
Elvira Popescu
Actor · 1894 – 1993 · Bucarest, Romania
Elvira Popescu (10 May 1894 – 11 December 1993) was a Romanian-French stage and film actress and theatre director. During the 1930s and 1940s, she starred in a number of French comedy films. Born in Bucharest, Popescu studied drama at the Music and Drama Conservatory in her native city, under the guidance of Constantin Nottara and Aristizza Romanescu. In 1911 Grigore Brezeanu was making the first Romanian films to deal with fiction. He employed Popesco as well as other leading actors like Nottara and Romanescu. The first two films were called "Fatal Love" and "Spin a Yarn". No copies are known of these films. Popesco made her debut at the National Theatre Bucharest at age 16. In 1912, she played herself in the movie Independența României, directed by Aristide Demetriade. In 1919 she became artistic director of the Excelsior Theatre. In 1921, Popescu started Teatrul Mic, which she managed in parallel with the Excelsior. In 1923, she starred in the movie Ţigăncuşa de la iatac, directed by Alfred Halm. At the urging of Louis Verneuil, the French playwright, Popescu moved in 1924 to Paris. Under Verneuil's direction, she played the leading role in Ma Cousine de Varsovie, at the Théâtre Michel (1923). She also played in Tovaritch (1933), La Machine infernale (1954), Nina (1949), and La Mamma (1957). Later on, she was director of Théâtre de Paris (1956–1965), and Théâtre Marigny (1965–1978).[5] At age 84, she played again in La Mamma. Elvira Popescu also played in movies, such as La Présidente (Fernand Rivers, 1938), Tricoche et Cacolet (Pierre Colombier, 1938), Ils étaient neuf célibataires (Sacha Guitry, 1939), Paradis perdu (Abel Gance, 1940), Austerlitz (Abel Gance, 1960),[6] and Purple Noon (René Clément, 1960). Shortly after her debut in 1910, Popescu married comedian Aurel Athanasescu and they had a daughter named Tatiana. After a few years, she divorced, and married Ion Manolescu-Strunga, Minister of Industry and Commerce (who was to die in Sighet prison in the 1950s). Her third husband was Count Maximilien Sébastien Foy (born in Paris on 17 April 1900, died in Neuilly-sur-Seine on 11 November 1967). She died in Paris at age 99, and was interred at Père Lachaise Cemetery. Source: Article "Elvira Popescu" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Movies24
Movie7.6CrimeDramaTom Ripley is a talented mimic, moocher, forger and all-around criminal improviser; but there's more to Tom Ripley than even he can guess.
Movie6.6DramaHistoryNapoleon Bonaparte crowns himself emperor and fights the English, Austrians and Russians in 1802.
Austerlitz
1960 · 42 votes
MovieComedyLa Mamma
1966
Movie10.0DramaIn a luxury hotel, a gathering of foreign high society people attend a wedding lunch. By the end of the feast a dramatic turn of events occurs : on the time of leaving the groom realizes that his newly married wife has... disappeared ! One morning, some time later, he meets her again at the Bois de Boulogne. She tells him everything about her strange attitude: she needed to be married to be able to have access to her husband's money. With this money, she managed to avenge her mother.
Movie7.0ComedyDora Nelson, a famous actress, leaves both her husband Philippe de Moreuil and the role she was playing in a movie directed by Nivert, to follow her lover Santini in Italy. But she soon realizes that Santini deceives her with a girl named Elsa. In vexation she decides to return to her husband and to her career. Unfortunately for her, Suzanne Verdier, a little working girl, has in the meantime replaced her not only in the film she had left unfinished but in her husband's heart as well. Dora eventually understands she must step aside.
Dora Nelson
1935 · 1 votes
Movie10.0ComedyLa Voyante
1972 · 1 votes
Movie6.0ComedyIn the village of Sableuse, the local manor has been bought out by a nouveau riche, Emile Cousinet. When his wife Lisette, a former music hall actress, flees to Paris with young Pierre de Sableuse, Cousinet asks Father Pellegrin, the village vicar, to bring the lost sheep back home.
Mon curé chez les riches
1938 · 2 votes
Movie6.4WarDramaIn pre-World Ward I in Paris, a budding artist, Pierre LeBlanc, falls in love and marries Janine, a dressmaker's assistant. Pierre has a flair for designing clothes, and he and his bride live in a blissful paradise, until the war breaks out and he becomes a soldier. Janine dies in childbirth and, no longer desiring to live, Pierre volunteers for a dangerous patrol behind German lines. While recuperating in the hospital from a wound he received on the mission, Pierre spends his time drawing sketches of dresses. He becomes rich and famous after the war. Years later, after devoting himself to his daughter, Pierre seeks a marriage with a girl no older than his daughter. A conflict develops and to ensure his daughter's happiness, Pierre sacrifices his own plans.
Movie7.7ComedyTwo friends, Tricoche and Cacolet, are partners in a detective agency. Chance has it that Cacolet is hired by Van der Pouf, a rich banker who wants him to watch over his wife Bernardine while the latter, on her part, seeks the services of Thicoche.
Movie10.0Eusèbe Bonbonneau, a solicitor's clerk, learns one day that a candidate bearing his name runs for election as a member of parliament. In fact Frazier, a crooked businessman, has urged an accomplice to impersonate Eusèbe, in order to obtain, through this straw man, authorizations for the creation of a casino in Sanceau-les-Nains and to make big money out of it. Eusébe decides to go to Paris to investigate. In the capital he meets Mariska, an exuberant actress who encourages him to try to get elected. As a result, thanks to her the true Bonbonneau becomes a member of parliament and the crook's accomplice is arrested. But Frazier is not impressed and, changing tactics, he starts manipulating Eusèbe.
Movie6.7ComedyJules Vachon, a pharmacist, has two sons, Gabriel, a steady-minded young man dedicated to his job in the pharmacy, and Gaston, a good for nothing whose only talent is to seduce rich women and take money from their pockets. But it is Gaston who is hailed as a great man when he returns to his native village thanks to his deep pockets.
Movie8.0ComedyKing John IV of Cerdania, who knows monarchs are a vanishing race but who plays his royalty role in state council or boudoir to the hilt, is in Paris to sign a treaty, and becomes enmeshed in intrigue with an actress, Therese Mannix and involved in a bit of cuckoldry with YouYou Bourdier, the ex-seamstress wife of a French senator, who is un-awed by money, power or the King's kisses. For his part, her husband, Senator Bourdier, is glad to use his wealth, wife and collectivist ideals for social position, in spite of his democratic posing.
Movie8.0ComedyVéra, a vivacious woman, and her alleged brother Boris, are both hired by the Dubelairs as their chambermaid and caretaker. But Dubelair has done bad business while his wife Juliette plays at the races and... loses ! So when it comes to paying their domestics wages, Dubelair gives them lottery tickets. Chance has it that one of them is winning...!
L'âge d'or
1942 · 1 votes
Movie7.0RomanceA melodrama set in the mid-19th century, adaptation of the story of the same name by Radu Rosetti. The plot of the movie is based on a nobleman's love for a gypsy girl, a maid in his house.
Tigancusa de la iatac
1923 · 2 votes
Movie10.0ComedyA man of integrity, Monsieur Pic is the accountant beyond reproach of the Banque Universelle. He would not dream of doing anything wrong and everybody knows it. He is therefore justly indignant when a wealthy woman offers him the position of administrator in the whorehouse she is opening soon. But only fools never change their minds and if Monsieur Pic finally accepts the position in the house across the Banque Universelle, he has three good reasons for that: first he does not get the promotion he deserved ; second, his son Albert is hired by Madame Anna as a decorator ; third, Hortense, his daughter has expressed the wish to "work" there too. The good point is that, once in the place, Pic will be rewarded for what he is worth. Even more important, the unfortunate father will be able there to keep a close eye on his two wayward children and protect them from temptation.
Movie5.5ComedyMortal is ready to do anything to obtain a divorce from his wife Nadia. To compromise her, he needs to find her a lover. He thinks he has found the ideal candidate in the person of a manly private detective by the name of Robert Arnaud. But the experience gets out of Mortal's control as, on the one hand, Robert and Nadia fall in love for good, and, on the other hand, Robert, assisted by resourceful young Toto, manages to expose Mortal as the jewel thief he is.
Movie5.5ComedyBienaimé, a modest postman, in love with Janine, the village postmistress, does not know that he is the illegitimate son of the old Baron de Mondésir. The Baron dies and in happy amazement, Bienaimé finds he is the sole heir to the deceased's estate. But he should be careful, for two crooks, Waldemar and Erika, are after his newly-acquired wealth.
Movie6.5ComedyNine Bachelors is a 1939 French comedy film directed by Sacha Guitry and starring Guitry, Max Dearly and Elvire Popesco.[1] An opportunist dreams up a new scheme to make money when the French government passes a law forbidding foreigners from living in France. It's French title is Ils étaient neuf célibataires.
Movie8.0ComedyCatherine Vidal is a featherbrained wife who imagines that her husband cheats on her. To wash away the alleged stigma, Catherine hires a young man who will pose as her lover. The (double) trouble is that not only is Catherine's husband innocent but that Catherine and her "employee" fall in love for good as well.
L'Amant de madame Vidal
1936 · 1 votes
Movie9.5ComedyPrince Sacha studies in Paris and cares more for Marianne than about Silistrie, the country his family was exiled from. But Chautard, a French financier, who has business there (the country is rich in oil), wouldn't mind a little political stability. So why not restore the ancient royal family to the throne? But is Prince Sacha up to his role ? And will Marianne make a suitable princess?
Movie6.3DramaMusicAlfred Boulard, a good-natured electrician, gives his blood to save Mona Thalia, a great theater actress. Mona Thalia survives and Boulard becomes the man of the hour. Grateful to him, Mona helps Alfred to become a singing star. But his fame will be short-lived.
Movie6.0ComedyIt is one thing to open a beauty salon (which Edwige and her young lover Gaston have just done) but it is another to keep it on its feet.To best promote their speciality, fountain-of-youth treatments, Edwige decides to apply to the letter the old slogan "It pays to advertise" by posing as... Gaston's mother, a sixty-year-old woman, miraculously grown younger.
Sa meilleure cliente
1932 · 3 votes
Movie5.5ComedyGilbert, poet and singer, is about to marry Lilette but deep inside himself he is not quite sure that she is the woman he needs. That is the reason why he has made up an imaginary woman, Frédérica" to whom he writes love letters, actual ones this time. When Lilette finds one of these, she sees red. Théodule, one of Gilbert's many friends, sets out the problem with the help of Claudine, his own girlfriend, posing as Frédérica. After Gilbert and "Frédérica" have played a phony breakup scene in front of Lilette, things seem to come right when... another Frédérica appears...
Frédérica
1942 · 2 votes
Movie7.7CrimeComedyIn the elevator of two large Parisian buildings, a telegraph operator discovers the body of an elderly woman, Madame Mathieu, the owner of both buildings. Boucheron, the local superintendent, is dispatched to investigate, along with his rival, Inspector Lambert of the "Sûreté". To solve the enigma, they scour staircases and corridors, visiting every floor of both buildings, courtyard and facade. Their gruff rivalry allows them to complement each other in discovering who committed the crime among a gallery of characters, humble or rich, who all have something to be ashamed of... A rare, fast-paced, picturesque comedy set against the backdrop of a police mystery.
Series2
TV6.0Talk ShowA talk show presented by Michel Drucker
Les Rendez-vous du dimanche
1975 · 2 votes
TVDocumentaryEn direct de...
1956