France
, 90 min
Shown in 1981
CREDITS
- dir
-
Claire Clouzot
- scr
-
Claire Clouzot
- cam
-
Jean Monsigny
- cast
-
Richard Berry, Francoise Lebrun, Didier Sauvegrain, Catherine Cauwet, Sandrine Kljajic, Louise Latraverse
- prod co
-
Link; Antenne 2
OTHER
Claire Clouzot is well-acquainted with America and with this festival, for she attended Stanford University, studying cinema and was a part of the cinema world of the Bay Area, as critic, translator and interpreter for Jean-Luc Godard on his first visit to California and numerous colleges in the United States. Upon returning to Paris, she immediately began teaching and writing film criticism for specialized publications and, since 1977, she has been the film critic for the journal, Le Matin. She has written two cinema studies, The French Cinema Since “La Nouvelle Vogue” (1972) and The Autobiography of Alice Guy (1978, in collaboration with Nicole-Lise Bernheim). Miss Clouzot has also worked on film productions directed by Agnes Varda, Claude Lelouch and Laurent Heynemann. With the aid of a grant, she was able to write the scenario for her first feature, L’Homme Fragile, which was eventually helped to completion by an independent producer, Andre de Blanzy. The film is inspired by the director’s belief that the generation of people today between the ages of 30-40 are unable to say “I love you,” and mean it; they are not involved with one another completely. The men are afraid of “feminism,” and they might pursue a relationship, say, with the child of a first marriage rather than fall in love with another woman. Henri, the divorced father of young Katia, calls his daughter, “the woman of my life.” Therefore, his casual involvement with Cecile, a coworker on the morning newpaper, L’Espoir, is the act of a romantic narcissist, who only dreams of rediscovering passion. L’Homme Fragile is a study of a man surrounded by women who are not certain that he may be Mr. Wrong. It is also a very personal film for the director who has observed Henri’s type and describes him perceptively. In making her first feature, Claire Clouzot fulfills a lifelong obsession with the spectator and performer and, moving forward, to dramatize the ways of men and women with profound sensitivity and honesty.
—Albert Johnson
FACTOID #35
The first film retrospective accompanying a tribute at the Festival was a Tribute to Warner Bros., featuring Jack L. Warner in person, October 26, 1966.
