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Man in the Shadows: The Films of Alain Delon is supported by TV5.
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film descriptions and times
Presented by the Film Society in collaboration with the Bureau du Cinéma of the Ministère des Affaires Etrangères (Paris) and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy (New York). Special thanks to Cinecittà Holding, Studio Canal, Pathé International, Vega Film, Cappa Productions, Marie Bonnel, Janine Deunf, Camilla Cormanni and Jacques-Eric Strauss.
When Godard cast Alain Delon as completely opposite twin brothers in NOVELLE VAGUE, he was definitely on to something essential about Delon the actor. Throughout a career spanning almost 50 years and 75 films, Alain Delon has frequently seemed split in two, his daunting grace and disarming beauty barely masking a dark, raging internal world. Born in Sceaux in 1935, Delon dropped out of school early, working a variety of odd jobs before serving in the French army in Vietnam. After his return he decided to try his luck in the movies, landing within a few years a role as a hit man in Yves Allégret's Quand la femme s'en mêle (1957). His big break came two years later, when René Clement cast him as Tom Ripley in his adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley. Over the next few years, Delon would make his mark working with directors such as Visconti (ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS, THE LEOPARD), Antonioni (THE ECLIPSE), Melville (LE SAMOURAÏ, DIRTY MONEY) and Losey (MR. KLEIN). As he grew older, and the youthful softness of his features began to harden, Delon became increasingly identified as an actor (and later as a producer, writer and director) with the policier, the crime film. With its penchant for emphasizing the treacherousness of appearances and plots that often hinge on betrayals or sudden revelations, the policier provided the perfect vehicle for Delon to continue to explore the duplicitous persona that has always been at the core of his appeal.
Already in 1964, barely seven years after his screen debut, Alain Delon was honored with an hommage at the Cinémathèque Française organized by Henri Langlois, a clear sign of Langlois's enormous faith in that young actor. As this brief Walter Reade series powerfully demonstrates, that promise has more than been fulfilled. - Richard Peña
PURPLE NOON / PLEIN SOLEIL
René Clement, France, 1961; 118m
Alain Delon became an international star with his role as Tom Ripley in René Clement's effective screen rendition of the wonderfully sordid world of expatriate American author Patricia Highsmith. Sent by the wealthy Mr. Greenleaf to track down his playboy son Philip (Maurice Ronet) in Europe and bring him home, Ripley finds Philip living large on the Riviera. At first Philip seems willing to cooperate with Tom, but actually he's just stringing him along; continually feeling humiliated, and threatened with having his funding cut off by Mr. Greenleaf, Ripley grows increasingly desperate, revealing finally a new and terrifying side to his personality. Just as the warm sun and soft pastel shades of the Mediterranean mask the harshness and decadences of the world of these characters, so too the grace and beauty of the 24-year-old Delon are a perfect counterpoint to the darkness that is Tom Ripley.
Fri July 11: 1:30 and 6:30
Sat July 12: 4
Sun July 13: 8:20
MR. KLEIN
Joseph Losey, France, 1976; 123m
Delon gives one of his finest performances in this searing indictment of emotional and political indifference in wartime France. One morning in 1942, art dealer Robert Klein (Delon) awakens to find on his doorstep a Jewish newspaper, with a subscription label addressed to him. Klein is puzzled - he's a Catholic Alsatian, and although he himself has nothing against Jews, being mistaken for Jewish in German-occupied Paris is at least inconvenient. So he decides to track down the source of the confusion, and soon is convinced that another, Jewish Robert Klein, is trying to take over his identity; he even appeals to the police, who think he's simply a Jew trying an elaborate camouflage with such a preposterous ruse. Klein's search becomes a descent into a Kafkaesque nightmare, brilliantly and coolly calibrated by Losey as all fixed points of reference gradually fade away. With a wonderful cameo by Jeanne Moreau.
Fri July 11: 4 and 9
Sat July 12: 8:20
Sun July 13: 2
 THE SAMOURAI / LE SAMOURAï
Jean-Pierre Melville, France, 1967; 95m
For many Melville's most perfect film, THE SAMOURAI is the story of Jeff Costello (Delon), a cool-eyed contract killer known for his extraordinary attention to detail. One night, while doing a job in a nightclub, he meets the beautiful lounge pianist Cathy, and suddenly Costello starts slipping up. Melville's Japanese reference in his film's title is twofold: on the one hand, the character of Jeff Costello is a kind of modern warrior, a killer bound by a strict code of ethics. On the other,
THE SAMOURAI is as ritualized as a classic kabuki drama, with each genre convention of the crime thriller foregrounded and emphasized. Yet THE SAMOURAI never feels cold or merely formal; underneath this seemingly well-ordered world run deep passions.
Sat July 12: 2 and 6:20;
Sun July 13: 4:30
Tue July 15: 4
THE WIDOW COUDERC / LA VEUVE COUDERC
Pierre Granier-Deferre, France, 1971; 90m
A look at the career of Alain Delon reveals an actor who often does his best work in tandem; there seems to be something about the experience of getting to work closely with a formidable counterpart that brings out the best in Delon. Just as in ANY NUMBER CAN WIN Delon got to go mano a mano with the great Jean Gabin, in THE WIDOW COUDERC gets to take on another legend of the French cinema: Simone Signoret. She plays a woman who, after years of suffering brutal treatment at the hands of her husband and father-in-law, has now been left a contented widow running her own farm. One day, while trying to carry a new machine to the farm house, she's given a hand by a handsome stranger, Jean Lavigne (Delon). She offers him a job and a place to stay - but will the farm prove big enough for both of them?
Sun July 13: 6:30;
Mon July 14: 3:30
Tue July 15: 2 and 8:30
ANY NUMBER CAN WIN / MÉLODIE EN SOUS-SOL
Henry Verneuil, France, 1963; 117m
"A first-rate crime film, comparable to the very best examples of the genre France has ever produced." - Louis Chauvet, Le Figaro
Fresh out jail, Charles (Jean Gabin) recruits a young copain, Francis (Alain Delon), he met inside to help him plan and execute one final, signature heist: the robbing of a luxurious casino in Cannes. Their preparations are meticulous, all seems to be working like clockwork, when things threaten to unravel. A beautifully told, jazzy caper film that makes wonderful use of its French Riviera settings, ANY NUMBER CAN WIN offers the special pleasure of watching the extraordinary interplay between Gabin and Delon, the old lion of French cinema jousting with the up-and-coming star. The razor-sharp dialogue is by the master scenarist of French crime movies, Michel Audiard.
Mon July 14: 1; Tue July 15: 6:15
Wed July 16: 2:45 and 6:45
NOUVELLE VAGUE
Jean-Luc Godard, France/Switzerland; 1990; 90m
For his epic encounter with Jean-Luc Godard, Delon was asked to play two roles: a lost soul run down by a beautiful young woman who takes him to her lakeside mansion to recover - and the man's twin brother, who just happens to be his opposite in every way. Cogently described by critic J. Hoberman as "an environment as much as it is a narrative," NOUVELLE VAGUE assembles a screenplay made up almost entirely from quotations from cinematic, literary and philosophical works to create an elaborate and ultimately deeply moving defense against despair; Godard actually released the entire soundtrack separately as a CD. Even critics of this controversial film describe the film as ravishingly beautiful, and Godard seems to ask how such a wondrous world could at the same time contain so much mental and emotional suffering. Much of the film was shot near the childhood summer home of Godard, marking NOUVELLE VAGUE as perhaps a kind of return to his roots.
Wed July 16: 1, 5 and 9:10
Thurs July 17: 4:15 and 8:30
OUR STORY / NOTRE HISTOIRE
Bertrand Blier, France, 1984; 110m
Sitting alone and morose in a train's first-class compartment, Robert Avranche (Delon) meets a mysterious woman, Donatienne (Nathalie Baye). She starts to tell him a story, about a woman traveling on a train who meets a solitary, seemingly morose man with whom she has quick, passionate, never-to-be-repeated sexual encounter. Soon, the line between the teller and the tale becomes rather blurry indeed, but when Donatienne tries to leave, Robert decides to follow, apparently changing the scenario - or is he? Inspired perhaps by Buñuel's That Obscure Object of Desire, yet while Buñuel is playful and perverse, Blier has something even darker on his mind. Delon and Baye are a perfect match, constantly shifting gears and re-defining their relationship as "their story" takes on new and ever more surprising inflections.
Thurs July 17: 2 and 6:15;
Sat July 19: 4:15
Sun July 20: 6:40
ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS / ROCCO E IS SUOI FRATELLI
Luchino Visconti, Italy/France, 1960; 180m
"Rocco is about the awful inevitability of the fate (as Visconti sees it) of Rosaria Parondi (Katina Paxinou) and her five sons when they emigrate to Milan to find a better life. Vincenzo (Spiros Focas), the eldest, muddles through without too much damage. Simone (Renato Salvatori) becomes, briefly, a promising prize fighter, only to wind up as a petty crook and murderer. It is Rocco (Alain Delon), the middle son, who is both the hope of the family and its undoing. As written, and as played by Mr. Delon, Rocco is one of the most vivid and complex characters in all of Visconti's work. His misguided saintliness, which recalls Dostoevsky's The Idiot, is as responsible for the family tragedy as the system that ignores the Parondis. At this vantage point, Rocco looks better than ever." - Vincent Canby, The New York Times
Fri July 18: 1:30, 5:15 and 8:45;
Sun July 20: 1
DIRTY MONEY / UN FLIC
Jean-Pierre Melville, France, 1972; 105m
Melville was already ill during the making of what turned out to be his thirteenth and last film; indeed, in many ways DIRTY MONEY forms a perfect epitaph for his remarkable career. Delon plays police commissioner Edouard Coleman, whose efforts to smash a drug-running syndicate have thus far come up short. A chance tip leads him to focus his investigation on a quiet seaside town. There, he meets Cathy (Catherine Deneuve), who for a while gets his mind off the case - until he discovers that she's the mistress of the very man he's after. Melville truly pulled out all the stops for a remarkable sequence involving a transfer of a load of heroin from a moving train to helicopter, yet what resonates most in DIRTY MONEY is the thick atmosphere of disappointment, as each character comes to grips with how much less life turned out to offer than they had originally dreamed.
Sat July 19: 2 and 8:30;
Sun July 20: 4:30
Mon July 21: 3
THE SWIMMING POOL / LA PISCINE
Jacques Deray, France, 1968; 100m
A taut psychological thriller, THE SWIMMING POOL reunited Alain Delon with his co-star from
PURPLE SOON, Maurice Ronet, for another tale of obsessive jealousy. In a luxurious villa on the French Riviera, Jean-Paul (Delon) and Marianne (the wonderful Romy Schneider) have created a peaceful, loving relationship. Trouble begins to stir when their old friend Harry (Ronet) comes to visit along with his daughter Penelope (a very young Jane Birkin). The atmosphere, light and agreeable at first, grows darker, as each member of this tragic quartet conspires to take advantage of the others for their own spiteful purposes. "With the cool impassibility of an entomologist studying an insect colony, Jacques Deray tears away the tissue of illusions, suspicions, secrets and memories that come to define his characters and their relationships….Romy Schneider, in top form, cuts a remarkable figure as she easily dominates the two men on the scene: Alain Delon, more mysterious than ever, and Maurice Ronet, overbearing and corrosive. As for Birkin, she subtly projects the very image of a seductive innocence spiraling into a kind of perversity." - Marcel Martin, Les Lettres Françaises
Sat July 19: 6:30;
Sun July 20: 9;
Mon July 21: 1
THREE MEN TO KILL / TROIS HOMMES Á ABBATRE
Jacques Deray, France, 1980; 90m
One night along a lonely stretch of highway, professional gambler Michel Gerfaut (Delon) comes upon a terrible accident. He brings the driver to the hospital, who dies soon after. Later, Michel learns that just as he was at the hospital, two other men were also victims of mysterious road accidents; both, along with the man he tried to save, were upper-level management at the Emmerich Corporation, a major arms supplier. It becomes clear that these were no "accidents," and Michel might know too much to stay alive. Since their first pairing in The THE SWIMMING POOL, Delon and director Deray have often worked together; Deray clearly understands the actor's rhythms and remarkable screen persona, and uses them here to great effect.
Wed July 30: 4:30 and 8:30;
Sat Aug 2: 4
FOR A COP'S HIDE / POUR LA PEAU D'UN FLIC
Alain Delon, France, 1981; 115m
Delon's first turn as a director, FOR A COP'S HIDE casts Delon as Choucas, a world-weary ex-cop turned private eye. Somewhat down on his luck, he's sent some business by his old police colleague Commissioner Coccioli: track down a young, blind woman who's disappeared. Routine enough, but there seems to be somewhat more to this case than a simple missing-persons job. A tough guy pays Choucas a surprise visit at home; later, he watches helplessly as a murder is committed. A few threads start to come together, and soon Choucas is looking at an intricate conspiracy that reaches up to the uppermost levels of society. A pre-Nikita Anne Parillaud makes a strong impression as Choucas' faithful assistant.
Wed July 30: 6:20;
Thurs July 31: 3:30;
Sat Aug 2: 8:30
THE ECLIPSE / L'ECLISSE
Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy/France, 1962; 125m
Print courtesy of Cinecittà Holding
Alain Delon was perhaps never more beautiful than he was as Piero, the cold yet seductive stock broker in Antonioni's THE ECLIPSE. The film begins as Vittoria (Monica Vitti) breaks up with her long-time lover and heads out to seek new adventures. Joining her mother at the Roman stock exchange, she catches the eye of the dynamic Piero; during a moment of silence in memory of a dead trader - one of the most remarkable scenes in Antonioni's cinema. The two form a bond that will veer between irrepressible passion and feigned indifference. While Vitti, Antonioni's principal muse in this period, is surely the film's heart, Delon is just as undoubtedly ECLIPSE's soul, the symbol of a modern, sophisticated, yet ultimately empty Italian society.
Fri Aug 1: 4 and 8:45;
Sun Aug 3: 9:15
THE PROFESSOR / LA PRIMA NOTTE DI QUIETE
Valerio Zurlini, Italy/France, 1972; 105m
We've received numerous requests to bring back The Professor since screening it as part of our Valerio Zurlini retrospective back in September, 2000; the current Alain Delon tribute offers a perfect opportunity, as it contains one of Delon's finest yet least known performances. Daniele Dominici (Delon), a forty-ish school teacher, accepts a position as substitute teacher in a local high school. He becomes fascinated by the nocturnal ramblings of his students, and starts to frequent some of their hangouts; gradually, too, he becomes obsessed with one of them, Vanina, who he's convinced holds a dark secret. Zurlini's film is a magnificent study of a man trying to live vicariously, yet as the music grows louder and the lights become brighter the emptiness he feels inside begins to seem more like the human condition itself.
Fri Aug 1: 6:30; Mon Aug 4: 4; Tue Aug 5: 9:15
THE RETURN OF CASANOVA / LE RETOUR DE CASANOVA
Édouard Niermans, France, 1992; 93m
Adapted from the novel by Arthur Schnitzler, THE RETURN OF CASANOVA alights upon the world renowned seducer as he decides to turn abandon his life of romantic adventures and court intrigues and head home to Venice. Indeed, the physical markings of his aging are readily apparent, and his purse is almost empty - so it's time to rest, safe in the company of his loyal valet Camille. While on the road home, word reaches him that the rulers of Venice have decided to refuse him permission to enter the city. Stuck in southern France, Casanova must figure out his next move. One of a number of films made by Alain Delon in the 90s that play on the fact of his getting older, THE RETURN OF CASANOVA has a wry, knowing humor as it captures the efforts of one who has so long lived on his looks trying to learn how to survive by his wits. As the faithful Camille, Fabrice Luchini is the perfect foil to Delon's Casanova.
Sat Aug 2: 2;
Sun Aug 3: 4:45;
Mon Aug 4: 6:15
THE LOST COMMAND
Mark Robson, U.S., 1966; 130m
With his rising international stardom, Alain Delon was invited to act in a number of American and British films in the mid 60s, enjoying a wide range of roles. Here, Delon plays Capt. Philippe Esclavier, an Army officer who survives the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu by the Vietnamese. Repatriated to France, he's later re-conscripted by his commanding officer, Lt. Colonel Raspeguey (Anthony Quinn) to fight in yet another colonial war - this time, in Algeria. Upon arriving in Algeria, Raspeguey and Esclavier discover that among the enemies they must face is Mahidi (George Segal), an Algerian Arab who fought alongside them in Vietnam but has now joined his country's struggle to kick out the French. Claudia Cardinale, Maurice Ronet, Michèle Morgan and Jean Servais round out the all-star cast in the sweeping historical fresco, a film that was overshadowed by Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers, released the same year, but is definitely ripe for re-appraisal.
Note: Due to extensive print damage, there will be 1 minute of footage missing
from reel 5, and 5 minutes of footage missing from reel 6. There may be
focusing problems during reel 6 as well, due to warping.
Sat Aug 2: 6;
Thurs Aug 7: 4 and 9
THE LEOPARD / IL GATTOPARDO
Luchino Visconti, Italy, 1963; 205m
Italy in the 1860s. The country is being united thanks to the efforts of Garibaldi, but the rise of the new nation is about to eclipse an older way of life. The Prince of Salina (Burt Lancaster) knows that he's soon to be one of the first victims of these changing times, but then a possible way out emerges: his penniless nephew, Tancredi (Alain Delon), is to marry Angelica (Claudia Cardinale), the beautiful daughter of the wealthy merchant Don Calogaro Sedara (Paolo Stoppa). An entrée into this ascendant business class might provide Salina with the means to keep up his lifestyle and even marry off his daughters. Although THE LEOPARD is finally Lancaster's show - and what a show it is! - playing second fiddle in this company would be an honor for any actor. Visconti, who had worked with Delon on ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS, again emphasizes the actor's vulnerability, as his character betrays himself and his own emotions for some questionable greater good.
Sun Aug 3: 1;
Mon Aug 4: 8:15
THE FIGHTER aka ICE / LE BATTANT
Alain Delon, France, 1983; 110m
Directed, co-written and starring Alain Delon, THE FIGHTER begins as Jacques Darnay (Delon) is released after having served ten years in prison for robbing a jewelry store. Much about that crime remained a mystery: the stolen diamonds were never recovered, and no one knows exactly how Charby the jeweler died. At his trial it was declared that Darnay acted alone, yet the size and complexity of the heist make that seem highly unlikely. Darnay's release is anxiously awaited, by both the police, who hope he'll reveal more information about the crime, and by some of Darnay's former friends, who have a few ideas as to what might have happened to the diamonds. Having, perhaps, played in his years enough of both, Delon is the perfect point man in this duel between cops and crooks, capitalizing on each side's strengths and weaknesses while decidedly pursuing his own agenda.
Sun Aug 3: 6:45;
Wed Aug 6: 4;
Thurs Aug 7: 6:30
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