Montreal Cinema

2 Anglaises Et Le Continent, Les (1971)
36 Fillette (1988)
400 Coups, Les (1959)
The 400 Blows... (1958)...Director: Francois Truffaut
Amour En Fuite, L' (1978)
Bunker Palace Hotel (1989)
Cassure, La (1982)
Cent Et Une Nuits, Les (1994)
Dernier Tango À Paris, Le (1972)
I Hired A Contract Killer (1991)
Jane B. Par Agnès V. (1988)
Masculin, Féminin (1966)
Nuit Américaine, La (1973)
Day for Night (1973)......Starring: Jacqueline Bisset, Jean-Pierre Léaud
François Truffaut's 1973 Oscar-winning love letter to cinema celebrates the glorious chaos and creative heartache of making movies. Won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1973. The title refers to a technique by which night scenes are filmed during the day through the use of a special filter; the French title, "La Nuit Americaine", is the French term for the same process.
Personne Ne M’aime (1994)
Pierrot Le Fou (1965)
Plus Vieux Métier Du Monde, Le (1967)
Porcherie (1969)
Week-End (1967)

Beauty and the Beast (1946)...Director: Jean Cocteau.......Starring: Jean Marais
Beauty and the Beast is one of the all-time great movie fantasies, and one of the most gorgeous pictures ever made. A hauntingly beautiful, visually dazzling masterpiece, detailing what happens when, to save her father, Beauty (Day) gives herself to the Beast (Marais). Great fantasy, great filmmaking--beguiling on any level. It was the first feature film by French director Jean Cocteau, a writer, poet, and painter with ties to the surrealists. (In fact, his first film, The Blood of a Poet, was delayed after the scandal caused by L'Age D'Or, made by his fellow surrealists Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali.) The haunting, surreal visuals (candelabra made of human hands, for example) and a sensitive performance by Jean Marais as the Beast imbue the film with an indelible, mythical power.

Jean Marais Biography:
Dec 11, 1913 - Cherbourg, France.......Nov 8, 1998 - Cannes, France
The extremely good-looking (some have called him beautiful) French actor Jean Marais was hardly a prize-winning performer in his formative years. Turned down by the Paris Conservatory, Marais took odd jobs to sustain his nighttime efforts as a stage bit player (one of the productions in which he appeared, Les Parents Terrible, would be filmed years later with Marais in the lead). On the basis of his looks and wavy blonde hair, he was able to wangle a few minor film roles from 1933 onward, beginning with Jean Tarride's Etienne, but the big breaks were not forthcoming until Marais met and befriended director Jean Cocteau. Marais would later describe his first encounter with Cocteau as his "second birth." The latter's homosexuality has frequently cast aspersions concerning his real stake in Marais' well-being, but the fact remains that Marais truly blossomed as an actor with starring roles in such Cocteau films as L'Eternel Retour (1943), Beauty and the Beast (1946), and Orpheus (1950). Thanks to Cocteau, Marais became one of the most popular French film personalities of the postwar era, with the country's top directors clamoring for his services. The two would remain professionally and personally close until Cocteau's death in 1963. The passing of his long-time companion devastated Marais, who would later write that a large part of himself died that day, leaving Marais but a shadow of his former self.
Before becoming an actor, Marais had a hard time deciding what he wanted to do with his life. While still in his native Cherbourg, he worked at various jobs that included photographer, copying postcards, and selling newspapers. He started painting as a young man and it would remain a lifelong passion and eventually gained him access to the film industry after filmmaker Marcel L'Herbier purchased one of his paintings and the offered Marais the chance to play bit parts in two of his films, L'Epervier and L'Aventurier in 1933. His life-story would later inspire Francois Truffaut's plot for Le Dernier Metro/The Last Metro (1980).
In the early 1960s, the still strikingly handsome Jean Marais became something of a Gallic Roger Moore, appearing in such adventure-film series as Fantomas and The Saint. After a long retirement, Jean Marais returned to moviemaking in the mid-1980s with choice character roles in such films as Parking (1985). Marais made his final film appearance in Bernardo Bertolucci's Stealing Beauty (1996). That year, Marais received France's highest tribute, the Legion of Honor for his contribution to French cinema

Manon of the Spring (1987)...Starring: Montand, Auteuil, Emmanuel Beart
A seamless continuation of its predecessor, Jean de Florette, Manon of the Spring brings with it a more epic scope as it depicts the growth to womanhood of the daughter (Emmanuelle Béart) of the doomed farmer of the first film. Only thing missing in this second half is the strong presence of Gérard Depardieu.Manon of the Spring is a very special foreign film choice, destined to be revered for years to come.
Jean De Florette (1989)...Montand, Depardieu, Autiel..........A truly impressive French film destined to become a modern masterpiece, Jean de Florette is an evocative adaptation of the highly regarded French novel. The story takes place in Provence. Two 1920's farmers engage in a bitter rivalry as one tries to tend to a plot of land and the other deviously undermines his efforts in order to conceal a valuable spring. The peasant farmer (Gérard Depardieu) who comes to the countryside to tend the land he has inherited is a naive and trusting soul seeking only to provide for his wife and daughter, while his neighbor (Yves Montand) is intent on doing whatever he can to discourage and demoralize the farmer so that he can take the land for himself. This simple tale unfolds in a wrenching fashion to a tragic conclusion, bringing forth questions about human nature and the prevalence and price of greed. Richly textured, emotionally powerful adaptation of MarcelPagnol novel, exquisitely and meticulously filmed, with galvanizing performances--especially by Depardieu as the doggedly optimistic novice farmerAlong with its follow-up, Manon of the Spring, this film will leave an indelible impression on anyone who sees it.

Le Sauvage ......Jean-Paul Rappeneau, 1975. With Catherine Deneuve, Yves Montand, Luigi Vanucchi and Tony Roberts. A Frenchman living peacefully off the coast of South America rescues a blonde bombshell who will turn his world topsy-turvy.

VINCENT PEREZ Biography........(Born: Jun 10, 1965 - Lausanne, Switzerland)

Trained at the Conservatory in Paris, Swiss-born actor Vincent Perez is best known to English-speaking audiences for a brace of performances in two important early-1990s French films. In Gerard Depardieu's Cyrano de Bergerac (1990), Perez is cast as Christian de Neuvillette, the handsome but tongue-tied suitor of the beauteous Roxanne (Anne Brochet). It is hard not to look foolish in this classically obtuse role, but Perez successfully conveys pathos rather than brawny brainlessness. Vincent Perez was also shown to good advantage as Catherine Deneuve's costar in the romantic period piece Indochine (1992).

1999....Le Temps retrouvé..... aka Time Regained....
1999.....I Dreamed of Africa
1998....Ceux Qui M'Aiment Prendront le Train....aka Those Who Love Me Can Take The Train....AVAILABLE
1998.....Shot Through the Heart
1998.....Talk of Angels
1997.....Swept From The Sea
1997....Le Bossu.....aka On Guard!....
1996.....Ligne De Vie
1996.....The Crow: City of Angels
1995....Par-Dela Les Nuages...aka Beyond the Clouds....AVAILABLE 1993.....Fanfan....
1993....American Ninja 5
1992.....Indochine....
1992....Cendre D'Or
1991.....L'Echange
1991.....La Neige et le Feu
1990....Le Voyage Du Capitaine Fracasse....
1990.....Cyrano De Bergerac....
1988.....La Maison De Jade
1987.....Hôtel de France
1986.....Gardien De La Nuit

Michel Piccoli Biography:......French leading man Michel Piccoli spent most of his time from 1945 through 1955 on the French stage, primarily with Theatre Babylone and the Reynauld-Barrault Company. He enjoyed nominal film stardom from 1955 onward, though it was not until 1961's Le Doulos that he truly became "box office," specializing in worldly, cynical roles. Like Hollywood's Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, and Gary Cooper, Piccoli was possessed of that rare gift of being able to adapt himself to virtually any kind of material without altering his essential screen persona. And like those aforementioned actors, Piccoli's talents suited the prerequisites of a wide variety of directors: not many contemporary performers can claim to have worked with Alfred Hitchcock, Jean-Luc Godard, Costa-Gavras, Luis Bunuel, and Louis Malle. Piccoli's acting awards include a Cannes Festival prize for 1979's Salto nel Vuoto and a 1982 Berlin Festival honor for Une Etrange Affaire. In 1991, Piccoli once again won international acclaim for his portrayal of an artist suffering from a creative block in La belle noiseuse. He subseqently continued to do steady work in pictures of varying quality, one highlight being Raul Ruiz's 1997 Généalogies d'une Crime, which cast Piccoli as a doctor caught up in a murder mystery. In 1976, Piccoli recorded his remarkable career on the page when he co-wrote a semi-autobiography, Dialogue Egoistes. ... .....Michel Piccoli also appeared in Cent et une nuits, Les (1995), Ruptures (1993), Belle noiseuse, La (1991), Puritaine, La (1986) , Atlantic City (1980), Mado (1976), Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The (1972), Topaz (1969), Belle de jour (1967), Voleuse, La (1966) , Bardot et Godard (1964), Doulos, Le (1961)-- Hal Erickson

RAYNAUD, Fernand

Actor filmography
Marraine de Charley, La (1959)
Minute papillon (1959)
Houla-houla (1959)
Sicilien, Le (1958)
Arènes joyeuses (1958)
C'est arrivé à 36 chandelles (1957)
Fernand clochard (1957)
Bande à papa, La (1955)

Visiteurs, Les (1993).....Directed by Jean-Marie Poiré....Cast: Christian Clavier, Jean Reno........Christian Clavier in the dual role of Jacquart and Jacouille is hilarious. Plus, something rare, the sequel was almost as good.
Couloirs du temps: Les visiteurs 2, Les (1998)......aka: Corridors of Time: The Visitors II, The........Directed by Jean-Marie Poiré....Cast: Christian Clavier, Jean Reno

Pierre Richard biography.....
Comedic actor Pierre Richard was one of France's most popular performers during the early '70s and is best remembered internationally for starring in the zany French comedy Le Grand Blond Avec Une Chassure Noire/The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe (1972) and it's sequel. Born Pierre Richard Maurice Charles Leopold Defays, he was raised in an upper class family. Early in his career Richard worked at the Paris Music Hall. He made his feature film debut in Alexandre le Bienheureux (1967). In his subsequent career, Richard frequently teamed with Aldo Maccione, and most notably with Gerard Depardieu in such features as La Chevre (1981), Les Comperes (1984) and Les Fugitifs (1987). Richard made his directorial debut with Le Distrait/The Daydreamer (1970) for which he also wrote the screenplay. -- Sandra Brennan

1994......La Partie D'Echecs
1988......A Gauche En Sortant De L'Ascenseur
1986.....Les Fugitifs
1983......Les Compères
1982.......Too Shy to Try
1981.......La Chèvre
1979.......C'est Pas Moi, C'est Lui
1977.....Je Suis Timide, Mais Je Me Soigne aka I'm Timid But I'm Treating It
1976....Le Jouet
1972....Le Grand Blond Avec Une Chassure Noire ...aka The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe