That Man from Rio, Beauty and the Devil

One of the best spy spoofs that flooded the market after the success of the James Bond movies, That Man from Rio sees Jean-Paul Belmondo as an average Joe who turns indestructible hero when he has to rescue his fiancée (Françoise Dorléac, sister of Catherine Deneuve and star of Young Girls of Rochefort) when she’s kidnapped by thugs and taken to Brazil. Handsomely shot on location in Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, and other Brazilian locales, the film is full of breathtaking and amusing chase scenes set to a sensual bossa nova score by celebrated composer Georges Delerue. (112 mins., DCP) The forgotten fantasy Beauty and the Devil offers one of finest cinematic adaptations of the Faust legend. The great Michel Simon gives a fearsome and impish performance as Mephistopheles in a film that’s as notable for its modern philosophical questions of desire and happiness as it is for its visual gorgeousness. (95 mins., DCP)