A smokin hot Alain Delon in La Piscine (1970)

This week Lion’s Gate is releasing their Alain Delon - Five Film Collection, which features the incredibly handsome and talented French actor starring in Diaboliquement vôtre (aka Diabolically Yours, 1967), La Piscine (aka The Swimming Pool, 1970), La Veuve Couderc (aka The Widow Couderc, 1974), Le Gitan (aka The Gypsy, 1975) and Notre Histoire (aka Separate Rooms, 1984). I haven’t had the chance to pick up the collection myself so I can’t personally comment on the quality of the new Lion’s Gate set, but according to other sources this 3 Disc DVD collection presents all 5 films in widescreen with English subtitles.

I’ve only previously had the opportunity to see Julien Duvivier’s Diaboliquement vôtre, which I reviewed last year and Jacques Deray’s La Piscine, which features Delon along with the lovely actress Romy Schinder who he had a longtime relationship with off screen, as well as the British actress and pop icon Jane Birkin and the talented actor Maurice Ronet who had previously starred with Alain Delon in René Clément’s brilliant 1960 thriller Purple Noon. Both Diaboliquement vôtre and La Piscine are highly recommended if you enjoy suspenseful French thrillers.

From the films that I haven’t seen, I’m most looking forward to watching La Veuve Couderc, which was directed by Pierre Granier-Deferre and costars the wonderful French actress Simone Signoret. Once I get the opportunity to see the film I hope to share my thoughts about it here.

The Alain Delon - Five Film Collection can currently be purchased at Amazon for $29.99 and that’s only about $6 per movies. You can also find the films available for rent at Greencine and Netflix.

Pictured Above: High and Low (1963), Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959)
Eyes Without a Face (1960)
Rocco and His Brothers (1960), Cleo From 5 to 7 (1961)

I was invited to participate in putting together a list of Favorite Foreign Language Films at Edward Copeland’s blog recently which is now open to online voting and I hope my blog readers will cast their vote for their 25 favorites from the films that are now eligible.

The criteria was: 1) No film more recent than 2002 was eligible; 2) They had to be feature length; 3) They had to have been made either mostly or entirely in a language other than English and 4) Documentaries and silent films were ineligible.

I also made a rule for myself. I only allowed myself to pick one film per director.

Out of the 25 films I suggested only 13 managed to make it onto the final list of nominations linked above. I was mostly disappointed that out of the six Japanese directors I included in my own list of 25 favorite films, only one (Akira Kurosawa) made the final cut. I refuse to believe that I’m the only person who likes Teshigahara, Suzuki and Imamura’s films*. I’m also dissappointed that the work of some of my favorite directors such as Mario Bava, Jess Franco and Alejandro Jodorowsky was not found eligible. Many of my other favorite directors such as Fellini, Godard and Wong Kar-Wai have multiple films on the list, but some of my favorite work from them such as Satyricon (1969), Weekend (1967) and Happy Together (1997) are nowhere to be found.

But enough complaining! On the bright side, here are the 13 films I submitted that managed to make it onto the final list (in alphabetical order):

- Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972, Werner Herzog)
- Beauty and the Beast (1946, Jean Cocteau)
- Cleo From 5 to 7 (1961, Agnès Varda)
- Contempt (1963, Jean-Luc Godard)
- Eyes Without a Face (1960, Georges Franju)
- High and Low (1963, Akira Kurosawa)
- Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959, Alain Resnais)
- Jules et Jim (1962, Francois Truffaut)
- La Dolce Vita (1960, Frederico Fellini)
- L’Eclisse (1962, Michelangelo Antonioni)
- Le Samourai (1967, Jean-Pierre Melville)
- M (1931, Fritz Lang)
- Rocco and His Brothers (1960, Luchino Visconti)

I was especially happy to see that my three favorite Alain Delon films made the final list of nominations. You can never get enough Delon!

So what were the 12 films I voted for that did not make the final list? You can read my thoughts on them here.

If you haven’t seen any of the 13 movies I listed above I highly recommend giving them a look. They are all deeply loved films that I enjoy without reservation and they are easily available on DVD (most from Criterion). If you plan on voting I hope you will consider my nominations. I will try and do some more serious campaigning for them before the Sept. 16th voting deadline arrives.

* It looks like one of Hiroshi Teshigahara’s films made the final cut after all which is great news!

You ask what you should watch. I ask how I should live. It’s the same thing.
- Corrado Zeller (Richard Harris) in Antonioni’s The Red Desert (1964)

Cinephiles have suffered some great losses in recent days with the death of Ingmar Bergman, actor Michel Serrault and now Michelangelo Antonioni. I was really touched by all the great tributes I read to Bergman yesterday but I never became too personally involved with Bergman’s work myself. I admired the man greatly and seriously respected his influence which was obviously enormous, but Bergman and I often seemed to see the world through different eyes. I definitely need to see more of Bergman’s work, but in all honesty my personal relationship with Bergman could never come close to the long lasting and personal one I share with Michelangelo Antonioni.

My first introduction to Antonioni was on a rainy Sunday afternoon when I was only about 12 years old back in the early 1980s. I was at home watching television when suddenly good old channel 2 in the Bay Area started to run Blow-up. At first I kept watching because I thought actor David Hemmings was incredibly cute, but as the film went on I became more and more drawn into the film’s mysteries and silences. While I enjoyed the swinging London setting and the sudden excitement of hearing the Yardbirds perform “Train Kept A-Rollin”, as well as the colorful and frenetic moments of Hemmings’ character shooting beautiful British models with his camera, it was really the silence and the isolation infusing Antonioni’s Blow-up that truly touched me and fascinated me in ways that few other films previously had. Once the movie had ended I knew I had seen something very special. I can remember trying to explain the film to friends and having trouble finding the words. At the time I was alone in my appreciation for the film but that was okay with me.

As the years passed I would see more of Michelangelo Antonioni’s films and I would also continue to feel more alone and isolated from a world which contained astonishing landscapes and breathtaking beauty while often remaining extremely cold and incomprehensible to me. Antonioni captured the world I saw and experienced with his camera. His films have made me appreciate and understand human loneliness and isolation in ways that few artists have. I’ve been moved and deeply touched by his work, which seemed to grasp at beauty in the most unexpected places and embrace the mystery of life that so many other artists, directors and human beings run away from or try to avoid and fill up with noise.

Appreciating the silence in life is essential to appreciating the work of Antonioni.

I’m often astonished by the amount of talking that characters do in film after film. When I was younger I would watch movies directed by the brilliant Woody Allen, or countless wonderful Howard Hawks’ comedies and be surprised and utterly entranced by the amazing communication and humor shared between characters and the deep feelings openly expressed in countless monologues. And while I appreciate well-written dialogue, the real world around me has always been rather silent. In my experience people rarely communicate. We might chat about life, work and family but it is often just surface nonsense with very little substance to it. Real relationships are hard to foster. True friendships are rare and should be treasured. We seem to be naturally guarded creatures who roam the world alone and finally die alone, no matter how deep our relationships are with friends and family. Michelangelo Antonioni understood this like no other director I’ve ever encountered.

Monica Vitti and Alain Delon in L’ Eclisse (1962)

Antonioni often tossed out convention when he made his films and embraced ambiguity. He knew that real life was full of questions that rarely had answers and he knew human behavior was often unpredictable and motivated by the incomprehensible interior life of every individual. He brought all of this truth to his films and I love him for it. I’m grateful that the world I know was so beautifully captured and shown to me through his camera. Antonioni was able to communicate with me in ways that few other artists and human beings have been able to and I’ll be forever grateful to him for that. Within Antonioni’s silences I heard symphonies.

Unfortunately it hasn’t always been very easy to see Antonioni’s films. In recent years that has changed due to companies like Criterion which have been making Antonioni’s films more accessible to American audiences, but I’ve still only seen L’Avventura (1960), La Notte (1961), L’Eclisse (1962), Red Desert (1964), Blow Up (1966) and The Passenger (1975) myself. Each of his films has resonated deep within me and I’d have a hard time leaving any of them off a list of “Favorite Films” that I might put together.

With Bergman’s death and now Antonioni’s passing, critics are bemoaning the lack of respect these directors seem to have with modern audiences but I think it’s ridiculous to weigh their incredible achievements against popular opinion. Antonioni’s work is so incredibly modern that it still confounds critics and divides audiences. If that isn’t the mark of an important filmmaker who’s work is still worth exploring and has much to offer current audiences, I don’t know what is. I have no doubt that Antonioni’s films will be appreciated for years to come and new generations of film lovers will find themselves discovering his work and being as deeply moved by it as I have been.

Links to some Michelangelo Antonioni film trailers on YouTube:
- L’ Avventura (1960)
- L’ Eclisse (1962)
- Blow-up (1966)
- Zabriskie Point (1970)
- The Passenger (1975)

Filmmaker Julien Duvivier is undoubtedly one of France’s most important and influential directors. Unfortunately unlike many of his contemporaries, such as Jean Renoir and René Clair, Duvivier’s cinematic contributions are sometimes forgotten. He was often dismissed by the Nouvelle Vague and his real talents were in re-imagining crime thrillers and fantasy films, which are genres generally overlooked by most critics. The director’s ability to produce worthwhile films in multiple genres may have not won him much critical praise during his lifetime, but in recent years Duvivier’s contributions to French noir and fantasy cinema have begun to be fully appreciated.

Duvivier found some success in Hollywood during the late 1930s and early 1940s with the lavish musical The Great Waltz (1938), a the star-filled comedy called Tales of Manhattan (1942) and the interesting dark fantasy anthology Flesh and Fantasy (1943), but he’s mainly remembered for the films he made with the great French actor Jean Gabin such as Pépé le Moko (1937) and Voici le temps des assassins… (1956). Unfortunately many critics still dismiss his later films and that’s a shame. I think some of Julien Duvivier’s most interesting movies were made in the sixties, including his last film Diaboliquement Vôtre (a.k.a. Diabolically Yours, 1967) which I just watched for a second time recently.

Diaboliquement Vôtre is a dark psychological thriller starring Alain Delon, Senta Berger, Sergio Fantoni and Peter Mosbacher. The movie opens with Georges Campo (Alain Delon) taking a long drive at high speeds down a seemingly deserted road in the French countryside. The drive is powered by a great soundtrack from composer François de Roubaix and it’s beautifully shot from the perspective of the driver. This perspective never really changes throughout the film since most of the events that follow are seen through the eyes of Delon’s character Georges. When the drive ends with a violent crash Georges finds himself waking up inside a hospital with amnesia. He quickly notices a wedding band on his finger but he can’t seem to recall his wife Christiane once she arrives at the hospital. Georges’ wife Christiane is played by the beautiful actress Senta Berger so he has no problem following her home even if he can’t remember marrying her.

When Georges arrives at his country estate he is overwhelmed by his luxurious surroundings. He can’t remember previously living there, but he’s more than happy to move in and make himself comfortable. Georges’ complacency seems a little odd at first but with a partner as lovely as Senta Berger and a home fit for a king, it’s understandable why someone might not ask too many questions and just accept their fate with a smile.

Things begin to get complicated when a family friend and doctor named Freddie (Sergio Fantoni) arrives for a visit and Georges seems to recognize him. Georges’ memories of Freddie don’t appear to coincide with reality but it’s clear that Georges’ reality has become more than a little clouded after his accident. Georges expresses his doubts about his new home and current wife, but Freddie manages to convince him that his injuries from the car crash are the reason for his confusion. The two men share a few laughs and Georges soon falls comfortably into the role of loving husband and Master of the manor again.

We’re also introduced to a Chinese servant named Kim (played rather stereotypically by German actor Peter Mosbacher) who devotes himself to Georges’ wife Christiane. The servant Kim not only cooks and cleans, but he also sews all of Christine’s cloths, offers her massages, styles her hair and satisfies numerous other desires. Georges seems to sense something strange about the relationship between his wife and the servant so he becomes increasingly rude and aggressive towards Kim as the movie progresses. Georges’ anger seems to increase as every sexual advance he makes towards his wife Christiane is refused.

As the film unfolds Georges becomes more and more suspicious of everyone around him and the situation he has found himself in. He even begins to question his own sanity after he starts hearing voices and having disturbing nightmares. Georges is also continually given drugs which are supposed to be helping him recall his memories, but they only seem to be adding to his muddled state of mind.

One of the most interesting things about Duvivier’s Diaboliquement Vôtre is the way the director plays with ideas about human identity and memory, as well as destiny and fate which were common themes that Duvivier seemed to enjoy exploring in his films. Alain Delon’s character Georges is perpetually torn between discovering the truth about his identity and succumbing to the pleasures that his current life offers him. He could easily answer many of the questions he continually raises about his past by asking to see family photos and talk to other family members or friends, but instead he engages in an ongoing conversation about his existence with himself and anyone who will listen. These conversations seem to take place in a void or echo chamber where Georges’ thoughts are continually thrown back at him.

The film’s stylish modern look also adds a lot to the production. Diaboliquement Vôtre was shot by the great French cinematographer Henri Decaë who was behind the camera for many of Alain Delon’s most important films such as Plein Soleil (1960), Le Samourai (1967), Le Cercle Rouge (1970), Les Félins (1964) and Le Clan des Siciliens (1969). Decaë’s camera was clearly in love with Delon because he shot the actor beautifully and manages to continually imbued him with an aura of charm and mystery that is undeniably appealing. Henri Decaë’s skillful camera work also flatters the lovely actress Senta Berger who has rarely looked more beautiful than she does in Diaboliquement Vôtre.

The movie ends with a few minor twists and turns which may or may not surprise viewers, but in the end we still know very little about Georges and the rest of the characters in the film. Their future is also a bit of a mystery since Duvivier’s conclusion to Diaboliquement Vôtre is somewhat open to interpretation and in turn lets us imagine multiple outcomes. Like many other European thrillers from the period, Diaboliquement Vôtre shrouds it’s rather conventional plot in metaphors and existential ideas that will probably only appeal to a handful of viewers. At first glance it’s easy to miss a lot of the movies’ underlying themes, but if you’re willing to suspend disbelief and follow Georges down his path to self discovery I think some viewers might find the film as rewarding as I did.

In an ironic twist, director Julien Duvivier was killed in an auto accident on October 30th just a few days after completing production on Diaboliquement Vôtre in 1967. It’s impossible to watch this film without considering the director’s final moments. There is something telling in Duvivier’s existential world view that seems to seep into the film’s every frame and shape its somewhat ambiguous end. If Diaboliquement Vôtre is any indication, the director would have continued to make interesting films if he had lived a bit longer and that is a real tragedy. As pessimistic and conventional as the film might appear to some, I think it has a kinetic energy and progressive style that’s incredibly modern and appealing. Diaboliquement Vôtre is an important final addition to Julien Duvivier’s extensive filmography.

Diaboliquement Vôtre is currently available on DVD as Diabolically Yours from Telavista but the quality of the DVD is rather awful. Hopefully another company will restore the film and give it the quality widescreen release that it deserves.

A tsunami of great new DVDs have been hitting store shelves lately. I can’t keep up with all the great new releases, but this week there are some really terrific films finding their way onto DVD for the first time and I couldn’t resist mentioning them here.

Criterion is releasing Lindsay Anderson’s brilliant British drama If…. (1968) and I’ve been eagerly awaiting it for months. If…. has long been one of my favorite films after I first saw it playing in a theater as part of a double bill with Peter Brook’s wonderfully disturbing Lord of the Flies (1963) when I was just a teenager. Oddly enough I saw both movies as part of a class field trip. I was stuck in a sort of reform school for troubled teens at the time and for some reason the school supervisors thought the movies would be helpful to the students “psychological development.” The only thing I really wanted to do after watching both films was burn down the school and spit in the face of every authority figure that got in my way. I don’t think that was the outcome the school supervisors wanted, but I can’t imagine what kind of a reaction they were expecting from a bunch of rebellious teens?

Most of the other students who watched If…. with me left halfway through the film to go smoke cigarettes outside the theater much to our chaperone’s distress, but I was transfixed by what I was seeing on the screen. Lindsay Anderson’s film spoke to me in ways that no movie ever had before and I listened. I’m sure my own troubled youth spent in reform schools and shelters made it easy for me to quickly respond to the film’s anti-authority message since I was obviously questioning the adult world around me and often acting out in agressive ways. Even though the young British men in If…. would seem to be completely different creatures from the angry American girl I was at the time, I easily found common ground with them and developed a huge crush on the movie’s star, a very young Malcolm McDowell. The film has haunted me ever since. If…. always manages to find its way onto any list I put together of my favorite films and I suppose I have my old school supervisors to thank for that, so they must have been doing something right.

I own a video copy of If…. that I recorded off of TV in the late 80s, but I look forward to replacing it with the new Criterion DVD which is loaded with terrific extras.

Also worth a look is Marlon Brando and Stephanie Beacham in Michael Winner’s The Nightcomers (1972) which is an unusual take on one of my favorite horror stories, Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw. Lots of critics and film fans seem to have issues with Winner’s films, but I happen to think he’s an under-appreciated director. I’ve only seen The Nightcomers on TV and I caught it late one night after it had already started. I’m not sure if I missed anything and the version I saw was undoubtedly cut up, so I look forward to finally seeing the film in full.

The gritty drama Panic in Needle Park (1971) is another interesting movie finding its way onto DVD this week. The film features Al Pacino in his first starring role as a troubled small time criminal whose heroin addiction is slowly destroying him. I’ve seen this once on television many years ago so I’m looking forward to seeing it out again.

My vote for the week’s best DVD re-release has to go to Jean Herman’s entertaining crime film Honor Among Thieves (a.k.a. Adieu l’ami, 1968) which features Alain Delon and Charles Bronson in their first film together. I think Delon & Bronson work well as a team and if you enjoy good heist films Honor Among Thieves is worth a look. Both actors became friends on the set and would later go on to make the great 1971 western Red Sun (a.k.a. Soleil Rouge) together with Toshirô Mifune.

Last but not least Criterion is also releasing two films by Yugoslavian director Dusan Makavejev, W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism (1971) and Sweet Movie (1974). I haven’t seen either myself, but I’ve read a lot about them and they both sound really interesting so I’m looking forward to giving them a look in the future.

R.I.P. Jean-Claude Brialy 1933-2007

I was planning on finally wrapping up my delayed week of celebrating all things French today, but after reading the news that the great French actor Jean-Claude Brialy had passed away I felt compelled to write something about him. Oddly enough my first thoughts went right to Alain Delon since Brialy and Delon were longtime friends. Brialy even encouraged Delon to get into acting. In 1957 Brialy took Alain Delon to Cannes with him where Delon was “discovered.” Besides Jean-Paul Belmondo, Delon made more films with his friend Jean-Claude Brialy than any other actor he worked with. I think it’s fair to say that if Delon and Brialy had not become friends, Delon may have never started acting.

It seems like a lot of great cinema icons are passing away this year. I suppose age is a factor and I sadly suspect that before 2007 is over many others will probably follow.

Jean-Claude Brialy, Alain Delon, Sacha Distel, Romy Schneider
& Jean Pierre Cassel (1961). Sadly, besides Delon,
everyone in this photo has now passed on.

Brialy had an amazing career in film and made many great movies. During his long career he worked with many great directors including Louis Malle, François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda, Julien Duvivier, Luis Buñuel, Roger Vadim, Eric Rohmer, Claude Chabrol, Claire Denis and Lucio Fulci. A few highlights from his impressive filmography include:

Tous peuvent me tuer (a.k.a. Everybody Wants to Kill Me, 1967)
Ascenseur pour l’échafaud (a.k.a. Elevator to the Gallows, 1958)
Christine (1958)
Les Quatre cents coups (a.k.a. The 400 Blows, 1959)
Paris nous appartient (a.k.a Paris Belongs to Us, 1960)
Une histoire d’eau (a.k.a A Story of Water, 1961)
Une femme est une femme (a.k.a. A Woman is a Woman, 1961)
Cléo de 5 à 7 (a.k.a. Cleo From 5 to 7, 1961)
Vie privée (a.k.a. A Very Private Affair, 1962)
La Chambre ardente (a.k.a. The Burning Court, 1962)
Les Diable et les dix commandements (a.k.a. The Devil and the Ten Commandments, 1962)
Château en Suède (a.k.a Nutty, Naughty Chateau, 1963)
La Ronde (a.k.a. Circle of Love, 1964)
Le Roi de coeur (a.k.a. King Of Hearts, 1966)
Operazione San Pietro (a.k.a Operation St. Peter’s, 1967)
La Mariée était en noir (a.k.a. The Bride Wore Black, 1968)
Le Genou de Clair (a.k.a. Claire’s Knee, 1970)
Le Fantôme de la liberté (a.k.a. Phantom of Liberty, 1974)
Catherine et Cie (a.k.a. Catherine & Co, 1975)
Le Juge et l’assassin (a.k.a. The Judge & the Assassin 1976)
L’ Année sainte (a.k.a. Holy Year, 1976)
La Chanson de Roland (a.k.a. The Song of Roland, 1978)
La Nuit de Varennes (a.k.a. That Night in Varennes, 1982)
La Ragazza di Trieste (a.k.a. The Girl from Trieste, 1982)
Mortelle randonnée (a.k.a. Deadly Circuit, 1983)
Inspecteur Lavardin (Inspecteur Lavardin, 1986)
S’en fout la mort (a.k.a. No Fear, No Die, 1990)
La Reine Margot (a.k.a. Queen Margot 1994)
Il Mostro (a.k.a. The Monster, 1994)

Since I’m devoting this week to all things fabulous and French I couldn’t resist spending some time writing about my favorite French actor, the beautiful, enigmatic and talented Alain Delon.

Alain Delon and I begun our one-sided love affair in the summer of 1996. It was then that Purple Noon (a.k.a. Plein Soleil, 1960) was re-released in American movie theaters thanks to Martin Scorsese and Miramax. I read a brief piece about the film in a local paper and thought it sounded fascinating so during it’s revival I caught Purple Noon playing in San Francisco at the Embarcadero Center.

It’s hard to put into words how my first meeting with Alain Delon transpired, but I can tell you that I’ve never fallen so hard and so fast for an actor before and I don’t expect that I ever will again. Delon was without a doubt the most beautiful thing I had ever seen captured on film. To this day, I don’t believe there has ever been a more charismatic or beautiful man who has stood in front of a moving camera.

While watching Purple Noon I was completely transfixed by Delon’s incomparable beauty and charm, but I was also swept away by his talent. His performance as Tom Ripley in Purple Noon is really remarkable and in my opinion it overshadows all other attempts to bring Patricia Highsmith’s character to life. I loved the way Delon conveyed Ripley’s quiet madness with his facial ticks and icy stares. Delon’s acting was understated, but very powerful and his performance in Purple Noon was completely unlike anything I had ever seen before.

When the movie ended I walked out of the theater in a daze. I couldn’t remember the plot or the names of any other people involved in the film except for Alain Delon. I would have to see the movie again (and again, and again…) to fully appreciate it, but I did know that Delon had suddenly become my favorite actor and I was determined to see every film he had ever made and to learn as much about him as I could.

Unfortunately I soon discovered that wasn’t going to be an easy task. 1996 was still the VHS age and eBay and IMDb were in their infantile stages. The internet proved to be utterly useless and searches for Alain Delon brought up next to nothing. I spent my time looking through English language film books for any bits of info I could find about him, but I had very little to show for my efforts. It’s hard to believe now, but Alain Delon was an enigma in 1996. Mostly forgotten by American film audiences and often ignored by American film critics.

My search finally led me to look for a French pen pal in the hope that they might be able to help me in my quest for anything and everything related to Delon. At the time I had a few Japanese pen pals who I exchanged comic books with and with their help I found a French comic book fan who thankfully understood my passion for Delon. She was kind enough to send me second generation VHS tapes of some of Delon’s French films as well as photos that she cut out of old magazines. The more I learned about Delon, the more I became fascinated with him. He’s no angel and he’s definitely done things that I can’t possibly begin to understand (neglecting his son Christian by Nico comes to mind). He’s human after all, and like all human beings he has good and bad qualities. His complexity as an individual and as an artist continues to fascinate me.

Fast forward to Sept. 1997 - I decided to take a class on web design at my local community college in order to improve my job opportunities. The teacher asked us all to create a web project featuring content or a subject which we felt was underrepresented on the web. Since there were absolutely no English language websites devoted to Alain Delon in 1997 I decided I would make Delon the focus of my web project and that is how the first English language website devoted to Alain Delon came to be. The website was called Alain Delon… A Tribute! and it has been off-line since 2000, but much of the old site has been archived by the fine folks at Wayback Machine for anyone who’s interested in giving it a look. Fair warning - try to ignore all the spelling, grammar and punctuation mistakes if you do visit the site. If you don’t think I need an editor now, you soon will!

While I was putting the Alain Delon… A Tribute! site together I came in contact with the very nice Michael St Aubyn who used to run the wonderful Belles de Jour 2 site featuring information about many French actresses. Michael was kind enough to send me lots of images of Delon which I was extremely grateful for. With his help, as well as the help of other Delon fans I met online, I managed to put together a pretty decent tribute site and the first English language site devoted to Alain Delon on the world wide web.

I had fun with the Alain Delon… A Tribute! site at first. I met some great people through the site and won some web awards for my efforts. I was also contacted by Anchor Bay and ended up helping them put together some information for the American release of the wonderful Jack Cardiff film Girl on a Motorcycle (1968) which features Alain Delon and Marianne Faithfull. I got a free copy of the film from Anchor Bay for my efforts, but it managed to get lost in the mail (at least that’s what Anchor Bay claimed . . . ).

Unfortunately I was also contacted by a lot of nuts who assumed I was Alain Delon and they sent me some really disturbing emails. One guy in particular became extremely hard to deal with. He was clearly crazy and obsessed with Delon. He wrote bizarre notes to me as if I was Delon that were filled with sexual threats that frankly frightened me. It made me very sympathetic to the kind of horrible things celebrities must have to deal with on a regular basis.

When Yahoo took over Geocities I managed to loose my password and I couldn’t recover it to access the site, but to be honest I didn’t try very hard. I was tired of dealing with nutty fans so I let the Alain Delon… A Tribute! site fade into obscurity. My own appreciation for Delon has never gone away though. I still have a lot of material that I would love to get online and share with other fans.

I’d like to revamp the site for it’s upcoming 10 year anniversary in 2008. If you read the material I collected there you’ll find that the site has been borrowed from countless times by other film sites that are now online as well as Wikipedia, etc. Naturally I don’t own Delon, so I don’t mind that his other fans have used my original content too much, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t bother me just a little bit to see whole paragraphs and sentences I’ve written online with someone else’s name and copyright slapped on them.

I’ve recently been really inspired by David Zuzelo over at Tomb It May Concern who is currently putting together the wonderful Thriller-A Cruel Picture Archives on his blog as well as Dan Taylor’s terrific Klaus Kinski Files blog. Blogs are much easier to manage than entire websites and I think creating an Alain Delon archive blog where I can share all my Delon materials might be the best way to revive Alain Delon… A Tribute! It seems silly to keep all my original Delon material to myself. If you have any ideas or suggestions about how to best share my Delon materials please feel free to drop me a note or comment below.

A few months ago I came across a music video on Youtube by the French band La Kuizine who actually used clips of my old Alain Delon… A Tribute! website in one of their music videos. My site is featured in part 03 of their 3 part musical epic called Delon En Large which includes sound clips and film clips from Delon’s many movies. I thought that was pretty darn cool myself and I actually really like La Kuizine’s experimental electronic music so I figured I’d share the bands video here.

You can watch the first two parts of La Kuizine’s Delon Et Large here.
- Delon En Large, extract 01
- Delon En Large, extract 02

The Cannes Film Festival turns 60 this week and that’s reason enough to celebrate all things fabulous and French, so I plan on doing just that throughout the next week until the festival wraps up.

I haven’t come across many books written about the early days of Cannes but I can recommend Cannes - Fifty Years of Sun, Sex & Celluloid: Behind the Scenes at the World’s Most Famous Film Festival compiled by the editors of Variety. This thin cheap large-format paperback book only has 96 pages and it’s put together like some scrapbook that you might come across in a film critics old file cabinet. It contains lots of great black and white photos of directors and actors, plus news clippings and articles about the festival written by various journalists and critics between 1946 and 1996. This is not an in-depth look at the history of Cannes, but if you’re looking for some quick and interesting reading about the film festival with lots if pretty pics, the book is definitely worth picking up.

Here’s a few examples of the writing you can find in Cannes - Fifty Years of Sun, Sex & Celluloid: Behind the Scenes at the World’s Most Famous Film Festival:

Employees of the French film industry take to the streets in protest (1968)

Barricade ‘68: The Day They Seized the Celluloid
by Penelope Houston (Sight & Sound)

“May 18, 1968 - The day the brakes were slammed on the 21st Cannes Film Festival. In Paris, the students had carried their grievances from their suburban campuses onto the city streets. The barricades went up and riot police moved in. A rather frail alliance between students and workers brought waves of strikes. For a few days, it seemed that France really might be balancing on the edge of revolution. And in Cannes, predictably, they launched their revolution with a press conference.

François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard presided over the conference on the morning of May 18. These were filmmakers who had been most active three months earlier in the battle of the Cinematheque Francaise, when Arts Minister Andre Malraux sacked Henri Langlois, the powerfully charismatic founder and head of the Cinematheque. Langlois was reinstated, though with reduced powers, after a protest that involved the French film community, filmmakers from around the world, the major American companies and an interesting sprinkling of left-wingers. Journalists expected Truffaut and Godard to use the publicity spotlight of Cannes and the impetus of the Cinematheque triumph to press their grievances against the Gaullist film establishment. They were in for a shock.

Truffaut and Godard called an immediate halt to the festival, to show solidarity with students and workers and as a response to the national crisis. The occasion was well-timed. Jurors Louis Malle, Roman Polanski and Monica Vitti were on hand to announce their own resignations. French filmmakers promised to withdraw their films; others, including Milos Forman and Carlos Saura, joined them. Still others jumped up to say they would have withdrawn their films if they had been in competition, which unfortunately they were not. I bumped into Richard Lester, hurrying to record his protest. This being the year of flower power and gurus, the British director was wearing what at first looked like a white frock, but what in fact was an Indian-style tunic. Somehow, this rig seemed to fit the surrealism of the day.”

Sydney Pollack and Robert Redford at Cannes promoting Jeremiah Johnson (1972)

May 12, 1972 - Sunshine, Darkness, Nixon, Schizophrenia.
by Charles Champlin (L. A. Times)

“There is something bizarre and conceivably lunatic about coming to the sun-bleached shores of the Mediterranean with a total commitment to darkness

Along the Criosette, the local ladies are airing the local poodles and the international wanderers, vagabonds in jeans, already have spread displays of brass and silver jewelry, leather work and watercolors on the sidewalks. At the outdoor cafe alongside the Palais, the day’s debut has already begun over cups of coffee the color and texture of the Mississippi in flood tide.

The cinema is packed but even the early arrivals sit down front. Godard and the New Wave critics made it an article of faith that film should be a total, enveloping and developing experience, seen from as close up as vertebrae and eyeballs will allow.

Into the sunshine again briefly for lunch at one of the sidewalk cafes. A salade Nicoise and some eau minerale, in a desperate move to prevent the festival from becoming a total caloric disaster.

Back into the darkness again. The stage of the Palais theater has been set with artificial grass and flowers arranged to spell out XXV, this being the 25th festival, though it is the 26th year (1968 was a no-show). The plastic plants have an eerie glow in the dim light, hinting that nothing real any longer exists anywhere. There is a kind of urgent rustling of newspapers; half the waiting audience is reading accounts of the Nixon speech. The feelings of unreality are deepened.

The movie is Robert Altman’s Images, the Irish entry in festival mostly because it was filmed there. Susannah York plays a children’s author in advanced stages of paranoid schizophrenia, hearing voices, seeing dead lovers and being bedeviled by glimpses of her own accusing self. It is a dazzling piece of moviemaking and mood-spinning.”

Alain Delon, Sophia Loren & Romy Schneider brave the crowds at Cannes (1962)

There’s some great old clips from Cannes floating around Youtube that I highly recommend giving a look:

1962 - A feature about pretty aspiring starlettes who come to Cannes with hope of becoming the next Brigitte Bardot. François Truffaut is interviewed and a beat band plays.

1965 - A young and very cute Sean Connery, along with the beautiful Claudine Auger, at Cannes promoting the latest James Bond film Thunderball.

1970 - Lots of footage of the festival featuring the lovely Candice Bergen, who is also interviewed.

1973 - The beautiful diva Diana Ross in Cannes promoting Lady Sings The Blues.

1979 - Francis Ford Coppola explains Apocalypse Now to the press at Cannes.

More vintage clips from Cannes can be found at the wonderful TSR Archives site.

Extra reading:

Girish - On Henri Langlois.

Moon In The Gutter - On Life with Truffaut’s Antoine Doinel.

Flickhead - The fabulous Claude Chabrol Project

Happy Birthday Ann-Margret!

My favorite redhead Ann-Margret was born on April 28 in 1941 and yesterday she celebrated her 66th birthday. To celebrate I thought I’d post an overview of some of the best films she made during the sixties and seventies, as well as share some of my thoughts about her life and her work.

Ann-Margret got her start in showbiz when she was 19 years old after being discovered by the legendary George Burns while auditioning for his annual holiday show in Las Vegas. Following her success in Vegas, Ann-Margret’s career took off and within a few months she had signed a record deal with RCA and a movie contract with 20th Century Fox.

Ann-Margret was a real triple threat when she began her career in the sixties. She could sing, she could dance and she could act. She was also incredibly beautiful, sassy, funny and smart. Unfortunately I’ve always thought that movie studios in the sixties and seventies never really knew what to do with Ann-Margret. She ended up in a lot of lackluster films and had a hard time being taken seriously as an actress. If she had been born 20 years earlier she would have probably had an amazing career in musicals, but musicals where becoming unpopular with film audiences and critics just as Ann-Margret was starting her movie career.

1961-1969

Ann-Margaret’s first movie role was in the Oscar nominated Frank Capra film Pocketful of Miracles (1961), where she played the daughter of Bette Davis. Following that she made State Fair (1962) with Pat Boone and Bobby Darin. She then got her real breakthrough role as the beautiful and spunky Kim McAfee in George Sidney’s great musical comedy Bye Bye Birdie (1963).

Following her terrific performance in Bye Bye Birdie Ann-Margret made a memorable appearance as an animated character named Ann-Margrock in the fourth season of The Flintstones (1963) cartoon series before starring alongside Elvis Presley in Viva Las Vegas (1964).

Viva Las Vegas is one of Elvis’ best movies from the sixties and Ann-Margret was easily his best co-star. The two have obvious on screen chemistry together that’s really electric and fun to watch. The musical numbers are great and the movie gave both of them the chance to really show off their comedic skills along with their dance moves.

The meeting between Ann-Margret and Elvis on the set of Viva Las Vegas was the start of a great friendship between the two talented stars. It would also mark the beginning of what might be one of Hollywood’s most tragic and unfulfilled love stories. When Elvis met Ann-Margret in 1963 they embarked on a passionate affair. At the time that Elvis met her he was already in a relationship with Priscilla Beaulieu (a.k.a. Priscilla Presley) and was committed to marrying her. After information about their affair made the celebrity gossip magazines many people think Elvis was encouraged to end his relationship with Ann-Margret by his manager Colonel Tom Parker, as well as Priscilla’s parents who threatened to expose Elvis as a pedophile because he started his relationship with their daughter when she was only fourteen years old. Elvis’ career was having trouble trying to recover from his time spent away from the public when he was in the army. This sort of scandal could have easily put an end to his career altogether.

Elvis and Ann-Margret’s romantic affair came to an end, but the two remained close until Elvis’ untimely death. Elvis’ lifelong nickname for Ann-Margret was “Rusty”, which was the name of her character in Viva Las Vegas and up until the day he died he would send a bouquet of flowers to her every time she performed live. Lots of people who were close to Elvis and knew about his complicated relationship with Ann-Margret have said that she was the real “love of his life” and she has called Elvis her “soulmate.” It’s hard not to wonder how Elvis’ life may have been different if he and Ann-Margret had followed their hearts in 1964. In Ann-Margret’s own words she had this to say about their relationship:

“His wish was that we could stay together. But of course, we both knew that was impossible., and that’s what was so very difficult about our relationship. Elvis and I knew he had commitments, promises to keep, and he vowed to keep his word. Both of us knew that no matter how much we loved each other, no matter how strong our bond, we weren’t going to last.” - From her book Ann Margret: My Story.

After Viva Las Vegas Ann-Margret played a sassy bad girl in the entertaining thriller Kitten with a Whip (1964). Kitten with a Whip is one of best exploitation movies about rebellious teens made in the early sixties and Ann-Margret is terrific as a naughty juvenile delinquent named Jody. The role solidified her reputation as a cinema sex kitten in the sixties, but like most of Ann-Margret’s movies, critics were not very impressed with it.

Jean Negulesco’s The Pleasure Seekers (1964) was Ann-Margret’s next movie and it’s an enjoyable film. Ann-Margret plays Fran Hobson in this updated remake of the director’s earlier film Three Coins in the Fountain (1954), which itself was a remake of his film How to Marry a Millionaire (1953). The musical numbers and fashions are the best part of this cute comedy which is pretty old fashioned for 1964, but Ann-Margret and André Lawrence (who plays her love interest in the film) seem to have worked well together and it’s fun watching them drive around Spain on a scooter.

In 1965 Ann-Margret made Once a Thief with the talented French actor Alain Delon. She does her first really good dramatic acting in Once a Thief, but she’s predictably over the top as Delon’s troubled wife and her emotional performance stands out in stark contrast to Delon’s understated style of acting. Even though the two seem like an odd pair, they’re both beautiful and generate a lot of heat when they’re on screen together. Once a Thief is an interesting crime thriller with a great cast that fans of modern noir films should enjoy.

After starring with Alain Delon in Once a Thief, Ann-Margret got the opportunity to work with another sixties icon in Norman Jewison’s film