Trintignant, Jean Louis

The Conformist (Extended Edition)

From Bernardo Bertolucci comes this stunning masterwork which explores the rise of fascism in Italy. A young wealthy follower of Mussolini is called on to kill a former college professor forcing him to examine why he associates sex with violence while coming to grips with his own homosexuality. Jean-Louis Trintignant Stefania Sandrelli Dominique Sanda starSystem Requirements:Run Time: 111 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 097360812145 Manufacturer No: 081214

With The Conformist, Bernardo Bertolucci delivered one of his signature masterworks and joined the ranks of world-class directors. Based on the acclaimed novel by Alberto Moravia (who greatly admired Bertolucci's adaptation), this milestone of cinematic style concerns one of Bertolucci's dominant themes--the duality of sexual and political conflict--in telling the story of Marcello (Jean-Louis Trintignant), a 30-year-old Italian haunted by the memory of a sexually traumatic childhood experience. As an adult with repressed homosexual desires, Marcello wants nothing more than to conform to the upper-crust expectations of Italian society, so he marries the dim-witted, petit-bourgeois Giulia (Stefania Sandrelli), and willfully joins the Italian Fascist movement, traveling from Rome to Paris with an assignment to assassinate his former academic mentor, Prof. Quadri (Enzo Tarascio). As he grows attracted to Quadri's bisexual wife Anna (Dominique Sanda), who is in turn attracted to Giulia, Marcello's path of duplicity parallels that of Mussolini's inevitable downfall. He's on an irreversible course of self-destruction, on which his troubled past and morally corrupted present will collide in a soul-crushing heap of personal contradictions.

While the psychosexual aspects of Bertolucci's Oscar®-nominated screenplay remain dramatically compelling, The Conformist is now better known as a dazzling stylistic breakthrough, with sweeping camera moves, oblique angles, and innovative editing brilliantly applied to Bertolucci's rich themes of internalized conflict. In close collaboration with master cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, Bertolucci crafted one of the greatest films of the 1970s, offered here with its richly relevant "Dance of the Blind" scene fully intact. This five-minute scene was cut from the original American release, then restored for the film's 1994 re-release. It's a welcome enhancement of the film's suspenseful historical context, which is fully explored in three bonus featurettes in which Bertolucci and Storaro discuss the story, production, and innovative style of The Conformist in fascinating detail. For serious collectors of important films, The Conformist is absolutely essential. --Jeff Shannon

A Man and a Woman

From director CLAUDE LELOUCH (And Now...Ladies and Gentlemen) comes this 1966 classic a tender visually exciting film of revitalizing love: a race-car driver (JEAN-LOUIS TRINIGNANT) and a movie script girl (ANOUK AIMEE) share a romance filled with humor and truth intertwined with the demands of career and parenthood. Winner of Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Original Screenplay.Running Time: 103 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 085392431229

French filmmaker Claude Lelouch continues to take critical heat for this 1966 international hit, which has been labeled "schmaltzy" and dismissed as overly stylized for its simple story line. While it certainly can't be mistaken for a masterpiece of the French New Wave (Lelouch was left in the dust that year by such wonders as Jean-Luc Godard's Masculin Feminin), A Man and a Woman has a jumpy impressionism that engages a viewer precisely because it cuts against conventional expectations of romance. Starring Anouk Aimée as a widowed "script girl" (working in film production) and Jean-Louis Trintignant as a racer who lost his wife to suicide, the film is really an objective sampling--almost a study--of moments between the time the two characters meet and the point at which they begin to read each other intuitively. Generous flashbacks fill in details on the pair's woeful, recent histories, while endless documentary-like glimpses of Aimée's and Trintignant's characters at work in their highly charged professions become a visual engine for the days passing between measured developments in love. Lelouch is more dryly humane than lush in his approach, though the film strains once in a while for a forced naturalism that can actually be more narcissistic than the most obvious romantic contrivance. Still, A Man and a Woman--in the best sense--is also a movie in love with itself, with its own ability to evoke and conjure and construct dozens of different ways of tracking a relationship in progress. If Lelouch doesn't exactly push open the boundaries of cinema as several of his filmmaking peers did at the time, he certainly enjoys what he's doing. --Tom Keogh

Rendez-Vous

Future star Juliette Binoche made a sensational early splash in Andre Techine's 1985 Rendez-voux, one of the director's typically unpredictable projects. Binoche plays a struggling actress whose new Paris apartment brings her into the orbit of the meek realtor (Wadeck Stanczack) who found the place and his aggressively dashing roommate (Lambert Wilson). There's also a grizzled director (the great Jean-Louis Trintignant) looking to cast Romeo and Juliet. Techine wrote this sexually explosive movie with Olivier Assayas (Late August, Early September), which might help explain its fluid, dreamy forward motion; nothing happens according to realistic logic, but it seems to make sense as it hurtles along. The following year Techine made Scene of the Crime, which established him as a major French director. Binoche's live-wire performance is an indication of the risk-taking that was to come, and here she is already one of the most beautiful women in cinema. --Robert Horton

In her first major screen role, Academy Award®-winner Juliette Binoche (The English Patient) gives a raw and electrifying performance as sexual free-spirit Nina, who moves to Paris to become an actress. She has a profound impact on three men. Paulot (Wadeck Stanczak) is a timid real estate clerk infatuated with her. His roommate, Quentin (Lambert Wilson), is an emotionally scarred actor who performs in live sex shows. Scrutzler (screen legend Jean-Louis Trintignant) is a stage director who casts Nina in his production of Romeo and Juliet. Co-written by Olivier Assayas (Irma Vep), Rendez-vous is a mesmerizing study of love, loss, and redemption that earned director Andre Techine (Wild Reeds) Best Director honors at the Cannes Film Festival.

The Great Silence

One of the best and most unusual spaghetti Westerns ever made, Sergio Corbucci's The Great Silence is set in the beautiful desolation of the snow-covered high plains. Jean-Louis Trintignant, the romantic French star of My Night at Maud's and A Man and a Woman, hardens his blue eyes into a steely stare to play the mute mercenary gunslinger "Silence." Klaus Kinski (star of Werner Herzog's Aguirre: The Wrath of God and Nosferatu the Vampyre) is his target, a grinning, amiable bounty killer whose deadly logic leaves a trail of corpses in his wake, all murdered "according to the law." Corbucci, whose Django is a genre classics, complicates his trademark cynicism with the compelling contradictions of his hero and villain, and the chilly atmosphere of the frozen mountain community brings a new twist to the phrase cold-blooded murder.

Cult director Alex Cox (Repo Man) calls The Great Silence "the greatest spaghetti Western ever made" in a six-minute video interview, in which he explains his love for the film in an insightful monologue. Cox also provides optional commentary on the alternate happy ending (which otherwise plays without sound), an unusual find that was likely shot for Asian territories. --Sean Axmaker

On an unforgiving, snow swept frontier, a group of bloodthirsty bounty hunters, led by the vicious Loco (Klaus Kinski Nosferatu, For a Few Dollars More) prey on a band of persecuted outlaws who have taken to the hills. As the price on each head is collected one-by-one, only a mute gunslinger named Silence (Jean-Louis Trintignant The Conformist) stands between the innocent refuges and the greed and corruption that the bounty hunters represent. But, in this harsh, brutal world, the lines between right and wrong aren't always clear and good doesn't always triumph. Featuring superb photography and a haunting score from maestro Ennio Morricone, director Sergio Corbucci's (Django, Compa=F1eros) bleak, brilliant and violent vision of an immoral, honorless west is widely considered to be among the very best and most influential Euro-Westerns ever made.

Under Fire

Under Fire is a savvy political thriller of journalists in war-torn Nicaragua circa 1979. Clayton Frohman and Ron Shelton's (Bull Durham) script follows ace photojournalist Russell Price (Nick Nolte, in a key marquee performance) from the jungles of Africa to the Central American boiling point. Along with the usual band of fellow journalists, Price finds himself involved in a love triangle with Claire (Joanna Cassidy in her best role) and Alex Grazier (Gene Hackman, perfect again), who believes he's one career-making story from a lofty news anchor position. In Nicaragua, Price finds his own deadly mission: to photograph an unknown rebel leader.

Although the setup is traditional, Roger Spottiswoode's film feels as alive and vital as the best of the genre. Showing his ambiguity for the lives he shoots, Price is just as friendly with the impoverished in Africa as with an icy mercenary, Oates (Ed Harris in a role the polar opposite of his breakthrough performance in The Right Stuff the same year). On one level, Oates and Price are simply Americans doing their jobs in a foreign land. But soon Price has a change of heart. Blessed by a splendid final-act action sequence that is unforced and emotionally charged, the film is stuffed with color and energy, a good dose of which is supplied by Jerry Goldsmith's Oscar-nominated score. --Doug Thomas

...And God Created Woman - Criterion Collection

Roger Vadim's directorial debut is more titillation than continental cool, but it broke box-office records and censorship taboos in its teasing display of sex and eroticism in the sunny vacation playground of the Saint-Tropez seashore. Vadim ushered in the era of continental attitudes toward sex and christened the voluptuous Brigitte Bardot (his wife) the world's original sex kitten: earthy, innocent, and all fleshy curves. Bardot is Juliette, a pouty child-woman orphan prone to nude sunbathing and playful flirting. Though pursued by a rich widower (Curt Jurgens) and attracted to the brawny fisherman Antoine (Christian Marquand), she marries Antoine's shy younger brother Michel (Jean-Louis Trintignant), an earnest, innocent kid hardly older than she but far less worldly. Despite her sincere efforts to "be good," Juliette gives in to Michel's advances, setting off a chain of events that ends in fraternal conflict. Vadim keeps the display of skin this side of an R rating, but only barely, teasing the male audience with skimpy outfits, barely concealing sheets, and often conveniently arranged scenery. Bohemian Bardot frolics through the film with nary a self-conscious moment, culminating in a passionate mambo, her pent-up frustration and sexual confusion exploding in a mad dance as bongos pound away on the soundtrack. Who needed Viagra in the '50s when Bardot was around? --Sean Axmaker

The astounding success of Roger Vadim's And God Created Woman revolutionized the foreign film market and turned Brigitte Bardot into an international star. Bardot stars as Juliette, an 18-year-old orphan whose unbridled appetite for pleasure shakes up all of St. Tropez; her sweet but naïve husband Michel (Jean-Louis Trintignant) endures beatings, insults, and mambo in his attempts to tame her wild ways. Criterion presents this milestone of cinematic naughtiness in a stunning new 16x9 Eastmancolor transfer, supervised by the late director.

Eric Rohmer's Six Moral Tales - Criterion Collection

The multifaceted deeply personal dramatic universe of Eric Rohmer has had an effect on cinema unlike any other. Gently existential hyperarticulate character studies set against vivid seasonal landscapes Rohmer's audacious and wildly influential series defined a genre. A succession of jousts between fragile men and the women who tempt them the Six Moral Tales unleashed onto the film world a new voice one that was at once sexy philosophical modern daring nonjudgmental and liberating.Six-disc box set includes the films: The Bakery Girl of MonceauSuzanne's CareerMy Night at Maud'sLa collectionneuseClaire's KneeLove in the AfternoonFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 715515019125 Manufacturer No: CC1640DDVD

Audiences love or hate the films of Eric Rohmer. The magnificent Criterion set of the French director's Six Moral Tales, his first film cycle, contains the films that first brought Rohmer to international attention--particularly My Night at Maud's, Claire's Knee, andLove in the Afternoon--in gorgeous film-to-dvd transfers, accompanied by a bounty of short films and other extras. Watching any of these films, even the short features that begin the series (The Bakery Girl of Monceau and Suzanne's Career), you will discover if Rohmer is for you. To some, his examinations of social mores and the psychology of love are absorbing, subtle, and sublime; to others, they're meandering, talky, and flat. But even his detractors must acknowledge that Rohmer draws out the twists of joy and anguish, brief and ephemeral, that haunt lovers as they grope towards security and happiness; and though his visual approach is rigorously simple, his images--thanks to cinematographer Nestor Almendros--are luminous.

The Bakery Girl..., only 23 minutes long, has all the basic elements: A man, infatuated with one woman, flirts with another, all the while comforting himself with self-serving rationalizations and a comic lack of self-knowledge. This film's simplicity makes it more charming and satisfying than the more awkward efforts of Rohmer's next two films, Suzanne's Career (about a student who idolizes a callous older boy and only too late realizes that the girl they've been mocking may have a better grasp on life) and La collectioneusse (about a love triangle at a countryside estate; oddly, though released two years before the next film, it's presented as the fourth in the series), though each has moments of insight and delight. The remaining three movies are masterpieces: In My Night at Maud's, a Catholic engineer (the superb Jean-Louis Trintignant, Three Colors: Red) wrestles with his morals and his desires while spending the night with the enigmatic and alluring Maud (Francoise Fabian, 5 x 2). Claire's Knee gently mocks Les Liaisons Dangereuse as a man about to be married is goaded by a female friend into pursuing an infatuation with a young nubile nymph. And the last of the series, Love in the Afternoon (also known as Chloe in the Afternoon) follows a husband whose unconsummated affair with an old friend almost capsizes his happy marriage. What's most remarkable about this series is that, though each has virtually the same plot, watching all of these films in close succession only highlights their intricate differences and the complex shadings of delusion and yearning. Rohmer's work grows more fascinating the more familiar his methods become. Some filmgoers consider "nuance" code for "boring," but anyone who finds the collision of hearts and minds more exciting than car crashes will find Six Moral Tales revelatory and rewarding. --Bret Fetzer

Red (Three Colors Trilogy)

The final section of the late Krzysztof Kieslowski's acclaimed Three Colors trilogy (preceded by Blue and White) is the least likely of the three to stand alone, and indeed benefits from a little familiarity with the first two parts. Nevertheless, it's a strong, unique piece that reflects upon the ubiquity of images in the modern world and the parallel subjugation of meaningful communication. Irene Jacob plays a fashion model whose lovely face is hugely enlarged on a red banner no one in Geneva can possibly miss seeing. Striking up a relationship with an embittered former judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant), who secretly scans his neighbors' conversations through electronic surveillance, Jacob's character becomes an aural witness to the secret lives of those we think we know. Kieslowski cleverly wraps up the trilogy with a device that brings together the principals of all three films. --Tom Keogh

Praised by critics nationwide as one of the year's 10 best films, RED is a seductive story of forbidden love -- and the unknowable mystery of coincidence. The final chapter in Krzystof Kieslowski's acclaimed "Three Colors" triology, RED stars sexy Irene Jacob (THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE) as a young model whose chance meeting with an unusual stranger leads her down a path of intrigue and secrecy. As her knowledge of the man deepens, she discovers an astonishing link between his past ... and her destiny! Academy Award(R)-nominated for writing, direction, and cinematography, RED is Kieslowski's crowning achievement -- a fascinating mystery sure to dazzle and entertain!

The Valerio Zurlini Box Set: The Early Masterpieces

This deluxe 2-DVD collector's edition from NoShame Films offers a pair of early works by Valerio Zurlini, one of the great unsung maestri of Italian cinema. War-torn Italy is the setting for VIOLENT SUMMER. In the final days of Mussolini's reign, Carlo (Jean-Louis Trintignant, THE DESERT OF THE TARTARS), the hedonistic son of a high-ranking Fascist (Enrico Maria Salerno, THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE) falls in love with a Navy officer's widow (Eleonora Rossi Drago). Fleeing the wrath of the Anti-Fascists for the safety of Southern Italy, the lovers are stranded by the masses of the dead and dying and must confront for the first time the horrors of war previously kept from them by a life of privilege. In GIRL WITH A SUITCASE, 16-year-old Lorenzo (THE DESERT OF THE TARTARS' Jacques Perrin) falls in love with cabaret singer Aida (Claudia Cardinale), spurned by his playboy brother Marcello (Corrado Pani, SECRETS OF A CALL GIRL). Secreting the sensuous Aida in a hotel and going into debt to feed and clothe her, Lorenzo can only stand by as Aida attracts a stream of new suitors and learns the hard truth that sometimes pure love is not enough.

My Night at Maud's

French director Eric Rohmer, former critic and Cahiers du Cinema editor, created a very special romantic film series around the difficult choices men make when they fall in love with two women called "Six Moral Tales." My Night at Maud's was the third entry, and it was so well received in 1969 that it gave Rohmer international prominence. To this day, it remains Rohmer's masterpiece, a brilliantly insightful and sublime meditation on adult indiscretions. Jean-Louis Trintignant plays a chaste engineer who thinks he's met his soul mate in church (Marie-Christine Barrault), yet winds up accidentally spending the night with the seductive Maud (Francoise Fabian), who is more his intellectual equal. Filmed in stark black and white by Nestor Almendros, this is one of those rare films in which questions about philosophy translate into unexpected answers about the heart. It's slow and methodical, but well worth the experience. --Bill Desowitz