Michel LonsdaleFilmography

Goya's Ghosts

Actors: Javier Bardem, Natalie Portman, Stellan Skarsgård, Randy Quaid, José Luis Gómez, Michel Lonsdale

Synopsis: The lives of a great artist, a corrupted holy man, and a beautiful woman cross paths at a crucial moment in history in this epic-scale historical drama from director Milos Forman. Near the end of the 18th century, Francisco Goya (Stellan Skarsgård) is a gifted but controversial artist whose Read More

Countdown

Actors: Alphonse Emery, Lucie Regnier, Dominique Reymond, Michel Lonsdale, Jean-Christophe Bouvet

Munich

Actors: Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Ciarán Hinds, Mathieu Kassovitz, Hanns Zischler

Synopsis: Much as Steven Spielberg followed 1993's special-effects blockbuster Jurassic Park with a far more downbeat and personal project later the same year, Schindler's List, in 2005 after tearing up the box office with War of the Worlds the director closed out the year with a powerful and thoughtful Read More

5x2

Actors: Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Stéphane Freiss

Synopsis: The rise and fall of one couple's marriage goes under the microscope in this drama from French filmmaker François Ozon. Gilles (Stephane Freis) and Marion (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi) have filed for divorce following several years of marriage, and after the judge declares their union is over, the film Read More

Good Girl

Actors: Emmanuelle Devos, Bruno Todeschini, Lambert Wilson, Michel Lonsdale, Bulle Ogier

Synopsis: "Fontaine Leglou" (Emmanuelle Devos) is a silly name, and so, perhaps, that is why many silly things keep happening. As Gentille opens, Fountaine is walking down a Paris street, and stops to confront a man whom she suspects is following her. She tells him he looks normal, but she's sorry, she Read More

The Perfume of the Lady in Black

Actors: Denis Podalydès, Sabine Azéma, Pierre Arditi, Michel Lonsdale, Olivier Gourmet

Sotto Falso Nome

Actors: Daniel Auteuil, Greta Scacchi, Anna Mouglalis, Giorgio Lupano, Magdalena Mielcarz

Le Mystere de la Chambre Jaune

Actors: Denis Podalydès, Sabine Azéma, Michel Lonsdale, Pierre Arditi, Claude Rich

Ceux d'en face

Actors: Michel Lonsdale, Valentine Vidal, Alain Beigel

Synopsis: Jean-Daniel Pollet directed this story of spiritual research and study. Linda (Valentine Vidal) is a young woman whose significant other, Sebastien (Alan Beigel), has set out on a voyage to get in touch with his spiritual self. While he's gone, Sebastien has asked Linda to take a pilgrimage of her Read More

Les Acteurs

Actors: André Dussollier, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Jacques Villeret, Claude Rich

Synopsis: The son of actor Bernard Blier, director Bertrand Blier is known throughout France for his documentaries and dark depictions of sex and its impact on society. Though his influences and personal opinions clearly shine through, Les Acteurs is a satirical take on the ups, downs, and numerous Read More

Ronin

Actors: Robert De Niro, Jean Reno, Natascha McElhone, Stellan Skarsgård, Sean Bean

Synopsis: John Frankenheimer directed this $20 million international action thriller from a screenplay by Richard Weisz (pseudonym for David Mamet) and J.D. Zeik. In Paris, Irish organizer Deidre (Natascha McElhone) assembles a team to grab a mysterious briefcase from criminals. They are never told who Read More

Que La Lumière Soit

Actors: Hélène de Fougerolles, Tchéky Karyo, Ticky Holgado, Pierre Arditi, Gordon Tootoosis

Synopsis: Arthur Joffe directed this French comic fantasy, in French and English dialogue, about God (voice of Pierre Arditi), invisible and spinning through Heavenly space on an asteroid, along with his sidekick angel Rene (Ticky Holgado). God observes Earthly events on His television set. After hacking Read More

Don Juan

Actors: Jacques Weber, Michel Boujenah, Emmanuelle Béart, Penélope Cruz, Ariadna Gil

Synopsis: Actor Jacques Weber made his directorial debut with this film adaptation of Don Juan written in 1665 by Moliere (1622-1673). In early 17th-century Spain, two women (Penelope Cruz, Ariadne Gil) believe Don Juan (Weber) when he promises marriage to both, but they soon are left to ponder his Read More

Mauvais Genre

Actors: Jacques Gamblin, Elina Löwensohn, Monica Bellucci, Christiane Cohendy, Michel Aumont

Synopsis: The film's title is a pun, the double meaning referencing both the "wrong genre" and a person with distasteful motives. Insecure novelist Martial Bok (Jacques Gamblin) promotes his new sexy novel La Fille de Dos ("Girl Observed From the Rear") with a round of book-signings and talk-shows. When Read More

Dieu Sait Quoi

Actors: Michel Lonsdale

Les Boulugres

Actors: Michel Lonsdale, Catherine Ringer

Jefferson in Paris

Actors: Nick Nolte, Greta Scacchi, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Simon Callow, Seth Gilliam

Synopsis: Best known for their historical epics that examine class and social issues in British life through a thick lens of tasteful production design and good manners, director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant set their sights on an American protagonist for a change with Jefferson in Paris. As the Read More

Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud

Actors: Emmanuelle Béart, Michel Serrault, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Charles Berling, Claire Nadeau, Danièle Lebrun

Synopsis: Almost a follow-up to director Claude Sautet's Un Coeur en Hiver (1992), Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud further explores repressed emotions and failed relationships. Nelly (Emmanuelle Béart), an attractive young woman, is six months behind in her rent and struggling with odd jobs, while her husband (Charles Berling Read More

The Remains of the Day

Actors: Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, James Fox, Christopher Reeve, Peter Vaughan, Hugh Grant

Synopsis: Filmed with the usual meticulous attention to period and detail of films from Ismail Merchant and James Ivory, The Remains of the Day is based on a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. Anthony Hopkins plays Stevens, the "perfect" butler to a prosperous British household of the 1930s. He is so unswervingly Read More

La Table D'Emeraude

Actors: Michel Lonsdale, Eva Ionesco

L'Ordre du Jour

Ma Vie Est un Enfer

Actors: Daniel Auteuil, Josiane Balasko, Richard Berry, Michel Lonsdale, Catherine Samie

Synopsis: Léah (Josiane Balasko) has been longing to be beautiful for years, but the best she's been able to accomplish on her own is dowdy but neat. When she inadvertently conjures up Abar (Daniel Auteuil), one of the devil's own representatives, she's more than willing to sell her soul for a Read More

Woyzeck

Actors: Jean-Pierre Sentier

Der Madonna Mann

Actors: Marius Müller-Westernhagen, Renée Soutendijk, Heinrich Schweiger, Peter Kraus

Synopsis: Martin (Marius Muller Westernhagen) is an Australian tourist forced to land in Hamburg in this routine thriller. He is mistaken for a notorious hitman and is pursued by the authorities. With help from the darling Dutch woman Juliane (Renee Soutendjik), the two are chased through the city by the Read More

Souvenir

Actors: Christopher Plummer, Catherine Hicks, Michel Lonsdale, Christopher Cazenove, Patrick Bailey

Synopsis: Based on the novel The Pork Butcher by David Hughes, this melodrama was directed by literary adaptation specialist Geoffrey Reeve, producer of The Shooting Party (1984), Half Moon Street (1986), and The Whistle Blower (1987). Christopher Plummer stars as Ernst Kestner, a German Army veteran who Read More

Niezwylka Podroz Balthazara Kobera

Actors: Rafal Wieczynski, Michel Lonsdale, Adrianna Biedrzynska, Gabriela Kownacka, Emmanuelle Riva

Synopsis: Balthazar Kober (Rafal Wieczynski) is a young man who ventures across plague-ridden Germany during the 16th century. Possessed with magical powers, the stuttering Balthazar can conjure up the angel Gabriel and his late mother (Emmanuele Riva). The hero is helped by a wise philosopher (Michael Read More

The Name of the Rose

Actors: Sean Connery, F. Murray Abraham, Christian Slater, Michel Lonsdale, Elya Baskin, Ron Perlman, Feodor Chaliapin, Jr., William Hickey

Synopsis: Adapted from Umberto Eco's best-selling novel, director Jean-Jacques Annaud's The Name of the Rose is a 14th century murder-mystery thriller starring Sean Connery as a Sherlock Holmes-esque Franciscan monk called William of Baskerville. When a murder occurs at a secluded Benedictine Abbey, William Read More

Billy Ze Kick

Actors: Francis Perrin, Zabou, Dominique Lavanant, Michel Lonsdale

Synopsis: "Billy ze Kick" is the nickname of a character in a bedtime story, told by a French police inspector to his little daughter. For the purposes of the plot (it can't possibly be in the interests of proper child psychology), Billy is a make-believe serial killer! Shortly afterwards, three young girls Read More

The Holcroft Covenant

Actors: Michael Caine, Anthony Andrews, Victoria Tennant, Lilli Palmer, Mario Adorf

Synopsis: Director John Frankenheimer and writers Edward Anhalt and George Axelrod try to inject some life into this adaptation of Robert Ludlum's best-selling espionage novel. Michael Caine stars as Noel Holcroft, who was adopted in Germany by an American family in the waning days of World War II. Now Read More

L'Eveille Du Pont D'Alma

Actors: Michel Lonsdale, Jean-Bernard Guillard, Olimpia Carlisi, Jean Badin, Melvil Poupaud

Synopsis: This quickly-filmed avant-garde farce by prolific director Raul Ruiz features an insomniac (Michel Lonsdale) whose main preoccupation is surreptitiously watching private matters -- he is a voyeur. He and an equally disreputable acquaintance rape a woman alongside the Seine, a crime made all the Read More

Le Juge

Actors: Jacques Perrin, Richard Bohringer, Daniel Duval, Andréa Ferréol, Michel Lonsdale

Synopsis: Based on the real-life assassination of a judge in Marseilles in 1981, this fictionalized account of how he came to die lacks the substance and drama that must have characterized the actual story as it happened. Judge François Müller (Jacques Perrin) was transferred from Vosges in northwest Read More

Le Bon Roi Dagobert

Actors: Coluche, Ugo Tognazzi, Michel Serrault, Carole Bouquet, Michel Lonsdale

Synopsis: In this low-brow satire, French comedian Coluche exploits his talents for comic vulgarity in his role as the 10th-century King Dagobert I. The king's intestinal and sexual problems loom large as he survives an attack on his royal caravan then barely makes it to Rome to personally give thanks to Read More

Erendira

Actors: Irene Papas, Claudia Ohana, Michel Lonsdale, Rufus

Synopsis: This tantalizing blend of eroticism and mysticism was adapted from a novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Erendira (Claudia Ohana) has a strange and wondrous vision; shortly afterward, her grandmother's house burns down. The grandmother (Irene Papas) gets her revenge by forcing Erendira to become a Read More

Enigma

Actors: Martin Sheen, Brigitte Fossey, Sam Neill, Derek Jacobi, Michel Lonsdale

Synopsis: Directed by TV-anthology veteran Jeannot Szwarc, Enigma has a certain small-screen "feel" to it. Adopting a musical-comedy foreign accent, Martin Sheen plays Alex Holbeck, an Iron Curtain defector who returns to East Germany at the behest of the CIA. His mission is to save five political Read More

Chronopolis

Synopsis: It took animator/filmmaker Piotr Kamler nearly half a decade to make this fantastic animated 3-D sci-fi film that is set in a futuristic city inhabited by powerful immortals who are utterly bored with the idea of eternity and so begin playing with time. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Bunker

Actors: Susan Blakely, Cliff Gorman, Piper Laurie, Anthony Hopkins, Richard Jordan

Synopsis: This exhaustive (and exhausting) 3-hour TV movie dramatizes the last three months of Adolph Hitler's life, spent in his bunker in Berlin. Anthony Hopkins is repulsively riveting as Hitler, while Piper Laurie is even more frightening as fanatical Frau Goebbels. Joseph Goebbels (Cliff Gorman) feeds Read More

The Games of Countess Dolingen of Gratz

Synopsis: This complex and puzzling French drama walks the fine wavering line between the fictional and the very real as it tells the tale of a strangely erotic event in the life of a little girl and the musings of a schizophrenic woman. Also involved is an enigmatic spouse who prepares a surprise for a Read More

Une Jeunesse

Actors: Ariane Larteguy, Patrick Norbert, Jacques Dutronc, Charles Aznavour

Synopsis: A lightweight, sentimental story, a middle-aged French couple remember their courtship and the beginnings of their romance. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide Read More

Chariots of Fire

Actors: Ben Cross, Ian Charleson, Nigel Havers, Nicholas Farrell, Ian Holm, Daniel Gerroll, John Gielgud

Synopsis: Based on a true story, Chariots of Fire is the internationally acclaimed Oscar-winning drama of two very different men who compete as runners in the 1924 Paris Olympics. Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson), a serious Christian Scotsman, believes that he has to succeed as a testament to his undying Read More

Les Jeux de la Comtesse Dolingen de Gratz

Actors: Michel Lonsdale, Carol Kane, Marilu Marini

Synopsis: In this eerie, atmospheric tale, a young woman is on a train when she sees some people she thinks she knows from her childhood. On arriving home, her husband tells her that a certain countess has died. At that point, the film cuts to a scene of the countess singing in a mausoleum while the visual Read More

Douce Enquete Sur la Violence

Actors: Michel Lonsdale, Elise Caron, Emmanuelle Debever

Synopsis: After a businessman is captured by kidnappers, his rescue seems incumbent on a group of filmmakers, rather than a lackluster police force -- a premise that is matched by the rest of this movie. The kidnapping victim rambles on philosophically with his captors, who end up leaving him alone Read More

Seuls

Actors: Niels Arestrup, Christine Boisson, Michel Lonsdale, Bulle Ogier, Olimpia Carlisi

Synopsis: Jean (Niels Arestrup), the lead character in this psychological journey is torn by a search for his lost childhood, the overwhelming need to love a woman of his dreams (someone he has invented), and a struggle with his latent bisexuality. Jean finds some photos inside an automatic photo station Read More

Le Risque De Vivre

Synopsis: A paean to Darwin and his theories, this documentary on the increasing complexity of life forms as they go up the evolutionary scale is fascinating in its visual images. Microscopic organisms in a tiny drop of water vie for the viewer's interest with birds and monkeys and other animals in their Read More

Moonraker

Actors: Roger Moore, Lois Chiles, Michel Lonsdale, Richard Kiel, Bernard Lee

Synopsis: In this adaptation of Ian Fleming's 1955 novel, James Bond (Roger Moore) must thwart Sir Hugo Drax (Michel Lonsdale), who plans to wipe out all of humankind and replace it with a super race that he has cultivated in a massive space station. The girl in the case is American secret agent Holly Read More

The Passage

Actors: Anthony Quinn, James Mason, Malcolm McDowell, Patricia Neal, Kay Lenz

Synopsis: Director J. Lee Thompson directed this World War II adventure drama from a script by author Bruce Nicolaysen who adapted the screenplay from his novel The Perilous Passage. Anthony Quinn stars as a brave Basque mountaineer who is hired by the American military to guide Professor Bergsson (James Read More

Le Rose et le Blanc

Actors: Bulle Ogier, Raymond Pellegrin

Une Sale Histoire

Actors: Michel Lonsdale, Jean Douchet, Jean-Noel Picq

Synopsis: Director Jean Eustache has included two identical stories told in contrasting ways in this very short festival feature. In the story, a young man who has heard that a hole in the men's room wall will allow him to see into the women's bathroom finds the tale very exciting. Even the fact that he has Read More

Le Diable Dans La Boite

Actors: Jean Rochefort, Michel Lonsdale, Dominique Labourier, Micheline Presle, Anouk Ferjac, Bernard Haller

Synopsis: After serving faithfully for over 10 years, the mid-level executive in this film has received notice that he is being fired for vague reasons having something to do with "reorganization" rather than his own job performance. As a protest, he tries attending a company party with his pants off, which Read More

L'Imprecateur

Actors: Jean Yanne, Michel Piccoli, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Jean-Claude Brialy, Michel Lonsdale

Synopsis: In this sardonic comedy, after an executive is killed in a mysterious automobile accident, the French offices of his multinational company is inundated with mysteriously threatening be-ribboned anti-capitalist tracts, delivered overnight to everyone's desks. Later, the executive's body is brought Read More

Die Linkshändige Frau

Actors: Edith Clever, Markus Muhleisen, Bruno Ganz, Michel Lonsdale, Angela Winkler, Gérard Depardieu

Synopsis: Mourning for a lost relationship can be every bit as devastating as mourning for someone who has died. In this drama based on the director's own novel, a couple with an unhappy marriage agree to a trial separation. They try to patch things up, and at the same time other relationships begin to Read More

Mr. Klein

Actors: Alain Delon, Jeanne Moreau, Suzanne Flon, Michel Lonsdale, Juliet Berto

Synopsis: Alain Delon plays Mr. Klein, a French-Catholic art dealer during the Nazi occupation. Strapped for cash, Klein takes financial advantage of his Jewish neighbors, knowing that they have no legal recourse. Ironically, Klein is himself mistaken for a missing Jew, a man who has been using Mr. Klein's Read More

Les Oeufs Brouilles

Actors: Jean Carmet, Jean-Claude Brialy, Anna Karina, Michel Lonsdale, Michel Aumont

Synopsis: After a computer-tested set of features is found to be the face most likely to win the confidence of the French people, Marcel (Jean Carmot), who recently turned down a promotion at his bank in order to spend time with his wife, finds himself swept up into the schemes and shenanigans of the Read More

Bartleby

Folle à Tuer

Actors: Marlène Jobert, Tomas Milian, Michel Lonsdale, Jean Bouise, Victor Lanoux

Synopsis: After having been sent to a mental asylum following being raped by a policeman, Julie (Marlene Jobert) is released to a job as a governess for a rich man's nephew. When Julie and the boy are kidnapped, it becomes clear that the kidnappers plan to frame her for the death of the boy. Before they can Read More

La Traque

Actors: Mimsy Farmer, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Jean-Luc Bideau, Michel Constantin, Michel Lonsdale

Synopsis: When a young Englishwoman (Mimsy Farmer) crosses the paths of an annual hunting party, two of the hunters rape and try to kill her. She manages to shoot one of them and escape. The rest of them decide to hunt her down. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide Read More

Section Spéciale

Actors: Louis Seigner, Michel Lonsdale, François Maistre, Ivo Garrani, Henri Serre, Roland Bertin, Pierre Dux

Synopsis: Based on a true story, Costa-Gavras' Special Section (Section Speciale) is set in wartime France, but the parallels to contemporary political persecution are inescapable. A young German naval officer is killed in occupied Paris. The supplicative Vichy government sets about to locate the Read More

Le Telephone Rose

Actors: Mireille Darc, Pierre Mondy, Michel Lonsdale, Daniel Ceccaldi, Gérard Herold

Synopsis: In this sad French romance, a factory owner gives up everything to win the love of a hooker who loves only her job. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

L'Adieu Nu

Actors: Maria Casarés, Michel Lonsdale

The Romantic Englishwoman

Actors: Glenda Jackson, Michael Caine, Helmut Berger, Béatrice Romand, Natalie Delon

Synopsis: Tom Stoppard and Thomas Wiseman's intricate script for The Romantic Englishwoman credibly explores the notion that a writer can manipulate the people in his life as deftly as he can manipulate the characters in his imagination. The title character Elizabeth, played by Glenda Jackson, is the wife Read More

India Song

Actors: Delphine Seyrig, Michel Lonsdale, Mathieu Carrière, Claude Mann, Vernon Dobtcheff

Synopsis: When Anne-Marie (Delphine Seyrig), the wife of the French vice-consul, grows weary of her oppressive life in 1930s India, she compulsively makes love so as to forget her situation. Her husband (Michel Lonsdale) is aware of her affairs but understands the cause of them and affects not to notice. Read More

Galileo

Actors: Topol, Colin Blakely, Georgia Brown, Clive Revill

Synopsis: Filmed in England, Galileo is based on Charles Laughton's 1947 adaptation of the play by Bertolt Brecht, which, like this 1975 film, was directed by Joseph Losey. Israeli film-star Topol plays the 17th century Italian astronomer, whose theories run contrary to the edicts of the Catholic Church. Read More

The Suspects

Actors: Mimsy Farmer, Paul Meurisse, Michel Bouquet, Bruno Cremer

Synopsis: When an American tourist is murdered in the south of France, the police must investigate. In this movie, the police inspector re-creates the girl's journeys through France until the murder is solved. Suspicions are narrowed down to four possible perpetrators early on, and flashbacks illuminate the Read More

Stavisky

Actors: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Charles Boyer, François Perier, Anny Duperey, Michel Lonsdale, Roberto Bisacco

Synopsis: This film by French director Alain Resnais (Last Year in Marienbad) is loosely based on a true story from the 1930s about financier, con-man and swindler Stavisky who was arrested in 1934 for selling phony stock but was never brought to trial. While in jail, he continued to engage in doubtful Read More

Une Baleine Qui Avait Mal Aux Dents

Actors: Bernadette Lafont, Francis Blanche, Henri Labussiere, Julien Guiomar

Synopsis: The friendship between three men and a woman who is the wife of one of them is explored in this French drama. The gentle equilibrium between them all is disturbed when a fourth man enters the picture. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide Read More

Out One Spectre

Actors: Bulle Ogier, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Bernadette Lafont

Synopsis: This experimental French film was originally made in a 12-hour-long version. The release version is only four-and-a-half hours long. It concerns a young man who pretends to be deaf and dumb in order to beg for money and begins to get letters which make him think that a conspiracy, hitherto known Read More

Caravan to Vaccares

Actors: Charlotte Rampling, David Birney, Michel Lonsdale, Marcel Bozzuffi, Michael Bryant

Synopsis: This glossy Alistair MacLean action programmer concerns the machinations involved in smuggling an Eastern European scientist out of France and into the United States while being pursued by gang of international pirates, who want the scientist for themselves so that they can grab the secrets that Read More

Un Linceul n'a Pas de Poches

Actors: Jean-Pierre Mocky, Jean Carmet, Michel Constantin, Michel Galabru, Daniel Gélin

Synopsis: Sometimes a reporter's urge to tell the truth is unquenchable, at least when the reporter is Dolannes (Jean-Pierre Mocky). Unfortunately, his newspaper is owned by corporations which like to keep things on an even keel, and his stories are often "spiked," (kept quiet). Frustrated, he leaves the Read More

La Verite Sur L'Imaginaire Passion D

Actors: Anne Wiazemsky, Isabelle Weingarten, Michel Lonsdale, Tamia

Aloise

Actors: Isabelle Huppert, Delphine Seyrig, Michel Lonsdale, Monique Lejeune, Roger Blin, Marc Eyraud

Synopsis: The painful life of a mentally unstable but highly gifted woman is unveiled in this film, based on episodes from the life of an actual person. Aloise (Delphine Seyrig) creates a series of haunting drawings while she is incarcerated in an institution for the insane in turn-of-the-century Read More

Serieux Comme le Plaisir

Actors: Jane Birkin, Richard Leduc, Georges Mansart, Michel Lonsdale, Roland Dubillard

Synopsis: In Serieux Comme le Plaisir, two men and a woman live quite happily together in a romantic liaison. The woman is probably wealthy anyway, so the trio doesn't worry much about money. One day they decide to take a trip in their beat-up car, managing the whole affair in their own special, insouciant Read More

Ne

Le Passager

Actors: Charlotte Rampling, David Birney, Michel Lonsdale, Marcel Bozzuffi

Les Grands Sentiments Font les Bons Gueuletons

Actors: Michel Bouquet, Jean Carmet, Anouk Ferjac

Synopsis: Two neighboring French families are going through major life-ceremonies at the same time: one is experiencing the funeral of the clan's mother, and the other is preparing for a wedding. In this comedy, the mix-up of flowers for the two parties is only a prelude to a mix-up of guests and some Read More

Glissements Progressifs du Plaisir

Actors: Anicée Alvina, Olga Georges-Picot, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Michel Lonsdale

Synopsis: The erotomaniac girl in this French film likes to tie her boyfriend up and make love to him. She also likes to cover herself with various unlikely unguents and make love to him. On one occasion, after she has tied him up but before she can return to him covered in raw egg and paint, someone Read More

The Day of the Jackal

Actors: Edward Fox, Michel Lonsdale, Alan Badel, Michel Auclair, Tony Britton, Terry Alexander

Synopsis: In this involving political thriller, a secret French paramilitary organization plans to assassinate French President Charles De Gaulle (Adrien Cayla-Legrand) because of their disagreement with his policies during the Algerian War. They hire a professional killer, known only as "The Jackal" (Edward Fox Read More

Malaventure: Monsieur Seul

Il était une fois un Flic

Actors: Michel Constantin, Daniel Ivernel, Mireille Darc

Synopsis: This French comedy/thriller is partly a spoof of the police/action genre and of The French Connection. The police inspector in this movie (Michel Constantin) gets in over his head when he arranges to impersonate the (dead) relative of a drug lord. The dead man's wife and child do not take too Read More

La Vieille Fille

Actors: Annie Girardot, Philippe Noiret, Michel Lonsdale, Jean-Pierre Darras

Synopsis: Muriel (Annie Giradot) is a shy woman who bluffs and blusters around in order to hide her shyness and to protect her loneliness, even though she longs wistfully for a companion of some sort. She has been lonely so long that now she is an old maid and has never been wooed. In this gentle French Read More

Chut!

Synopsis: Chut is an exclamation in French, rather stronger than "darn." It is the sort of thing one might say on being caught in a lie, or after hitting one's finger with a hammer. Unlike similar terms in English, this one carries a certain sense of self-mockery. In this French comedy, Fritz (Jacques Dufiho Read More

La Fille Au Violoncelle

Actors: Jean-Luc Bideau, Kalina Sem

Synopsis: Phillippe, a high-strung and extremely inhibited French department-store manager, vents his sexual repression by treating his employees horribly. When he falls in love with a beautiful American cellist, he is unable to reveal his feelings to her and begins to furtively watch her every move. Sadly Read More

Les Assassins de l'Ordre

Actors: Jacques Brel, Catherine Rouvel, Charles Denner, Roland Le Saffre

Synopsis: In France, the position of "magistrate" resembles that of the American district attorney; those in either post have broad investigatory and prosecutory powers. In this French language drama, Magistrate Level (Jacques Brel) is one of the rare few who will prosecute the police for abuse of power. He Read More

Murmur of the Heart

Actors: Lea Massari, Daniel Gélin, Michel Lonsdale, Benoit Ferreux, Marc Wincourt

Synopsis: Told with fondness and precision, and set in France at the time of the IndoChina War (which later became an American problem known as the Vietnam War), this controversial feature handles teen coming-of-age, sexuality and even incest with a gentleness that disappointed the prurient and shocked the Read More

La Grande Paulette

Actors: Yves Robert, Catherine Samie, Yves Barsacq

L'Automne

Actors: Tamia

Jaune le Soleil

Papa, les petits bateaux...

Actors: Sheila White

Synopsis: In this whimsical French comedy, Cookie (Sheila White) is a tough, sweet little rich girl, and is rather smart, too. She's smart enough and charming enough to outwit her kidnappers by setting one against the other until they have all killed each other or died trying to prove their worth to her. Read More

Le Printemps

Actors: Veronique Andries

Synopsis: This surrealistic French film juxtaposes two unrelated sequences of events: the experiences of one young man who is a fugitive from the law, and the simultaneous sexual development of an intense young woman. This film is notable for its use of images to convey moods and feelings and is shot in Read More

Hibernatus

Actors: Louis de Funès, Claude Gensac, Martine Kelly, Michel Lonsdale, Claude Piéplu, Bernard Alane

Synopsis: This comedy finds a family turned upside down by a new addition to the house. Hubert (Louis De Funes) and his wife (Claude-Gensac) are shocked to discover her grandfather has been found frozen in a block of ice at the South Pole. Scientists revive the man, who still appears to be 25 years old. Read More

L'Étalon

Actors: Bourvil, Francis Blanche, Michel Lonsdale, Jacques Legras, R.J. Chauffard

Synopsis: This sexually suggestive comedy also manages to simultaneously lampoon the French social security system. Chaminade (Bourvil) is the veterinarian who watches as a woman jumps off the roof of a small building. After the girl is caught by a folksinger with a striking physique, he rushes to offer Read More

L'Hiver

Actors: Michel Lonsdale, Christian Barbier

Detruire, Dit-Elle

Actors: Catherine Sellers, Nicole Hiss, Henri Garcin, Michel Lonsdale, Daniel Gélin

Synopsis: A professor, his wife, a student, and a married woman travel to a hotel on the edge of the forest for a week-long vacation. The forest represents the world outside their experiences and spheres of influence. When they enter the forest, their thoughts, words and actions become one. The married Read More

The Bride Wore Black

Actors: Jeanne Moreau, Claude Rich, Jean-Claude Brialy, Michel Bouquet, Michel Lonsdale

Synopsis: This Francois Truffaut thriller is based ona novel by William Irish (aka Cornell Woolrich), whose books had been adapted by Alfred Hitchcock on many previous occasions. Jeanne Moreau stars as a woman whose fiancé is nastily murdered by five men. Utilizing a series of disguises, the cool-customer Read More

Stolen Kisses

Actors: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Delphine Seyrig, Claude Jade, Michel Lonsdale, Daniel Ceccaldi

Synopsis: The episodic romantic comedy Stolen Kisses is the third installment in François Truffaut's Antoine Doinel series, which started with The 400 Blows in 1959. In 1968, Antoine (Jean-Pierre Léaud) is discharged from the military and comes home to Paris, getting an apartment in Montmartre with an Read More

La Grande Lessive

Actors: Bourvil, Francis Blanche, Jean Tissier, Roland Dubillard, Jean Poiret, Michel Lonsdale

Synopsis: This slapstick comedy concerns a college professor who stages a one-man vendetta against television. A hare-brained inventor has produced an aerosol spray that when applied effectively renders television antennae useless. Armand (Bourvil) enlists the help of a gymnast who scales heights to apply Read More

Le Judoka, Agent Secret

Synopsis: Marc (Jean-Claude Bercq) is a French secret agent whose only weapons are judo and karate in this routine spy feature. With the help of his comedy-relief sidekick Jacques (Henri Garcin), the duo goes to protect a noted scientist from falling into the hands of a gang of underworld thugs. Marc finds Read More

Les Compagnons de la Marguerite

Actors: Claude Rich, Michel Serrault, Francis Blanche, Roland Dubillard

Synopsis: Matou is an innocuous, gentle-looking man. He is married to a formidable, even a frightening woman, who is as dissatisfied with him as he is with her. He knows everything there is to know about restoring and authenticating manuscripts, particularly ancient ones, through his job at the museum. One Read More

L'Homme à la Buick

Is Paris Burning?

Actors: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Charles Boyer, Leslie Caron, George Chakiris, Gert Fröbe, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Kirk Douglas, Anthony Perkins, Simone Signoret

Synopsis: In 1944, with Paris on the verge of Liberation by the allies, Adolph Hitler ordered that the City of Light be blown up and burned to the ground. General Dietrich Von Choltitz, after much rumination, decided that he didn't want to go down in history as the man who destroyed Paris. His refusal to Read More

L'Authentique Proces de Carl-Emmanuel Jung

Actors: Maurice Poullenot, Michel Lonsdale, Liza Braconnier, Raymond Jourdan

Synopsis: A mild-mannered family man is tried for war crimes 20 years after the end of World War II. The obvious questions are raised about his moral responsibilities versus obeying military orders. He seems to be a happily married man who loves his family and appreciates music and the finer classics. The Read More

Je Vous Salue Mafia

Actors: Henry Silva, Jack Klugman, Micheline Presle, Eddie Constantine, Elsa Martinelli

Synopsis: In this crime drama, an American fugitive in France is pursued by two thugs for two different reasons. One of the pursuers has been engaged by a large, corrupt construction company that wants the fugitive killed to prevent him from giving damaging testimony. The other stalker has more personal Read More

Behold a Pale Horse

Actors: Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn, Omar Sharif, Raymond Pellegrin, Paolo Stoppa

Synopsis: By 1964, it was possible for a major studio to make a film touching upon the Spanish Civil War without having to answer to some senate investigating committee or other. Based on Emeric Pressburger's novel A Mouse on Sunday, Behold a Pale Horse stars Gregory Peck as a war veteran who continues Read More

Les Copains

Actors: Philippe Noiret, Pierre Mondy, Claude Rich, Michel Lonsdale

Jaloux Comme un Tigre

Actors: Darry Cowl, Dany Saval, Francis Blanche, Jean Poiret

The Trial

Actors: Anthony Perkins, Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider, Suzanne Flon, Elsa Martinelli, Akim Tamiroff

Synopsis: Much of Orson Welles' latter-day reputation as an "unfathomable" genius rests upon his seeming unwillingness to tell a story in clear, precise fashion. Sometimes, as in such films as Touch of Evil, Welles' spotty storytelling skills can be forgiven in the light of the excellent visuals. In other Read More

Snobs

Actors: Francis Blanche, Pierre Dac, Jacques Dufilho, Elina Labourdette, Noël Roquevert

Synopsis: Director Jean-Pierre Mocky takes jabs at the arrogant attitudes of the social and corporate elite in this routine satire about four men vying for control of a company. After the president of a dairy cooperative accidentally drowns, rather ignominiously, a quartet of vice-presidents start to Read More

La Denonciation

Actors: Maurice Ronet, Françoise Brion, Nicole Berger, Sacha Pitoeff

Synopsis: A few gratuitous erotic scenes undermine the supposed seriousness of this routine drama of murder and intrigue by director Jacques Domiol-Valcroze. The past comes back to haunt a young film producer when he makes an unexpected return trip to a nightclub one afternoon and discovers a murder victim. Read More

Adorable Menteuse

Actors: Marina Vlady, Macha Meril, Jean-Marc Bory, Michel Vitold

Synopsis: Adorable Menteuse is a mild French comedy starring Marina Vlady. She plays a garrulous 18-year-old girl who can't go five minutes without telling a lie. When she falls in love with an older man (all of forty!), she vows to reform and speak nothing but the truth. But Vlady's reputation precedes Read More

La Main Chaude

Actors: Jacques Charrier, Macha Meril, Paulette Dubost, Alfred Adam

Synopsis: Intermittent sexual encounters and a sleazy group of protagonists provide some interest in this otherwise undistinguished story about avarice and love. A chain of similar events begins when a young woman decides to bilk her middle-age "sugar daddy" of some money. She is temporarily living with him Read More

Les Portes Claquent

Actors: Dany Saval, Françoise Dorléac, Catherine Deneuve

Une Balle Dans le Canon

Actors: Pierre Vaneck, Mijanou Bardot, Roger Hanin, Paul Frankeur

Synopsis: The producers of Une Balles dans le Canou (A Slug in the Heater) undoubtedly believed that the magical name of BARDOT on the marquee would draw in patrons by the thousands. Imagine the surprise of some of those patrons when the film's star turned out not to be Brigitte Bardot, but her younger Read More

C'est Arrivé a Aden

Actors: Dany Robin, André Luguet, Jacques Dacqmine, Jean Bretonniere

Synopsis: C'East Arrive a Oden is partly a serious adventure yarn, and partly a spoof of its own genre. A French acting troupe finds itself stranded in a far-flung British colony in India. The troupe's leading lady, Dany Robin, is almost immediately wooed by a native prince. The upshot of this flirtation Read More