Trintignant & Co: The Film Series • Le Combat dans l’île / Fire and Ice (1962, Alain Cavalier)

"‘New Wave, ‘Neo-Noir’, ‘political thriller’ or ‘romantic melodrama’? Whatever label one chooses to attach to this film it represents a highly assured directorial debut by Alain Cavalier." - TCM

A glass of Bourgogne Louis Jadot, our favorite French wine, included. Enter for a chance to win Sofitel’s Le Bar gift certificate at each screening. With an introduction by our ciné-club host, Matthew Jackson.

Le Combat dans l’île / Fire and Ice, Alain Cavalier

TRINTIGNANT / Romy SCHNEIDER

(1962, In French with English Subtitles, 104 min)

In Le Combat dans l’Ile/ Fire and Ice, a young Jean-Louis Trintignant is paired with the magnetic Romy Schneider as a terrorist and his wife going to hide at the house of an unsuspecting friend. There is amour on the screen and in real life in this film where Jean-Louis Trintigant brings an air of mystery and unpredictability to his role as the right-wing Clément, but it is Romy Schneider who steals the show et brûle l’écran– making Anne first a passive wife then the film’s driving force. Louis Malle is said to have produced the film as a criticism of Jean-Luc Godard and other then-right wing Nouvelle Vague directors and their support for the French occupation of Algeria.

He was shy, but it’s shyness that made Jean-Louis Trintignant an actor valued by the best directors for what he held back rather than what he gave away. He was shy and women loved him. His first wife was the actress Stéphane Audran; his affair with Brigitte Bardot on the set of And God Created Woman directed by Roger Vadim, Bardot’s husband, made him famous. He went on to work with Chabrol, Lelouch, Truffaut, Bertolucci, and be paired with Romy Schneider, Anouk Aimée, Juliette Binoche, Fanny Ardant and many more…He even made a spaghetti western! His other passion was car racing and he survived the Mans 24 hours race. His life had its share of tragedy, losing his first daughter, Pauline, at 10 months, and his other daughter, the actress Marie Trintignant, a victim of domestic violence. He made very few films after this tragedy, one of them the much-awarded Amour, by Michael Haneke.

*Students with IDs on-site / .edu addresses online. High school, college, or university.