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Retitled Bolero for its American release in 1981, Claude Lelouch’s Les Uns et les Autres is a musical multi-family saga spanning five decades. Starring Robert Hossein and Geraldine Chaplin, Lelouch’s screenplay follows the travails and triumphs of four households of different nationalities—it’s their shared love for music that unites the characters and the film.

The post Les Uns et les Autres appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

One of Robert Hossein’s most popular roles as the dashing Count of Peyrac opposite Michèle Mercier in Angelica – Marquis of Angels (Angélique Marquise des Anges) (Photo Unifrance) Photo: Unifrance The celebrated French actor and director Robert Hossein, who made more than 115 screen appearances as well as directing 15 features and several lavish theatre productions, has died on the day after his 93rd birthday (31 December).

Robert Hossein Photo: Unifrance He was the son of composer André Hossein, who had Iranian roots, and a comedy actress from Kiev Anna Minevskaya. Hossein Snr’s scores were signed under his pseudonym André Gosselain. Robert Hossein was born in Paris on 30 December, 1927. He trained at the Cours Simon theatre school and made his first steps on the stage of the Theâtre du Grand Guignol in Pigalle where he worked both as director and actor.

He progressed to make over the helm of the Theâtre Populaire...

Poor, poor Lucio Fulci. He spent the first half of the ’90s ill from his fight with diabetes; his last film Door into Silence, came out in ’91. Longtime rival Dario Argento offered an olive branch for the two to work on a project together; they wrote a story (and Fulci crafted a screenplay), but sadly Fulci passed away in March of ’96 before production started. But horror is persistent, and after Argento had FX maestro Sergio Stivaletti step behind the camera, the world was given Wax Mask (1997), a gnarly yet elegant period piece that manages to pay tribute to not only the fractured madness of Fulci, but Hammer as well. Now it can be yours with a glorious 4K transfer and a treasure trove of goodies from the upstanding citizens of Severin Films.

If one was to drag the ’50s Hammer films kicking and screaming across the floor and dropped them off in an Italian extrava-grossout,...

Le professionnel is essentially a 1981 version of The Bourne Identity, oddly enough, with Jean-Paul Belmondo in the lead role. Robert Ludlum's novel was brand new at the tune, but Le prof is based on a 1976 book by Patrick Alexander that Ludlum, I'm guessing, may have read.Sent to assassinate an African despot, Jpb is betrayed by his own people, brainwashed, and jailed in a hellish prison camp, but escapes after two years, returns to Paris and announces his determination to finish the mission (with the secret service no longer want carried out) when the despot is on a state visit to the French capital.So, it's called The Professional and it's about a crazy but ruthless state killer gone rogue, and it's shot by Melville's cameraman, Henri Decae. But at some point, somebody decided it needed some yucks also, so Belmondo gets to grin a lot and make quips in a Roger Moore style.

He’s fast on his feet, quick with a gun, and faster with the to-die-for beauties that only existed in the swinging ’60s. The superspy exploits of Oss 117 were too big for just one actor, so meet all three iterations of the man they called Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath . . . seriously.

Oss 117 Five Film Collection

Blu-ray

Oss 117 Is Unleashed; Oss 117: Panic in Bangkok; Oss 117: Mission For a Killer; Oss 117: Mission to Tokyo; Oss 117: Double Agent

Kl Studio Classics

1963-1968 / B&W and Color / 1:85 widescreen + 2:35 widescreen / 528 min. / Street Date September 26, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 59.95

Starring: Kerwin Matthews, Nadia Sanders, Irina Demick, Daniel Emilfork; Kerwin Matthews, Pier Angeli, Robert Hossein; Frederick Stafford, Mylène Demongeot, Perrette Pradier, Dominique Wilms, Raymond Pellegrin, Annie Anderson; Frederick Stafford, Marina Vlad, Jitsuko Yoshimura; John Gavin, Margaret Lee, Curd Jurgens, Luciana Paluzzi, Rosalba Neri, Robert Hossein, George Eastman.

Cinematography: Raymond Pierre Lemoigne...

by Nathaniel R

Franco Nero and Vanessa Redgrave at Cannes '67Fifty years ago on this very day over in France the 20th annual Cannes Film Festival opened with the French film I Killed Rasputin directed by Robert Hossein. The jury was headed by the influential Italian director Alessandro and featured both Shirley Maclaine and Vincente Minnelli, two of our favorites.

When the festival closed that year the awards were spread out (as they should be) with lots of countries winning something. The Palme d'Or went to Michelangelo Antonioni's brilliant Blowup at the end of the festival (a film we tried to interest y'all in a few years ago to crickets. *sniffle*). Check out Vanessa Redgrave's frankly awesome full-body get-up on the red carpet with her then brand new lover Franco Nero (of Camelot fame). They finally married 11 years ago!

Both of the acting prizes went to young actors.

Right out of the gate I should say that Cemetery Without Crosses is notable for a number of reasons. First off, it's one of the only, if only, French westerns from the 60s and it was directed by Rififi actor Robert Hossein who also starred in the film. Hossein, a huge fan of Italian westerns (who can blame him?), dedicated the film to his friend, Sergio Leone who also makes an appearance in the film and directed one of its better scenes. The film's opening theme is sung by legendary British crooner Scott Walker, so there's that, but I struggle to recommend this Euro western to anyone other than the most die [Continued ...]...

From France With Love: Gender And Identity In French Romantic Comedy

By Mary Harrod (I. B. Tauris, £62/ $99)264 pages. Hardback. Isbn: 9781784533588

Review by Diane Rodgers

French romantic comedy has been enjoying something of a popularity boom, beginning slowly in the 1990s and showing no sign of waning two decades later.  The 'comédie romantique' (still a relatively new term in the French language) now firmly standardised as a popular film genre in France. The rom-com genre has outperformed all others financially, responsible for around 50% of domestic box office takings and the lion's share of French film production. So why, Mary Harrod poses, has the area been so badly neglected by scholarly research?

This book is not, perhaps, for those with a casual or passing interest in the genre; some degree of academic knowledge and awareness of related literature is assumed here. However, throughout the study, Harrod makes a strong case for academic...

Filmed during the height of the Euro Western craze of the late 60’s, Robert Hossein’s Cemetery Without Crosses is an obscure gem rejuvenated by Arrow Video. A French production, the title was actor/director Hossein’s first Western, obviously influenced by Sergio Leone, whom the film is dedicated to (Leone was in the midst of production on Once Upon a Time in the West when Hossein was underway with his feature). A simplistic and familiar narrative is enhanced by its inspired set designs and notable production value, featuring a winning score. Existing on the bleak end of the Spaghetti Western spectrum (or perhaps more aptly the ‘Baguette Western,” an Alex Cox coined term Ginette Vincendeau discusses in an included insert essay), it’s an entertaining bit of style over substance, and is an uncommon French entry in otherwise familiar climate. However, as much as Hossein pays homage to Leone,...

A Spaghetti Western with a French director and star may seem an odd combination, but this is exactly what we get with Cemetery Without Crosses aka The Rope and the Colt. Inspired by the success of the Dollars trilogy and dedicated to Sergio Leone, this is yet another addition to the Arrow Video classic releases.

After a family of Bandits lynches her husband, Maria Caine (Michèle Mercier) turns to old an old friend Manuel (Robert Hossein) to exact her revenge. At first reluctant to help, he finally gives in, donning his black glove and infiltrating the family to force a showdown between them and Caine which may just lead to all of their dooms.

Directed by and starring Robert Hossein, the first thing that makes the Western stand out is the catchy theme song sung by Scott Walker. The lynching this leads into sets up the revenge and leads us to the introduction of Manuel,...

Between his high profile marriages to Brigitte Bardot and Jane Fonda, director Roger Vadim engaged in a notable liaison with Catherine Deneuve, just prior to her ascension to international stardom in 1964’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Having brought Bardot to fame with his most notable title, his 1956 debut And God Created Woman, their working relationship would continue across several more titles, even as he married another actress, Annette Stroyberg, who starred in his 1959 version of Dangerous Liaisons and the erotic vampire flick Blood & Roses. Between these flurry of romances, Vadim would return to black and white cinematography (which he seemed to prefer for evoking period) with 1963’s Vice and Virtue a loose adaptation of the Marquis De Sade’s controversial erotic novel Justine for WWII era occupied France, resulting in his only collaboration with Deneuve as the virtuous member of a pair of beautiful sisters surviving on opposite ends of the oppressive Nazi spectrum.

Catherine Deneuve: César Award Besst Actress Record-Tier (photo: Catherine Deneuve in 'In the Courtyard / Dans la cour') (See previous post: "Kristen Stewart and Catherine Deneuve Make César Award History.") Catherine Deneuve has received 12 Best Actress César nominations to date. Deneuve's nods were for the following movies (year of film's release): Pierre Salvadori's In the Courtyard / Dans la Cour (2014). Emmanuelle Bercot's On My Way / Elle s'en va (2013). François Ozon's Potiche (2010). Nicole Garcia's Place Vendôme (1998). André Téchiné's Thieves / Les voleurs (1996). André Téchiné's My Favorite Season / Ma saison préférée (1993). Régis Wargnier's Indochine (1992). François Dupeyron's Strange Place for an Encounter / Drôle d'endroit pour une rencontre (1988). Jean-Pierre Mocky's Agent trouble (1987). André Téchiné's Hotel America / Hôtel des Amériques (1981). François Truffaut's The Last Metro / Le dernier métro (1980). Jean-Paul Rappeneau's Le sauvage (1975). Additionally, Catherine Deneuve was nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category...

★★☆☆☆ Roger Vadim's 1962 film Love on a Pillow sees Bridgit Bardot as the kind and caring Geneviève Le Theil, a well to-do girl from an upper-class family. After leaving Paris and arriving in Dijon to settle her inheritance, Geneviève meets a young man, Renaud Sarti (Robert Hossein), who attempts to commit suicide in her hotel room. Despite warnings from her mother and his own friends, Geneviève falls for Renaud and the pair set out on a journey of self-destruction.

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This coming Monday (19 March) finally sees the home entertainment 50th Anniversary release of Roger Vadim's 1962 film Love on a Pillow - starring Brigitte Bardot and Robert Hossein - courtesy of StudioCanal. To celebrate, we have Three DVD copies of the films to give away to our faithful, world cinema-supporting fans. This is an exclusive competition for our Facebook fans, so if you haven't already, head over to facebook.com/CineVueUK, 'Like' us, and then follow the instructions below.

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Genevieve, a young Parisienne visiting a small town to find out the details of a newly acquired inheritance, stumbles into the wrong hotel room and into the life on an unbalanced man (Renaud) who had been trying to take his own life, but now focusses his attention on invading and taking over hers. As he manipulates and controls her, we begin to fear for her emotional and physical safety.

*****

Brigitte Bardot, model, singer, actress and activist headlines this curious and relatively unheralded French film from the early 1960′s. It plays to her status as a peerless object of desire, but is a curious combination of sexually frank without being especially explicit. Bardot, for reasons never really elucidated, feels drawn to this strange suicidal Frenchman (a compelling and convincing Robert Hossein) and he gradually comes to exert an unhealthy amount of influence and control over her. Genevieve begins as a relatively virginal character,...

To mark the release of Love on a Pillow (Le Repos du Guerrier) on DVD 19th March, Studio Canal have given us three copies to give away. The film is directed by Roger Vadim and stars Brigitte Bardot and Robert Hossein.

Genevieve Le Thiel (Brigitte Bardot) is a nice, well brought up girl from an upper class family. When she leaves her Paris home to settle an inheritance in Dijon she finds a young man, Renaud (Robert Hossein) who has attempted to commit suicide in her hotel room and saves him just in time. She ends up falling in love with the man who appears to be no good for her and despite her mother’s disapproval and warning from his own friends Genevieve refuses to break with her lover. Nothing seems to swerve Genevieve from her own self-destructive course. Yet as Renaud keeps repeating that love is a bottomless pit,...

Jacques Rancière, Philippe Lafosse and the public in conversation about Straub-Huillet after a screening of From the Clouds to the Resistance and Workers, Peasants

Monday, February 16, 2004, Jean Vigo Cinema, Nice, France

Above: From the Clouds to the Resistance.

Philippe Lafosse: It seemed interesting to us, after having seen twelve films by Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet and talked about them together, to ask another viewer, a philosopher and cinephile, to talk to us about these filmmakers. Jacques Rancière is with us this evening to tackle a subject that we’ve entitled “Politics and Aesthetics in the Straubs’ Films,” knowing that we could then look into other points.

Jacques Ranciere: First, a word apropos the “and” of “Politics and Aesthetics”: this doesn’t mean that there’s art on the one hand and politics on the other, or that there would be a formal procedure on the one hand and political messages on the other.

French actor, novelist and director who starred in films by Truffaut and Buñuel

Those who followed the adventures of Antoine Doinel (played by Jean-Pierre Léaud) in a series of lyrical and semi-autobiographical films directed by François Truffaut – incorporating adolescence, marriage, fatherhood and divorce – will know that Doinel's first and (perhaps) last love, Colette Tazzi, was played by the stunningly beautiful Marie-France Pisier, who has been found dead aged 66 in the swimming pool of her house near Toulon, in southern France.

Doinel and audiences first caught sight of Pisier in Antoine et Colette, Truffaut's enchanting 32-minute contribution to the omnibus film L'Amour à Vingt Ans (Love at Twenty, 1962), during a concert at the Salle Pleyel in Paris of Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. She is conscious of Antoine's stares, and pulls down her skirt. We soon realise that Colette is going to break Antoine's heart.

Léaud and Pisier were born in...

$15 million stadium adaptation. 15,000 square meters of arena stage. 400 costumes, 200 back stage crew, 216 actors, 124 soldiers, 36 horsemen, 32 horses, 26 gladiators, 9 chariots and 5 Arabian dancers. Although there is no partridge in a pear tree, the stadium extravaganza Ben Hur boasts a production of biblical proportions.   Claiming to be the biggest theatrical event to be seen in Australia, Ben Hur- The Stadium Spectacular makes its way direct from Europe to grace our shores for two nights of mind-blowing theatre, at the Anz Olympic Stadium in Sydney.   Running over October 22-23, French director Robert Hossein will revive and rejuvenate the Ben Hur legend as made famous by the 1959 Academy Award winning film and the runaway best- selling novel by Lew Wallace, first printed in 1880.

"... They call him Silence, because wherever he goes, the silence of Death follows."

A gang of ruthless bounty hunters, for whom the "Alive" in "Dead or Alive" is mere filler, terrorise a snowbound mountain community, sanctioned by the town's corrupt Justice of the Peace, Pollicut (Luigi Pistilli) – who disposes of those he doesn't like by placing a price on their head.

Following the needless slaughter of her husband at the hands of the sadistic bounty killer, Loco (Klaus Kinski), Pauline (Vonetta McGee) enlists the aid of a wandering gunslinger, Silence (Jean-Louis Trintignant), to avenge his death. The presence of Silence in the desolate town of Snow Hill brings events to a head between the besieged inhabitants and the bounty hunters, and as the black-clad, mute gunman seeks retribution; he can do nothing to halt the massacre that is on its way.

Sergio Corbucci brought a manically fresh perspective to the...

Jeffman from Head Full Of Snow recommends five Spaghetti Westerns not directed by Sergio Leone.

A bruised and battered stalwart of the late night cinema circuit, the Spaghetti Western held a bastardised, custom-job revolver to the head of its inferior American cousin and relieved it of both its basic premise and last shred of decency; joyously blurring the line between right and wrong and leaving morality swinging from a ragged noose in the hot, desert sun.

The Spaghetti Western was an Italian phenomenon, mostly financed by Rome's famous Cinecitta Studios, although there were plenty of co-productions with other Euro countries like Spain and Germany, even stretching as far afield as Israel if you count the soul-sapping awfulness that is God's Gun. One man is responsible for popularising the Spaghetti Western, Sergio Leone. If you're a follower of LateMag's frequent forays into the weird and wonderful worlds of cult cinema you'll probably know his films already.

The fourth "City of Lights, City of Angels: A Week of New French Films" opened Tuesday at the Directors Guild of America with a screening of "Venus Beauty Institute", the big winner at this year's Cesar Awards, including best director for Tonie Marshall -- the second time a woman has won.

"Venus" also won best film, screenplay and young actress (for supporting player Audrey Tautou).

While it's no "The Hairdresser's Husband", "Venus" is a likable enough tale of female bonding and the never-ending quest for happiness and fulfillment when "mutual love doesn't exist." Set mainly within the confines of a neighborhood beauty parlor -- where women and a few men come for massages, facials and, in the case of one exhibitionist woman who likes to parade around in the buff, tanning -- the story is a rambling affair with no burning agenda.

A longtime employee with many loyal clients, Angele (Nathalie Baye) is unlucky in relationships and spends much of the movie coming to terms with an artistic young man Samuel Le Bihan) who falls in love with her and is not easily discouraged. Angele's co-worker Marie (Tautou) counts among her regulars a sad man (Robert Hossein) who had skin from his dead wife's buttocks grafted on him after a tragic accident, and the two drift together. Samantha (Mathilde Seigner) is the third staffer at the Paris salon and the one with the most serious problems.

Bulle Ogier as the shop owner, Emmanuelle Riva and Micheline Presle as Angele's aunts, Jacques Bonnaffe as her ex-boyfriend and Claire Nebout as the tanning woman round out the major players. Gently contrasting the warm, nourishing environment of the salon with the hard world outside, Marshall's direction is fine and the performances touching and realistic, even as the story lurches about with no urgent payoff or new insights into the lives of lonely hearts both seeking and scared silly by love.

VENUS BEAUTY INSTITUTE

Arte France Cinema

and Tabo Tabo Films

Screenwriter-director: Tonie Marshall

Producer: Gilles Sandoz

Director of photography: Gerard de Battista

Editor: Jacques Comets

Color/stereo

Cast:

Angele: Nathalie Baye

Nadine: Bulle Ogier

Antoine: Samuel Le Bihan

Jacques: Jacques Bonnaffe

Samantha: Mathilde Seigner

Marie: Audrey Tautou

L'aviateur: Robert Hossein

Running time -- 105 minutes

No MPAA rating...