Marc Allégret
Directing
Biography
Marc Allégret was a French screenwriter and film director. He was born in Basel, Basel-Stadt, Switzerland, the elder brother of Yves Allégret. Marc was educated to be a lawyer. Allégret became André Gide's lover when he was fifteen and Gide was forty-seven. Later, Marc was to fall briefly under the spell of Cocteau, who Gide feared would "corrupt" him. Marc's father, Elie Allégret, had originally been hired by André Gide's mother to tutor André in light of his weak grades in school, after which he and his charge became fast friends. In 1895 Elie Allégret was best man at André Gide's wedding. After filming a 1927 trip to the Congo with André Gide, Marc Allégret chose to pursue a career in the motion picture industry. His relationship with Gide ended after that trip after having experiences with Congolese women. They nevertheless remained close friends until Gide's death in 1951. After working and training as an assistant director, in 1931 he directed his first feature Mam'zelle Nitouche, and the following year received much acclaim for his film, Fanny. He went on to a long career during which he wrote numerous scripts and directed more than fifty films. Marc Allégret is noted for discovering and developing new acting talent who went on to stardom including Michèle Morgan, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Raimu, Gérard Philipe, Danièle Delorme, Louis Jourdan, and Roger Vadim who would become his directing assistant. He was married to Nadine Vogel. He was a married man who then felt he had an obligation to proclaim his homosexuality. He was, however, seen as a general liberator rather than a specialist defender of homosexual rights. He died in 1973 and was interred in the Cimetière des Gonards in Versailles, France.
Known For
Penniless governess Blanche Fullerton takes a job at the estate of her rich relations, the Fury family. To better her position in life, Blanche marries her dull cousin, Laurence Fury, with whom she has a daughter. But before long, boredom sets in, and Blanche begins a tempestuous romance with stableman Philip Thorn. Together, they hatch a murderous plan to gain control of the estate.
Blanche Fury
After a crippling injury leaves her husband impotent, Lady Chatterly is torn between her love for her husband and her physical desires. With her husband's consent, she seeks out other means of fulfilling her needs.
Lady Chatterley's Lover
A film made up of four sketches. In Marc Allégret's Sophie, a naive high-school girl invents a love affair with her mother's lover. But it's a guitarist with whom she falls in love. In Françoise, by Claude Barma, a young woman returning to France after living in the United States has an affair with her best friend's lover. In Antonia, by Michel Boisrond, a middle-aged woman tries to convince her ex-lover that she still has many assets to seduce. In Ella, by Jacques Poitrenaud, a Pigalle dancer meets a man in a cab.
Tales of Paris
A beautiful 18-year-old orphan escapes from a reformatory and hooks up with a gang of jewel smugglers, and decides on a life of crime. However, she falls for and marries a policeman, putting a crimp in her criminal career.
Be Beautiful and Shut Up
The spirit of a vengeful female vampire is released from her grave and possesses a wealthy young woman of nobility, who preys on other women in her village.
Blood and Roses
Due to an urgent need of money, aspiring writer Agnes participates in an amateur striptease contest. Her new boyfriend, Daniel, who is a reporter by profession, covers the contest for his magazine.
Plucking the Daisy
The mistress of an engineer meets the man's pregnant wife and decides to give up the liaison.
Orage
A blackmailer is murdered, and those who witnessed the scene agree to keep quiet; the complication is that the scene is also witnessed by a young artist, a victim of blackmail as well. (BFI Website)
Blackmailed
Petrus, a Montmartre photographer, is accidentally wounded by Migo, a dancer at the Frou Frou night club, when she is trying to shoot her faithless lover Rodrigue, a counterfeiter. Though Petrus tries to reconcile the lovers, Migo lands up with him after Rodrigue is finally killed by another jealous dancer.
Pétrus
Jean Brevent still did not understand the departure of his wife, Danielle Darieux. It's been five years, but he still can't forget her. In spite of a work of writer originator in a newspaper, in which it tried to be invested completely, time did not make its work. One day, by chance, he meets her in the bus...
Sunday Encounter
At the Conservatory of Vienna the students only have eyes for their beautiful singing teacher, tenor Eric Walter.
School for Love
Escaping her school teacher life, a lady marries a British military doctor who takes her to Malaysia. But realizing there that the marriage isn't working, she turns to an Oriental prince instead.
Andere Welt
Soon after Marius's departure, Fanny learns that she is pregnant with his child, to the disappointment of her mother and of Marius's father, César. To secure a better life for her unborn child, she accepts a marriage proposal from the aging widower Honoré Panisse.
Fanny
A brave bookseller raises his four daughters alone, all of whom he employs in his shop. They are especially interested in their sentimental stories. Rosine, the youngest, falls in love with Francis, fiancé of Edith, the eldest. But Francis pushes her away and Rosine announces that she is going to commit suicide. Bertrand, a young doctor, decides to stop her by watching over her. After a few adventures, everything finally works out. Edith keeps her fiancé, the father, from whom the adventure has been hidden, returns to the usual course of his life and Bertrand and Rosine find themselves alone.
The Little Ones of the Flower Platform
Zou Zou tries to help her childhood friend prove his innocence after he's accused of murder.
Zouzou
Camille Morestan serves as a jury member at a court in Paris. The attractive Natalie Roguin is accused of murder. Morestan doesn't want to believe she really killed her lover. He succeeds in convincing the other jury members she was innocent. After her acquittal he takes her into his house. While he tries to keep her identity a secret for his family her presence leads to a number of unfortunate incidents.
Heart of Paris
1938, France, Paris, at the Superior Conservatory of Dramatic Art ("Conservatoire Supérieur d'Art Dramatique"). The first-year entrance exams are in full swing. Many applicants, few accepted. Isabelle (Janine Darcey) is one of the few chosen. She joins former students from the second and third years, including François (Claude Dauphin) and Cécilia (Odette Joyeux). They attend the drama class run by Professor Lambertin (Louis Jouvet). The young people, passionate and eager to become comedians, clash in tumultuous love affairs, because by dint of acting, they imagine that life is a farce. François, for example, is in love with Isabelle, who also loves him, but is pursued by Cecilia, his former mistress... "Put art in your life and life in your art!"
The Curtain Rises
A drifting woman hangs out in the suburbs of Marseille. A young engineer picks her up drunk and takes her to the hospital. He does not know then that it is the Countess Armance de Lunegarde, driven from her home and performing as a gummy in third-rate music halls.
Lunegarde
Julietta Valendor is in love with lawyer André Landrecourt. He is unaware of her feelings. He puts her up one day when he has his fiancée, Rosie, staying with him... Based on a novel of Louise de Vilmorin.
Julietta
At the beginning of the 20th century, in the North of the Province of Quebec. After five years spent in a boarding school, Maria Chapdelaine comes back to the family farm. Robert Gagnon, a villager and childhood friend, loves her secretly but Maria is wooed by Lorenzo Surprenant, a man who has fled his home town to escape the police. The one she is really in love with is François Paradis, a handsome trapper. The latter promises to marry her in the spring, as soon as he is back from the Far North. Robert, who is aware of how miserable Maria is, writes a letter to François , asking him to come back at once. Unfortunately, the young trapper is buried under the snow during a storm. As for Lorenzo he gets gunned down by the police. Finally understanding that Robert has sacrificed himself out of love for her, Maria accepts to become his wife.