Yves Allégret

Manèges

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Robert, in shadow, with Dora

Manège is the French word for a riding school. One features centrally in Manèges (aka The Cheat), a superbly unpleasant French movie from 1949. It’s also the word for merry-go-round – worth remembering as this tale about a cuckold being given the absolute runaround plays out. The casting is bang-on perfect. Bernard Blier as Robert, the pudgy, middle-aged owner of a riding school who has married vampish Dora (Simone Signoret) because she’s hot as hell, unaware that Dora’s mother (Jane Marken) has engineered the marriage for reasons of her own. The story plays out in flashback, from the hospital where Dora lies mortally injured after a terrible accident. While Robert twists his knuckles … Read more

Riptide aka Une Si Jolie Petite Plage

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Pierre at his hotel room window

Seedy atmosphere is Riptide‘s USP. So seedy is it, in fact, that when Une Si Jolie Petite Plage (its original title) debuted in 1949 it was felt necessary to add a little disclaimer up front for French audiences in an attempt to head off complaints. The makers of the film meant no offence to war orphans, it says (in so many words), they are the victims here and do not deserve their bad reputation. Tiny data dump. War orphans lived in state-run orphanages and were often loaned out to local businesses, where they’d work for little or no money. Often horribly exploited, they did the dirty work, in every sense of the word. … Read more