
Acting
Maurice Baquet
Born 1911-05-26 · Villefranche-sur-Saône, Rhône, France
Maurice Baquet is a cellist, actor, sportsman and French entertainer, born May 26, 1911 in Villefranche-sur-Saône and died July 8, 2005 in Noisy-le-Grand. Maurice Baquet was married twice: with Jacqueline Figus (1920-2011) from October 31, 1944 to June 20, 1959, with whom they had a daughter, Sophie, and with Maria Yakimova from February 20, 1964 until her death. The couple had four children: Anne, Gregori. All of them, as well as Sophie, born from her first marriage, are actors and singers — Stéphane, light designer and Dimitri, show producer. ... A native of Beaujolais, he took cello lessons at the Lyon conservatory and then those in Paris where he was in the same class as Henri Betti, Paul Bonneau, Léo Chauliac, Henri Dutilleux, Louiguy, Pierre Spiers and Raymond Trouard and where he won first prize. This did not prevent him from failing the entrance examination for the orchestra of the Paris Opera, which motivated him to give up a classical career. However, he does not leave his cello behind. On the contrary, the instrument accompanies him throughout his life and we remember the wink that Joseph Losey allowed him during a short but moving sequence in Monsieur Klein. In the early 1930s, he rubbed shoulders with Pierre and Jacques Prévert, Roger Blin and joined the famous October Group, an agitprop group, closely linked to the French Communist Party. He set up his career as an actor there and devoted himself to beautiful texts, in particular the poems of Aragon and Paul Éluard. In 1935, he made his first feature film under the direction of Marc Allégret, Les Beaux Jours. A filmography of more than 80 titles follows. His head as a resourceful and facetious kid also earned him the role of Bibi Fricotin, then that of Ribouldingue in two films by Marcel Aboulker. At the theater, he plays in the operettas Andalousie and Gipsy by Francis Lopez. He also performed at the cabaret, sometimes accompanied on tap dance by Jacqueline Figus, his wife since 1944. He also participated in ski mountaineering competitions, as well as more humorous performances, such as his ski descent from the stairs of the Butte Montmartre in 1946. In the same vein, he also skied down the stairs from the Maison de la Radio, following a bet. In 1947, he presented with the whimsical Saint-Granier a bicycle-ski allowing to go down the slopes. Friend of Roger Frison-Roche, we find him in the credits of Premier de cordée (1944). In 1955, he co-directed Stars and Tempests with Gaston Rébuffat and Georges Tairraz, which won the Grand Prix at the Trente Festival. On July 13, 1956, he made the first ascent of the south-east face of the Aiguille du Midi in Chamonix with Gaston Rébuffat, sequences of which can be seen in Entre terre et ciel. He was also a friend of Robert Doisneau, who photographed him extensively6 and with whom he produced a work entitled Ballade pour violoncelle et chambre noire, which testifies to their friendship. He died at the age of 94 and is buried in the cemetery of Beauregard (Ain).
Acting credits
4.8In the summer of 1939, 13-year-old Marie goes with her parents to visit her grandparents in a small town near Avignon. Marie discovers her femininity and falls for a young Jewish doctor, but he prefers Eva, Marie's mother.
The Adolescent
1979
7.2Paris, France, 1942, during the Nazi occupation. Robert Klein, a successful art dealer who benefits from the misfortunes of those who are ruthlessly persecuted, discovers by chance that there is another Robert Klein, apparently a Jewish man; someone with whom he could be mistakenly identified, something dangerous in such harsh times.
Mr. Klein
1976
7.8A prominent politician is murdered during a demonstration. The government and army are trying to suppress the truth, but a tenacious magistrate is determined not to let them get away with it.
Z
1969
7.3Captain Justin Mollenard works for a company that sells armaments to the Far East. After an eventful stay in Shanghai, where he and his cargo are the victim of a malicious attack, he returns to his hometown of Dunkirk. Mollenard receives a frosty welcome from his wife Mathilde, who resents the way in which he has neglected his family for so many years. Mollenard’s only wish is to get back to sea as soon as he can, but a sudden heart-attack leaves him paralysed and entirely in his wife’s power...
Hatred
1938
2.0We thought we'd seen, read, and heard everything there was to see about the Cannes Film Festival, from the glitz and gossip to the scandals and censorship. And yet, Emmanuel Barnault's "Morceaux de Cannes" (Pieces of Cannes), by this leading expert on Italian and French cinema, convinces us otherwise. The third largest event in the world (after the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup) reveals its secrets only sparingly, as this film attests. The result of passionate research in the INA archives, these 52 minutes, without interviews or voice-over narration, string together rare and sometimes previously unseen footage. Taken together, they tell a surprising, original, and heartwarming story of the Festival. On the beach, on a street corner, in a restaurant, or in the privacy of a hotel room, these forgotten archives summon the greatest filmmakers, actors, and actresses of the last seventy years, from Jean Cocteau to David Lynch, for an anthology of the Festival's history.
Morceaux de Cannes
2021
10.0In 1984, climbing virtuoso Patrick Berhault gave a night climbing demonstration with Nico Ivaldo in Finale Ligure, Italy. This close and spontaneous connection with the audience, the silence followed by the cheers of the crowd with each move, amplified the climbers' sensations, creating a powerful feeling that gave them a state of flow. This idea of climbing dance took root and culminated in the film "Star Climber," composed of parodic vignettes retracing the history of climbing through the ages. Berhault, by turns a Cro-Magnon man, a Zulu in a trance, a troubadour climber accompanied on the flute by Catherine Destivelle, a Buster Keaton trying to climb his beautiful woman's wall, as Blues Brothers, Berhault and Robert Cortijo push the dial on rock 'n' roll 10 meters above the ground solo on the facade of a building at the crossroads of West Side Story and a Terry Gilliam film.
Grimpeur Étoile
1989
6.8The climbing of an immense staircase made up of the most varied stairs. Symbolic scenes occur on different levels where characters seem to be prisoners of their deeds and of their own folly. The steep staircase leads little by little towards the zones of great light where human beings and nonhuman beings meet.
The Angel
1982
6.7Albert, a sound engineer who is chronically hesitant successively meets three charming young women who will, each in their own way, provoke and help him to get a better hold of himself.
Only God Sees Me
1998
7.8After a missed burglary, deux young cads take refuge in a retiring-pension sowing terror. On the call of one of the pensioners, the police catch them. But some of the old people are puzzled by their situation and decide to ask about them...
Roulez jeunesse !
1993
5.4The basic premise: A retired bus driver fulfills his lifelong dream of providing an extended "voyage surprise" (the title is translated as "Mystery Tour") for unsuspecting vacationers. They soon realize, while riding in the old man's home-made bus, that he hasn't bothered to plan any kind of itinerary. As a result, they end up in completely preposterous situations, of course. Voyage surprise!
Mystery Tour
1947
4.1A notorious French madam, whose business serves many of the nation's most powerful individuals, plans to go international until she becomes the focus of media scrutiny.
Madame Claude 2
1981
7.2Inhabitants of a flophouse struggle to survive under the harsh treatment imposed by the landlord, Kostyleva. One resident, young thief Wasska Pepel, ends his affair with the landlord's wife, Vassilissa, and takes up with her sister, Natacha. Pepel also befriends the baron, a former nobleman fallen on hard times, but Pepel's attempts at happiness are complicated when he's accused of murder by a spiteful Vassilissa.
The Lower Depths
1936
10.0A young boy commits a simple act of theft that sends his quiet town into a frenzy over the course of one unforgettable summer. Eleven year old Petit Jean has two uncles: His kindly Uncle Arthur is a good neighbor and law-abiding citizen, but Arthur's brother Andre is a notorious thief. When Andre is arrested for stealing chickens, he denies any wrongdoing yet winds up in jail regardless - the unfortunate victim of his own his bad reputation. Meanwhile, on the outside, the townspeople remain split over the decision to pin the crime on Andre despite the notable lack of evidence. Little do they realize that Jean Petite is the real thief, because he's not talking.
La Braconne
1993
5.8Paul Martin and François Leroux are brothers-in-law and comics without fame. One day, the famous television comics, Gaëtan, finds himself in the little theater where Paul and François produce themselves under the name of "Gagsters".
Les Rois du gag
1985
10.0A fascinating chronology of 100 years of mountain film history in the Alps. This documentary focuses primarily on films shot on the Matterhorn, the Eiger, and the Grandes Jorasses, considered until the 1930s as the "last problems of the Alps," and shows the evolution of mountain filmmaking through numerous excerpts from documentaries and feature films – notably on the Matterhorn in 1901. The genre, appropriated as a means of mass exaltation by "fascist" regimes during the Second World War, was reinvented in the 1950s by Gaston Rebuffat, Marcel Ichac, and Lionel Terray in the Mont Blanc massif, avant-garde figures of French mountain cinema, who reintroduced, beyond performance, the values of the mountains – and in color – poetry, humor, and sharing among people from all walks of life.
Faszination Bergfilm - Himmelhoch und Abgrundtief
2008
3.9A bumbling film crew attempts to make a porno movie.
Let's Make a Dirty Movie
1976
6.6Paris, 1937. Winckler kills his enemy Gordon, a Chicago mobster, from the stage of a Parisian music hall, where he performs telepathy. He pays another artist, Helene, so that she tells the police they've spent the night together, which doesn't fool Callas, the police officer who investigates the murder. He hires one of his fellow officers in order to seduce Helene.
Alibi
1937
6.8Lucien Bourrache, a good looking non-commissioned officer at the Spahis, is used to charm many women. He met Madeleine Courtois at Cannes. She is beautiful and lives in luxury. He lends her a large amount of money, which she loses gambling. Then she drops him. But Lucien is now in love, and once demobilized, he goes to Paris to find her again. But he's not so sexy without his uniform, and Madeleine and him do not belong to the same milieu.
Lady Killer
1937
7.0Leaving the station after having caught the last Paris Metro, a man comes to the rescue of a woman who is being assaulted and finds himself drawn into her affairs.
The Last Metro
1945
4.8Georges Le Roi lives odd jobs and shares his life between two girlfriends. One day, he falls in love with Sophie and records a message of love. The tape is mistakenly broadcast in the company. In the face of success, Sophie founded the company Tell me about love and spread the messages of Georges, who soon became a sex symbol.
Le Roi des cons
1981
6.2A small child, fascinated by a lighter-than-air balloon, clambers aboard. The balloon takes flight, lifting the child upward to an amazing adventure. The land-bound adults have conniptions as the balloon wafts by; the child has nothing more than a great time.
Stowaway in the Sky
1960
10.0This is Gaston Rebuffat's fourth film, in which, with several close friends, he discovers the sublime landscapes of the Alps. “Mont-Blanc is beautiful. I climbed it several times depending on the time, the color of the sky and the shape of the cornices and ridges. Because of the weather and also because of this feeling of altitude, Mont-Blanc provides great pleasure. For the guide, Mont Blanc is his garden, but the garden becomes more beautiful when shown to a friend. Personally, I really like the bivouacs; only there one penetrates a little the mystery of the altitude. That's why I immediately accepted when Tazieff expressed the desire to spend the night at the top of Mont Blanc in an igloo. The film won the Grand Prix at the Trento Film Festival in 1961.
Entre Terre et Ciel
1961
8.5Part one of a BBC documentary about Jean Renoir.
Jean Renoir: Part One - From La Belle Époque to World War II
1993
7.1Mild-mannered novelist of Western fiction, Amédée Lange, and his colleagues take over a publishing house after their exploitative boss disappears, only for the superior to return and try to reclaim the profits from their successful cooperative.
The Crime of Monsieur Lange
1936