Sophie Daumier Movies

After he leaves his wife and daughter for a butcher-shop owner, one would imagine that Roger had been as foolish as he was going to be. However, before he can marry the shopkeeper, she runs off with an old friend of his, who leaves behind his own mistress. Roger takes up with this his friend's ex-mistress, and they marry. Instead of being upset that his new wife is seeing other men, he feels that he would be a fool to be upset about this. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This well-paced spaghetti western from director Giorgio Ferroni deals with Southern Major Sanders (Jacques Sernas), who continues fighting the North after the conclusion of the Civil War. Former Rebel Gary Diamond (Giuliano Gemma), now a guide, leads a pair of Union soldiers to stop Sanders before he can pull off a raid on Fort Yuma. Little does Diamond know that one of the Union officers is actually Sanders' spy. More complications ensue, pairing Diamond with saloon-girl Connie Breastful (Sophie Daumier) before Sanders' plot is foiled. A rousing melodrama with a labyrinthine storyline, Ferroni's film sometimes crosses the line into silliness, but remains entertaining throughout, aided by a fine score by Ennio Morricone and Gianni Ferrio. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

A inept group of crooks conspire to rob a department store before the Christmas holiday in this crime comedy. They get the money but it is dropped in glue and later taken by juvenile delinquents. The crooks get the money back and carefully wash the bills and hang them out to dry. A charging bull on the loose leads the police to the hideout to foil the felony. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

While visiting a vegetarian restaurant, a young writer finds a corpse in the restroom. When he returns with the police, the body is gone. The writer is left with the unlucky fellow's hat -- which leads a certain beautiful woman to believe that his identity is the same as the dead man's. Not only is his life now at risk, but things get increasingly bizarre as he meets up with a mysterious sect of cannibals and with a group of opium-smuggling gangsters. What's more, the woman herself seems to have a diabolical doppleganger. Aimez-Vous Les Femmes? was adapted by Roman Polanski and Gerard Brach from a book by Georges Bardawil. The distinguished Sacha Vierny contributed his cinematographic talent to this black comedy shortly after his successful collaboration (among many) with director Alain Resnais on Muriel, ou le Temps d'un Retour/Muriel, or the Time of Return (1963). ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi

Director Jacques Baratier's Sweet and Sour is an independently produced project with a surprising amount of European movie-industry input. Guy Bedos, a Brando wannabe, plays one of several young French cineastes who take to the streets to make improvisational movies. The "cinema verite" quality of the film is somewhat undercut by the presence of major stars: Anna Karina, Simone Signoret, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Monica Vitti, Claude Brasseur, and many others. After several "spontaneous" vignettes -- a street tennis game, a striptease lesson, a West Side Story style gang rumble -- Guy Bedos announces he will go to Hollywood to film the life of Voltaire. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The vagaries of love are often tragic, as Amelie ou le Temps d'Aimer seems to say. Directed by Michel Drach in his second try at a feature-length film, the well-wrought romance revolves around the love that develops between Amelie (Marie-Jose Nat) and her cousin Alain (Jean Sorel). Amelie is an orphan who lives with Alain and his family on an island off the coast of France. Alain has dreams of working as a seaman, while Amelie works for Alain's father. The budding romance between the two takes a nose-dive when Alain falls for a glamorous actress who shows up on the island one day. Not mature enough yet to make a wise choice, Alain's betrayal of Amelie turns out to be a grievous mistake. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

This conventional teen drama by director Maurice Cloche centers around the upheavals in the life of young Martine (Pascale Audret). She is plagued both by poverty and by uncaring, problem parents who in no way can provide the kind of nurturing that Martine needs during her adolescent years. As a result of her family situation, Martine runs away from home and gets involved with a group of teens and young adults from the wrong side of the moral tracks. What happens to her during this time fills in the remainder of this 90-minute feature. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

There's a bit of Charley Chase and Buster Keaton in Noel-Noel's portrayal of a status-conscious husband in Pied, a Chevel et en Volure. The bourgeois protagonist and his wife (Denise Grey) make it their mission to match the sumptuous lifestyle of their prospective in-laws. To do this, the couple purchases an expensive automobile. The next step: learning to drive. What follows is a series of unrelated but undeniably hilarious gags, perhaps better suited to a 2-reel comedy than a feature film, but still well worth having. The title, by the way, translates to By Foot, By Horse and By Car. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi