Co-presented by the French Film & TV
Office, French Embassy, Los Angeles and Cultures France
As any fan of French noir cinema knows, Melville and Godard were not alone in
re-inventing the crime film (or policier) in French terms. Filmmakers such as
Henri-Georges Clouzot (QUAI DES ORFEVRES, DIABOLIQUE), Julien Duvivier (PEPE LE
MOKO, PANIQUE), Jacques Deray (THE SWIMMING POOL) and Alain Corneau (SERIE
NOIRE), among many others, appropriated American noir tropes (bank heists, the One
Last Job, dangerously sexy women) through a gauze of silence and subtlety. Like the
American West Coast jazz scene of the 1950s, the French crime film was the very definition
of "cool" - a quicksilver world of alienated killers and speeding Citroens.
Join us for a spellbinding weekend of mystery and murder with a selection from the
French masters, including Jean Becker’s ONE DEADLY SUMMER and Georges
Lautner’s CROOKS IN CLOVER.
The series is dedicated to Alain Corneau (1943 - 2010), one of
France's most well-known contemporary filmmakers, particularly for his pitch-perfect noir
thrillers such as POLICE PYTHON 357 and SERIE NOIRE.
Thursday, September 9 – 7:30 PM
Double Feature: PEPE LE MOKO, 1937, Rialto Pictures, 94 min. Dir. Julien
Duvivier. Fugitive Jean Gabin hides out from women, the law, and fellow criminals in the
Casbah of Algiers. He's safe in the Casbah's labyrinth, until passion (in the form of a
lovely Parisian playgirl) tempts him out into the open. This classic of French cinema
influenced everything from American remakes to a Warner Bros. cartoon character (Pepe Le
Pew) and Michael Curtiz’s CASABLANCA. In French with English subtitles. Trailer
QUAI DES ORFEVRES, 1947, Rialto Pictures, 102
min. Maurice (Bertrand Blier), the jealous husband of ambitious cabaret chanteuse Jenny
(Suzy Delair), is blamed for murder when a lecherous movie producer turns up dead.
Director Henri-Georges Clouzot spins a classic police procedural, following dauntless
Inspector Antoine (French actor Louis Jouvet, in his greatest role) as he doggedly goes
about untying the knots in this delightfully perplexing, character-driven mystery. In
French with English subtitles. Buy Tickets
Friday, September 10 – 7:30 PM
Double Feature: THE SWIMMING POOL (LA PISCINE), 1969, SNC, 120 min. Dir. Jacques
Deray. Writer Jean-Paul (Alain Delon) and journalist Marianne (Romy Schneider) are having
a rendezvous in St. Tropez when Marianne's former lover, Harry, shows up. Harry has
brought along his fatally attractive daughter, Penelope (Jane Birkin). Hormones rage and
sparks fly, and one of the four ends up dead, accidentally drowned after a fight. Now the
three survivors must get their stories straight before the police arrive. In French with
English subtitles.
ONE DEADLY SUMMER (L'ETE MEURTRIER) 1983,
Universal, 130 min. Beautiful, but emotionally unstable Isabelle Adjani is Eliane, the
daughter of a single German mother (Maria Machado) who was raped by returning soldiers
post-WWII. Adjani goes on a quest to find the men - specifically, the man responsible for
impregnating her mother, who must logically be her father. Determined to find him and kill
him, her plans are interrupted when the village's volunteer fireman Pin-Pon (played by pop
star Alain Souchon) falls in love with her. In French with English subtitles.Buy Tickets
Saturday, September 11 – 7:30 PM
Double Feature: CROOKS IN CLOVER (aka LES TONTONS FLINGUEURS aka
MONSIEUR GANGSTER), 1963, Gaumont, 105 min. Director Georges Lautner helmed this
deliciously funny but dark gangster spoof with Lino Ventura as a former mobster lured back
into the business by a dying friend's final request. Obligated to tie up some "loose
ends" as well as look after the dead man's soon-to-be-married daughter, Ventura
abruptly finds himself running afoul of gangster hard case Bernard Blier. In French with
English subtitles.
Tribute to Alain Corneau: SERIE NOIRE. 1979, Tamasa, 111 min. Director Alain Corneau
expertly adapts one of Jim Thompson's most twisted pulp masterworks, A Hell of a Woman.
Patrick Dewaere stars as Frank Poupart, a human ferret scurrying around the bleak edges of
Nowhere, trying to sell cheap trinkets door-to-door and collect on small mob debts. When
he stumbles across a gorgeous teenager (Marie Trintignant) with a rich and repulsive aunt,
Dewaere gets sucked into the blackest vacuum of all. In French with English subtitles. Alain
Corneau (1943 - 2010) was one of France's most well-known contemporary
filmmakers, particularly for his pitch-perfect noir thrillers such as POLICE PYTHON 357
and SERIE NOIRE. Corneau also proved to be both successful at the box office and a magnet
for France's high-profile stars: he helmed the historical epic starring Gerard Depardieu,
FORT SAGANNE, the Cesar-winning TOUS LES MATINS DU MONDE, and worked with Yves Montand,
Monica Bellucci and Ludivine Sagnier, among others. The director enjoyed an active career
in the past decade - his most recent thriller, LOVE CRIME, starring Sagnier and Kristin
Scott Thomas, was just released in 2010. We are saddened by his recent passing. Buy
Tickets
