1.
Alain Delon
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Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon is a French actor and businessman. Delon became one of Europes most prominent actors and screen sex symbols in the 1960s and he achieved critical acclaim for roles in films such as Rocco and His Brothers, Purple Noon, LEclisse, The Leopard, Lost Command and Le Samouraï. Over the course of his career Delon worked with well known directors, including Luchino Visconti, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Melville, Michelangelo Antonioni. Delon acquired Swiss citizenship on 23 September 1999, and the company managing products sold under his name is based in Geneva and he resides in Chêne-Bougeries in the canton of Geneva. Delon was born in Sceaux, Seine, Île-de-France, a suburb of Paris and his parents, Édith and Fabien Delon, divorced when Delon was four. Both remarried, and Delon has a half-sister and two half-brothers and his paternal grandmother was Corsican, from Prunelli-di-Fiumorbo. When his parents divorced, Delon was sent to live with foster parents, when they died, his parents shared him but the arrangement proved unsatisfactory. He attended a Roman Catholic boarding school, the first of several schools from which he was expelled because of unruly behavior, teachers once tried to persuade him to enter the priesthood because of his aptitude in religious studies. At 14, Delon left school, and worked for a time at his stepfathers butcher shop. He enlisted in the French Navy three years later, and in 1953-54 he served as a fusilier marin in the First Indochina War, Delon has said that out of his four years of military service he spent 11 months in prison for being undisciplined. In 1956, after being discharged from the military, he returned to France. He had little money, and got by on whatever employment he could find and he spent time working as a waiter, a porter, a secretary and a sales assistant. During this time he became friends with the actress Brigitte Auber, and joined her on a trip to the Cannes Film Festival, at Cannes, Delon was seen by a talent scout for David O. Selznick. After a screen test Selznick offered him a contract, provided he learn English, Delon returned to Paris to study the language, but when he met French director Yves Allégret, he was convinced that he should stay in France to begin his career. Selznick allowed Delon to cancel his contract, and Allégret gave him his debut in the film with Edwige Feuillère, marc Allegret cast him in Be Beautiful But Shut Up, which also featured a young Jean Paul Belmondo. He was then given his first lead, supporting Romy Schneider in a romance, Christine. He and Schneider began a highly publicised romance in real life, the film was the seventeenth most popular movie at the French box office that year. Delon was given the lead in a comedy, Women are Weak and this was a big hit in France and was the first of Delons films to be seen in America
2.
Catherine Deneuve
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Catherine Deneuve is a French actress as well as an occasional singer, model and producer. She gained recognition for her portrayal of aloof, mysterious beauties for various directors, including Luis Buñuel, Francois Truffaut, in 1985, she succeeded Mireille Mathieu as the official face of Marianne, Frances national symbol of liberty. A 14-time César Award nominee, she won for her performances in Truffauts The Last Metro and she is also noted for her support for a variety of liberal causes. She was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress for Belle de Jour, and she also won the 1998 Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival for Place Vendôme. Other films include Scene of the Crime, My Favourite Season,8 Women and her English-language films include The April Fools, Hustle, The Hunger and Dancer in the Dark. In 2015, she starred in The Brand New Testament and Standing Tall, Deneuve was born Catherine Fabienne Dorléac in Paris, France, the daughter of French stage actors Maurice Dorléac and Renée Simonot. Deneuve was her mothers name, which she chose for her stage name. Her work for Buñuel would be her most famous, further prominent films from this early time in her career included Jean-Paul Rappeneaus A Matter of Resistance, and Demys musical Les Demoiselles de Rochefort. Her starring roles at the time were featured in films as A Slightly Pregnant Man with Marcello Mastroianni. She made her film as a producer in 1988, Drôle dendroit pour une rencontre. In 1997, Deneuve was the protagonist in the video for the song NOubliez Jamais sung by Joe Cocker. In 1998 she won acclaim and the Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival for her performance in Place Vendôme. In the late 1990s, Deneuve continued to appear in a number of films such as 1999s five films Est-Ouest, Le temps retrouvé, Pola X, Belle maman. In 2000, Deneuves part in Lars von Triers musical drama Dancer in the Dark alongside Icelandic singer Björk was subject to critical scrutiny. The film was selected for the Palme dOr at the Cannes Film Festival and she made another foray into Hollywood the following year, starring in The Musketeer for Peter Hyams. In 2002, she shared the Silver Bear Award for Best Ensemble Cast at the Berlin International Film Festival for her performance in 8 Women. In 2005, Deneuve published her diary A lombre de moi-meme, in it she writes about her experiences shooting the films Indochine and she also provided the voice role of Marjane Satrapis mother in Satrapis animated autobiographical film Persepolis, based on the graphic novel of the same name. In 2008, she appeared in her 100th film, Un conte de Noël, during an interview at the Cannes Film Festival with Ali Naderzad, Deneuve was asked which was her own favorite film
3.
Richard Crenna
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Richard Donald Crenna was an American motion picture, television, and radio actor and occasional television director. Richard Crenna starred in motion pictures as The Sand Pebbles, Wait Until Dark, Un Flic, Body Heat. Part Deux, the remake of Sabrina and The Flamingo Kid, Crenna played Walter Denton in the CBS radio network and CBS-TV network series Our Miss Brooks, and Luke McCoy in ABCs TV comedy series, The Real McCoys, which moved to CBS-TV in September 1962. Crenna was born in Los Angeles, the child of Edith J. who was a hotel manager in LA, and Domenick Anthony Crenna. His parents were both of Italian descent, Crenna attended Virgil Junior High School, followed by Belmont High School in Los Angeles. Following high school, Richard Crenna served in the U. S. Army during World War II, serving in the infantry as a radioman, Crenna also served in the Pacific Theater decoding Japanese intercepts. After World War II, Richard Crenna attended the University of Southern California where he majored in English, Richard Crenna got his acting start on radio. In 1937, he had gained his first role that of the kid who did everything wrong on Boy Scout Jamboree, in the following year, he started playing Walter Bronco Thompson on The Great Gildersleeve, and played it until the shows end in 1957. From 1948 to 1952 Richard Crenna played Walter Denton on Our Miss Brooks and remained with the cast when they moved it to a television show. He guest starred on the I Love Lucy episode The Young Fans with Janet Waldo and on NBCs 1955–56 anthology series, Frontier, in 1956, on the television series Father Knows Best, Crenna appeared in the episode The Promising Young Man as a protege named Woody. In 1957 played a robber on the Cheyenne should. When the 1948-1957 TV series Our Miss Brooks starring Eve Arden underwent a change in format, then Crenna joined the cast of the comedy series The Real McCoys, as Luke McCoy. Kathleen Nolan was cast as his wife, Kate McCoy. Later, Crenna became one of the four directors of the series during its six-year run, in the 1960s, Richard Crenna directed many of the episodes of the Andy Griffith Show. Crenna was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best TV Star – Male in 1965, in 1966, Crenna played the ill-fated captain of an American gunboat, in 1920s China, in The Sand Pebbles. During the 1970s, Crenna continued his acting in such Western dramas such as Catlow, Breakheart Pass and he made a notable performance in Jean-Pierre Melvilles final film Un Flic in 1972. Crenna himself also spoofed this character in the movie Hot Shots, Crenna portrayed the character of New York City Police Lieutenant of Detectives Frank Janek in a series of seven popular made for television films starting in 1988 and ending in 1994. The character of Janek originally appeared in a series of novels by Award winning author William Bayer, Crenna was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 6714 Hollywood Boulevard
4.
Cinema of France
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Cinema of France refers to the film industry based in France. The French cinema comprises the art of film and creative movies made within the nation of France or by French filmmakers abroad, France is the birthplace of cinema and was responsible for many of its significant contributions to the art form and the film-making process itself. Several important cinematic movements, including the Nouvelle Vague, began in the country and it is noted for having a particularly strong film industry, due in part to protections afforded by the French government. Apart from its strong and innovative film tradition, France has also been a spot for artists from across Europe. For this reason, French cinema is sometimes intertwined with the cinema of foreign nations, Directors from nations such as Poland, Argentina, Russia, Austria, and Georgia are prominent in the ranks of French cinema. Conversely, French directors have had prolific and influential careers in countries, such as Luc Besson, Jacques Tourneur. Philippe Binant realized, on 2 February 2000, the first digital cinema projection in Europe, with the DLP CINEMA technology developed by Texas Instruments, in Paris. With 205.34 million tickets sold in 2015 and 212.71 million in 2016 and it is the most successful film industry in Europe in terms of number of films produced per annum, with a record-breaking 300 feature-length films produced in 2015. France is also one of the few countries where non-American productions have the biggest share and this is largely due to the commercial strength of domestic productions, which accounted for 44, 5% of admissions in 2014. Also, the French film industry is closer to being entirely self-sufficient than any country in Europe. In 2013, France was the 2nd largest exporter of films in the world after the United States, a study made in April 2014 shows the excellent image which French cinema maintains around the world, being the most appreciated cinema after American cinema. Les frères Lumière realized the first projection with the Cinematograph, in Paris on 28 December 1895, the French film industry in the late 19th century and early 20th century was among the worlds most important. Auguste and Louis Lumière invented the cinématographe and their LArrivée dun train en gare de La Ciotat in Paris in 1895 is considered by historians as the official birth of cinematography. The early days of the industry, from 1896 to 1902, saw the dominance of four firms, Pathé Frères, the Gaumont Film Company, the Georges Méliès company, and the Lumières. Méliès invented many of the techniques of cinematic grammar, and among his fantastic, in 1902 the Lumières abandoned everything but the production of film stock, leaving Méliès as the weakest player of the remaining three. From 1904 to 1911 the Pathé Frères company led the world in production and distribution. At Gaumont, pioneer Alice Guy-Blaché was made head of production and oversaw about 400 films, from her first, La Fée aux Choux, in 1896 and she then continued her career in the United States, as did Maurice Tourneur and Léonce Perret after World War I. After World War I, the French film industry suffered because of a lack of capital, when film studios in Europe began to fail, many European countries began to set import barriers
5.
Jean-Pierre Melville
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Jean-Pierre Melville was a French filmmaker. While with the French Resistance during World War II, he adopted the nom de guerre Melville as a tribute to his favorite American author and he kept it as his stage name once the war was over. Jean-Pierre Grumbach was born in 1917 in Paris, France, the son of Berthe, after the fall of France in 1940 during World War II, Grumbach entered the French Resistance to oppose the German Nazis who occupied the country. He adopted the nom de guerre Melville, after the American author Herman Melville, when he returned from the war, he applied for a license to become an assistant director but was refused. Without this support, he decided to direct his films by his own means and he became an independent film-maker and owned his own studio. Influenced by American cinema, especially gangster films of the 1930s and 1940s, he used such as weapons, clothes. Melvilles independence and reporting style of film-making were an influence on the French New Wave film movement. Jean-Luc Godard used him as a character in his seminal New Wave film Breathless. When Godard was having difficulty editing the film, Melville suggested that he just cut directly to the best parts of a shot, Godard was inspired and the films innovative use of jump cuts have become part of its fame. Although a friend of left-wing icons such as Yves Montand, Melville referred to himself as an extreme individualist, in 1963 he was invited as one of the jury at the 13th Berlin International Film Festival. Melville died in Paris in 1973 from an attack at the age of 55. com Jean-Pierre Melville World Socialist Web Site Article at Senses of Cinema
6.
Paul Crauchet
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Paul Crauchet was a French actor. As a young man interested in aviation and rugby, Paul Crauchet discovered a passion for the theatre at the age of 23 and he settled in Paris in 1945, he studied under Charles Dullin for three years and began on stage in 1949. He then worked at the Théâtre National Populaire with Jean Vilar, Crauchet appeared in the first film by Éric Rohmer, The Sign of Leo, in 1959, and then in 1962 in The War of the Buttons of Yves Robert. It is in The Wise Guys of Robert Enrico in 1965 that he became noticed and he had a very long career during which he worked with many directors, such as Alain Resnais, René Clément, Jean-Pierre Melville, Jacques Deray and José Giovanni. In 1983 he starred in Les Bancals, Paul Crauchet at the Internet Movie Database
7.
Henri Marteau
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Henri Marteau was a French violinist and composer. Marteau was born in Reims, France and he was of German and French ancestry. His father, a Frenchman, was a well known amateur violinist in Reims and his mother, a Berliner, was an excellent pianist, who had studied under Clara Schumann. Marteau was remarkable both for his individuality and for his development and his debut was made when only ten years old, at a concert given by the Vienna Philharmonic Society, conducted by Hans Richter. A tour through Switzerland and Germany followed, Marteau made his professional debut in London in 1888, at a Richter concert. In 1892 he gained the first place prize at the Conservatoire de Paris, a further series of tours followed. Twice he visited America, once in 1893, and once in 1898 and he was then engaged in teaching, and for a time was professor of the violin at Geneva Conservatoire. On the death of Joseph Joachim, Marteau was called to the Hochschule of Berlin, during World War I he was expelled from Germany and instead moved to Sweden, where he became a citizen. Marteau was long an advocate of chamber music, by 1906, Marteau was leading a string quartet that broke up in a dispute over a work by Max Reger. In Berlin, he formed another string quartet with his student Licco Amar as second violinist and Hugo Becker as cellist, later, Marteau composed a cantata for soprano, chorus and orchestra, entitled La voix de Jeanne dArc. He died in Lichtenberg, Bavaria, Germany, in order to revitalize the name and works of Marteau, the Hofer Symphoniker organize the International Violin Competition Henri Marteau. The event takes place three years at Haus Marteau in Lichtenberg and at the Freiheitshalle in Hof, Bavaria, Germany. The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians
8.
Jacques Tati
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Jacques Tati was a French filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter. Throughout his long career, he worked as a actor, writer. In a poll conducted by Entertainment Weekly of the Greatest Movie Directors, with only six feature-length films to his credit as director, he directed fewer films than any other director on this list of 50. Tatis Playtime ranked 43rd in the 2012 Sight & Sound critics poll of the greatest films ever made, Jacques Tati was of Russian, Dutch, and Italian ancestry. His father, George Emmanuel Tatischeff, born in 1875 in Paris, was the son of Dmitry Tatishchev, General of the Imperial Russian Army, the Tatischeffs were a Russian noble family of patrilineal Rurikid descent. Whilst stationed in Paris Dmitri Tatischeff married a French woman, Rose Anathalie Alinquant, under suspicious circumstances Dmitri Tatischeff died from injuries sustained in a horse-riding accident shortly after the birth of George Emmanuel. As a child George Emmanuel experienced turbulent times, such as being removed from France. In 1883 his mother brought him back to France where they settled on the estate of Le Pecq, in 1903, Georges-Emmanuel Tatischeff married the Dutch-Italian Marcelle Claire van Hoof. Together they had two children, Natalie and Jacques, subsequently, Georges-Emmanuel became the director of the company Cadres Van Hoof, and the Tatischeff family enjoyed a relatively high standard of living. Jacques Tatischeff appears to have been an indifferent student, yet excelled in the sports of tennis and he left school in 1923 at the age of 16 to take up an apprenticeship in the family business, where he was trained as a picture framer by his grandfather. Between 1927 and 1928 he completed his national service at Saint-Germain-en-Laye with the Cavalrys 16th Regiment of Dragoons. Upon graduating the military he took on an internship in London where he was first introduced to the sport of rugby, returning to Paris, he joined the semi-professional rugby team Racing Club de France, whose captain was Alfred Sauvy and whose supporters included Tristan Bernard. It was at the Racing Club de France that Jacques Tatischeff first discovered his comic talents and he also first met Jacques Broido, and they would become lifelong friends. Between 1931 and 1932 the global economic crisis reached France at the time he left both the Racing Club de France and, to his familys disapproval, his apprenticeship at Cadres Van Hoof. Each year from 1931 to 1934 he would participate in a show organised by Alfred Sauvy. Among the honourable spectators was the influential writer Colette, Tatis act also caught the attention of Max Trebor, who offered him an engagement at the Theatre-Michel, where he quickly became the star act. He has devised a way of being both the player, the ball and the racquet, of being simultaneously the football and the goalkeeper, the boxer and his opponent, the bicycle. Without any props, he conjures up his accessories and his partners and he has suggestive powers of all great artists
9.
Le Silence de la mer (1949 film)
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Le Silence de la mer is a 1949 film by Jean-Pierre Melville. It was Melvilles first feature film, and was based on the 1942 book of the name by Jean Bruller. The film was shot inside Brullers own home outside of Paris. The film has been described as a film due to the unique method of narration used to give voice to the silent Frenchman. It was made shortly after Melville was demobbed from the French Resistance and is one of films made by Melville on the Resistance, along with Léon Morin, prêtre. The film is coloured by Melvilles own experience of the sacrifices, an unnamed Frenchman and his niece are obliged to provide lodgings for a German officer and register their resistance by refusing to speak to him. Maintaining their silence becomes harder as the officer, von Ebrennac, talks to them, hes clearly related to von Stroheims sympathetic commandant in Renoirs La Grande Illusion, a figure whose loyalty is to something greater than nationalism. His unwilling hosts- the echo chamber their mute opposition makes him question himself and his mission. Melville made the film on a small budget. Its a remarkably assured apprentice work, Melville and his cameraman Henri Decae show considerable cinematic technique, despite much of the film taking place in a single room, they avoid any sort of claustrophobia. Von Ebrennacs monologues and the extensive voiceover mean that, the title notwithstanding, Le Silence de la mer was released in Paris on 22 April 1949. In Paris, the film took in 464,032 admissions and 1,371,687 admissions in France as a whole, Le Silence de la Mer at the Internet Movie Database Le Silence de la Mer at AllMovie Le Silence de la mer at Turner Classic Movies
10.
Les Enfants Terribles (film)
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Les Enfants Terribles is a 1950 French film directed by Jean-Pierre Melville and based on Jean Cocteaus novel of the same name. The first feature film of Melville, Le Silence de la Mer, attracted the attention of Jean Cocteau, who commissioned him to direct the film version of Les Enfants Terribles. Élisabeth looks after her mother and is very protective of her teenage brother Paul. The siblings are inseparable, sleeping in the room, fighting, playing secret games. Paul’s friend, Gérard, often drops by to stay with them, when the mother dies, Élisabeth becomes a model for a couturier, where she meets Agathe and brings her home to live with them. The shy girl bears a resemblance to Dargelos, a schoolboy whom Paul had a crush on. Paul and Agathe are immediately attracted to each other but neither can declare it and she has met a rich businessman who she marries, but he dies days after in a road accident, leaving her his mansion and fortune. She brings Paul, Agathe and Gérard to live with her, Paul decides he must tell Agathe he loves her and posts a letter, which Élisabeth destroys when it arrives. She then pushes Gérard and Agathe into marrying each other, so they move out, Gérard visits them with a present from Dargelos of an exotic poison, a subject that had fascinated the two at school. Having lost Agathe and now a prisoner of Élisabeth, Paul in despair takes the poison. When Agathe visits him on his deathbed, they discover how Élisabeth had destroyed their love, to ruin their reconciliation and to avoid being on her own, Élisabeth shoots herself in front of them. Paul then dies, leaving the traumatised Agathe with the two bodies, the car accident scene was directed by Cocteau as Melville was ill for the shooting day. Melville claims that Cocteau followed his instructions to the letter. Les Enfants Terribles was released in Paris on 29 March 1950, the film did not gross as high as Melvilles previous film Le Silence de la mer. In Paris, the film took in 255,224 admissions and 719,844 admissions in France as a whole, Les Enfants Terribles at the Internet Movie Database Les Enfants Terribles at AllMovie
