The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Completely Updated and Expanded Read Online Free PDF

best in him.” A cryptic, poignant remark, followed by the confession that it was “for him, to win his attention, his esteem, that I wrote Les Faux-Monnayeurs .” No Allégret film is anywhere near as good as the novel he inspired. When Allégret’s appetite for work revived, he became assistant to Robert Florey, whose Le Blanc et le Noir he took over when Florey returned to Hollywood.
    In 1947, Allégret went to England and directed three films there, including Blackmailed , with Dirk Bogarde and Mai Zetterling. L’Amante di Paridi was a Helen of Troy extravaganza with Hedy Lamarr as the lady. A more convincing beauty was shown by Brigitte Bardot in Mamzelle Striptease . It is a mark of Allégret’s own staidness that he cultivated Roger Vadim as an assistant for ten years without ever dreaming of the lewd freshness with which Vadim would film Bardot—a meeting first accomplished through Allégret’s own projects.
    Yves Allégret (1907–87), b. Paris
1936: Vous N’Avez Rien à Déclarer? (codirected with Leo Joannon). 1941: Jeunes Timides; Tobie Est un Ange (not released). 1942: La Roue Tourne (uncompleted). 1943: La Boîte aux Rêves . 1945: Les Démons de l’Aube . 1948: Dédée d’Anvers; Une Si Jolie Petite Plage . 1949: Manèges . 1950: Les Miracles N’Ont Lieu Qu’une Fois . 1951: Nez de Cuir; “La Luxure,” an episode from Les Sept Péchés Capitaux . 1952: La Jeune Folle . 1953: Mam’zelle Nitouche; Les Orgueilleux . 1954: Oasis . 1955: La Meilleure Part . 1957: Méfiez-Vous Fillettes; Quand la Femme S’en Mêle . 1958: La Fille de Hambourg; L’Ambitieuse . 1960: Le Chien de Pique . 1962: Konga Yo . 1963: Germinal . 1967: Johnny Banco . 1970: L’Invasion . 1975: Orzowei . 1976: Mords Pas On T’Aime .
    The younger brother of Marc Allégret, Yves worked his way into directing quite slowly. He assisted his brother on Mam’zelle Nitouche (31) (which he remade in 1953 with Fernandel in the Raimu part) and Le Lac-aux-Dames (34). Yves also worked with Renoir on La Chienne (32) but spent most of the 1930s directing shorts or working as an art director. It was during the war that he began directing features, quickly establishing a Carné-like blend of naturalism and black poetry. The films were mannered, good looking, and well acted, especially those starring his wife, Simone Signoret— La Boîte aux Rêves, Dédée d’Anvers , and Manèges —but nothing prepares one for the achievement of Une Si Jolie Petite Plage , an indelible image of hell on earth, set in a wretched seaside town in winter, marvelously photographed by Henri Alekan and arguably Gérard Philipe’s finest study of romantic despair. The last scenes of that film are more chilling than any of Carné’s effects and immeasurably graver than the rest of Allégret.
    Joan Allen , b. Rochelle, Illinois, 1956
In person, Joan Allen is taller and prettier than you expect. On stage—especially in Burn This and The Heidi Chronicles —she has been a more expansive and compelling actress than film has admitted. And on the big screen, she is already one of our great supporting actresses, nearly automatically among the nominations, and a universal type whenever onlooking and long-suffering wives are involved. And, if you haven’t noticed, those are often the kind of wives that our movies seem to know best. Is this a modern reflection of the private lives of Hollywood executives, or a profound comment on American marriage? Whatever, it’s a limit that could be unfair to Ms. Allen—as witness the fact that Annette Bening got the “Joan Allen part” in American Beauty .
    She had been closely associated with Chicago’s Steppenwolf Company, and her movies amount to a textbook for acting classes: Compromising Positions (85, Frank Perry); the blind woman, superb in the scene with the tiger, in Manhunter (86, Michael Mann); Peggy Sue Got Married (86, Francis Coppola); Tucker (88, Coppola); In Country (89, Norman Jewison); a classic supportive wife,