Their Last Night -The Truth about Our Marriage – People of No Importance
JEAN GABIN It would simply not be THE FRENCH HAD A NAME FOR IT without an evening devoted to Jean Gabin — and so we bring you a fabulous, final triple feature showcasing France’s greatest star in his glorious but still not well-known middle period, starring in dark tales focused on romantic entanglements.
Their Last Night / Leur Dernière Nuit
5:30 PM A “closeted” criminal mastermind posing as a librarian, Gabin finds he must choose between the underworld and a blossoming love with a young woman from the provinces (played by the great Madeleine Robinson). (1953, dir. Georges Lacombe, 95m)
The Truth about Our Marriage / La Vérité sur Bébé Donge
7:10 PM Poisoned by his wife (the darkly luminous Danielle Darrieux), industrialist Gabin looks back at the events that brought their marriage to such a deadly flashpoint — as he struggles to recover. (1952, Henri Decoin, 110m)
People of No Importance / Les Gens sans importance
9:20 PM Gabin is a long-haul trucker who falls in love with a beautiful but star-crossed young woman (the brilliant, sexy Françoise Arnoul), but struggles with how to end his own troubled marriage. Better known for his later action pictures, director Henri Verneuil is utterly masterful in stitching together the devastatingly low-key events that take on an urgent life of their own as complications escalate. With a young Dany Carrel (Trap for Cinderella) as Gabin’s troublesome daughter. (1956, Henri Verneuil, 101m)
Midcentury Productions’ THE FRENCH HAD A NAME FOR IT ’24- Part Two brings a landmark ten-year series to a smashing conclusion with 18 more rare films noirs from France, the actual birthplace of noir! Seven ultra-rarities play in the little Roxie on Friday and Saturday, Nov 29-30, followed by 11 more gems in the Big Roxie from Sunday, Dec 1 through Tuesday, Dec 3. Eternal French film icons — Jean Gabin, Jeanne Moreau, Brigitte Bardot — all appear in terrific films you’ve never seen. Join us Friday and Sunday for a special look at the secret career of Erich von Stroheim where you’ll fall in love with “the man you love to hate”.
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