Sophie Desmarets Movies

On the way to his wedding, Bernard (Gerar Jugnot) experiences car trouble. What could be more natural than to stop at the nearest respectable looking house and ask for help? How could he have known that at that very moment the house's residents, members of a cult, are busily committing mass suicide? Bernard escapes with his own life, and takes with him Sebastien (Francois Morel), an addled cult member who has somehow avoided his compatriots' fate. However, he has also incurred the wrath of the cult's leader, "Magic" (Jean Yanne) and his assistant (Martin Lamotte), both of whom are very much alive. This sinister duo follows Bernard to his fiancee's house, where a social disaster is in progress. In a high point of this French comedy, Bernard's upper-crust fiancee Constance (Michele Laroque) handles the intruders with wit, invective, and well-bred intolerance. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A boy, blaming himself for his parent's break-up, devises a scheme to bring them back together in this entertaining French film. Antoine is angry because he can't have a leather jacket so he steals one from a boutique. He couldn't have one because his parents couldn't afford it. His father is a teacher and makes a modest salary. His mother, to help out, takes a job as a telephone operator for an advertising agency. She quickly advances within the company and is soon out earning her husband, who resents it, has an affair, and leaves the house. Antoine, to ease his self-blame and restore harmony, begins hatching his elaborate plan. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this French drama, an aging dentist looks for a little liveliness by abandoning his wife in favor of a younger woman. When he learns that his mistress also has another younger lover, he gets jealous, but tries not to make an issue of it. In the end, he dumps her and returns to his wife, who is not about to stand for his middle-aged immaturity. She leaves him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Leon (Bourvil) is the owner of a cafe in a small town in occupied France in this comedic war story. Like most French of the time, he tries to get along with the German invaders. When his daughter (Sara Franchetti) brings home a downed British aviator, Leon becomes involved by helping the man escape to England. Through a strange turn of events, he accompanies the pilot back to Britain. Leon is thought to be a spy at first, but soon he is trained by British intelligence to help the Allied cause back in France. This was one of the last films for Bourvil, the beloved French comedian who often played the common man caught up in circumstances beyond his control. Terry-Thomas plays a British captain with typical flair. The color process is not credited. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

The experiences of young school boys are illustrated in this lighthearted film in which a song precedes each story. One boy is compelled to shoplift when he is ignored by his parents. Another less-scholarly inclined boy shows incredible mechanical aptitude when he fixes the principal's car. Yet another lad gets a lesson in economics when he finds some paper money. The boys all learn that valuable lessons are not always confined to the classroom. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

Ce Soir les Jupons Volent (Tonight the Skirts Fly) was designed primarily to show off a new wide-screen process called Dyaliscope. The story concerns a trio of clothing models, all of whom participate in a high-profile fashion show. In flashback, the lives of the three girls are detailed, with emphasis on romantic entanglements. Director Dmitri Kirsanoff knows what his audience wants: a goodly portion of the film is given over to backstage glimpses of barely dressed damsels, not to mention the climactic runway display of revealing Gallic gowns. Whether or not the three leading ladies in Ce Soir les Jupons Volent could act was hardly taken into consideration. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide