Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Elena et les Hommes

I am watching An American In Paris right now with Sarah's parents, Susan and Claude. This movie is a fantastic post war musical. It's full of familiar tunes, Gene Kelly dances and Leslie Caron appears for the first time on the big screen. This film is directed by Vincent Minnelli and won 7 oscars.
Now onto the Ingrid connection:
I want to mention a 1956 Jean Renoir film that Ingrid starred in, Elena et les Hommes or Elena and Her Men. I love this film. It is constant hilarity. Ingrid co-stars with Mel Ferrer (Audrey Hepburn's husband at the time) and it is a must see.

I bring this up because it too takes place in France. It was actually shot in France toward the end of Ingrid's "Rossellini period"...if we want to call it that. Audrey Hepburn was starring in Funny Face at the same time. She actually required that the scenes in Paris be shot while her husband was shooting his film so they could be together.

Though Ingrid had no affiliation with An American In Paris or the studios in the States at the time, she later had an affiliation with Vincent Minnelli. Ingrid starred in (the less than successful) A Matter of Time with Liza Minnelli. Isabella Rossellini also makes an appearance in this film! The story apparently did not carry well and it was eventually looked as Ingrid's excuse to hang out with her daughters (Ingrid Rossellini did Ingrid Bergman's makeup for this film).

I have only seen snip-its of A Matter of Time and some of them were in Italian, but I hope to see it in its entirety some day.

Just thought I'd link some of my classic film watching to Ingrid--of course! It's kind of like 6 degrees of separation--just 6 degrees of Ingrid. Lol

I suggest you check out Elena et Les Hommes and if you find A Matter of Time, please let me know where to get my grubby-Bergman-lovin'- fan-hands on it! :)

2 comments:

Kinga said...

Alexis,

I have A Matter of Time. It's on DVD but it's a copy of a VHS. If you want, I can make a copy of it for you. Or you can buy it (as I did) from ioffer.com So, if you want me to make the copy, send me an e-mail, OK?

Sorry to say this, but I didn't like Elena et les Hommes very much. Maybe because it's in French and, well... my French is far from perfect. I found this movie a big chaos, LOL!

Alexis said...

OMG! I would LOVE a copy!!!
Let me know how you want to exchange it and I'll make it happen! You rock!! :)

About Me

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An avid Ingrid Bergman fan, I am a student of her life and work as well as film, filmmaking and Classic Film in general. I have my M.F.A. in TV/Film Production from USC School of Cinematic Arts and have been making a living in the business they call show. Feel free to follow me on Twitter @alexis_morrell