Julien Guiomar

In truth, there are two French Detectives in this European crime melodrama. Lino Ventura plays an aging, been-around gumshoe, while Patrick Dewaere is his young, callow and cynical associate. The two detectives don't like each other much at first, but this will change. Their current assignment: getting the goods on a corrupt politician. Occasionally more violent than it needs to be, The French Detective has the twin advantages of authenticity and sincerity. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmed on location in Ghana, African Timber concerns dirty work in the lumber industry. Heiner Lauterbach plays the new manager of a West German lumber company. The manager's predecessor has died under mysterious circumstances. The apparent reason for the man's death, which the new manager does not ascertain until he's in too deep, is that the dead man was about to blow the whistle on an illegal mahogany-smuggling operation masterminded by the company's corrupt owners. This is the sort of pessimistic film wherein no good deed goes unpunished. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

For those unfamiliar with Asterix, a popular character in European cartoons and comic books, he is a courageous but humorous-looking warrior of the Gauls in Roman times, and often single-handedly fights off the encroachments of the Romans. In this feature-length cartoon, the Romans have conquered everything except the village where Asterix lives. This has survived because the town druid has a special potion which confers incredible strength. However, at the time of the film, the druid has been knocked on the head and has lost his memory, which is inconvenient, to say the least. Asterix and his villagers must search far and wide for something which can help them either with the druid's memory, or with reconstructing his potion. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Remi (Charles Vanel) is a man on the verge of old age who begins to have hallucinations. He believes he has found a dog, but the canine is just a product of his imagination. The man takes a turn for the worse when his only friend, his poet neighbor, moves. He is left alone with his hallucinations and tries in vain to separate fantasy from reality in this plodding, depressing feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Former film critic André Téchiné directed and co-wrote this offbeat crime drama. Samson (Gérard Depardieu) is a down-on-his-luck boxer who manages to win a fortune thanks to a fixed fight. However, while Samson and his girlfriend Laure (Isabelle Adjani) are trying to get away with the money, he is killed by a gunman who looks just like Samson (and is also played by Depardieu). Laure is crushed, but in time she finds herself attracted to Samson's murderous double; he is also drawn to her, and they eventually become lovers. The supporting cast includes Marie-France Pisier and Jean-Claude Brialy. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Based on a Eugene Saccomano novel entitled The Bandits of Marseilles, this movie was followed by a sequel entitled Borsalino and Co. This movie captures the mood of 1930 Marseilles beautifully with the use of ambience and music. Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo portray two gangsters who kill their way to the top. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

Georges Bizet's 1875 opera about Carmen, the colorful cigarette factory worker whose flirtations with the soldier Don José are forgotten in her love for the matador Escamillo, is the source for director Francesco Rosi's cinematic version of the same story. Plácido Domingo sings the part of Don José, Julia Migenes-Johnson sings Carmen, and Ruggero Raimondi is Escamillo. Although there is nothing to fault in the singing itself, some viewers may feel that director Rosi has stayed closer to a stage production than the medium of film would warrant. Carmen received the 1984 Cesar award for "Best Sound." ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Dear Father and Dear Papa are the English-language titles for the Italian domestic drama Caro Papa. Vittorio Gassman plays a flint-hearted industrialist who thinks as little of destroying his business partner as he does of cheating on his wife. Gassman's son is an apparently weak-willed lad, who may or may not have become involved in the "Red Brigade". When Gassman learns that his son has been appointed to execute someone known only as "P", he assumes the victim is his ex-partner. Only as he is being gunned down does the industrialist realize that "P" stands for Papa. But that's not the end of Dear Father; there's still a viciously ironic coda before the final fade-out. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Valeria Golino plays a double role in this thrilling crime drama. A woman returns years later to Tangiers in order to track down the thugs responsible for the gangland-style massacre that killed her father. Corrigan (Thierry Lhermitte) is the local detective recruited to find the international crime boss (Roger Hanin). The heroine seduces the kingpin's son (Vincent Lindon) in order to discover where the killers are hidden then methodically sets out to destroy them. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In this bizarre psychological thriller, a handsome young boy (John Mouder-Brown), who is marred by a strange birthmark on his face, tells a disturbing tale about how his family died. The family had been living for some time in a villa which was overgrown with flowering vines. Some of the vines even penetrate to the inside of the house. It seems that the boy's father, (Fernando Rey), was part of a conspiracy to kill Hitler, and when the plot failed, he was forced to kill his family in order to prevent them from suffering horrible torture. Unable for some reason to kill himself, he escaped but became the victim of amnesia after a motorcycle accident. When a German governess came to stay, his father's memory is revived. The boy travels to Germany in pursuit of the governess and learns that her family seeks vengeance from his father. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this French comedy, Alain Delon is Simon, a young man who has entered the priesthood after learning of the death of his wife, Rita (Nathalie Delon). Problems abound when he discovers her among the living, and living as a hooker, no less. Paul Meurisse lends his dry humor to the proceedings as Simon's bishop, who is nostalgic for Medieval times when many questioned whether women had souls at all. Simon, released from his vows, must now rescue Rita from becoming a nun. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Although based on a novel by Georges Simenon, director (and songwriter) Serge Gainsbourg has superimposed several dark emotions and a subtle brutality over the weak plot about a man's trip to Africa and his unfortunate passion for a murderess whose amorality sends the disillusioned fellow back to Europe. Sometimes described as frustrating and self-centered, reactions to this film swing across a broad spectrum of complaints -- not the least might be whether or not Gainsbourg is using a clichéd and stereotypical view of "dark Africa" to convey what he sees in his characters. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Gerard Louvier (Gerard Lanvin), a young criminal trying to stay a few steps ahead of a police manhunt, winds up with Julie Boucher (Miou-Miou), a journalist searching out another story -- who thinks he is an up-and-coming judge with leads on her own case. The confusion is a catalyst for some misunderstandings and general uproar, before the different protagonists sort themselves out and their untenable situation is resolved. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Simon (Richard Bohringer) is a veteran cop who suspects his boss Tramoni (Pierre Arditi) is on the take in this dramatic thriller. When he orders Simon off the job of tracking some notorious thieves, the detective begins to gather more evidence by hanging out in the seedy gambling dives. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

A trio of French actors head to Rio in hopes of making decisions about their future. Instead, they end up contending with romance. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This French thriller by first-time director Liliane de Kermadec follows the adventures of an amorous threesome on their bike tour through the countryside. When they visit an ominous country mansion, all is not as it seems. Are they dreaming of terror within, or is it real? ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

During a vacation to a remote tropical hideaway on the African Maurice Islands, two Parisians (Jean Lefebvre and Henri Guybet), rather the worse for wear, urinate on a sacred totem statue. This irreverent act brings them to the attention of the local gods, who punish them by making them invisible in mirrors, giving them telekinetic gifts, and causing them to levitate at odd times. As they grow accustomed to their strange condition, they find ways to take advantage of it to straighten out their problems. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In one of Coluche's earlier films, the late French comedian stars in this standard comedy by Claude Zidi as the inept police inspector, Michel Clement. The senior Clement was a spectacular policeman, and Michel finds it particularly difficult to try and walk in his father's footsteps without tripping. At the moment he is after Roger Morzini (Gerard Depardieu), a dangerous gangster who eventually kidnaps Marie-Anne Prossant (Dominique Lavanant). She is a journalist traveling with Michel as he tries to track down Morzini. Her objective was to get an interview with the gangster, and now she has more than she bargained for. Meanwhile, Michel tries to get his act together and rescue her. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

No one knows, or is ever likely to know how many disabled or handicapped relatives have been hidden from the outside world in attics and basements over the years. In this wry comedy, Basile (Claudio Bucella) is an eleven-year old boy living in a rural French town (along with his mother) with his grandparents. He has the usual boyish adventures in town, punctuated with odd goings-on brought about by events which take place in his grandfather's crocodile farm. However, there is a deep rivalry between his grandmother and her wheelchair-bound half-sister, Cecile (Jeanne Moreau), who has kept hidden from the world (and her family), and has lived in the attic for decades. Basile eventually feels the wrongness of her situation and feels that he may be the reincarnation of Victor, Cecile's long-lost lover. Eventually things come to a head in a confrontation which provides the town gossips with material for years to come. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The French/Italian/British King of Hearts (Le Roi de Coeur) takes place during World War I, but it might as well have been the Vietnamese conflict so far as its youthful "core" audience was concerned. Overacting outrageously, Adolfo Celi plays British colonel Alexander MacBibenbrook, who orders mild-mannered Scotsman Pvt. Charles Plumpick (Alan Bates) to undertake a life-or-death mission in a tiny French village. While evacuating the town, the Germans have left behind a time bomb that will explode at midnight; Plumpick must defuse that bomb. Upon his arrival in town, Plumpick discovers that it is far from deserted. A group of inmates from the local insane asylum, left behind during the evacuation, have claimed the village for their own. Knocked unconscious, Plumpick awakens to learn that he has been crowned "King of Hearts" by the gentle lunatics. None of the inmates pay any heed to Plumpick's warnings about impending doom, and when he attempts to lead them out of town, they are terrified at the prospect and scurry back to the "safety" of the village. Plumpick is finally able to render the bomb useless, whereupon the grateful inmates decide to stage a three-year celebration. When Plumpick tries to leave, he is kidnapped by the loonies at the behest of beautiful inmate Coquelicot (Geneviève Bujold), who has fallen in love with him. Bound and gagged, Plumpick watches helplessly as the Germans and the British troops kill each other off in comic-opera fashion. Finally set free, Plumpick weighs the horrible insanity of war against the more benign brand of lunacy represented by the inmates. The final image -- of a nude Plumpick carrying a birdcage, knocking on the doors of the asylum, and demanding that he be "accepted" -- was reproduced for the print ads of King of Hearts, effectively giving away the ending. An essential "date" film of the 1970s, King of Hearts was often released to campus movie houses in tandem with a pair of cult-favorite short subjects, the animated Bambi Meets Godzilla and Lenny Bruce's Thank You Masked Man. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, Louis de Funes is a top restaurant critic, the head of an important French culinary guide. At the beginning of the film, he and his son (Coluche) are at odds, as the son prefers working as a circus clown to studying the fine arts of gastronomy. The two join forces, however, to thwart the greedy owner of a chain of inferior restaurants, who plans to take over the finest restaurants in France and substitute his formulaic fodder for real cooking. Another lure bringing the son into the picture is a lovely secretary working for the guide. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Jean-Paul Belmondo plays Michel Gauché, a stunt double and trickster who is crazy in love with his former fiancee, work-mate, and fellow stunt performer Jane (Raquel Welch). She, however, is so angry with him for landing her in the hospital due to a badly performed stunt that she breaks off the engagement. Belmondo also plays Bruno Ferrari, the movie star he is doubling for, an effeminate homosexual who lusts after his stuntman. Because Jane is angry with Michel, she falls into the arms of a film producer, and arranges for Michel to re-do the same stunt over and over again endlessly. She also tries to woo Bruno the movie star and discovers that he is not interested in women. Michel tries hard to win her back, sometimes pretending to be the movie star, which confuses her to no end. Just as she is about to marry a dull aristocrat, Belmondo appears in an old gorilla outfit and abducts her from the aisles of the church. Belmondo was famous for doing all his own stunts, and he continued that tradition in this film. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Based on a book by Nikos Athenassiadis titled A Naked Young Girl, this slight, uneven fantasy-romance takes place on an isolated Greek island with a unique, petrified tree -- a part of the reason why Mathieu, a geologist (Christophe Malavoy) has arrived to do some research there. Other than the boatman who ferries back and forth to the mainland, the island's only inhabitants are a fisherman and his very pretty daughter Eleni (Eleni Drogoumi). Eleni seems a bit different right from the beginning; on the one hand, she likes wandering around dressed only in a long shirt, and on the other, she has a penchant for swimming all night with the dolphins. When the usually arrogant geologist starts transferring some of his interest from rocks to Eleni's comings-and-goings, he wonders if there is not something fishy about her parentage. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Unhappy women are being murdered by Emile (Jacques Perrin), a psychotic young man suffering from the delusion that his acts are mercy killings. The detective (Julien Guiomar) assigned to track down the killer resorts to seriously unorthodox and even unethical methods to get his man. In one instance, he impersonates a psychologist on a TV show he and Emile appear on together and attempts to provoke Emile into revealing himself. This film's cinematic style may be a kind of homage to the classic Fritz Lang thriller, M. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Right after his release from prison, Victor (Jean-Paul Belmondo) resumes his con-man activities. He rents apartments he doesn't own, sells nonexistent fighter planes to African countries, and by turns pretends to be a gardener, lawyer, private detective, governmental official, and even a transvestite in order to fool his unsuspecting victims. He does it all under the nose of his charming but naive parole officer Marie-Charlotte (Genevieve Bujold). When Victor finds out that Marie-Charlotte's father curates the museum that has an extremely valuable painting, he and his friends decide to steal it. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide

Also known as La Fiancée du Pirate and Dirty Mary, this French comedy noir stars Bernadette Lafont as Marie, the title character. Early in the game, Marie learns how to use sex as a means to an end. She enjoys the favors of several of her town's leading citizens, not-too-subtly suggesting that her silence can be bought. Nearly driven out of town by the local moral arbiters, Marie strikes a blow against hypocrisy with a deliciously creative revenge. A Very Curious Girl is the sort of harmless French fare that used to pop up on your local Late Late Late Show in-between the Vegomatic ads and the "Live Better Electrically" public-service spots. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A grandfather (Jean Gabin) kills a gangster who comes looking for his grandson at the family farm. The boy was involved in hiding heroin for the mob, but the grandfather finds the dope before the gang can retrieve it. He buries the dead goon in the back yard and drives his car into the stream. Soon other members of the gang come to the farm to search for the hidden drugs. The heroic grandfather systematically eliminates the criminals as he acts as judge, jury and executioner in his one man war on drugs and organized crime. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Pierre (Pierre Richard) is a rumpled-looking fellow, consistently overlooked by the nubile girls at the college where he teaches mathematics. However, when he wins the affection of a movie star (Jane Birkin), he wins more attention than he bargained on: his stuffy father disapproves of the affair, the press is entranced, and the college girls can't keep away from him. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Italian Director Elio Petri, best known for his film Investigation Of A Citizen Above Suspicion, here tells a complicated tale about a bank clerk who is literally allergic to money. Not only that, the clerk (Flavio Bucci) doesn't like the effect money has on people. For some reason, he steals things from a dishonest butcher (Ugo Tognazzi). This gives the butcher a convenient opportunity to file huge insurance claims for the thefts. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

When sanitarium cook Surveillant (Raymond Devos) liberates a couple of patients and takes them on a trip to gaze on the ocean for the first time, he lands in hot water with his boss the director, who is a hard-hearted harridan with no time for such nonsense. In any event, the bumbling cook has taken the director's car, an insufferable mistake. The chase begins as his boss ropes her milquetoast husband into stealing a gas truck, and they set off in hot pursuit. This French comedy is the first feature film directed by François Reichenbach, who previously made only documentaries, and marks the first film appearance of stand-up comic Raymond Devos. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

While arch surrealist Luis Bunuel never made a secret of his skepticism about the existence of God, he was also raised as a strict Spanish Catholic and remained fascinated with the church's teaching throughout his life, and his obsessions with both faith and the contradictions of dogma provided the basis for this episodic satiric comedy. Jean (Laurent Terzieff) and Pierre (Paul Frankeur) are two threadbare vagabonds who are making their way from Paris to Spain on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, where the remains of Saint James are believed to be kept. While Jean and Pierre's journey begins in the 20th Century, as they travel they seemingly develop the ability to move through time and space as they pass through a variety of historical scenes taken from a broad range of theological texts -- and all involving heresy in one form or another. As they walk the long road to Santiago de Compostela (when they can't catch a ride), Jean and Pierre encounter Jesus (Bernard Verley), who decides not to shave his beard to keep his mother happy; a young boy with stigmata and unusual powers; the Marquis de Sade (Michel Piccoli), who patently struggles to teach atheism to a young girl he's captured; an eccentric priest who has an irreversible belief in transubstantiation until he changes his mind; two men who put their debate over Catholic dogma to the test in a duel with swords; and Satan (Pierre Clementi), who shows up just in time for a car wreck. La Voie Lactee (aka The Milky Way) was scripted by Bunuel and his frequent screenwriting collaborator Jean-Claude Carriere; each of the film's historic episodes was adapted faithfully from an actual biblical text or historical account. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

An inventor and a small-time industrialist, Guillaume (Louis De Funes) has come up with something which will take advantage of air pollution and manages to confuse a delegation of Japanese into placing an order for 3,000 of the things. Just a few obstacles stand in the way of his delivering on the order. For one thing, he has no factory in which to make them. He decides to dedicate all the extra space in his house to building them, though perhaps he should have told his wife (Annie Girardot) first, because she seems to have been made unhappy by these developments. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Director Claude Barrois based this crime thriller on an actual 1978 barroom massacre. When a yahoo criminal (Daniel Duval) offends a gangland don, the don hires a group of thugs to eliminate the lone upstart. The thugs invade the bar and shoot everyone in sight, but unfortunately their sole target escapes without a scratch. Furious at this attempt to kill him, the solitary criminal cons the head of the group of thugs to join him in fighting the don and his cohorts, and the slaughter escalates. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this semi-autobiographical comedy by Francis Perrin, he plays a character partially based on himself in the guise of Francois Veber, a lowly electrician from the provinces who finds success as an actor in the Comedie-Francaise. Veber/Perrin goes to study acting at the Paris Conservatoire and has some fine teachers who help to hone his latent comic abilities. After coming to the attention of his superiors as an excellent student (he won a Conservatoire competition with a monologue from "The Marriage of Figaro"), Veber/Perrin is accepted into the prestigious Comedie-Francaise. Defying the judgment of its administrator, he pulls off a rousing interpretation of Moliere's Scapin. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

When Macgregor (Peter Cushing) announces that he is no longer going to appear in horror films, but wants to work in romances, two screenwriters are sent to his eerie house to try to persuade the ghoulish man to keep doing horror films. They are not above dotting his house and the surrounding landscape with corpses of murdered people in order to drive their point home. At some point, the producer of the film steps in from outside the frame and takes charge of this film about films, firing everyone in the process. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Le Matou is based on a novel by Yves Beauchemin. The title translates freely to "Alley Cat", in reference to a pet owned by a Canadian street kid. Cat and kid are but two of several eccentrics with whom restauranteurs Jean Carmet and Monique Spaziani come in contact. Others include a bombastic chef and a self-styled conjurer. Filmed on location in Quebec and Florida, Le Matou was apparently never intended to draw huge crowds; its calculated quirkiness is aimed squarely at the "festival" crowd. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Louis Malle directed this light comedy about crime and class in the City of Light. Georges Randal (Jean-Paul Belmondo) is a young man living in Paris at the turn of the century who is due to inherit a considerable fortune. However, his uncle, who is acting as his guardian, manages to spend Georges' money before he ever gets a chance to see it. Georges is also deeply in love with Charlotte (Geneviève Bujold), his cousin, and wants to marry her; however, the same uncle has promised her hand to another, a man Charlotte does not love. Understandably angry, Georges makes plans to steal the family's jewelry, intended for Charlotte, away from his dishonest uncle. Georges soon discovers that he enjoys being a thief, and begins robbing the wealthy as protest against the bourgeoisie. However, as Georges' ill-gotten nest egg grows, he finds himself becoming a member of the idle rich he professes to despise. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Rene (Jean-Pierre Marielle) is a small-time crook who tries to shake down storekeeper Emile (Jean Carmet) in this uneven and humorless comedy. Things change when Rene starts to fall for the terminally boring and provincial Emile. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This film is a French period comic romance, set in the time just surrounding the French Revolution (1789). "Year Two," of the French title refers to the second year following the revolution. Those who guided the French Revolution renamed the days of the week, the months of the year, and much more. They also began their calendar from the time of the revolution. In this film, Jean-Paul Belmondo plays the husband of a vivacious, two-timing, and socially ambitious young woman (Marlene Jobert). After he kills