A single mother raises her son in impossible circumstances first in Leningrad, then Krakow, and then France, and is over-ambitious about him but never gives in.
11-25-1970
1h 42m
THIS
HELLA
Doesn't have an image right now... sorry!has no image... sorry!
Main Cast
Movie Details
Production Info
Director:
Jules Dassin
Writer:
Jules Dassin
Production:
Nathalie Productions
Key Crew
Producer:
Jules Dassin
Novel:
Romain Gary
Theatre Play:
Samuel A. Taylor
Production Design:
Alexandre Trauner
Locations and Languages
Country:
FR; US
Filming:
US; FR
Languages:
en
Main Cast
Melina Mercouri
Melina Mercouri (Greek: Μελίνα Μερκούρη), born as Maria Amalia Mercouri (October 18, 1920, Athens, Greece – March 6, 1994, New York City, New York) was a Greek actress, singer and politician.
As an actress she made her film debut in Stella (1955) and met international success with her performances in Never on Sunday, Phaedra, Topkapi and Promise at Dawn. She won the award for Best Actress at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival, and she was also nominated for an Academy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and two BAFTA Awards.
A political activist during the Greek military junta of 1967–1974, she became a member of the Hellenic Parliament in 1977 and the first female Minister for Culture of Greece in 1981. Mercouri was the person who, in 1983, conceived and proposed the programme of the European Capital of Culture, which has been established by the European Union since 1985.
She was a strong advocate for the return of the Parthenon Marbles, which were removed from the Parthenon and are now displayed in the British Museum, to Athens.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Melina Mercouri, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Didier Haudepin is a French actor, film producer, director, and screenwriter. He is most well known for his lead role in Les amitiés particulières, the film adaptation of the novel by Roger Peyrefitte.
Despoina "Despo" Diamantidou (Greek: Δέσπω Διαμαντίδου; 13 July 1916 – 18 February 2004) was a Greek actress. She appeared in more than seventy films from 1949 to 2003. She played Tatiana in Alan King's summer replacement sitcom, Ivan the Terrible starring Lou Jacobi, which aired on ABC from 21 August to 18 September 1976.
Source: Article "Despo Diamantidou" from Wikipedia in english, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Jean Martin (6 March 1922 - 2 February 2009) was a French actor. Coming from a Berry family, he spent part of his childhood in Biarritz, where his father worked for a furrier. During the Second World War, he hid to escape the Forced Labor Service. Staying in Paris, he appeared in two films by Maurice Tourneur: "The Devil's Hand" (1942) then "Cécile Est Mort" (1943). At the twilight of the forties, he started doing theater.
In 1953, Jean Martin gained notoriety by playing the new play by Irish playwright Samuel Beckett, "Waiting for Godot", under the direction of Roger Blin, becoming the first to take on the role of Lucky. The same Roger Blin produced “End of the Game” (1957), by the same Beckett, a few years later, and entrusted the same Jean Martin with the role of Clov. In 1960, Jean Martin staged his first play, “Letter Dead”, by Robert Pinget. In 1962, he again staged a play, “The Representatives”, by Aglaé and Mona Mitropoulos, adapted by Michel Arnaud. Alongside this theatrical career which would prove to be rich, Jean Martin returned to cinema: “Notre-Dame de Paris” (1956), by Jean Delannoy, “Paris belongs to us” (1958), by Jacques Rivette, “Ballade for a thug " (1962), by Jean-Claude Bonnardot, "La foire aux dunces" (1963), by Louis Daquin and "À toi de fait mignon" (1963), by Bernard Borderie.
In 1960, he was a signatory of the Manifesto of the 121 entitled “Declaration on the right to insubordination in the Algerian war”. In 1965, a role marked his career, that of Colonel Mathieu, in a film retracing the struggle in 1957 for control of the Casbah district of Algiers between FLN militants and French soldiers: "The Battle of Algiers" . Three years after the end of the Algerian War, the subject is still sensitive on each side of the Mediterranean; the film was banned in France upon its release, then censored until 2004. Jean Martin, very convincing in this role of division commander (historically, the commander is General Massu, but the character is inspired by Colonel Bigeard), is the only professional actor in the film. His large stature, his strong personality and his imperious face predispose him to notable roles generally showing authority: chief doctor, police commissioner, high-ranking military officer, ecclesiastical dignitary...; one of the most impressive will undoubtedly be that of a doctor vehemently expelling from his hospital a judge Fayard, Patrick Dewaere, a bit of a cavalier in "Le Juge Fayard Dit Le Shérif" (1976). Claude Zidi mocks these roles in his comedies: principal in “La moutarde monte au nose” (1974), bank director in “La Course À L'Échalote” (1975), chief doctor in “L'aile ou la thigh” (1976), principal inspector in “Bête mais disciplined” (1979) and examiner in “Inspecteur la Bavure” (1980). Alongside Jean-Paul Belmondo, he is… cardinal in “L’Hériter” (1972) and… divisional commissioner in “Peur Sur La ville” (1975)! But also alongside Terence Hill in “My Name is Nobody” (1973) in the role of Sullivan, or “One Genius, Two Associates, One Bell (1975).
After devoting a large part of his career to the theater, appearing in around fifty films, Jean Martin died on February 2, 2009, in Paris.
René Clermont (14 November 1921 – 24 October 1994) was a 20th-century French stage and film actor as well as a playwright.
Source: Article "René Clermont" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Julius "Jules" Dassin (December 18, 1911 – March 31, 2008) was an American film director, producer, writer and actor. He was a subject of the Hollywood blacklist in the McCarthy era, and subsequently moved to France, where he revived his career.
Dassin quickly became better known for his noir films Brute Force (1947), The Naked City (1948), and Thieves' Highway (1949), which helped him to become "one of the leading American filmmakers of the postwar era."
Dassin's most influential film was Rififi (1955), an early work in the "heist film" genre. It inspired later heist films, such as Ocean's Eleven (1960). Another piece it inspired was Dassin's own heist film Topkapi, filmed in France and Istanbul, Turkey with Melina Mercouri and Oscar winner Peter Ustinov.
Dassin said Darryl F. Zanuck in 1948 called him into his office to inform him he would be blacklisted, but he still had enough time to make a movie for Fox. Dassin was blacklisted in Hollywood during the production of Night and the City (1950). He was not allowed on the studio property to edit or oversee the musical score for the film. He also had trouble finding work abroad, as U.S. distribution companies blacklisted the U.S. distribution of any European film associated with artists blacklisted in Hollywood. In 1952, after Dassin had been out of work for two years, actress Bette Davis hired him to direct her in the Broadway revue Two's Company. The show closed early, however, and Dassin left for Europe. Dassin did not work as a film director again until Rififi in 1954 (a French production). Most of Dassin's films in the decades following the blacklist are European productions. His prolific later career in Europe and the affiliation with Greece through his second wife, combined with a common pronunciation of his surname as "Da-SAN" in Europe, as opposed to "DASS-in" in the United States leads to a common misconception that he was a European director.
Dennis Charles Berry was an American-French film director, actor, and screenwriter. He was the son of director John Berry. Berry was born on August 11, 1944 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA. He was a director and actor, known for Last Song (1987), Stargate SG-1 (1997) and Highlander (1992). He was married to Anna Karina and Jean Seberg. He died on June 12, 2021 in Paris, France.
Van Doude was born on May 28, 1926 in Haarlem, Noord-Holland, Netherlands. He was an actor, known for Love in the Afternoon (1957), Breathless (1960) and The Day of the Jackal (1973). He was married to Alberte Robert. He died on August 18, 2018 in Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France.
Charles Millot (born Veljko Milojević; 23 December 1921 – 6 October 2003) was a Yugoslav-born French actor who made many film appearances over a 35-year period.
His notable film appearances include: The Train (1964), The Night of the Generals (1967), Waterloo (1970) as Marquis de Grouchy, French Connection II (1975), The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988) and Eye of the Widow (1991). He died aged 81 on 6 October 2003 in Paris, France.
Source: Article "Charles Millot" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Rufus (born 19 December 1942; Riom, Puy-de-Dôme) is the stage name of French actor Jacques Narcy. He is best known by the international film audience for his performance as Raphaël, the father of Amélie Poulain in Amélie (2001). He has appeared in numerous French TV series and productions, including most of the films directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. He had the lead role in the movie Train de vie (1998), an award-winning tragicomedy about the Holocaust.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Rufus (actor), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Katia Tchenko (born 8 May 1947) is a French actress. She has appeared in more than 100 films and television shows since 1967. In 1999 she was a member of the jury at the 21st Moscow International Film Festival.
Source: Article "Katia Tchenko" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Dominique Zardi (born Emile Jean Cohen-Zardi) (2 March 1930, Paris – 13 December 2009) was a French actor. He acted in more than 200 feature films, including Fantômas with Louis De Funès and Jean Marais. He died of cancer at the age of 79. He was the uncle of the actress and film director Agnès Jaoui.
Source: Article "Dominique Zardi" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
