Michel Galabru Movies

Laetitia Casta stars in director Gilles Legrand's drama concerning an Edwardian-era girl whose fate becomes permanently intertwined with that of the last wolf pack on Mont Blanc. Angele (Casta) is a child who lives in a French Alpine town with her taxidermist father Leon (Patrick Chesnais). Shortly after Leon receives a pile of wolf corpses that he plans to stuff, Angele notices an orphaned black cub descending from the mountains in search of his family. Angele realizes that trappers will kill the cub if they find him, so she quietly releases him back into the wild. Years later, following World War I, a local family named The Garcins have struck it rich from business at their foundry; Leon named the Garcin patriarch, Albert, Angele's godfather. A benevolent and generous soul, Albert has given a local gypsy and her developmentally disabled son Guiseppe (Stefano Accorsi) a lifetime lease on a nearby mountain shack. Giuseppe guards several surviving wolves with his life, taking a special shine to the black pack leader he names Carbone. Meanwhile, Angele - who is now a young woman - longs to become a veterinarian specializing in undomesticated animals. Though the local men scoff at the idea of a female veterinarian, Angele ignores these naysayers. In order to gain some professional veterinary experience, she recruits circus owner Zhormov (Miglen Mirtchev) to fly her into the mountains that tower above her hometown, where she hopes to find wild animals. During the course of their journey, however, the plane crashes and Angele must wait as Zhormov searches for help. But sometimes help arrives in the most unexpected of forms, such as the black wolf that recognizes Angele's scent from the days when he was just a frightened pup. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Asterix and Obelix, the French comic book heroes created by René Goscinny and Albert Underzo (their adventures have sold 280 million copies to date in Europe), are brought to the big screen in their first live-action adventure. Set in 50 B.C., Asterix (Christian Clavier) and Obelix (Gérard Depardieu) are a pair of comedic heroes living in a small but well-protected village in Gaul, where a magic potion concocted by Druids turns the townsfolk into mighty soldiers. When Roman troops carve a path through Gaul to reach the English Channel, Caesar (Gottfried John) and his aide de camp Detritus (Roberto Benigni) discover the secret elixir and capture the Druid leader who knows its formula, and Asterix and Obelix are sent off to rescue them. Shot in Brittany, Bavaria, and Arpajon, Asterix et Obelix Contre Cesar brings these cartoon characters to life on a grand scale; it was reportedly the most expensive French-language film ever, at a cost of 274 million francs ($48 million). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Karim Dridi, best known for Pigalle (1994) and Bye-Bye (1995), directed this French comedy-drama about actor Angelo Bastiani (Philippe Ambrosini) who installs satellite dishes when not auditioning for films. At one of these auditions he meets Concepcion Alibera (Rossy De Palma), and they go out drinking. After being told he's not convincing enough for a role in a gangster flick, Ange dons a mask and stages a parking-lot hold-up, terrifying the film's director and casting director to prove his point. This gives him an idea, and later he intrudes on a dinner party of actors, taking them all hostage. Bridging the gap between fantasy and reality, the film features several actors who portray themselves. Shown at 1998 Locarno and Montreal film festivals. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

A successful prostitute attempts to fashion a homeless man into her ideal pimp in this unconventional, darkly humorous French drama. Marie (Anouk Grinberg) has no real need for a pimp, being a self-reliant, unabashed woman so fond of her job as a hooker that she is able to convince strangers to try it themselves. Indeed, her financial success allows her to take care of Jeannot (Gérard Lanvin), an impoverished vagrant whom she finds on the streets. She provides him with a bath and a place to sleep, and the two rapidly become lovers. Nevertheless, Marie is soon imploring Jeannot to act as her pimp, begging him to slap her around and take her money. He takes to his new role and soon decides to talk a manicurist (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) into becoming the next member of his stable. The newcomer's inexperience proves to be his downfall, however, as the manicurist lands him in trouble with the law. Director Bertrand Blier attempts to create a controversial look at sexuality by combining black comedy with scenes of smoky sensuality, though many critics found the central premise and the presentation of Marie's contradictory, masochistic character too unconvincing for the film to be fully successful. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

After striking responsive chord at the Berlin Film Festival, Fernando Trueba's Belle Epoque (aka Age of Beauty) went on to win 9 Spanish Goya awards and an Academy Award for "Best Foreign Film." Set in pre-Franco Spain, film stars Jorge Sanz as Fernando, a carefree, pacifistic army deserter. Wandering about the countryside, Fernando is welcomed into home of the wealthy Don Manolo (Fernando Fernan Gomez). Far from upset by the boy's AWOL status, Manolo is delighted because he shares Fernando's political philosophies. What follows is sheer heaven for the peaceloving lad, who sits smilingly on the sidelines as Manolo's four voluptuous daughters (Adrian Gil, Maribel Verdu, Miriam Diaz-Aroca, and Penelope Cruz) literally fight for his attentions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Eric Blanc plays a man who has witnessed a car-bombing and become a major media celebrity. He just can't say enough about what he saw, and his speculations about it are extremely discomfiting to the French secret service. They wish he would just shut up. Instead, he tackles the task of finding out what really happened with the help of his supposedly wheelchair-bound stepfather Victor Lanoux, an ace detective who was forcibly "retired" from the police department as a result of his refusal to stop investigating cases when told to. Together, they comically stick a monkey wrench into the official machinery of cover-up. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Before was made into the famous Mozart opera, Le Mariage de Figaro was an incredibly famous French comedy and political satire by Beaumarchais (1732-1799). Beaumarchais was at least as interesting a character as any in his plays; among other things, he was a litigious watchmaker, a playwright, and spy who was also one of the fundraisers for the American Revolution. Even though this otherwise completely silly and very popular story was written by a man who was (at the time) spying for the monarchy, it was also considered seditious, and Louis XVI tried (unsuccessfully) to have it banned. So much for the powers of an absolute monarch. This filmed production of the play is most notable for having been financed by ticket subscriptions. The familiar story concerns the trials and tribulations of the duplicitious Count Almaviva (Claude Giraud), as he tries to have his cake (marriage to the lovely Suzanne, played here by Fanny Cottencon) and eat it, too, by avoiding a contracted marriage to Marceline (Line Renaud), to whom he owes a lot of money. The figures in the story scheme and plot for and against one another in the most vigorous manner possible, and they eventually discover some unlikely truths. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Advertising executive Gerard Floque (Roland Giraud) has the worst day of his life in this routine comedy. He comes home after losing his job to find his daughter arrested on drug charges and his wife Cecile (Clementine Celaire) in bed with a famous television personality (Gerard Rinaldi). Gerard finds romantic solace in the arms of his former secretary Martine (Mary-Anne Chazel). ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Jean-Luc Godard wrote, directed, and starred in this offbeat comedy. He appears as a bumbling cinematographer who drops film cannisters as he rushes to a screening, and he and others board a plane helmed by a pilot who is reading a self-help book about suicide. A philosophical narration accompanies scenes of recurring imagery. A man dancing with a woman, the vapor trail of a jet against the sky, and a dead man with a huge knife in his belly are used along with a glass door being slammed in a little girl's face. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide