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L’AFRICAIN – Georges Delerue
MOVIE MUSIC UK CLASSICS
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Director Philippe De Broca had three passions; Africa, adventure and comedy. So when he was offered an opportunity to direct L’Africain, he needed no coaxing. The story concerns Victor (Philippe Noriet) and Charlotte (Catherine Deneuve) who have separated, only to have fate bring them back together in unusual circumstances. He is a bush pilot and conservationist who has fled civilization to Africa where he has setup a floating grocery store. Charlotte has also come to Africa to build a tourist center by Lake William where she hopes to study pygmies who live near by. She quickly realizes that Victor’s site is the best location to build and so they reunite and join in common cause. Yet soon old conflicts reemerge and when a gang of ruthless ivory smugglers, elephant stampedes, crocodiles and pygmies are thrown into the mix all hell breaks loose! Read more…
DESCENTE AUX ENFERS – Georges Delerue
MOVIE MUSIC UK CLASSICS
Original Review by Craig Lysy
The 1986 film Descente Aux Enfers was adapted from the murder mystery novel by author David Goodis. It tells the story of Alan Kolber (Claude Brasseur), a middle-aged alcoholic French crime novelist and his wife Lola (a very young Sophie Marceau in one of her first film roles), a young woman half his age who are struggling in an unhappy marriage. They resolve to take a holiday to Haiti in an attempt to reset their marriage. Things go terribly awry when a drunken Alan kills a mugger and ends up being blackmailed for murder when he fails to report the incident. What unfolds is a tale of drama and hidden secrets as aspects of Lola’s past come to light as they struggle to find funds to pay the blackmailer. Read more…
LE BON PLAISIR – Georges Delerue
MOVIE MUSIC UK CLASSICS
Original Review by Craig Lysy
This suspense film directed by Francis Girod is based on Françoise Giroud’s novel, which explores the tale of a the French president (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who is informed after several years of the existence of a illegitimate son born from an extramarital affair with his former mistress Claire (Catherine Deneuve). To conceal the damaging news he conspires to use the secret service to cover up any kind of proof likely to tarnish his reputation.
What is most interesting is how this movie parallels actual historical events. When the film was released, Francois Mitterrand was the newly elected President of France. Unknown to the public at the time was that he had sired an illegitimate child whose existence was kept hidden up to around the time of his death. Many journalists knew of this “state secret” and it is reasonable to consider that perhaps so did the makers of this film. In the final analysis this film may be no more than pure coincidence, but we must admit that the parallels are striking. Read more…
GUY DE MAUPASSANT – Georges Delerue
MOVIE MUSIC UK CLASSICS
Original Review by Craig Lysy
This film presents a fictionalized biography of Guy de Maupassant, a popular 19th-century French writer, considered one of the fathers of the modern short story. Director Michael Drach explores his dying days, as he suffers and finally succumbs to the unforgiving ravages of syphilis. We observe a series of flashbacks that bring his life into full view – a vision that is viewed through the lens of his unremitting passion for sexual encounters. Amidst this flowing montage of vignettes are highlights that feature important literary figures in his life; his mother, his lesbian friend Gisele d’Estoc, and various other players. Regretfully we must bear witness to his descent into madness as all the stories of his life swirl together as the unstayable scythe of death approaches. Read more…
L’INCORRIGIBLE/VA VOIR MAMAN, PAPA TRAVAILLE – Georges Delerue
MOVIE MUSIC UK CLASSICS
Original Review by Craig Lysy
In L’Incorrigible, lead character Victor played by (Jean-Paul Belmondo) is the quintessential con man, totally beyond redemption, who resumes his nefarious craft following his release from prison. He rents apartments he doesn’t own, sells nonexistent fighter planes to African countries, and assumes many different guises from a gardener, lawyer, private detective, government official, and yes, even a transvestite in order to reap profit from his unsuspecting victims. Remarkably, he manages to fool his charming but very naive parole officer Marie-Charlotte (Genevieve Bujold). When Victor finds out that Marie-Charlotte’s father curates a museum that displays an extremely valuable painting, well, you need little imagination to realize what lies next! The film enjoyed modest commercial success in France. Read more…
Remembering Georges Delerue, 1925-1992
Composer Georges Delerue died ten years ago today, on March 20, 1992. He had a stroke, just hours after recording the last cue for the soundtrack to his last film, Rich in Love, and died two days later. He was 67.
Georges Henri Jean-Baptiste Delerue was born in Roubaix, France, in March 1925. A clarinet and piano player as a child, Delerue attended the Turgot Institute, the Roubaix conservatory, and the Conservatoire de Paris, where he studied composition with Darius Milhaud and Henri Büsser. His friends there included Maurice Jarre and Pierre Boulez, and together the three of them would make often make money on the side performing jazz in piano bars near the Paris Opera House.
He began writing stage music during the late 1940s, for the Théâtre National Populaire, the Comédie-Française, and the Théâtre Babylone, before being hired to direct the orchestra of the Club d’Essai for French National Radio and Television. His work for FRNT led directly to him scoring his first major project, television drama, Princes du Sang, in 1952. Read more…
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