Les orgueilleux (1953)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Directors:

Yves Allégret
Rafael E. Portas (co-director)

Writers:

Yves Allégret (adaptation)
Jean Aurenche (scenario and dialogue)

Release Date:

25 November 1953 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Strips Bare of Prim Morality a Side of Love That Women Won't Admit - Even to Themselves!

Plot:

The first to die in an epidemic of meningitis in Vera Cruz is a French tourist. His wife Nellie, detached and indifferent...

Plot Keywords:

Tourist | Brothel | Meningitis | Prostitute | Drunkenness

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Michèle Morgan	...	Nellie
Gérard Philipe	...	Georges
Carlos López Moctezuma	...	Doctor
Michèle Cordoue	...	Anna
André Toffel	...	Tom
Arturo Soto Rangel
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Josefina Escobedo
Jaime Fernández
Chel López
Víctor Manuel Mendoza	...	Don Rodrigo
Lucrecia Muñoz
Beatriz Ramos
Guillermo Segura
Salvador Terroba

Also Known As:

The Proud Ones
The Proud and the Beautiful

Runtime:

103 min | Mexico:97 min

Country:

France | Mexico

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Alvarado, Veracruz, Mexico

Company:

Chrysage Films

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Le ballon rouge (1956)

Philipe and Morgan: You'll never see their likes again!

`Les Orgueilleux' is one of a constellation of worthy French movies of this era that the French stopped making for two reasons: the complete lobotomy of the intellect that was the so-called New Wave and the premature death of Gérard Philipe, one of the century's finest actors. His pairing with Michèle Morgan here is inspired. (They also starred in René Clair's `Les Grandes Manoeuvres'.) In order to describe Philipe's charm, one has to evoke equal parts Leonardo DiCaprio and Laurence Olivier and imagine them cast as romantic leads in the kind of challenging narrative that is not even conceivable today, except for the odd exception. `Les Orgueilleux' is set during a typhus epidemic in a remote Mexican village and is based on Jean-Paul Sartre's novel `L'Amour rédempteur' (`Redeemed by Love', aka `Typhus'). The oversimplification of the novel's themes is compensated by Allégret's penchant for realism and his attention to details, like the long scene of Morgan enduring the discomfort and perils of a lonely hotel room during a heat wave in a third rate Mexican hotel, which is part striptease (daring for the time) and part psychological analysis. In other words, a perfect blend of commercialism and intelligence, both qualities sadly lacking from the aforementioned so-called New Wave.