''A Certain Smile'' is a 1958 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Jean Negulesco Jean Negulesco (born Ioan Negulescu; – 18 July 1993) was a Romanian-American film director and screenwriter.Oliver, Myrna"Jean Negulesco 1900–1993 ''The Los Angeles Times'', 22 July 1993. He first gained notice for his film noirs and later ...

, based on the book of the same name by

Françoise Sagan Françoise Sagan (born Françoise Delphine Quoirez; 21 June 1935 – 24 September 2004) was a French playwright, novelist, and screenwriter. Sagan was known for works with strong romantic themes involving wealthy and disillusioned bourgeois char ...

Plot

In Paris, beautiful Dominique Vallon is involved with a young man, Bertrand Griot, until suddenly entering into an unwise week-long romance with his wealthy and married uncle, Luc Ferrand.

Cast

Rossano Brazzi Rossano Brazzi (18 September 1916 – 24 December 1994) was an Italian actor. Biography Brazzi was born in Bologna, Italy, the son of Maria Ghedini and Adelmo Brazzi, an employee of the Rizzoli shoe factory. He was named after Rossano Vene ...

as Luc Ferrand *

Joan Fontaine Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland (October 22, 1917 – December 15, 2013), known professionally as Joan Fontaine, was a British-American actress who is best known for her starring roles in Hollywood films during the "Golden Age". Fontaine appeared ...

as Françoise Ferrand *

Bradford Dillman Bradford Dillman (April 14, 1930 – January 16, 2018) was an American actor and author. Early life Bradford Dillman was born on April 14, 1930, in San Francisco, the son of Dean Dillman, a stockbroker, and Josephine (née Moore). Bradford's pa ...

as Bertrand Griot *

Christine Carère Christine Carère (27 July 1930 – 13 December 2008), born Christine de Borde, was a French film actress who co-starred in the 1966 American television series ''Blue Light''. Biography Born in Dijon, France, in 1930, Carère appeared in 25 ...

as Dominique Vallon *

Eduard Franz Eduard Franz Schmidt (October 31, 1902 – February 10, 1983) was an American actor of theatre, film and television. Franz portrayed King Ahab in the 1953 biblical low-budget film ''Sins of Jezebel'', Jethro in Cecil B. DeMille's ''The Ten C ...

as M. Vallon *

Katherine Locke Katherine Locke (June 24, 1910 – September 12, 1995) was a Broadway actress in the late 1930s. Early life She was born in Kalinkavičy, in what is now Belarus, and raised in the U.S. Her father, Morris Locke (Mendel Lakomowitz ), was ...

as Mme. Vallon *

Kathryn Givney Kathryn Givney (October 27, 1896 – March 16, 1978) was an American actress on stage and in films. Biography In 1928, Givney was a member of the S. E. Cochran Repertory Company. In 1930, she appeared in ''Stepping Sisters'' at the Hollywood Pl ...

as Mme. Griot *

Steven Geray Steven Geray (born István Gyergyai, 10 November 190426 December 1973) was a Hungarian-born American film actor who appeared in over 100 films and dozens of television programs. Geray appeared in numerous famed A-pictures, including Alfred H ...

as Denis *

Johnny Mathis John Royce Mathis (born September 30, 1935) is an American singer of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standard music, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum s ...

as Himself * Trude Wyler as Mme. Denis * Sandy Livingston as Catherine *

Renate Hoy Renate Hoy, also credited as Renate Huy and Erika Nordin,(born 31 December 1930 in Ludwigshafen, Mannheim, Germany) is a German actress. Career After winning the title of Miss Nürnberg, she was crowned Miss Germany of 1952. She then travelled ...

as Mlle. Minot * Muzaffer Tema as Pierre

Production

Christine Carère was cast in the main role, although she didn't know any English at the time. She was brought to Hollywood and trained for ten months before filming. The

Production Code Administration The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the Major film studios#Present, five major film studios of the United States, as well as the video streaming service Netflix. Founded in 1922 as the Motion Pic ...

only authorized the film after substantial changes to the novel's story line. Negulesco later agreed "that ''A Certain Smile'' has not much of Sagan. She herself did not like it and she also wrote an article against it. She was right in saying that that was not her book."Michelangelo Capua, ''Jean Negulesco: The Life and Films'', McFarland 2017
p.107
/ref>

Awards and nominations

References

Bibliography

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Certain Smile, A 1958 films 1958 romantic drama films 20th Century Fox films American romantic drama films 1950s English-language films Films scored by Alfred Newman Films based on French novels Films based on works by Françoise Sagan Films directed by Jean Negulesco Films set in Paris CinemaScope films 1950s American films