Stanislas Crevillen Movies

While there are plenty of stories about gay men who have pretended to be straight for the sake of their careers, this tart comedy from France considers the dilemma of a straight man doing just the opposite. Francois Pignon (Daniel Auteuil) is an accountant whose personality is bland to the point of being nonexistent; he's been down in the dumps ever since his wife left him two years ago, and he becomes even more depressed when he learns that his boss is planning on firing him after 20 years of loyal service. Francois is seriously considering suicide until his next-door neighbor Belone (Michel Aumont) comes up with a plan to save his career. Belone finds some photos snapped at an especially randy gay nightclub, and using his computer, he pastes Francois' face over that of one of the participants. He sends copies of the doctored picture to several of Francois' co-workers, and soon everyone at the office is convinced the quiet little man has a flamboyant secret life. The firm's CEO, Kopel (Jean Rochefort), now has second thoughts about firing Francois, since letting an employee go who is known to be gay could invite a sexual discrimination suit. Meanwhile, the firm's public relations man, Guillaume (Thierry Lhermitte), is dealing with Felix (Gérard Depardieu), an employee relations executive who is well known as a narrow-minded thug. In order to counter charges that he's a rampant homophobe, Guillaume instructs Felix to make friends with Francois, and soon Felix is spending so much time with Francois (while fighting his own internal revulsion) that his wife wonders if he's seeing another woman. Le Placard was writer and director Francis Veber's first film after his international hit Le Diner de Cons -- in which the leading character was also named Francois Pignon. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In 1917, the French army used a brutal technique in its attempt to prevent mutinies by its increasingly disaffected soldiers. After lining a unit up on parade, one randomly chosen soldier would be required to step forward and he would be shot, as an example to the others that refusal to fight would not be tolerated. He would go down on the record books as having been a traitor to his country. The general known as "the butcher of Hurlus" was particularly enthusiastic in his use of this technique. This film is an adaptation of Jean Amila's novel Le Boucher des Hurlus. The story, set in the aftermath of the war, concerns Michel (Stanislas Crevillen), a young man orphaned in this manner. He lives with his mother until she collapses under the wave of vituperation from the women in her community, who consider her murdered husband to have been a traitor. When he is sent to an orphanage, he discovers that many of the children in it are there for the same reason he is. Michel decides to escape his captivity and kill the general who ordered his father's death. He and the other children like him are able to get away from the orphanage, in the course of their journeys, they tour the grim battlefields of the recent war. Together, they return to Paris, determined to exact their revenge. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi