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Alain Jessua

Alain Jessua

Directing

Biography

Alain Jessua began his career as assistant to directors like Max Ophüls, Marcel Carne, Yves Allégret and Jacques Becker, before making his unique short film, Léon la lune, which earned him the prestigious Prix Jean-Vigo award in 1957. A few years later, in 1963, his first feature film (which became "cult" among moviegoers) won two prizes in Cannes and also Venice: La Vie à l'envers, with Charles Denner and Jean Yanne in his first movie role. He then went on to direct a series of successful and critically acclaimed feature films, which he produced himself (a rare risk in the French cinema landscape). Alain Jessua is regularly honored in France and abroad. His short film Léon la lune was screened at the MOMA - Museum of Modern Art in New York a few years ago and Martin Scorsese cited La Vie à l'envers as one of the films that really made an impact on him. Jean Tulard , in his "Dictionary of Cinema", writes: "He proposes a cinema where he tackles the problems of our time and makes cries of alarm. " Alain Jessua is also the author of six novels.

Known For

Lola Montès
6.9

Lola Montes, previously a great adventuress, is reduced to being the attraction of a circus after having been the lover of various important men.

Lola Montès

1955
The Earrings of Madame de...
7.5

In late 19th century France, the Countess Louise, wife of a wealthy general, sells the earrings her husband gave her on their wedding day to pay off her secret debts, then claims to have lost them. Her husband quickly learns of the deceit, which is the beginning of many tragic misunderstandings, all involving the earrings, the general, the countess, and her new lover, the Italian Baron Donati.

The Earrings of Madame de...

1953
Shock Treatment
6.5

Hélène Masson visits her friend Gérôme Savignat in the isolated rejuvenation clinic owned by Dr. Devilers and his partner Dr. Berbard. But after a series of tragic events, Hélène goes further in her investigation of the clinic.

Shock Treatment

1973
The Dogs
6.1

After several inhabitants of a new city were bitten by dogs, a young doctor tries to put a stop to the climb of violence.

The Dogs

1979
Frankenstein 90
5.8

French cybernetics genius Victor Frankenstein carries on the work of his notorious ancestor and creates a monster, albeit one with a penchant for philosophy, etiquette and occasional bouts of murderous rage. But when the creature develops a hunger for l'amour, Frankenstein and his understanding fiancé use a cache of freshly murdered strippers to build the creature a beautiful yet dutiful bride. Can the undead find true love in a cold world, or will the French ways of passion unleash some monstrous surprises upon them all?

Frankenstein 90

1984
No Harm Intended
5.6

When Catherine is caught with her illicit lover by her father-in-law Paul, the concerned father leaves to tell his son Thomas about the incident. Paul is injured in an auto accident and returns home in a wheelchair unable to speak. Catherine's guilt weighs heavily on her as she hopes to never let Thomas know she was unfaithful. She panics and seeks a way to eliminate Paul in this psychological thriller.

No Harm Intended

1988
Armageddon
5.8

After years of poverty, Carrier, a repairman, inherits a large sum of money upon his brother's death in an accident. Now rich, he decides it is time to make his mark and be known at any cost. Becoming more and more mentally unstable, he begins to threaten police and the government signing his tracts, "Armaguedon". A detective from Interpol heads the investigation and prepares a trap at an international conference of world leaders in Paris.

Armageddon

1977
The Killing Game
5.9

Two cartoonists meet a playboy who lives out the fantasies created in their cartoons. He hires them to create a new comic strip. As they work on the new strip, the playboy begins to live it out. Unfortunately, the new strip deals with murder.

The Killing Game

1967
Max Ophüls, le peintre de l'amour fatal
N/A

Documentary on Max Ophüls and the making of Madame de...

Max Ophüls, le peintre de l'amour fatal

2013
Paradise for All
6.0

Doctor Valois has invented the "flashage", a cure for depressed people. After having tested it on monkeys, he tries with a first human patient, Alain Durieux. This is great success, everybody's happy except may be Alain's wife, Jeanne, who's worrying about the changes in Alain's personality. Other patients use the treatment with similar successes, and Valois's happy about it. But the monkeys are changing: non-cured ones are made mad by the over-stability and stereotyped behaviour of the cured ones. So are the humans. When Valois realises he can't stop the process, he decides to "flash" himself.

Paradise for All

1982
The Eighth Day
5.9

Françoise, a thirty-year-old single typist lives only for her Sunday release. On this day, she attends a horse race under pretext of perfecting her taste for elegance and refinement. Georges, a neighbor widower, begins to court her.

The Eighth Day

1960
Life Upside Down
6.8

A Paris real estate developer feels compelled to withdraw from his seemingly perfect life into a world of his own. Is the man going insane? By conventional standards, maybe, but it's clear that the life he's fleeing is madder still from his point of view, and since that point of view is unfailingly witty and astute, we even come to accept his delusions as more "real" than reality.

Life Upside Down

1964
The Colors of the Devil
2.4

A young talented painter dreams of glory. A man promises it in exchange for his talent and his soul.

The Colors of the Devil

1997
The Story of French Fantasy Cinema
6.0

The story of the French fantasy cinema from Méliès to Raw.

The Story of French Fantasy Cinema

2019
Alain Jessua, le franc-tireur du cinéma français
N/A

The director Alain Jessua evokes his beginnings, his career and recalls with passion his experience with the greatest filmmakers.

Alain Jessua, le franc-tireur du cinéma français

2021
Léon la lune
7.0

The film documents an old drifter in Paris in the poetic realist style

Léon la lune

1956
No image
N/A

Interview with Alain Jessua about his work on Max Ophuls' 1953 film THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE...

Working with Max Ophuls: Alain Jessua on the Making of Madame de...

2006