H.G. Clouzot’s Unforgettable ‘Manon’ Revived

Along with H. G. Clouzot’s more frequently revived “The Wages of Fear” (1953), the New Beverly Cinema on Wednesday and Thursday will be playing Clouzot’s unforgettable 1949 adaptation of Abbe Prevost’s 1731 novel “Manon Lescaut,” titled “Manon” here.

It was Clouzot’s inspired notion to set Prevost’s tale of an all-consuming passion against the final days of World War II and the early postwar era, which enables us to see the actions of his tempestuous lovers (Cecile Aubry, Michel Auclair) as a reflection of the moral chaos of the times. Thanks to Aubry’s shady brother (Serge Reggiani), they are very rapidly caught up in the undertow of the just-liberated City of Lights filled with American soldiers ripe for picking by prostitutes and black marketeers.

It has been claimed that Aubry and Auclair become the least sympathetic lovers in the history of the French cinema, but actually what makes the film so potent is that Clouzot enables us to care about them while neither judging nor excusing them.

Information: (213) 938-4038.

‘Points’ to Make: The UCLA Film and Television Archive, in association with Sony Pictures Entertainment, will present “Turning Points: Columbia Pictures and the Social Film,” Sept. 25-Dec. 12 in UCLA’s Melnitz Theater. This 35-film retrospective, spanning six decades, will be divided into eight categories boasting such titles as “Politics, Populism and the Crisis of Confidence” and “Violence in America: Modernity in Its Discontents.” It’s a relief to recall, when confronted with such daunting academic categorizing, that Columbia’s legendary Harry Cohn was famous for asserting that he judged a movie’s success on whether or not his fanny squirmed while watching it.

The opening-night attraction, screening at 7:30, is appropriately Frank Capra’s “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” (1939), which has been newly restored by the Library of Congress. It is only fitting that the series be launched by the director who more than any other lifted Columbia out of its Poverty Row status; what’s more, there’s a certain timeliness in seeing James Stewart’s idealistic filibustering senator in the midst of a no-holds barred presidential campaign. Saturday at 7:30 p.m. brings another Capra classic, “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town” (1936), starring Gary Cooper as a hick who inherits $20 million.

Following “Mr. Deeds” is the least-familiar of the weekend’s offerings, “The Whole Town’s Talking” (1935), which has much of the feel of a Frank Capra film but was in fact directed by John Ford. Although far too talky for its own good--something that, ironically, Ford disliked in films--it remains a pleasure to watch because of Edward G. Robinson in a dual role as a milquetoast clerk mistaken for a notorious gangster.

What a marvelous, complete actor Robinson was, clearly taking pleasure in sharply delineating two very different men with very different modes of speech and demeanor but whose lives become so enmeshed that eventually it becomes hard to tell them apart. Jean Arthur is on hand all too briefly as a breezy, wisecracking career girl, creating an image she would soon develop further in “Mr. Deeds” and “Mr. Smith.”

The weekend’s concluding offering teams “Cover Girl” (1944), the film that established Rita Hayworth as the screen’s Technicolor “love goddess,” with “The Goddess” (1958), in which Kim Stanley plays a Monroe-like star.

Information: (310) 206-FILM, 206-8013.