Thunder over Paris – The Last Penny – Under the Cards
FIVE BY ANDRÉ CAYATTE Before he became known for his socially conscious dramas (and earned the unwarranted derision of the Cahiers du Cinéma), André Cayatte gravitated toward film noir, writing and directing tales of charlatans, blackmailers and femmes fatales embroiled in complex duplicity. FRENCH ’24 has three of his 1940s excursions into this territory on tap in a matinée triple bill that will reintroduce his early work to audiences.
Thunder Over Paris / Tempête
12:00 PM In THUNDER OVER PARIS, an egregious swindler (the redoubtable Erich von Stroheim) is relentlessly tracked by his police detective son-in-law. Needless to say, it makes for a very unusual family dynamic. (1940, dir. Dominique Bernard-Deschamps, 97m)
The Last Penny / Le dernier sou
2:00 PM In THE LAST PENNY the victim of a confidence scheme (Alfred Adam) tries to turn the tables on his blackmailer (Noel Roquevert, appropriately dastardly) by “turning” his accomplice (the gorgeous Ginette Leclerc, best remembered for his languorous performance in LE CORBEAU). (1946, dir. André Cayatte, 90m)
Under the Cards / Le dessous des cartes
3:45 PM In UNDER THE CARDS, a scheming wife (Madeleine Sologne, France’s cross between Veronica Lake and Lizabeth Scott) needs a dupe for a complex deception in order to collect her dead husband’s insurance policy. Enter Serge Reggiani as the unsuspecting Manu—is he ripe to be the patsy who will take the rap? (1948, dir. André Cayatte, 94m)
Midcentury Productions’ THE FRENCH HAD A NAME FOR IT ’24- Part One features 14 rarely seen films, adding to the astonishing rediscoveries that the series has been unearthing since 2014. Seven spectacular films—including a landmark screening of the 1934 version of France’s LES MISÉRABLES—are highlighted in the Big Roxie on October 3rd, 6th and 7th, while seven even deeper dives into “the lost continent” play in the Little Roxie screening room on October 4th and 5th.
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