Come see classic movie highlights made in France during the 1950s through the early 1970s, with double bills starring sublime French actresses Simone Signoret (DIABOLIQUE and CASQUE D’OR) and Brigitte Bardot (…AND GOD CREATED WOMAN and LA VERITE), and double features directed by Eric Rohmer (MY NIGHT AT MAUD’S and CLAIRE’S KNEE), Jean-Pierre Melville (LE CERCLE ROUGE and LE DOULOS) and Jean-Luc Godard (BREATHLESS and ALPHAVILLE). A crash course in superior French cinema!

Series compiled by Gwen Deglise and Grant Moninger. Additional program note by Randy Wyatt.

Wednesday, August 5 – 7:30 PM

Double Feature:

DIABOLIQUE, 1955, Janus Films, 110 min. Dir. Henri-Georges Clouzot. One of the greatest psychological thrillers ever made, DIABOLIQUE focuses on the browbeaten wife (Vera Clouzot) of a brutal schoolmaster and his tough-as-nails mistress (Simone Signoret), as they team up to murder their mutual tormentor. But that’s only the beginning of this edge-of-your-seat affair, a twisting, turning shocker that still holds up today as one of the all-time classics of suspense. Legend has it that Clouzot beat Hitchcock to the punch by only an hour in sewing up rights to the original novel by Pierre Boileau. With sardonic Charles Vanel as the poker-faced inspector. Trailer

CASQUE D’OR, 1952, Janus Films, 96 min. Dir. Jacques Becker. Do not miss this sublime masterpiece of romantic French cinema – simultaneously a heartbreaking adult fairy tale and an impressionist rendering of the turn-of-the-century Parisian underworld. The fleeting moments of shared love and erotic passion between Serge Reggiani and Simone Signoret are genuine poetry – moments cut short by the jealous machinations of others.

Thursday, August 6 – 7:30 PM

Rohmer Double Feature:

Friday, August 7 – 7:30 PM

Director's Cut LE CERCLE ROUGE, 1970, Rialto Pictures, 140 min. Director Jean-Pierre Melville’s masterpiece of Gallic gangsterism starring Alain Delon and Yves Montand. Impassive faces, snap-brim hats, dangling cigarettes, sunglasses after dark, raincoats without rain, nightclub floor shows...We’re unmistakably in the milieu of Jean-Pierre Melville, doyen of the New Wave and prince of the fate (BOB LE FLAMBEUR, LE SAMOURAI, etc.), here, for his penultimate work in the genre bringing together three archetypal tough guys for their appointment with destiny in the "red circle": prisoner-in-transit Gian Maria Volonté, crashing out of the train that’s taking him from Marseilles to Paris; ex-cop Yves Montand, moving from hopeless DT-plagued drunk to dapper, rock - steady sharpshooter; and quintessential Melville antihero Alain Delon (LE SAMOURAI), on his first day out of the joint shrugging off two murder attempts and planning his next big job. All join forces for a meticulously orchestrated heist of a Place Vendôme bijouterie, a silent tour-de-force in the grand movie tradition of RIFIFI, TOPKAPI, and THE ASPHALT JUNGLE. Trailer

LE DOULOS, 1962, Rialto Pictures, 108 min. Director Melville met Jean-Paul Belmondo during a brief cameo in Godard's BREATHLESS -- here, he gives Belmondo one of his best roles, that of a two-faced informer caught between the police and his "old pal," played by doom-faced Serge Reggiani. "It was only when LE DOULOS was finished and Belmondo saw himself on the screen that he realized, with great astonishment, ‘Christ! The stoolie is me!’ " -- Melville. Trailer

Saturday, August 8 – 7:30 PM

Brigitte Bardot Double Feature:

...AND GOD CREATED WOMAN (ET DIEU...CRÉA LA FEMME), 1956, TF1, 95 min. French director Roger Vadim’s audaciously sexy feature film debut not only puts him on the map here in America, but the saucy young starlet Brigitte Bardot as well. Bardot is Juliette, an earthy ne’er-do-well involved with two brothers (Jean-Louis Trintignant, Christian Marquand) and, for good measure, older Curt Jurgens, something that causes escalating dissension and chaos. Trailer

THE TRUTH (LA VERITÉ), 1960, Columbia, 130 min. Dir. Henri-Georges Clouzot. Brigitte Bardot gives arguably her greatest performance ever (despite her amazing work with Godard and Vadim) in this scorching portrait of amour fou. Bardot stars as Dominique, a hedonistic free-spirit on trial for the murder of her lover, musician Sami Frey. Once again Clouzot breaks ground in his fearless look at private insecurities, revealing what supposedly constitutes a ‘sordid’ lifestyle, and why it is so threatening to bourgeois society. Co-written by Clouzot and his wife Vera (star of DIABOLIQUE.) Winner of the 1961 Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film.

Sunday, August 9 – 7:30 PM

Godard Double Feature:

BREATHLESS (A BOUT DE SOUFFLE), 1960, New Yorker Films, 90 min. Dir. Jean-Luc Godard. Lip-stroking pug Jean-Paul Belmondo on the run, shooting cops and stealing cars – and cash from the handbag of Herald Tribune-hawking girlfriend Jean Seberg; with the couple engaging in boudoir philosophy, staring contests, sous-blanket tussles and plenty of smoking. The start of Godard’s decade of supreme hipness and seemingly compulsive, often outrageous innovation. "No film has been at once so connected to all that had come before it and yet so liberating... like high-energy fusion of jazz and philosophy." – Richard Brody, The New Yorker. "There’s POTEMKIN, CITIZEN KANE, and this... Godard’s first film." – J. Hoberman. Trailer