Classic Catalogue SOCIÉTÉ NOUVELLE DE CINÉMATOGRAPHIE SNC (Société Nouvelle de Cinématographie) is proud to present its Classic Catalogue. The following pages open on exciting highlights, which are only a tiny sampling of the overall Classic Catalogue. With four hundred titles to choose from and spanning six decades of European cinema, our Classic Catalogue is a particularly rich and diverse source of programming inspiration. The Classic Catalogue offers a vast panorama of film genres – French poetic realism of the 1930’s, super-productions of the 40’s, neo realism of the post-war 50’s, new Italian cinema of the 60’s and 70’s, etc ... It boasts the contributions of remarkable European talent from a myriad of directors, showcases first-class writers and technicians and is studded with an array of stellar actors. This Catalogue is perfectly suited for designing thematic evenings or inviting audiences to rediscover timeless classics. Whether choosing black and white or colour films, drama, fantasy or comedy the SNC Classic Catalogue - covering nearly half the Century, from ’Marie Chapdelaine’ (1934) to ’L’Eté Meurtrier’ (1983) – has something for everyone in a flickering parade of pirates, cowboys, princesses, monsters, villains and rascals which dazzles the eyes and tickles the imagination. Enjoy! contents Introduction Highlights of the 30’s 2 Highlights of the 4 40’s Highlights of the 50’s 8 Highlights of the 10 60’s Highlights of the 70’s 14 Index of actors 18 Index of directors 20 2 3 1930 -39 La bandera Jean Gabin is unforgettable as a French Legionnaire relentlessly pursued English title: Escape From Yesterday by his criminal past – and a fellow-soldier who seems to know a little too Genre: Drama /Adventure much about it... Director: Julien Duvivier Sent to the deadly Main Cast: Jean Gabin frontline, the two men Annabella come to terms with Robert le Vigan their courage in the Raymond Aimos face of danger. Pierre Renoir A timeless study of Image: Black & White men at war set in the Year of production: 1935 troubling exotic sur- Duration: 100 min. roundings of colonial Country of origin: France Morocco. Dernière jeunesse Genre: Drama Director: Jeff Musso Main Cast: Raimu Raimu is imposing as Jacqueline Delubac Colonel Georges who saves Pierre Brasseur a fragile young girl from Félicien Tramel a miserable existence and Image: Black & White falls deeply in love with Year of production: 1939 her. She is very grateful Duration: 88 min. but her feelings toward the Colonel are strictly platonic. When she Country of origin: France goes out with another man, the Colonel explodes with deadly rage. Maria Chapdelaine Canadian lass Maria Chapdelaine English title: The Naked Heart (Madeleine Renaud) is torn between Genre: Drama /Romance two suitors, an aristocrat (Jean- Director: Julien Duvivier Pierre Aumont) and a rugged Main Cast: Madeleine Renaud lumberjack (Jean Gabin) in a Jean - Pierre Aumont beautifully shot 19th Century André Bacqué romantic triangle. Voted Best Suzanne Desprès French Film of 1935, Julien Jean Gabin Duvivier’s film of poetic Image: Black & White realism hasn’t lost its Year of production: 1934 charm over the years. Duration: 75 min. Country of origin: France English title: The Phantom Carriage Genre: Drama /Fantasy Director: Julien Duvivier Main Cast: Pierre Fresnay Louis Jouvet Micheline Francey Robert le Vigan Image: Black & White Year of production: 1939 Duration: 93 min. Country of origin: France La charrette fantôme The creaking wheels of the phantom carriage is remarkable as hard-drinking tough guy, David, ridden by Death himself - and driven by the hap- whose buddy Georges (equally remarkable Louis less man who dies at the stroke of midnight on Jouvet) haunts his nights as the ghostly carriage New Year’s eve - provide the sinister backdrop driver. A woman from the Salvation Army will try for this rare French fantasy film. Pierre Fresnay to save David from the fate of his friend. English title: Beauty And The Beast Genre: Fantasy/Romance Director: Jean Cocteau Main Cast: Jean Marais Josette Day Marcel André Mila Parely Nane Germon Michel Auclair Image: Black & White Year of production: 1945 Duration: 100 min. Country of origin: France La belle et la bête Cocteau’s hauntingly beautiful version of the light. Jean Marais as the Beast is at once terri- well-known tale of Beauty who saves her father fying, erotic and meltingly tender beneath his by promising to live with the Beast, is a master- ferocious mask and Josette Day is lovely as piece of French cinema. Photographer Henri Beauty braving the mysterious candelabra-lit Alekan’s magical camera polishes this lovely corridors of the Beast’s castle… tale with a Vermeer-like sheen of poetry and 4 5 1940-49 Lumière d’été Genre: Drama In the back country of Provence, the seductive Cri-Cri has Director: Jean Grémillon left her life as a dancer behind to run a little inn perched Main Cast: Madeleine Renaud on the hillside not far from the castle of her lover, an Pierre Brasseur indolent Lord. An alcoholic artist Madeleine Robinson and his attractive girlfriend arrive Paul Bernard at the inn, igniting deception and Image: Black & White jealousy. Passions flare and erupt Year of production: 1942 at a costume ball as the disguised Duration: 108 min. characters track each other down. Country of origin: France Jean Grémillion’s baroque film, scripted by Jacques Prévert, bril- liantly contrasts a world of idleness, alienation and self-indulgence with one of promise and honesty. L’éternel retour A dramatic update of the Tristan English title: Love Eternal and Isolde legend, scripted by Genre: Drama /Romance Jean Cocteau, under the watch- Director: Jean Delannoy ful eyes of the German Censor. Main Cast: Madeleine Sologne The quality of the legend is Jean Marais beautifully captured by the mar- Jean Murat vellously photogenic star-crossed Alexandre Rignault lovers, with Tristan modernised Yvonne de Bray as Patrick (Jean Marais) and Image: Black & White Isolde as Nathalie (Madeleine Year of production: 1943 Solonge). Duration: 115 min. Country of origin: France Les visiteurs du soir English title: The Devil’s Envoys Director Marcel Carné and scriptwriter Jacques Prévert trans- Genre: Fantasy port poetic realism into a surrealistic medieval ballad. Director: Marcel Carné Arletty and Alain Cluny play the mysterious strangers who Main Cast: Arletty are meant to disrupt the celebration held in honour of the Jules Berry engagement of the Lord’s daughter to a Knight. But Alain Cuny hearts are twisted and the Devil’s own emissary Fernand Ledoux falls in love with the young maiden. The Devil Marie Déa himself, delightfully incarnated by Jules Berry, Marcel Herrand cannot thwart the young lovers and furiously Image: Black & White turns them into stone. The hearts of the Year of production: 1942 young lovers continuing to beat even Duration: 120 min. after they have been transformed Country of origin: France into stony statues have come to symbolise the French Resistance movement. 6 7 1940-49 La chartreuse de Parme Stendhal’s story is revisited on Genre: Drama/Romance film by Pierre Very’s script and Director: Christian-Jacque Christian-Jaque’s direction. Main Cast: Gérard Philipe A sumptuous tale of impenitent Renée Faure love and courtly intrigue with the Maria Casarès unforgettable Gérard Philipe Louis Salou (Fabrice del Dongo) returning to Lucien Coëdel his hometown and dangerously Image: Black & White becoming the object of luminous, Year of production: 1946 raven-haired beauty Maria Casarès’ Duration: 170 min. desire. Country of origin: France/Italy Les chouans Genre: Drama /Romance During the tempestuous Director: Henri Calef French Revolution, the Main Cast: Jean Marais Marquis of Montauran Madeleine Robinson arrives in Brittany to Marcel Herrand lead an uprising of the Pierre Dux local royalist forces, the Jacques Charron Chouans. The dashing Marquis (Jean Marais) meets with resistance Image: Black & White but is joined by the lovely Republican spy, Marie de Verneuil Year of production: 1946 (Madeleine Robinson). A swashbuckling version of Balzac’s novel Duration: 92 min. of romance, revolution and betrayal. Country of origin: France Histoire de chanter The marvellous voice of tenor Gino Fabretti (Luis Mariano) Genre: Comedy/Romance seduces every woman who hears it – including a famous Director: Gilles Grangier surgeon’s wife. The good doctor decides to take matters Main Cast: Luis Mariano into his own hands and surgically Arlette Merry switches the singer’s vocal Julien Carette cords with those of a fast- Noël Roquevert talking delivery boy. But the Image: Black & White plan backfires when his wife Year of production: 1946 falls for the silver-voiced Duration: 95 min. delivery boy! Country of origin: France A delirious comedy, one of a kind in French cinema, and crooner Luis Mariano’s first on-screen role. Ruy Blas In Jean Cocteau’s screen adaptation Genre: Drama of Victor Hugo’s romantic drama, Jean Director: Pierre Billon Marais stars in a double role, both as Main Cast: Danielle Darrieux Ruy Blas, the poor young student deeply Jean Marais in love with the Queen of Spain and Marcel Herrand the man he strangely resembles, Don Gabrielle Dorziat Cesare de Bazin. Because of this un- Image: Black & White canny physical similarity, an unscru- Year of production: 1947 pulous chief of police engages Ruy Blas Duration: 93 min. in order to manipulate the Queen, but Country of origin: France he underestimates Ruy Blas’ loyalty to his Monarch and will pay the price of betrayal with his own life. Bagarres English title: The Wench Genre: Drama Director: Henri Calef The beautiful young Carmelle Main Cast: Maria Casarès works as a maid on a pros- Roger Pigaut perous farm. Jacques, the man Jean Murat Carmelle loves, convinces her Jean Vilar to seduce her rich employer Mouloudji in order to inherit his wealth.