Movie review - "The Musketeer" (2001) **1/2

 Look, not bad. It pulls back on the three musketeers to focus on D'artagnan - which mightn't be such an issue if Justin Chambers hadn't been such a Ken Doll. Mena Suvari is the love interest (not Constance) and she's quite ideal; they would've been better off casting Chris Klein - or to be honest Suvari (you could've had a female D'artagnan) - or a Hong Kong star.

Stephen Rea is Richeliu and Tim Roth is a made up villain who kills D'artagnan's parents. Roth is excellent,.Half way the plot becomes about the Queen, Catherine Denveuve, and she gets all this screen time.

Chambers is a real debit. So too are the undercast musketeers. When they all arrive at the end it should be rousing but it isn't. Still, fine villains and excellent Hong Kong style action sequences - not as good as Hong Kong films themselves but effective.

Movie review - "Un Flic" aka "A Cop" (1972) ***

The last film from Jean Pierre Melville, best known for Le Samourai.It's got a name cast - Alain Delon (as a cop rather than a robber), Richard Crenna of all people (Americans were popping up in French films around this time) and Catherine Deneuve.

It starts brilliantly with a heist in a bank by the seaside during a wind-swept storm - how did they film this? There's another superb set piece in the middle - a heist on a train involving Crenna being dropped on board via a helicopter.

Crenna has the better role - because he gets to rob things, while Delon has to not catch him until the end (this is standard in heist movies though). So Delon walks around looking tough, bangs away on a shooting range, interrogates and later slaps a transvestite (I think) and hook up with Catherine Deneuve who has a small role as Crenna's moll (it's good to see her though - she suits these parts particularly when dressed up as a nurse and heading in to kill someone for Crenna).

Michael Conrad, the sergeant from Hill Street Blues pops up as a member of Crenna's gang and he's very effective despite his dubbed voice.

Like a lot of French gangster films it's a love story between two men, in this case Delon and Crenna who make eyes at each other over the table at Crenna's nightclub, with the woman in there to prove everyone's straight.

I wonder if this influenced Michael Mann's Heat?

Movie review - "March or Die" (1977) **

No one much remembers the director Dick Richards, but he had a bit of a vogue in the 1970s with a successful adaptation of Farewell My Lovely. He parlayed that success into a big budget French Foreign Legion film, which performed disappointingly at the box office.

It is a long movie and not that engaging, despite Gene Hackman's fine work as a driven alcoholic officer, Terence Hill not bad as a rogue-ish soldier, and a support cast that includes Catherine Deneuve and Max Von Sydow. It's a bit PC - there are a lot of comments about how unfair French colonialism is - it looks stunning, with dunes and uniforms, but lacks excitement.

Movie review - "Le choc" (1982) **

French cinema didn't get more commercial in 1982 - you've got Alain Delon as a hitman who wants to retire, forced to do the inevitable "one last job" (who actually invented this trope, by the way?), falling in love with Catherine Deneuve (who invented that trope?). They canoodle, smoke cigarettes and have great hair while bad music plays on the soundtrack. The baddies force Delon into a job and he kicks arse.

Delon looks moody and melancholic, does a very super hero things, and talks about his long lost love to Deneuve (this seems to be a thing in French cinema - the all-powerful ex, who made the Person What They Are Today). There is some violence, Deneuve looks bored in what is a nothing part, really. Delon isn't that much better. They look like aging film stars rather than real people and the handling feels like a telemovie.

Movie review - "Liza" (1972) **

Really stupid movie despite considerable star power: Marcello Mastroianni is a painter living on an island with his dog who is visited by Catherine Deneuve, a bored sort of model/rich girl (I wasn't sure). She decides to stay, they have an affair and it's all kind of tormented and weird. Basically Deneuve ends up replacing his dog, licking his hand and chasing sticks.

Movies about messed up relationships can work well, even if they go into super weird territory - The Servant, Secretary - but everything's got to come together for the filmmakers to pull it off, and it didn't here, least not to me. Maybe the demands of the role were beyond Deneuve's capabilities, although she does look very hot here, even by her own ridiculously high standards - running around on beaches, hair flowing, going topless every now and then - and she has decent chemistry with real-life love Mastroianni.

Maybe more work needed to be done on the two lead characters to flesh them out more - the scenes involving Mastroianni's family weren't that compelling. Fans of the lead two actors will get something out of it.

Movie review - "Hustle" (1975) *** (warning: spoilers)

After a long series of flops, director Robert Aldrich revised his career box office-wise with a pair of Burt Reynolds hits The Longest Yard and this. The Longest Yard is remembered with great fondness and was remade but no one talks about Hustle much anymore.

And for a lot of watching this that didn't surprise me - far too much of it felt 70s cop show, and gimmicky (eg cop Burt Reynolds dating hooker Catherine Deneuve), and needlessly sleezy, tramping over area that has since been much covered by NYPD Blue and the cable shows.

Yet I got into this as it went on - and it went on for a while (like a lot of Aldrich flicks it's probably too long). It kept surprising me - it's focused around the mysterious death of a young girl who washed up on the beach who turns out to have been involved in sordid sexual shenanigans amongst the rich and famous (did Lethal Weapon rip this off?). Burt Reynolds is the cop on the case.... but instead of investigating he goes "it's an accident" and it's the girls' father (Ben Johnson) who does the investigating. And he starts poking around into the seedy underworld of LA and the movie turns into Hardcore and then spins off into this weird family drama with Johnson and wife Eileen Brennan (who's excellent), and Johnson having an unnatural attraction to his dead daughter and going all vigilante.

Then it turns out actually Reynolds was right all along - it was an accident, not a murder. But Johnson's knocked over a hornets nest of trouble, including dodgy corrupt Eddie Albert who is banging Deneuve. There's also a bunch of bit part crazies who parade through the film to cackle maniacally on drugs and commit crime - including shooting Reynolds dead at the end (by Robert Englund, no less!).

While this may have seemed at the time a safe, commercial filmmaking choice from Aldrich it's actually a bit mad and insane by today's Sid Field screenplay standards - plots and characters come and go, there's a nihilist feel to the city, Reynolds has this longing for the 1930s. There's also an unpleasant strand of misogyny - all the women are pretty much hookers or sluts, Reynolds smacks Denueve around but it's meant to be from love.

Reynolds is excellent - melancholic and battered - I'd forgotten what a strong dramatic actor he could be even at this stage of his career. Deneuve is more lively than she can be in her French films but is still a bit flat. Excellent gallery of Aldrich stock company support players including Paul Winfield and Ernest Borgnine.

Movie review - "Le Sauvage" (1975) **

Catherine Deneuve films always seem to repeat their set ups - in the late 60s she always seemed to be playing ice princesses torn between a wealthy older lover and an improverished younger one; in the 70s she was stuck on an island with a seemingly-rough-but-actually cultured man. In Liza it was Marcello Mastroianni - here it's Yves Montand.

The plot seems inspired by 30s Hollywood screwball comedies with Deneuve channelling the spirit of Carole Lombard - she runs away from a marriage and winds up on a tropical island with grizzly Montand. The set up to get them there is contrived and it's a contrived film. Deneuve runs around and acts madcap a lot but is not a natural at it - she tries but simply doesn't have the spark.

She does look pretty though and Montand is good value, and both stars fully commit. Plus there is some pretty views on the tropical island, a decent maguffin in a painting by Tolouse Lautrec, and Hollywood faces Dana Wynter and Tony Roberts (speaking what seems to me at least to be passable French).

Movie review - "The April Fools" (1969) **

Catherine Deneuve's first Hollywood movie sees her miscast as the wife of an executive (Peter Lawford) who has an affair with an unhappily married man (Jack Lemmon). Apparently Shirley Maclaine was originally considered for Deneuve's role and they really should have gone with her - or another more expressive actress. Her beauty and aristocratic manner can work well on film but not here when the role requires some life.

The longer this movie went on the more it annoyed me. Cinema screens and theatres in the late 60s were full of these sort of middle-aged-men-wish-fulfillment stories about disaffected middle aged men who threw off their inhibitions and ran away from their nagging bitch wives to find happiness with hot dream girls. Lemmon's wife Sally Kellerman is a materialistic ball breaker (he doesn't seem to be responsible for any of the problems in the marriage), his male friends are lecherous and drunken but basically supportive (Jack Weston, Harvey Korman), the female roles are caricatures: blank dream girls (Deneuve), greedy bitches (Kellerman) or wacky hipsters (Myrna Loy).

It is fun to see Myrna Loy and Charles Boyer as free spirited old people, but even they can't transcend cliche. Lemmon and Deneuve have zero chemistry, their dilemmas have no stakes (he doesn't like his wife and job and she doesn't like her husband and neither have kids... so what's the issue?), the final rush to the airport takes something like over half an hour of on screen time (and involves "hilarious" drunk driving), there's too much talk about princes turning into frogs and vice versa plus endless scenes of people dancing at parties (this was a feature of some of Deneuve's French films around this time - maybe director Stuart Rosenberg was trying to make her feel at home).

On the sunny side, Lemmon is perfectly cast and never phones it in; there are some funny line; the support cast is impressive; and the music score very good, including the title track and "Say a Little Prayer".

Movie review - "La Chamade" (1968) **

Catherine Deneuve once again as a beautiful woman torn between a rich older man and handsome poor younger one. Adding to the sense of familiarity is the fact the man is played by Michel Piccoli, who played this sort of role against Denueve before (as her aspirational lover in Belle de Jour and real lover in Benjamin), and her younger lover is a journalist, as he was in Manon 70.

This movie is boring. It goes on forever with far too many scenes of people just hanging out and talking. Occasionally they go to a bar or lounge about in bed for something different. Deneuve is pretty but also blank faced and unable to convey much of a character - which mightn't matter so much if the people around her weren't as dull.

Movie review - "Manon 70" (1968) ** (warning: spoilers)

Catherine Deneuve at her late 60s best, looking like an ice queen with her sexual flame burning underneath. She plays a sort of Holly Golightly character - although not strictly a hooker, her brother pimps her out to rich men, but she falls for journalist Sami Frey. She keeps going back and forth with Frey thinking he's enough for her, and Deneuve being unable to resist the blandishments of her no good brother and the wealthy men said brother lines her up with.

Deneuve is really gorgeous in this film - I think she was better looking in contemporary films. Frey is handsome but is character is a chauvinistic dick. There's lots of really dull talk about fidelity with Frey being possessive and Deneuve tempted to want to run off with rich guys (one played by American actor Robert Webber), plus scenes of cars driving and groovy fashions and late 60s hipsters hanging out in bars dancing, talking and smoking.

The story is so repetitive - Frey chases after Deneuve, who goes for him... but can't resist the lure of rich man. Then Frey gets jealous, dumps her, she goes after him again... It goes on and on and is a very dull film.

It's based on an old novel which had far more story and made more sense, i.e. it showed that Manon didn't want to live in poverty and needed wealth (there's no poverty here, nothing to motivate Manon's activities really - I think Frey is supposed to be less rich than her lovers but he has a good job and can afford upgrades to first class airfairs), and one of Manon's rich lovers wound up having a duel with her boyfriend  (I kept expecting Robert Webber and Sami Frey to come to blows but it never happens), and Manon dies after she goes on the lam (giving the ending some kick - here she just runs off into the sunset, going hitchhiking with Frey). It is livened by the star's considerable beauty, who wears a variety of interesting outfits including swimsuits, takes a bath, lounges around in bed and on yachts, etc.

Movie review - "Mississip Mermaid" (1969) *** (warning: spoilers)

Catherine Deneuve was a natural Hitchcock blonde - icy beauty and suggested sensuality underneath; she never made a movie for him but Hitchcock fan Francois Truffaut was the next best thing and certainly she's very well cast as a mystery brie in this movie. Reunion Island planter Jean Paul Belmondo has fallen in love with her via letters - she rocks up, he marries her, but she's not who she appears to be.

Belmondo has great star charisma but his casting does throw the movie off - he's a handsome, virile guy, I didn't quite believe he would need to resort to a mail order bride, even on Reunion... the movie is set in the present day. I also didn't quite buy he would become so obsessed with Deneuve he would overlook all the lying and deception. (There's nothing wrong with his performance, it just took a stretch.) Mind you, Deneuve is very hot.

The first half is a decent mystery - Belmondo falling for Denueve, then trying to find her; very Hitchcock. The second half is more warped this-love-thing-is-crazy stuff, which feels more typically Truffaut.  (Though this is influential in it's way - the ending of this isn't that far away from Basic Instinct.) Bizarre scripting decision - Deneuve's actions are motivated by this evil gangster called Richard who we barely see.

There's beautiful locations - Reunion Island, the Alps, Lyon. The stars look stunning.

Movie review - "Benjamin" (1968) ***

Pierre Clementi, the young gangster obsessed with Catherine Deneuve in Belle de Jour, is again teamed with her in this comedy - a period romp about a 17 year old virgin in rural France who goes to visit his rich aunt (Michele Morgan) - whose lover is played by Michael Piccoli, another alumni from Belle de Jour.

Many critics said this was like the Albert Finney Tom Jones (and the filmmakers surely saw Smiles of a Summer Night too) but I actually felt it was closer to Dangerous Liasions - The plot isn't the same but the character types feel similar (I'm using the actors in the 1988 film for reference): Michele Morgan as Glenn Close, Piccoli as John Malkovich and Deneuve as a more messed up Michelle Pfeiffer...  Clementi's Benjamin is passive a lot of the time, reacting to things, and never being able to go through with sex despite all the maids who appear keen to deflower him. (Seriously it happens about four times.) In the end Deneuve seduces him in order to attract Piccoli.

Michele Morgan is very good as the manipulative, yet sympathetic countess, and Piccoli adds world weary decadence as the aristocrat. Deneuve's part is surprisingly small; she is pretty as usual. Clementi is alright, I guess- far less impressive than in Belle de Jour.

Movie review - "The Young Girls of Rochefort" (1967) **1/2

Whatever happened to George Chakiris, Oscar winning star (well, support name) of West Side Story? He popped up in a few odd things during the 60s - Kings of the Sun, 633 Squadron - got booted off The Wild Angels because he couldn't ride a motorbike... and turns up in this Jacques Demy film, a follow up to The Umbrellas of Cherbourgh.

That had been a big hit - popular enough to enable Demy to nab not only Chakiris for this one but Gene Kelly, who has a decent sized role as a visiting American. Once again there's very bright colours and Catherine Deneuve, only a lot more dancing and also Deneuve's real life sister, Francoise Dorleac.

It's all cute, and looks good, with some fun tunes and dance numbers. It's not as good as Umbrellas though - that focused on a simple story (the relationship between the two leads), this one pops all over the place. Deneunve isn't as good as her sister - her ice maiden-y thing doesn't work as well here - but Dorleac is excellent and its entertaining to see Kelly. Chakiris actually doesn't get a chance to do much, he mostly hangs out with Grover Dale.

There's added subplots about the girl's mother, Danielle Darrieux, her long lost ex (Michel Piccoli who popped up in every second French film of this time), a serial killer.

Movie review - "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" (1964) ***1/2

The film that made Catherine Deneuve a star, in part because every line in the movie is sung. It also has some gorgeous colour - which reminded me of early 60s Cliff Richard and Elvis Presley movies.  Critics have loved this - it won first prize at Cannes - which made me suspicious (one never knows with those 60s film buff favourites) but it does work.

The story is simple and very effective: Deneuve and Nino Castelnuovo are young and in love but he has to go off to war (Algeria); she's knocked up and when he doesn't return her letters, mum suggests she marry a rich man; he comes back, goes off the rails, and hooks up with the faithful pretty thing who has long adored him from afar; years later the two lovers meet again.

It's a similar structure to Splendour in the Grass done with lyrics that are simple but occasionally very clever, and some nice tunes. It looks beautiful, with all those primary colours, and was very effective.

Movie review - "Belle de Jour" (1967) ***1/2

One of Luis Bunuel's most popular films, due in part to it's star - Catherine Deneuve, one of the most beautiful movie stars of all time - and kinky subject matter - bored rich housewife goes to work in a high class brothel. Denueve gets to wear some sexy outfits, is frequently in her underwear and taking off her bra, showing her bare back, having lots of kinky sex. There are also some other prostitutes wearing exotic underwear and a lesbian kiss with the madam (Genevieve Page).

To explain her mind set we get lots of flashbacks - including Deneuve molested (well, kissed) by a dirty old man when she was a child, which is a jolt - as well as fantasy sequences, often involving sado masochism. Sometimes the line between the two is blurred, especially as the film goes on, and we are not sure what is real and what is reality.

This sort of material and approach has been much copied since then so this piece doesn't have the impact it must have had at the time. I always hate criticising films that are acclaimed as materipieces because I don't want to look dim but I didn't think this was amazing. Deneuve, for all her stunning beauty, is a bit bland at times - I get what the character was going through, the fact she can't do it for her husband but can for clients, that she's dangerously attracted to the gangster... but I can't help feeling a better actor would have been able to convey more emotion and complexity.

I also felt the second half was overly familiar of Breatheless - a newspaper seller yelling out in English about the Tribune, a cocky gangster who commits random crimes, the gangster being shot down in the street.

Jean Sorel was effective as the husband; ditto madam Page, sleazy Michel Piccoli and the gangster kid Pierre Clementi (memorable teeth).

Movie review – “Repulsion” (1965) ****

After the international success of Knife in Water, Roman Polanski got out of Poland and made this thriller, his first English language movie, and another success. Catherine Denueuve is very beautiful and effective as the woman who goes bonkers when left alone. Brilliant direction and some stunning moments – the crack in the walls, the ceiling closing in, the hands grabbing her, the dream sequences. It does feel as though it goes on a bit and could have 15 minutes cut out. The support cast are very strong.

Book review - "You see I haven't forgotten: Yves Montand" by Herve Hamon and Patrick Rotman (1992)

Biography of Yves Montand, singer best known to Western movie fans for having an affair with Marilyn Monroe on the set of Let's Make Love. Montand never quite made it as a film star in Hollywood films - Warners spotted his talent in the 1940s and tried to sign him when he was just an emerging singer; he returned when a superstar and made a series of films for Fox and later musicals such as On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. But he really hit his straps as a leading man for Costa Gravas. This book is probably definitive account of his life - it is particularly fascinating on the politics.

Montand was actually Italian - his family fled to France in the 1920s to escape fascism. His dad became a commie, which you can understand; so did his sons; but his son Julien remained a die hard commie for most of his life, which I'm sorry makes you a moron esp after post WW2 and 1956 and 1968. Montand remained very pro communist until around the 60s and 70s (it's weird that this could be the case but this was France) but then became anti-communist, causing a split. His opinions were valued in France - in the early 80s some polls said 30% of the population wanted him to run for president!

The book accounts all this brilliantly; it also has useful descriptions of Montand's singing and acting (which is a little tricky to those such as myself unfamiliar with them - but how else do you do it in a book?)

It's no surprise to see Montand was a ladies' man, despite being married to Simone Signoret for around 30 years - he was slim, had all his hair, could sing, dance and act, grew up in Marseilles in poverty so had working class street cred, worked as a wharf labourer so had even more cred, worked for a year in his sister's hairdressing salon so learned a lot about women quickly. Never had much of a war service, but nobody's perfect. One can't feel he had some attraction to famous ladies, his paramours including Edith Piaf, Signoret and Monroe.