Male Hunt, 1964

Here's a rarity indeed - I had not even heard of it until pal Jerry found it - AND it features a lot of those European favourites early in their careers back at the dawn of the 1960s. LA CHASSE A L'HOMME (MALE HUNT) features Belmondo, Brialy, Claude Rich, Catherine Denueve and her sister Francoise Dorleac (their only other teaming apart from LES DEMOISELLES DE ROCHEFORT in 1967), as well as marvellous Marie Laforet, plus Bernadette Lafont and Micheline Presle, Michel Serrault.

Shot mainly in Paris, it includes locations at Rhodes and the ruins at Lindos - a favourite place of mine. It comes across now as an unpretentious comedy, directed by Edouard Molinaro, with a lot of attractive young players, no doubt made for the home market - which is probably why we never heard of it in London then. Belmondo has a nice bit as his usual young rascal. 

This captivating comedy has a number of amusing twists and turns. It stars Jean-Claude Brialy who is determined to get married despite efforts of some people to dissuade him including Claude Rich and Jean-Paul Belmondo. Catherine Denueve, Marie Laforet and Francoise Dorleac are some of the girls. Dorleac is extremely good here, she has never been better, and Laforet is as eye-catching as she was in PLEIN SOLEIL. 

Molinaro (who later directed LA CAGE AUX FOLLES) had a very good eye for comedy. IMDB lists it as a 1964 film but it looks earlier to me - most of the cast were firmly established by then.

RIP, continued ....

Tomas Milian (1933-2017), aged 84.  Tomas Milian, an American actor born in Cuba; was trained at the Actors Studio. He appeared in a few plays on Broadway in the 1950s. Italian director Mauro Bolognini noticed him and that was the starting point of a rich cinematographic career in Italy, 
where he played in all manner of genres. 
We like him as the rich young guy propositioning Jean-Claude Brialy in Bolognini's 1959 saga of Italian youth LA NOTTE BRAVA (below), and he is Romy Schneider's husband in the Visconti episode of BOCCACCIO 70 (right) in 1962, and Claudia Cardinale''s brother in TIME OF INDIFFERENCE in 1964, and with Belmondo in MARE MATTO. He was Raphael in THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY in 1965.

He progressed to Spaghetti Westerns (DJANGO KILL in 1967) and Italian giallo thrillers, and the lead in Antonioni's IDENTIFICATION OF A WOMAN in 1982. Later films included TRAFFIC in 2000, Spielberg's AMISTEAD, Stone's JFK. He continued working, 120 credits in all, until 2014. Quite an acting career. More on Tomas at label ....

Christine Kaufmann (1945-2017), aged 72. She had a promising European and maybe international career, which she temporarily gave up when she became the second Mrs Tony Curtis (they co-starred in TARAS BULBA in 1962). Other titles included TOWN WITHOUT PITY in 1961, and some peplums THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII with Steve Reeves (below), 1959,and CONSTANTINE AND THE CROSS with Belinda Lee. She later appeared in films like BAGDAD CAFE, and clocked up 110 credits. 

Lola Albright ( 1925-2017), aged 92.  I featured her only a month or so ago, in a review of some interesting careers - see Lola Albright label.

Sixties rarity: I Knew Her Well, 1965

I KNEW HER WELL, 1965. Despite my interest in Italian cinema, and the Sixties, I had never heard of this one until some recent reviews. It never played here in the UK or was mentioned in the quality film magazines of the time. (I was 19 in 1965 and seeing them all).  Looking at it now, on the Criterion dvd, it is an absolute treasure. All that mod black and white 1960s photography with a heroine, a model forever changing her looks, hairstyles and clothes as she goes through the LA DOLCE VITA Roman high society. The Criterion blurb says:

This prismatic portrait of the days and nights of a party girl in sixties Rome is a revelation. On the surface it plays like an inversion of LA DOLCE VITA with a woman at its centre, following the gorgeous,seemingly liberating Adriana (Stefania Sandrelli) as she dallies with a wide variety of men, attends parties, goes on modelling gigs, constantly changing looks and hairstyles, and circulates among the rich and famous. But despite its often light tone, the film ultimately becomes a stealth portrait of a suffocating culture that dehumanises people, especially women. A character study that never strays from its complicated central figure, I KNEW HER WELL is one of the most overlooked films of the Sixties, by turns funny, tragic and altogether jawdropping, as directed by Antonio Pietrangeli.

I go along with that, the parallels with the Fellini epic are obvious. Interesting that DARLING must also have been in production at the same time, showcasing that English party girl on the make.  It all looks as good as Visconti’s SANDRA, also 1965.

The lead here is Stefania Sandrelli, who is endlessly fascinating as simple country girl Adriana, adrift in Rome. I only knew her from DIVORCE ITALIAN STYLE and THE CONFORMIST. She is fascinating on the dvd extras, 50 years later, in her early 70s and still working now.

Adriana seems a happy-go-lucky girl unaffected by her enjoyment of the high life and dealing with all those various men who constantly exploit her: Jean-Claude Brialy, Nino Manfredi, Mario Adorf, Ugo Tognazzi. But gradually the mood darkens and one can sense what is going to happen …. With Franco Nero and Karin Dor.

Pietrangeli died aged 49 in 1968, so did not have a long career. I liked some others he did including the Capucine and Alberto Sordi episode of THE QUEENS in 1965, SOUVENIR D’ITALIE in 1957, and GHOSTS OF ROME in 1961. I KNEW HER WELL though is his masterpiece, part social satire and critique of the society he depicts as we follow his naïve heroine, It is for me an essential Italian discovery like Bolognini’s CORRUPTION in 1963, or  Vancini’s THE LONG NIGHT OF ’43, or Lattuada’s I DOLCI INGANNI in 1961 also focusing completely on a female lead (Catherine Spaak). See Italian label for more on those, 

THE Italian double bill ?

A friend and I were discussing fantasy double bills, here is my Italian choice ... two of our timeless favourites, discussed many times here, as per labels. Rossellini's 1953 classic VOYAGE TO ITALY (below) with Antonioni's L'AVVENTURA. The Rossellini really paved the way for those Antonioni classics. 

Alternatively, for great Fifties Italian cinema: Fellini's 1953 small town drama I VITELLONI twinned with Bolognini's 1959 saga of petty hoodlums and prostitutes, as scripted by Pasolini, but glamorised and how by Bolognini ... LA NOTTE BRAVA. (We are doing a post on Bolognini next ...).

Below: Jean-Claude Brialy and Tomas Milian in a rather steamy scene (for 1959) from LA NOTTE BRAVA. 

For Italian glamour and decadence, one could not beat Bertolucci's THE CONFORMIST with a Visconti: THE LEOPARD or his final masterpiece L'INNOCENTE from 1976.

I would also have to make a dramatic double bill of Wertmuller's 1975 opus SEVEN BEAUTIES, with maybe Vancini's THE LONG NIGHT OF '43 ...  and what about Visconti's SANDRA from 1975, with maybe Antonioni's LE AMICHE ....  endless possibilities. More on all these at Italian labels. French double-bills soon, perhaps. 

1963: A castle in Sweden ...

Here's a rarity: CHATEAU EN SUEDE a French film by Roger Vadim from 1963 that never got aired here. I was in London from 1964 and it never showed up here at all, despite that cast ..... and its from a play by Francoise Sagan (BONJOUR TRISTESSE, GOODBYE AGAIN, A CERTAIN SMILE etc). I have now got an Italian only dvd, so while I miss on a lot of talkiness, its fun watching it from this remove.

We start with police cars arriving in modern Stockholm and then the cops visit the castle - English title is A CASTLE IN SWEDEN or, as IMDB call it: NUTTY, NAUGHTY CHATEAU - but it isn't that risque. 
Everyone seems to wear period clothes at the castle as the bored occupants toy with each other: the owner Curt Jurgens is married to husky Monica Vitti, whose incestuous dandy brother is also to hand- a typical role for Jean-Claude Brialy. Jean-Louis Trintignant is the student who visits and soon he and Monica are exchanging long lingering glances, to the chagrin of Brialy. There is also Suzanne Flon as Curt's sister, and Sylvie as the old grand-mother, and also - though I don't know what she is doing here - is French pop girl Francoise Hardy. 

Now,we like Francoise a lot (see label) but she is hardly acting here. Monica gets to do a bit of comedy after those Antonioni roles. It is set in winter so the castle is surrounded by snow, It is obviously a play though as people sit around and talk a lot. 

Its all rather fitfully amusing, and fills a blank in one's viewing, its at least fun seeing these 60s stars in their early prime here. 

Alain Delon: "a bit of alright" says Edith ...

We have not done a piece on Alain for a while, but there are lots on him here, as per the label .....

I mentioned before that Engish film magazine "Films and Filming" I used to get, and work for, and have now got all the 1950s issues (it began in Oct 1954 and folded in 1980, as per a forthcoming piece on all that), each issue featured a column on a "Person of Promise" and I have covered some already (Lee Remick, Stephen Boyd, Belinda Lee, James Garner, Carol Lynley, Shirley Eaton, Shirley McLaine etc). Their May 1959 issue (one of the rare ones I got just now) features that interesting young French actor Alain Delon, then making a name for himself. Its rather delicious:

Alain Delon is 23. Edith Piaf, the nightclub entertainer, described him recently with these words: "Une belle petite eule", which roughly translated means "He's a bit of alright". From the colloquial to the rather more sublime comes this quote on young M. Delon from the actor Bernard Blier: "He has balance, a calm and wholesome insolence, respect for professional tradition, scorn for upstart authority and a taste for a violent, short, intense life".  (Well, they were wrong on that count, Delon is 80 this November) .

All of which goes to show that French Cinema has a virile youngster who appeals to women and men alike, to the professional artist and the audience who have come to watch him.

Alain is at pains to assure those who want to pigeon-hole him into a convenient type that he is not, and has no intention of becoming, the "French James Dean". Whether he likes it or not Alain has the same appeal that endeared the late Dean to the bosoms of his fans.

Born in a suburb of Paris, Alain showed little interest in a career in show business during his teens. At 17 he enlisted in the forces and was sent to Indo-China to fight in the sweltering jungle in the war against the rebels. After two years of this murderous campaign he was released. 

It was at this time that Yves Allegret was looking for a young actor to play in QUAND LA FEMME S'EN MELE (When a Woman Interferes). Yves passed the news along to his director brother Marc who starred the actor in his second film SOIS BELLE ET TAIS TOI (Blonde for Danger) opposite Henri Vidal and Mylene Demongeot. At this time he was offered work in the USA but declined. His first starring role came with CHRISTINE opposite Romy Schneider. He also appeared in FAIBLES FEMMES (WOMEN ARE WEAK) in 1959, with Demongeot and two new young actresses Jacqueline Sassard and Francoise Pascal. In FAIBLES FEMMES Delon plays a Don Juan who seduces three girls in turn and they plot their revenge ... 

His hobbies are horse-racing and .... sports cars. Is M. Delon treading the same path as James Dean? It would seem so. 

FAIBLES FEMMES was one of the first French films I saw, when young in Ireland, and I loved that European glamour and decadence, served up in spades of course in Rene Clement's PLEIN SOLEIL (PURPLE NOON) later that year, from Patricia Highsmith but with a twist, as -per my comments on that. Delon soon became the go-to actor after those prestige films with Visconti (ROCCO, THE LEOPARD) and Antonioni (L'ECLISSE). That great European career followed (Melville's LE SAMURAI, BORSALINO with Belmondo etc) and Delon's playboy life made the headlines too, as well as his various romances, including with Romy. Its always a pleasure seeing him with Claudia, Romy, Monica, Marie Laforet and the others, or playing gangsters with Gabin or Montand (MELODIE EN SOUS SOL, SICILIAN CLAN, CERCLE ROUGE etc.. I must get around to his one with Simone Signoret soon...

It all began when fellow actor Jean-Claude Brialy took him to the Cannes Film Festival in 1957, where among others he met were Hollywood agent Henry Willson, and British photograher John Barrington, who took some interesting shots of the young actor (in bed, left).  He was soon on the cover (first of many) in "Films and Filming's" 1961 French issue, in PLEIN SOLEIL. and of course did some Hollywod films. He seems to have aged quite well and working until recently, as per the commentary on the recent PLEIN SOLEIL Blu-ray.  Above: Delon by Barrington in 1957, right, with Belmondo in recent years.

Posters - an occasional series

Today's choice: LA NOTTE BRAVA, that 1959 Mauro Bolognini discovery I liked so much the other year. From a script by Pasolini featuring lowlife layabouts and prostitutes but glamorised by Bolognini by casting attractive people like Brialy, Terzieff, Milian, Demongeot, Schiaffino, Martinelli etc. The various posters give a taster.  I like that "The moral bankruptcy of desperate youth ... " Reviews at Bolognini, Brialy labels.
 It is on YouTube too: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5kjDFVL_Us&index=65&list=PLoiWwTmzdQ_8V3J9hQZ47wU19Q00DilnG

Next: the more wholesome Troy Donahue in PARRISH!

'60s moments ...

Some new images from some of our favourite Sixties classics:

Joseph Losey directing Monica Vitti as MODESTY BLAISE in 1966, Sarah Miles and Sean Caffrey in County Clare, Ireland in 1965 for Desmond Davis's I WAS HAPPY HERE, and below, Delon and Ronet re-teamed in Deray's glossy thriller LA PISCINE in 1969, with Romy Schneider. 

Below, filmed in 1959 (as was Antonioni's L'AVVENTURA) but on screens in 1960, Rene Clement's PLEIN SOLEIL (aka PURPLE NOON, now with a new lease of life and looking even better on Blu-ray), where Maurice Ronet, Delon and Marie Laforet are all spell-binding, as per my other Plein Soleil posts (see label), and also 1959 again, those LA NOTTE BRAVA boys, Pasolini's young hoodlums as directed and glamorised by Mauro Bolognini - Jean-Claude Brialy, Laurent Terzieff, Tomas Milian. We like Jean Sorel too, as per previous posts on him, very busy in the '60s and '70s, with lots of thriller and giallo genre movies, as well as choice items like Visconti's SANDRA where he and Claudia Cardinale are a stunning couple. Here he is with Carroll Baker, whom he made a few thrillers, such as THE SWEET BODY OF DEBORAH in 1969 ...

The Phantom of Liberty

After Fellini and Herzog - see below - another visionary director, the old Surrealist Luis Bunuel and his 1974 puzzler THE PHANTOM OF LIBERTY. Bunuel of course made his name in the '30s and made several films in Mexico, I like his 1954 ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE; then his 1961 VIRIDIANA was as provocative and influential as L'AVVENTURA or LA DOLCE VITA. He continued pleasing the critics and having occasional hits - famously BELLE DE JOUR in 1967, followed by TRISTANA and that big hit in 1972, THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE, which in turn was followed by THE PHANTOM OF LIBERTY, and then his last film THAT OBSCURE OBJECT OF DESIRE.

One of Luis Bunuel's most free-form and purely Surrealist films, consisting of a series of only vaguely related episodes - most famously, the dinner party scene where people sit on lavatories round a dinner table on, occasionally retiring to a little room to eat.

Then there is the sequence of the little girl showing her parents the photos she was given by a man in the park. The parents - Monica Vitti and Jean-Claude Brialy - are shocked and then aroused by the photos which turn out to be pictures of famous landmarks. This level of absurdity continues through the various sketches, as Bunuel makes fun of religion, bourgeoise society and the norms of society, throughout the ages with some sketches set in the past, those flagellating monks, that final odd sequence at the zoo. Some are more amusing than others, but thats surrealism for you. It must have surely influenced the MONTY PYTHON team too - they began around this time.  

The toilet sequence though is jaw-dropping as everyone sits around the table and then furtively sneak off to the small room and hurriedly eat their food. Through many episodes with some linking points since 1808 in Toledo (Spain) to the present days in France, Bunuel presents a delicious surrealistic satire to the morals and hypocrisy of society, family values and the church, as each segment is open to whatever interpretation the audience want to put on it. Below: Bunuel with Brialy and Vitti.