Top 5 Films by Alain Corneau
Alain Corneau died on August 30, only a few days after his last film, Crime d’Amour, was released in France to rave reviews. The eclectic and popular filmmaker directed 16 films over three decades. Some of his best:
STYLISH THRILLER
Police Python 357 (The Case Against Ferro) 1976
This imaginative and suspenseful thriller set in Orléans was Corneau’s second film and the first of many box-office hits. Inspector Ferrot (Yves Montand) has an affair with the fascinating Sylvia (Stefania Sandrelli), unaware that she is also the mistress of his superior, Commissaire Ganay (François Périer). After discovering that she is cheating on him, Ganay kills Sylvia and leaves clues to incriminate Sylvia’s other lover, not knowing that his rival is Ferrot. Put in charge of the murder investigation, Ferrot discovers that all the clues lead to himself…
BLACK PARODY
Série Noire 1979
Corneau always drew out the best in his actors. In Série Noire he gave brilliant, tormented Patrick Dewaere one of his best roles: Franck, a door-to-door clothing salesman whose life is a disaster. One of his customers offers to let him spend a night with her teenage niece, Mona (Marie Trintignant), in exchange for new clothes. Mona becomes Franck’s mistress and persuades him to steal her aunt’s hidden stash of money. Thanks to Dewaere’s performance and the film’s dark, sarcastic and surreal tone, with dialogue written by Georges Perec, Série Noire has attained cult status. It is considered Corneau’s best film.
HISTORICAL SAGA
Fort Saganne 1984
In the 1980s Corneau moved to more spectacular projects, starting with this adventure saga, at the time the most expensive French film ever produced. Starring Gérard Depardieu, Catherine Deneuve, Philippe Noiret and Sophie Marceau, it tells the story of Charles Saganne, a fictitious French peasant who achieves military fame and honor while posted in the Sahara before his heroic death on the battlefield in World War I. Visually stunning, with impressive desert and battle scenes and ardent romantic interludes, Fort Saganne was another box office success for Corneau.
MUSICAL DRAMA
Tous les Matins du Monde (All the Mornings of the World) 1991
Far from the lavish Fort Saganne, Corneau’s second historical drama is an intimate, melancholy portrait of two real-life 17th-century musicians, based on a novel by Pascal Quignard. At the end of his life, court musician Marin Marais (portrayed from youth to old age by father and son Gérard and Guillaume Depardieu) reflects on his apprenticeship under ascetic viola player Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe (Jean- Pierre Marielle). The two men are united at first by their shared obsession to achieve perfection in their art, but become estranged when Marais leaves his master—and his lover, Sainte-Colombe’s elder daughter—to join the superficial world of Louis XIV’s court. Despite its somber atmosphere it was Corneau’s most successful film, winning seven Césars, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Music, for a runaway hit soundtrack of music by Marin, Sainte-Colombe, Lully and Couperin, played and conducted by Jordi Savall.
CORPORATE NIGHTMARE
Stupeur et Tremblements (Fear and Trembling) 2003
Amélie (the adorable Sylvie Testud, who won the César for best actress for the role) has always dreamed of returning to Japan, where she was born. She manages to get a one-year contract to work with a large import-export company in Tokyo. There, however, she is confronted with the complex hierarchical system of the Japanese corporate world, her dream job turns into an outrageous nightmare and she realizes that she will always remain an outsider in the Japanese culture she loves. This hilarious dark comedy is based on the autobiographical novel by Amélie Nothomb.
MORE CORNEAU FEATURES
France Société Anonyme (France Inc.) 1974. Sci-fi/thriller
La Menace 1977. Thriller
Le Choix des Armes (Choice of Arms) 1981. Thriller
Le Môme (Extreme Justice) 1986. Thriller
Nocturne Indien 1989. Road movie/Drama
Le Nouveau Monde (New World) 1995. Drama
Le Cousin 1997. Thriller
Le Prince du Pacifique (The Prince of the Pacific) 2000. Adventure/comedy
Les Mots Bleus (Some Kind of Blue) 2005. Drama
Le Deuxième Souffle (The Second Wind) 2007. Thriller
Crime d’Amour (Love Crime) 2010. Corporate thriller
Cécile Mouette Downs is executive and artistic director of the Sacramento French Film Festival.
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Originally published in the October 2010 issue of France Today.
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