Paul Gégauff Movies

Naive but devout villagers find themselves victimized by two conniving grifters in this French crime drama. The con artists are a former priest and his lover, respectively, who have come to town proclaiming themselves "Holy Father' and "Holy Mother." Soon, the awe-struck villagers are handing their land and savings over to the wicked duo. One farmer's daughter sees through the scam and accuses the townsfolk of worshiping Satan. They in turn accuse her and try to exorcise the demons from her by beating her severely. She dies, and the con artists try to frame her father for the death. Fortunately, Angelique, a beautiful nun with a gift for prophecy, saves him and the rest of the town. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This symbolic drama is loosely based on a somber story from Hans Christian Andersen. Daniel Duval plays Death, not in the usual grim reaper sense but merely as a man in a grey flannel suit. The Mother (Anna Karina) offers her hair to a guardian of Death's Garden, her eyes to a vehement protest marcher, and her embrace to a man who is freezing. Death allows the Mother to get past her grief as her son lays dying. Tove Maes plays the Kindergarten Teacher, with Bodil Udsen as the Lady Janitor and Gustaf Hagstroem as the ill-fated child. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

In this comedy, a loving wife (Bibi Andersson) recovers the attentions of her husband after he takes a mistress. She does this by making friends with the mistress then subtly sabotaging her husband's romantic excursions. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

An early film by director Barbet Schroeder, La Vallée stars Bulle Ogier as the wife of a diplomat who embarks on a journey through the jungles of New Guinea in order to locate a rarely seen type of bird feather. During the course of her quest, she meets up with a group of free-spirited hippies who are seeking their own personal Shangri-la. She becomes involved in their alternative lifestyle; however, their idea world comes crashing down when they begin to interact with a local native tribe. Future Oscar winner Nestor Almendros' cinematography and the counter-culture attitudes helped make this film a success in art-house theaters. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Mariana (Romy Schneider) is riding along with her weekend date when she infuriates him by insulting his virility. The irate man drives off a high cliff and crashes into the ocean. She emerges unscathed and she is rescued by the victim's brother. Mariana and the brother become lovers, but he soon believes she may have killed his sibling. The other brother miraculously appears and Mariana kills him and buries his corpse in the garden. The brother has already supposedly identified his brother's body before the victim returns. The police wait for the lovers to return when the rain washes away the soil and exposes the victim's body in this suspense story with a decided lack of tension. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Claude Chabrol directs the tense psychological thriller Que la Bête Meure (This Man Must Die). When his young son is the victim of a hit-and-run car accident, writer Charles Thenier (Michel Duchaussoy) is determined to find the killer. Obsessed with avenging his son's death, he carefully records his thoughts in a diary. He travels to Paris and meets actress Helene Lanson (Caroline Cellier), who is a prime witness to the accident. After they start up a love affair, he discovers that the driver of the car was her brother-in-law, Paul Decourt (Jean Yanne). Paul also owns the auto repair shop that fixed up the car after the accident. Believing Paul is the killer, Charles befriends his son Phillipe Decourt (Marc Di Napoli). As it happens, Phillipe also wants Paul dead for his own reasons. Charles manages to get invited to the family's seaside home in Brittany in order to finally get his revenge, but things don't work out according to plan. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

Bored, wealthy Parisian socialite Frederique (Stéphane Audran, then director Claude Chabrol's wife and the star of many of his films) picks up young sidewalk artist Why (Jacqueline Sassard), brings her home, offers her a nice hot bath and coffee, and seduces her. Then Why follows Frederique to the latter's Saint-Tropez villa, where they alter their sensuous encounters with wild parties for the idle rich. At one of these parties, Why meets Paul (Jean-Louis Trintignant), a handsome young architect, and immediately falls for him. Jealous Frederique intervenes only to lure Paul into her own arms, and the two soon depart for Paris, leaving Why alone with her frustration at the villa. Though often labeled the French Hitchcock, here Chabrol consciously abandons suspense for adult-oriented drama. ~ Yuri German, Rovi

French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard's Le Weekend remains his most consistently relentless attack on the bourgeois values of his own country and the perceived imperialism of the United States. Mireille Darc plays the central character, an "average" woman who is systematically radicalized during a weekend motor trip. No sooner have the woman and her husband (Jean Yanne) embarked on their journey than they become enmeshed in the mother of all traffic jams. The motorists rave, rant, burn, rape, murder, pillage and even descend into cannibalism -- all of which is treated by Godard as a natural progression of events. The prevalent theory that Jean-Luc Godard had intended Weekend as the apotheosis of his career is bolstered by the film's last two titles: "End of Film." "End of Cinema." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The French-made Of Flesh and Blood plays like "Dostoyevsky Meets Roger Corman." Robert Hossein finances his participation in a card game by stealing parts from a jeep. He cheats at cards, and has his hands broken as a consequence. Understandably unnerved by all this, Hossein murders an old woman. THEN...he becomes involved with passerby Renato Salvatori, who is fresh from an affair with Anouk Aimee. Three gold stars to anyone who can figure out the significance of all this. Maybe Of Flesh and Blood made more sense in its original French-language version Les Grands Chemins. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A generally destructive atmosphere settles over this New Wave drama about a trio of youths looking to debunk hypocrisy wherever they find it. One of the early films by Claude Chabrol, the tale looks at the relationship of Ronald (Jean-Claude Brialy), Ambroisine (Bernadette Lafont), and Arthur (Charles Belmont). Arthur and Ronald have their differences, but the three join up to knock the air out of the wind-bags of pomposity, puncture the veneer of the gallingly elitist art world, and do combat in other arenas where people are less than honest. But Ronald has not forgotten an early offense he suffered at Arthur's hands, and soon the relationships in the trio start to change. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

René Clément's thriller Purple Noon stars Alain Delon as Tom Ripley, an American who travels to Europe on an all-expenses-paid mission to convince his friend, the errant playboy Philippe Greenleaf (Maurice Ronet), to travel to San Francisco at the request of the wealthy Greenleaf family. Initially, the pair enjoy the good life in Italy, often to the anger and dismay of Philippe's much put-upon fiancee Marge (Marie Laforet). However, as Tom's funds begin to run dry, it becomes more and more apparent that Philippe has no intentions of returning to the U.S., forcing Tom to consider more nefarious means of maintaining his extravagant lifestyle. Purple Noon is adapted from Patricia Highsmith's novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, and like Alfred Hitchcock's classic Strangers on a Train, also based on Highsmith's work, the theme of identity transference is dominant. The subject even extends to the homoerotic undercurrents which simmer below the surface of Tom and Philippe's relationship, setting into motion a love/hate tension which explodes during a high seas journey. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi