout this lengthy initial sequence, we also get to see Noel Roquevert from that same film) being forced into marriage after she is surprised in the hero’s bed during a week-end hunting party by her father, the current Prime Minister. Eventually, the two have a row and she vows to throw herself at the first man she meets: of course, since all of this occurs at the visiting Boyer’s welcome festivities, it is he who becomes her ‘target’; needless to say, he is happy to oblige…while spouse Nadia Gray who, naturally, is aware of his foibles covers up for him during engagements of state (especially when he flies off with Bardot to London)! This interlude, in fact, occupies the film’s latter stages and even includes Boyer being mistaken for a gangster (perhaps a nod to his celebrated turn as Pepe` Le Moko in ALGIERS [1938]) in a pub – from which he and Bardot have to fight their way out! As I said at the start, UNE PARISIENNE is basically fluff which, though good-looking
per se, does not have enough substance for it to be elevated beyond that.
01/23/10: HOLLYWOOD REMEMBERS: BRIGITTE BARDOT (TV) (N/A, 1990)
Included on the R2 DVD of UNE PARISIENNE (1957) released by C'Est La Vie was this 25-minute pseudo-documentary about the French sex kitten. Exclusively featuring narration over scenes from a handful of her (thankfully) rarer films, these include a few that I happen to have in my collection, namely: Anatole Litvak's ACT OF LOVE (1953; a Hollywood-French co-production starring Kirk Douglas), Marc Allegret's MADEMOISELLE STRIPTEASE (1956), THE NIGHT HEAVEN FELL (1957; directed by her "Svengali" husband Roger Vadim and co-starring Stephen Boyd and Alida Valli), Serge Bourguignon's TWO WEEKS IN SEPTEMBER (1967; with Laurent Terzieff and James Robertson Justice), Edward Dmytryk's SHALAKO (1968; an exotic Western that boasted an impressive cast: Sean Connery, Stephen Boyd, Jack Hawkins, Peter Van Eyck, Alexander Knox, Woody Strode and Honor Blackman) and her penultimate film, Vadim's DON JUAN OR IF DON JUAN WERE A WOMAN (1973; with Robert Hossein, Maurice Ronet, Robert Walker Jr. and Jane Birkin). Needless to say, Bardot's most famous films are also included - ...AND GOD CREATED WOMAN (1956), CONTEMPT (1963), VIVA MARIA! (1965) and SPIRITS OF THE DEAD (1968) - but the ones I most welcomed, personally, were those of films that are now virtually untracable: BABETTE GOES TO WAR (1959) and PLEASE, NOT NOW! (1961)...which promises to be especially naughty and, in hindsight, might just fall into my lap one of these days! Title notwithstanding, Bardot had very little to do with Hollywood and this inadequate featurette only serves to highlight the fact that, most of the time, her star vehicles had little except her beauty and charm to commend them.
