SYNOPSIS
In June 1940, during the Dunkirk evacuation of Allied troops to England, French sergeant Julien Maillat and his men debate whether to evacuate to Britain or stay and fight the German troops that are closing-in from all directions.
CAST & CREW
Henri Verneuil
Director
Producer(s)
Robert Hakim, Raymond Hakim
Script
François Boyer, Robert Merle
Director of Photography
Henri Decaë
Production designer
Robert Clavel
Music by
Maurice Jarre
Edit
Claude Durand
Cast
Jean-Paul Belmondo, Catherine Spaak, Georges Géret
Production company(ies)
Paris Film Productions, Interopa Film
Henri Verneuil
(1920 - 2002) Director Henri Verneuil (Achod Malakian) was born in Rodosto, Turkey, and lived in France since 1924. It was at the tender age of 4 that he arrived with his family in Marseille, joining thousands of Armenians in fleeing the Turkish government's massacres of their people. After graduating from lycée in Aix-en-Provence he pursued a career in journalism, working as the editor-in-chief of the magazine Horizon in 1944 -1946. In 1945, under the pseudonym Henri Verneuil, he published several articles on the theme of the Armenian question in the journal Marseillaise. Since 1948, he worked in the film industry. He shot many short films with the participation of the famous comic Fernandel. In 1951, he directed his first full-length feature The Hunting Ground, for which he came to be known as one of the best French cinematographers. Hollywood signed contracts with Verneuil. He created more than 40 films in cooperation with Jean Gabin, Alain Delon, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Omar Sharif and others. He visited Armenia in 1980. Verneuil received an honorary César Award in 1996. At the end of his life he devoted his two final full-length features Mayrig and 588 Rue Paradis to his childhood and heritage.
Filmography
Escale au soleil (1947), Cuba à Monmartre (1948), Rhytmes de Paris (1948), Un juré bavard (1948), A la culotte de zouave (1949), A qui la bébé? (1949), Entre deux trains (1949), La Kermesse aux chansons (1949), Les nouveaux misérables (1949), Trente-troisième chambre (1949), Une journee avec Jacques Helian et son orchestre (1949), Pipe chien (1950), On demande un bandit (1950), Maldonne (1950), Les chansons s'envolent (1950), L'art d'être courtier (1950), La légende de Terre-Blanche (1950), La table-aux-Crevés/The Hunting Ground (1951), Brelan d’as/Full House (1952), Forbidden Fruit (1952), La boulanger de Valorgue/The Wild Oat (1953), Carnaval (1953), L’ennemi public no 1/The Most Wanted Man (1953), The Sheep Has Five Legs (1954), Les amants du Tage (1955), People of No Importance (1956), Paris, Palace Hôtel (1956), Une manche et la belle/A Kiss for a Killer (1957), Maxime (1958), Gangster Boss (1959), La vache et le prisonnier/The Cow and I (1959), L’affaire d’une nuit/It Happened All Night (1960), Love and the Frenchwoman (segment Adultery, 1960), The President (1961), The Lions Are Loose (1961), A Monkey in Winter (1962), Mélodie en sous-sol/Any Number Can Win (1963), Cent mille dollard au soleil/Greed in the Sun (1964), Week-end à Zuydcoote/Weekend at Dunkirk (1964), The 25th Hour (1967), La bataille de San Sebastian/Guns for San Sebastian (1968), The Sicilian Clan (1969), Le casse/The Burglars (1971), Le serpent/Night Flight from Moscow (1973), Fear over the City (1975), Body of My Enemy (1976), I as Icarus (1979), A Thousand Billion Dollars (1982), Les morfalous (1984), Mayrig (1991), 588 rue Paradis (1992).
