Jean-Claude Dauphin Movies

While the French have a knack for fine wine and fine food, they can't come up with a decent serial killer of their own, so an American has to step in to terrorize Paris in this crime thriller. A lunatic is on the loose in the City of Lights, murdering women and disemboweling their bodies. The fiend has already claimed five victims, and police detectives Nathan (Richard Anconina) and Philippe (Frederic Diefenthal) want to stop him before he can find a sixth. Nathan is introduced to an American detective with extensive experience in tracking multiple murderers, and with the American's help, he narrows the case down to a prime suspect -- Douglas Foster Blade (Jonathan Firth), an American diplomat in France who is negotiating a trade agreement between the two countries. Blade has diplomatic immunity, which the French government refuses to lift, despite Nathan's requests. Nathan is removed from the case, but he refuses to stop trailing Blade, and he begins using fellow detective Marine (Chiara Mastroianni) as a decoy is hopes of catching the killer in the act. Six-Pack was based on a book by French crime novelist Jean-Hugues Oppel. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Benoit Jacquot directed this French drama about an older woman and a younger man, adapted from the novel by Yukio Mishima. When career woman Dominique (Isabelle Huppert) goes out to a nightclub one evening, her attraction to bartender Quentin (Vincent Martinez) is observed by cross-dressing Chris (Vincent Lindon), who approaches her and supplies inside dope on Quentin, leaving her intrigued. Although Dominique and Quentin travel in radically different spheres of income, class, politics, and education, these barriers recede into the background as sexual passion overcomes the couple. Shown in competition at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Charlie (Guy Marchand) returns home after being declared legally dead to reclaim his wife Georgia (Caroline Cellier) and cash in on a lucrative life insurance policy in this shadowy drama. He finds Georgia is married to the crooked cop William (Niels Arestrup), who has his eye on the insurance money. Antihero Charlie and the villainous police inspector head towards an inevitable confrontation, while Georgia is caught in the middle. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Charles Aznavour and Ugo Tognazzi appear in this comedy about two Jewish merchants in need of cash. They team up with a Seminarian (Andre Dussolier) whose talents lie in opening safes and praying to God for assistance, and they plan one great robbery that will get everyone out of debt. Some viewers might take exception at a few digs against organized religion. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This well-articulated, engaging story about the differing fortunes of two brothers just after Algeria's war for independence is conventional in its outlines, and may have several more characters than can be developed in a short time, but its subtle handling by director Ariel Zeitoun helps to counteract those flaws. Rego (Christophe Malavoy) has just returned from a tour of duty in Algeria where he escaped the demands of his budding musical career. Now that he is back, his former agent does not welcome him with open arms because he is still mad over Rego's sudden departure, just when things were going well. The delinquent, wild teenager Antoine (Pierre-Loup Rajot) is Rego's younger brother, now in love with his new music teacher (Gabrielle Lazure), and his persistence in going after the reserved young woman ends in a brief and forbidden fling -- and trouble for her. As events continue on their course, the fate of the two brothers is vastly divergent, even though they continue to have a strong bond between them. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

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

Christopher Lee dons the Count's legendary cape once again for this satirical French-made entry in the vampire genre (titled Dracula and Son for American release). It seems Dracula's son (Bernard Ménez) is a bit reluctant to carry on the family's blood-drinking tradition on account of severe squeamishness. This understandable rift is widened when the Dracula family is banished from Romania by the new communist regime, and they end up traveling their separate ways -- Ménez goes to France, while Lee, oddly enough, finds a lucrative career in British horror films (perish the thought!). They are reunited again at the premiere of one such film, where they meet and fall in love with the same woman). Directed by Edouard Molinaro, known best for his international comedy hit La Cage aux Folles, this was a very witty film prior to its decimation by an uncaring American distributor, who not only excised many of the jokes but also replaced them with horribly-written, sophomoric gags. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

In this ironic French tale of tragedy and love, Laurent (Yves Montand), a world-weary ex-convict and prison-reform writer is coming back to the dreary town his old prison is in. To someone whose life is so imbued with violence, everything he sees seems like a threat. Indeed, the town appears to be populated solely by thugs and elderly people. The banked fires of his passion are awakened when he sees a perfectly normal looking professional woman (Katherine Ross) coming down the street. Soon afterward, his sense of danger fails him, for he is brutally beaten in a men's restroom by a martial-artist nun. When he is taken for medical treatment, he discovers that the lovely woman he saw earlier is to be his doctor. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Director Edouard Molinaro is better known for his later film Le Cage Aux Folles. In La Mandarine, an eccentric family runs a luxury hotel in Paris. They are not extremely interested in the business they run, preferring instead to dote on the family's grandmother. Things get lively when a good-looking Englishman (Murray Head) comes to stay. He manages to court (and thrill) three female generations of the innkeeping family but finally decides to marry the granddaughter of the clan, whom he has made pregnant. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this French film, Philippe (Philippe March) is an older man and an industrialist whose wife is confined to her bed. They have no children. As he is preparing to go on a vacation to the seaside, he strikes up an acquaintance with Paul (Yann Favre), a young working-class boy, and decides to bring him along. This is Paul's first glimpse of how the other half lives, with their first-class hotels and so on. When he meets some aristocratic young people at the resort, he tries to put over the fiction that he is of their class, with poor success. One of the film's highlights occurs when he confides his deception and its difficulties to Philippe. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Henri (Jean-Claude Dauphin) is a young filmmmaker who convinces a nobleman to let him use his sprawling chateau to film a movie. The governess to the nobleman's children is a Polish woman in her 30s. Henri successfully talks her into a role in the film, and the two are soon engaged in a passionate romantic affair. He joins the army, but the lovestruck governess follows him wherever he goes. When he tries to end the affair, she attempts suicide. The unfortunate woman continues to follow Henri, who may never escape from her amorous obsession for him. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide