Micheline Dax Movies

Filmmakers Frédéric and Samuel Guillaume team to direct this charming tale of a 15-year-old who sets out to find his long-lost father and instead stumbles into the adventure of a lifetime. Max's father was a famous troubadour named Johnny Bigoude who disappeared shortly after his boy was born. Now Max is a teenager who is known to the locals as something of a busker himself, and he's determined to find out what became of his old man. When Max hears word that Johnny is planning an underground gig in the small town of Hilaire, he hits the road and hopes for the best. Upon arriving in the town, Max quickly realizes that Saint-Hilaire is in fact a company town that seems to have been virtually monopolized by Bzzz & Co. -- a popular manufacturer of fly swatters. The manager in charge of operations is the indolent Rodolfo. Though initially hesitant to work for such a shiftless lout, Max soon meets the pretty Felice and decides to sign on with Bzzz & Co. anyway. Soon enough, however, Rodolfo's incompetence catches up with him and the shareholders make the drastic decision to fire half of the workers and bring in a stringent new management team. When a series of subsequent calamities send the townspeople into an uproar, it's up to Max and Felice to get to the bottom of the mystery and restore order in Hilaire. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

After a 10-year absence, 27-year-old Amelie (Florence Pernel) returns home to suburban Paris and the decaying motorcycle-dealership/junkyard where she was raised. Her hope is that time has healed the open wound of hostility between herself and her alcoholic older brother Adrien (Dominique Pinon). Amelie dusts off an ancient motorcycle, revs it up, and practices riding inside the immense sphere of metal latticework constructed by her late father. The local popularity of this stunt suggests a broader appeal plus profits, so soon the act goes on the road, where emotions spin out of control. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

In this frothy comedy, Lucie (Patricia Dinve) never knew her father, but she somehow finds out he has recently died and is to be buried on a certain day at a certain cemetary. In a belated attempt to connect with her roots, she rushes to the cemetary and joins a funeral gathering. She gets to know the people at the ceremony and is soon embroiled in an art smuggling scheme and has some (probably incestuous) romantic feelings for a young man she believes may be her brother. Eventually she finds out that she went to the wrong part of the cemetary and that these people are not her kin. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

A sextet of French filmmakers collaborated on Six in Paris (originally Paris vu Par...) Jean Douchet directed the film's first episode, "Saint Germain-des-Pres," the story of the up-and-down relationship between a male model (Jean-Francois Chappey) and an American coed (Barbara Wilkin). Jean Rouch's "Gare du Nord" is a haunting twist-of-fate tale involving a suicidal handsome stranger (Gilles Queant). Written and directed by Jean-Daniel Pollet, "Rue Saint-Denis" unites an experienced prostitute (Micheline Dax) with a garrulous customer (Claude Melki). "Place de l'Etoile," a Chekhovian guilt trip involving salesman Jean-Michael Rouziere and shabby, supposedly dead street person Marcel Gallon, was Eric Rohmer's contribution. Jean-Luc Godard's "Montparnasse-Levallois," photography by American documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles, finds Joanne Shimkus in an imaginary menage a trois. Six in Paris is topped off by Claude Chabrol's "La Muette," wherein a family man (played by Chabrol himself) comes to grief when he purchases a pair of earplugs. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Love and the Frenchwoman (La Francaise et L'Amour) concentrates on the nature of love by illustrating seven separate aspects of the emotion. In "Childhood," 9-year old Pierre-Jean Vaillard suffers a traumatic experience when he takes his parents' "cabbage patch" theory of conception too literally. In "Adolescence," a little girl (Annie Sinigalla) constructs an elaborate fantasy world on the occasion of her first kiss. "Virginity" is a study in frustration, as betrothed couple Valerie Lagrange and Pierre Michel agonizingly await their wedding-night consummation of their ardor. "Marriage" finds a union ending almost before it begins as a pair of newlyweds (Marie-Jose Nat and Claude Rich) bicker all the way to their honeymoon rendezvous. "Adultery" allows husband Paul Meurisse the opportunity to calmly provide an object lesson to his wife's lover Jean-Paul Belmondo. In "Divorce", a couple (Annie Girardot and Francois Pierer) find that it's impossible to have a "civilized" breakup. And in "A Woman Alone," bigamist Robert Lamoreaux meets his Waterloo in the forms of Martine Carol and Sylvia Montfort. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A stage comedy by Jacques Sommet was the source for L'Ami de la Famille (Friend of the Family). Comedian Darry Cowl plays the title character, a lovesick young sap named Pierre. Talked out of committing suicide over an unhappy romance by his friend Paul (Raymond Bussieres), the grateful Pierre moves in, bag and emotional baggage, with Paul's family. Within a few days, Paul begins to regret persuading the obstreperous Pierre not to kill himself: in fact, he and his entire family are seriously contemplating murder! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Rue de L'Estrapade was filmmaker Jacques Becker's immediate follow-up to his 1952 classic Casque D'Or. That the film does not quite measure up to its predecessor shouldn't be held against it. Anne Vernon and Louis Jourdan play Francoise and Henri, a happily married Parisian couple. Despite his marital bliss, Henri decides to embark on a brief romantic fling. In answer to his infidelity, Francoise moves to the Bohemian artists' community, where she nearly succumbs to the charms of a scruffy existentialist (Daniel Gelin). This being a French film, a satisfactory ending is achieved without any harsh punishment being bestowed upon either husband or wife. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi