Beau Masque

1972 film

29 November 1972 (1972-11-29)

Beau Masque (Handsome Face) is a Franco-Italian film directed by Bernard Paul and released in 1972.^[1]

Synopsis

In a region in the east of France, Pierrette, (Dominique Labourier), a young mill worker devotes herself totally to her trade union activity even to the detriment of her private life. She has separated from her husband and left her child in the care of a relative. Two men enter into her life. She crosses first the path of an émigré Italian, nicknamed Beau Masque, (Luigi Diberti), a truck driver. Then, at the time of a dance organised by the French Communist Party, she makes the acquaintance of Philippe Letourneau (Jean-Claude Dauphin), the factory director. He is the young 'son of the family', pushed into the business by his parents who are majority shareholders. Though attracted to Philippe, Pierrette takes no action, not wanting to compromise her union activity. It is with Beau Masque that she begins a relationship. But a wave of redundancies, that the director does not control, is going to throw the protagonists towards a final drama.

Cast

Luigi Diberti as Beau Masque
Dominique Labourier as Pierrette
Jean-Claude Dauphin as Philippe
Catherine Allégret as Marguerite
Gaby Sylvia as Émilie
Massimo Serato as Valério
Jean Dasté as Cuvrot
Hélène Vallier as Louise
Pierre Maguelon as Mignot
Evelyne Dress as Nathalie
Maurice Travail as Tallagrand
Georges Rouquier as Vizille

Notes

According to Françoise Arnoul, (writing in her memoirs Animal doué de bonheur ISBN 2-7144-3244-1), Jane Fonda was the initial choice to play the role of Pierrette but Paramount-France grew less keen on the film the more they looked at it - they thought it too warm to communist ideology. Eventually Bernard Paul was told Fonda was not available. Location filming took place in Villerupt, Meurthe-et-Moselle and Ain.