Pierre Fabre Movies

The action in this attempt at farce and drama starts moving when a prostitute just out of prison overwhelms a young man with her charms in their shared train compartment and ends up getting invited to his home. Once there, other than inducing some unusual behavior in the members of the family, she plans to kill off the pimp who got her into jail on false charges -- and get away with murder. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

A man is left grieving for his dead family after they were shot down in a train station, innocent bystanders to a robbery gone wrong. They were never vindicated since the police seem unable (if not reluctant) to solve the case. Driven in part because he survived and they did not, and frustrated with the inept police, the man starts his own investigation with the aid of a right-wing organization that advocates citizens' militias. He discovers that a woman who also survived the train-station massacre has a brother with blood on his hands -- he is clearly the mastermind behind the "robbery" killings -- staged to effect the politically-motivated assassination of one particular man. He and the woman join ranks to bring the brother to justice, but soon they themselves are being hunted down because they know too much. The right-wing group comes on the scene again, catalyzing a final showdown that seems inevitable from the beginning. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Spiced with French humor and insouciance, this otherwise routine comedy is carried by the acting talents of Jean-Luc Bideau as Jean-Luc and Jean-Pierre Sentier as Mathieu. Jean-Luc is a wood carver of decorative, functional works that keep baguettes on the table while he longs to write his first mystery novel. Mathieu sculpts in spite of a lack of evidence of any talent. His real problem lies in his anxiety over marrying the woman he loves: whenever he walks up to the altar he turns around and exits in a hurry. Meanwhile, Jean-Luc has fallen in love with a woman who has about as much enthusiasm for the altar as Mathieu. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

This French psychological detective drama owes much of its tone to Existentialism, even though that philosophy had its heyday at least a decade earlier. In the story, set in the 1950s, Nestor (Michel Galabru) is a small-time private detective who is doing a small-time job, searching for some missing jewels. When the activities of a serial murderer cross his path and interrupt his search, he turns his efforts to tracking him down. The killer is the son of a local policeman and feels that he is somehow above the ordinary concerns of mere mortals: his murders are his way of proving this. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In the fourth installment of François Truffaut's Antoine Doniel series, this romantic comedy shows how Antoine (Jean-Pierre Léaud) went from being a mischievous boy to an adorably charming young man of 26. Domicile Conjugal begins with Antoine settling down with Christine (Claude Jade), his girlfriend from the previous film, Baisers volés. He finds himself accepted and loved by his wife and her family, so the young couple move in to an apartment building together. They live in a lively neighborhood of interesting characters, such as the old man who never leaves and the opera singer who fights with his wife. Antoine finds work as a florist painting roses, while Christine makes a living by teaching violin lessons. After he gets involved in an accidental fire at the florist's, he gets a new job with an American corporation where he steers radio-controlled boats around a pond all day. A big change occurs when Christine becomes pregnant and gives birth to a baby boy, while Antoine grows increasingly distant. Eventually, he becomes infatuated with a Japanese girl, Kyoko (Hiroko Berghauer), resulting in some shifts in lifestyle. The fifth and final Antoine Doniel film L'Amour en fuite was released in 1979, picking up the story with Antoine after he reaches his thirties. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

A group of French anarchists are moved to violence when their leader Raymond (Jacques Brel) is captured. They take up with the notorious gangster Bonnot (Bruno Cremer) and the gang steals a car to use in a bank robbery. The non-violent anarchists soon turn to killing and murder the guards before escaping to Belgium. They hide out in a whorehouse until a conniving madame blows the whistle on them. The group splits up, but the anarchists soon realize they are helpless without the ringleader Bonnot. The local police chief arrests one of the gang, and the authorities soon close in on the rest of the gang. By now police have enlisted the help of the army to insure that none of the criminals will escape in this mobster movie set in the early days of the 20th century. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Acclaimed French director François Truffaut's third and, for many viewers, best film is an adaptation of a semi-autobiographical novel by Henri-Pierre Roché. Set between 1912 and 1933, it stars Oskar Werner as the German Jules and Henri Serre as the Frenchman Jim, kindred spirits who, while on holiday in Greece, fall in love with the smile on the face of a sculpture. Back in Paris, the smile comes to life in the person of Catherine (Jeanne Moreau); the three individuals become constant companions, determined to live their lives to the fullest despite the world war around them. When Jules declares his love for Catherine, Jim agrees to let Jules pursue her, despite his own similar feelings; Jules and Catherine marry and have a child (Sabine Haudepin), but Catherine still loves Jim as well. An influential film that has grown in stature over the decades, Jules et Jim was often viewed by the counterculture of the 1960s as a cinematic proponent of the free-love movement, but in actuality the picture is a statement against such a way of life. Despite the bond shared by Jules, Jim, and Catherine, their ménage à trois is doomed to fail; and Catherine's inability to choose between the two men leads to tragic consequences for all three. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi