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Beauties of the Night
(1952)
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Title: Beauties of the Night (1952)
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Cast
| Complete credited cast: | |||
| Gérard Philipe | ... |
Claude - un jeune compositeur rêveur
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Martine Carol | ... |
Edmée 1900 /
Edmée de Villebois
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| Gina Lollobrigida | ... |
La caissière du Grand Café /
Leïla 1830
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Magali Vendeuil | ... |
Suzanne - la fille du garagiste /
Suzanne 1789
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Marilyn Buferd | ... |
La postière /
Madame Bonacieux
(as Marylin Bufferd)
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Raymond Bussières | ... |
Roger - le garagiste /
le tambour
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Raymond Cordy | ... |
Gaston /
Le marquis
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Bernard La Jarrige | ... |
Léon - le gendarme
(as Bernard Lajarrige)
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Albert Michel | ... |
Le facteur /
Un révolutionnaire
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Palau | ... |
Le vieux monsieur qui critique toutes les époques
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Jean Parédès | ... |
Paul - le pharmacien
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Paolo Stoppa | ... |
Le directeur de l'Opéra
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| Rest of cast listed alphabetically: | |||
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Le Choeur Marguerite Mercier | ... |
Les choristes
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Claire Guibert | ... |
La caissière du Grand Café /
Leïla
(voice)
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Plot Summary
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Storyline
Young Claude, teacher by day, is a struggling composer by night. Alas, everyone around him seems to prefer noise to music. But in his dreams, he lives in other eras where he is appreciated, lionized, and the conquerer of delicious women (idealized forms of women he's seen in waking life). The dreams are suitably dreamlike, yet have a kind of reality, for he revisits them after waking. The conflict between waking and dream worlds leads to amusing, strange, even fantastic situations. Which world will prevail? Written by Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>
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Details
Language:
FrenchRelease Date:
April 1954 (USA) See more »Also Known As:
Beauties of the Night See more »Filming Locations:
Studios de Boulogne-Billancourt/SFP - 2 Rue de Silly, Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, FranceCompany Credits
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I have been puzzled by some of the other comments so I am adding one of my own. I think your reaction to this movie comes down to two words: fantasy and charm. It is a fantasy, and it has a very great deal of charm. If those appeals to you, you will enjoy this movie immensely as I did. If they don't, well the movie is so good you will probably still like it anyway.
I rated this film a 10 because I couldn't find a thing not to like. Gerard Philipe is charming (that word again) and appealing. All the women are gorgeous. The supporting cast is excellent. And since Phillip's character Claude is an aspiring composer there is a great deal of beautiful music in his dreams.
What I noticed especially about the film was how Clair kept inventing ways to keep the idea fresh. You might think that a movie which basically shows a man's dreams would fun out of steam pretty fast but Clair is clever enough to keep it fresh and entertaining. For example, Claude constantly says that all he wants to do is sleep--and given his dreams, who wouldn't--and his friends interpret this as expressing a desire to commit suicide! So the efforts of his friends to prevent his "suicide" throws a new wrinkle into the story.
My only complaint with the VHS version I saw were the English subtitles. First, they were in white, so that anytime they were in front of a white background you didn't know what the speaker was saying. And second, even though I don's speak French I am sure that the English subtitles came nowhere near doing justice to the original French dialog.
This is a worthy candidate for a Criterion DVD. An unhesitant 10 out of 10.