#Gerard Philipe

[schweizercomics]

Swashtober 7: Fanfan la Tulipe!

Hello, friends! There IS no Swashtober #6 because I was in bed with a fever all yesterday, but I've been feeling a little better for the past hour or so. Still going to take it very easy but I thought I'd do a sketch if I felt up to it.

Fanfan la Tulipe is a delightful 1952 French swashbuckling comedy-adventure-romance movie. You can find the Criterion disk for very cheap! Fanfan is tricked into joining the army by a phony fortune teller who promises him a grand destiny, and decides he's going to make sure that destiny happens. Plenty of swordfights and one of the best horse chase and rescue scenes in cinema.

[manderley]

Devil in the Flesh (1947)

[gatutor]

Gerard Philipe-Lilli Palmer "Los amantes de Montparnasse" (Les amants de Montparnasse) 1958, de Jacques Becker.

[o-link]

Le Petit Prince de Antoine De Saint-Exupery

[gatabella]

Brigitte Bardot at the Night of the Cinema organized in the Palais de Chaillot, 1956

[odettejoyeux]

Gérard Philipe and María Casares in a publicity still of the play Les Épiphanies, 1947.

[your-lovers-and-drifters]

Gérard Philipe

[deaestheticize]

[mogwai-movie-house]

Such A Pretty Little Beach (1949)

The film begins splendidly, with Gerard Philipe arriving by bus to an out-of-the-way and out-of-season seaside town where it always rains and the beach is always empty. He checks into the little inn there claiming to be a student looking for some peace and quiet for his nerves, but clearly he has a big secret he is hiding, and an elderly resident of the inn seems to recognize him, too.

All this is established admirably, and the mystery and atmosphere it generates is first rate. Unfortunately, once we start to learn more of his story, the mystery falls away and the rest of the film is just interminable shots of Philipe wandering around in the rain and occasionally crying for no apparent reason. None of the other characters have any depth or believability to them, and many of their actions don't seem to make sense. Random generic statements about orphans throughout bog the story down and never add up to anything clear or meaningful. One gets the feeling the creators didn't get any further than the premise before starting making the film and then just gave up putting any more work into keeping the ball rolling.

So the second half of the film is undeniably a failure, but up till that point it's really very good indeed, and a great example of the kind of film noir that only the French could make.

★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

[nowvoyagerit]

Gérard Philipe and Simone Valère in La beauté du diable (René Clair, 1950)

[ghassanrassam]

Gerard Philippe

[gatutor]

Gerard Philipe-Anouk Aimée "Los amantes de Montparnasse" (Les amants de Montparnasse) 1958, de Jacques Becker.

[laurent-bigot]

LA POLITIQUE DU CINÉMA FRANÇAIS

[365filmsbyauroranocte]

Une si jolie petite plage (Yves Allégret, 1949)

[mogwai-movie-house]

Lovers of Paris (1957)

Wonderful film I'd never heard of before by the great French director Julien Duvivier, based on the Emile Zola novel Pot-Bouille, which I'd also never heard of.

A handsome young man comes to 19th Century Paris and begins seducing a broad cross-section of the womenfolk of his new neighborhood while scheming to succeed as a salesman in two rival fabric stores.

The film put me in mind of the great films of Max Ophuls - "Le Plaisir", "La Ronde" and "The Earrings of Madame de..." - and it has the same delight in, and frank acceptance of, the mysteries of love and romance.

The cast are all faultless, but Gérard Philipe in the lead (never better) and the magnificent Danielle Dumont, as the tightly-buttoned owner of one of said stores, easily outshine them all. They add depth and nuance to a story that could have been broad comedy in lesser hands, simply through glances and body language, their thoughts and feelings flickering across their faces. A treat.

★★★★★★★★☆☆

[calebsrottingcorpse]

Hey!! Watch this!! *combines two of my special interests*