#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

[deaestheticize]

[odettejoyeux]

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

[your-lovers-and-drifters]

Gérard Philipe

[ghassanrassam]

Gerard Philippe

[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.

★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

[girlscandohorror]

"Theatre is a social issue, like all artistic questions." (Quotation from Gérard Philipe on a pillar of the Théâtre des Abbesses, Paris.)

On September 29, Gérard Philipe signed his one-year contract with the TNP, tacitly renewable. Despite his career and his international fame, he reassured the new director that he is ready to receive a lower fee at the cinema so as not to jeopardise the troupe's budget. His salary is set at 30,000 francs gross per month (€ 750 in 2019), to which are added 400 francs per rehearsal (€10 in 2019). Jean Vilar later went to to say that in eight years, Philipe did not ask for any increase in salary, preferential treatment or special clauses. Also, to make the company truly democratic, his name appeared in its alphabetical place on all the posters.

Probably also because of his leftist views, the actor enjoyed great popularity in the USSR and China. His wife Anne was always by his side.

He was joint president of the French actors’ union, Federation Internationale des Acteurs, (along with Jean Darcante) at the time of his death.

[nowvoyagerit]

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

[gatutor]

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

[laurent-bigot]

LA POLITIQUE DU CINÉMA FRANÇAIS

[awkward-imp]

my favorite ao3 tag is religious guilt

[calebsrottingcorpse]

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