Victor Lanoux Movies

In this offbeat romance from Canada, Myriam (Mirella Tomassini) is a Tunian-born woman living in Montreal, where she's nursing a broken heart after her longtime boyfriend Theo (Henri Chasse) breaks up with her. Myriam is keeping watch over a friend's house for several weeks while they're out of town; during this period, Myriam's father, who has not seen her in 20 years, decides it's time to pay a visit. Meanwhile, Myriam learns she has a new admirer, Lou (Jude Antoine Jarda), a genial, eccentric poet who snips off a lock of her hair during their first meeting and breaks into her apartment when he feels like saying hello. Myriam is trying to decide how she feels about Lou when Theo comes back, begging for another chance. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In this drama, a marine biologist launches a daring rescue after she learns her daughter has been kidnapped and sold into the European sex trade. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this comedy, veterinarian Henri Sauveur (Jean Rochefort) maintains his dignity and calm in the face of an incredible number of irritating or even genuinely upsetting encounters with inveterate pains-in-the-neck. He suffers from the rudeness (and worse) of Parisian drivers, his relatives, and friends and clients. All the same, he manages to convey an admirable appearance of insouciance and a devil-may-care attitude. That is, until he meets the redoubtable Louise Sherry (Miou-Miou). He is so smitten with her charms that his artfully maintained defenses crumble pitifully, and he is reduced to confiding his troubles to a bemused but sympathetic female chimpanzee. This fast-paced comedy features some of France's best-loved actors and comedians, including Claude Brasseur, Jean Yanne, and Jacques Villeret) in walk-on performances. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Francois Marboni (Victor Lanoux) is a butcher who is being blackmailed for having an affair with the prostitute Rache (Pauline Lafont) in this black comedy. He decides to hire a hit man when the blackmailer demands that he start cutting his profit margin to the bone. Francois soon becomes a target of the hitman he hired. Michel Aumont plays the policeman who also covets Rache, with Francois Stevenin as the hilarious hit man. Marie Laforet stars as Francois' space-cadet spouse Marthe. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Despite the many adventures they suffered in National Lampoon's Vacation, the Griswold family decides to take another crack at having fun. This time, the doltish clan heads across the Atlantic for a whirlwind vacation after winning a game show. Will the monuments of Europe survive? ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In a satire on family values that tends to pass off human cruelty as amusing, this story about an odd family of five children, a father, grandmother, and neighbor is not particularly laugh-provoking. When the mother of this "tribe" of five children leaves for good, their inept father is not sure how to keep the family clothed and fed, and without the help of his neighbor Simone (Josiane Balasko), he would be nowhere. She is attracted to him but eventually gives up on the relationship. Meanwhile, the father grabs his brood and they take off for Paris in search of the wife (after abandoning the body of the grandmother in a hospital corridor because they cannot pay for her funeral). Simone accidentally ends up on the same train to Paris, and out of generosity she puts the family up in her brother's apartment. Actually, her brother is now her sister because he had a sex change. The family records a song together that makes it to the top of the charts, and for good measure they win the lottery. With this change in fortunes, even Simone's relationship to the family may be affected -- especially since a respect for the integrity of women or the ability of men to run a household is never an issue in this nonsensical mish-mash. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Dog Day was originally distributed in France as Canicule. In one of his last film appearances, Lee Marvin portrays a gunman on the lam with girlfriend Tina Louise. He briefly takes refuge with a farm family whose idiotic excesses make Marvin's former criminal associates seem like choirboys. The wife of the household (Miou-Miou) falls in love with Marvin, to the extent of planning his escape when the law catches up with him. Also craving Marvin's sexual attentions is the wife's sister-in-law (Bernadette Lafont), the craziest and most pathetic of the bunch. Dog Day was based on Herman, a novel by Jean Vautrin. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This sometimes confusing yet predictable thriller is about two policemen who bust a heroin deal and, after dumping the white powder, take off with the money, but they cannot escape the mob boss hot on their trail -- he wants his money back. After a detective friend is murdered, one of the two policemen (Franck, played by Victor Lannoux) returns the money but the other (Rupert, played by Jean Rochefort) insists on keeping the loot and makes a run for it. In the meantime, Rupert abandons his wife for a new lover, giving an opportunity for Franck to go after the wife -- someone he has always loved. With his marriage in tatters and the police chasing him, Rupert is faced with challenges he is ill-equipped to handle. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Based on a novel by Frederic Dard who also co-scripted with director Jean-Pierre Mocky, this satire on French politics is centered around an official whose earlier rise to power had some sordid aspects that are about to be uncovered by the death of his uncle. While he is trying to contain any potential scandal, the man becomes enamored of the daughter of his uncle's maid. This new romance inspires him to forget worries about a public image and focus on a new life -- not any easy objective when unsavory friends and foes have their own agendas in mind. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

In this tender and sentimental comedy, Ben (Victor Lanoux), a Parisian Jew, copes with the dramas in his everyday life against the background of his family's survival of the Holocaust. Things between him and his wife are not any too easy, and on top of it, he has to heed his father's concerns, even though he lives in Israel now. His grandfather, who lives in the south of France, is a very old man, but is still a romantic obsessed with women. These tensions come to the fore when the family gathers to celebrate the patriarch's 90th birthday. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

The tendency for a life of crime to continue unabated is a part of this conventional crime comedy by director Jean-Marie Poire. When Adrien (Victor Lanoux) gets out of the slammer and heads home to his wife and kids, everything goes wrong. First, his wife is living with a deadbeat bus driver, secondly, his kids need straightening out, and thirdly, his old buddies are trying to silence him for good. These associates do not intend to hand over his share of the heist that sent him to prison. Finally fed up with it all, Adrien plans to burglarize the home of the head honcho and confiscate his loot on his own. That caper is clever yet it does not exactly turn out as he expected. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Bertin (Victor Lanoux) has accidentally killed his wife during an argument. He is the owner of a tannery which employs most of the inhabitants of the town he lives in. Rather than subject himself to the indignities of a police inquiry, he attempts to cover up the killing by saying that she has left him. At first, his tale is believed, because he has been openly seeing another woman who is pregnant with his child (and heir). Later, a judge magistrate (the French lawman with responsibility for criminal investigations) discovers the woman's corpse, and puts Bertin on trial for murder. The factory owner is determined to be acquitted, and he blackmails the townspeople so that the trial turns out to suit him. He wins his freedom, but loses his mistress, who is thoroughly repulsed. This drama is based on the novel The Lesser Evil by Jean Laborde. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In this drama, a woman recovering from amnesia receives no help from her husband who definitely has something to hide. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi