Guy Marchand Movies

Two people fleeing different sorts of danger find one another in this screwball romantic comedy from France. Danny (Edouard Baer) is a professional magician who has been struggling to find work and has somehow managed to get on the wrong side of his emotionally unstable brother-in-law Max (Joey Starr). With Max eager to hurt him, Danny decides to leave town, and drops his aging and senile mother (Bulle Ogier) off at a mental hospital, where he meets Sonia (Mélanie Bernier), who seems a bit too interested in the opposite sex. As Danny hits the road, he picks up an attractive hitchhiker, Irène (Nathalie Baye), who is carrying a large purse and gets frequent phone calls from men Danny assumes are her current or former lovers. But Danny doesn't know the half of Irène's story -- she's the paramour of a powerful politician (Guy Marchand) who has become involved in an illegal deal to sell arms to North Korea, and Irène is carrying both the politician's cash and evidence of his wrongdoings. Irène is also involved with a well-connected Korean gentleman (Park Jung-hak) and is dodging calls from both her lovers as she and Danny motor away in search of relative safety, and it isn't long before the traveling companions become attracted to one another. Passe-Passe (aka Off and Running) also stars Maurice Bénichou, Sandrine Le Berre, and Hippolyte Girardot. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

French sex symbols Romain Duris and Louis Garrel join screen icons Guy Marchand and Marie-France Pisier in writer-director Christophe Honoré's four-character chamber drama Dans Paris (Inside Paris). Duris plays Paul, a young man in his early thirties who splits with his girlfriend. Feeling depressed, he opts to move into a flat with his brother Jonathan (Garrel, who also narrates) and their father (Marchand). The ladykiller Jonathan slyly attempts to talk Paul into a shopping trip to lift his spirits, but ends up venturing out alone and engages in rendezvous with several women. Meanwhile, the boys' stylishly-dressed and gorgeous mother (Pisier) turns up and adds one more complexity to the network of relationships in the house. Honoré laces his drama with comedic touches and crafts the film in the gentle mode of early sixties French pictures by Truffaut, Godard and others. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

A genteel teacher finds himself out of his element when his request to be assigned to a Parisian school lands him in an impoverished, multi-cultural ghetto suburb outside of Paris. There Laurent Monier (Gerard Depardieu) finds himself forced to live in a project apartment and teach classes full of underprivileged, tough and troubled youth. His former spouse is also a teacher, but she got a plumb job in an upscale part of Paris while Laurent -- who moved to Paris to be near her -- struggles to keep his car intact and to stay alive on the dangerous streets. Still, he does his best in the schoolroom and eventually earns the respect of his students. Trouble brews however, when school gossip gets out of hand and threatens to destroy his career. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

While on vacation in Paris, a mother (Joanna Cassidy) and daughter (Lara Flynn Boyle) fall for the same doctor (Guy Marchand). Both pursue the man without knowing the truth. ~ John Bush, Rovi

Michaud (Michel Serrault) is a timid and anxiety-ridden security-systems technician who is prone to daydreams like Walter Mitty. Continually teased by his colleagues and his taunting alter ego, Michaud is victimized by a fellow employee who tries to implicate him in a bank robbery. He emerges from his emotional isolation and daydreams to help trap the crooks. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Francois (Pierre-Loup Rajot) has just moved into a small community in the French Pyrenees mountains. He applies for work at a small logging mill, run with great craftsmanship but indifferent business skill by Favier (Guy Marchand), the son-in-law of the owner, Mathieu (Serge Reggiani). Francois has an ally in another man who works at the mill, Cyuri (Wotjek Pszoniak), who had formerly been his mother's lover. With his help, he easily settles into his job. He also quickly becomes the lover of his boss's wife Marie (Julie Jezequel). This leads to complications for all concerned, but as decent people, they find themselves at something of a standoff and are unable to resolve the situation easily. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This gentle, mildly satiric French comedy follows the romantic adventures of a group of men who have gone with their children to spend the summer in their vacation homes on the Atlantic coast. Some of the men are divorced, some still married, but all are open to meeting new women while their wives and girlfriends are back in Paris. Much of the humor derives from the reversal of the usual situation - - the men are off with the children while the women are back home tied to work and career. The film is loosely structured and episodic as it simultaneously follows the stories of a number of characters. Particularly engaging in the large cast are Michel Robin as an eccentric publisher with a avidly jealous wife and Helene Vincent as a frumpy divorcee constantly on the prowl for a new mate. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Molinat (Phillippe Noiret) and Leroyer (Guy Marchand) are two cops who hate each others guts but are called on to solve the gunshot deaths of victims found on an Atlantic beach resort. The two focus on some females who have a psychological problem with men who are breathing. Molinat sends Leroyer to investigate some sultry suspects, knowing his hated colleague may never come back alive. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

This adaptation of Ben Hecht's novel is a satire that unfolds as a mystery story. A Hollywood studio is producing another spectacular when the top billed male stars suddenly show up as corpses, killed before the critics could ever put pen to paper. Under suspicion is a talent agent. Is he guilty or not? These macabre events have everyone off their feed, from the producers down to the lowest gofer. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Renowned director Constantin Costa-Gavras (whose 1969's feature Z won multiple international awards and was a box office success) tries his hand at an unusual mix of comedy and crime in this story. When a father (Johnny Hallyday) gets out of prison, he comes home to his wife (Fanny Ardant) and two teen-age kids to pick up where he left off. That is to say, he intends to raise his kids right and continue burglarizing his way into the easy life. He joins up again with his old partner Faucon (Guy Marchand), but early on Papa's wily son cons him into making him a partner too. The years go by, and just when the family seems poised for the big time, an obstacle pops up from a totally unexpected sector. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

In this amusing, entertaining tale of three men and the two dominant women in their lives, a potpourri of individual frustrations first appear to have easy answers, and then they don't. Gaston (Guy Marchand has been married to Madeleine (Marie-Christine Barrault) for twenty years, and though they are a normal couple, both have an underlying, unexpressed interest in a non-monogamous life. Gaston's older brother Pierre (Jean-Marc Thibault) is married to a sensual, younger woman, Yvette (Annie Jouzier), and he is driven crazy with worry about her ability to stay monogamous. Finally, Gaston's friend Victor (Roland Giraud) appears to be a carefree bachelor, but in truth, he longs for monogamy. Seen from all sides, no one is really satisfied, and everyone thinks the other has it best. Nearly all of them opt for a change but soon discover that even with a change, their problems have not disappeared. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

This is a rather complex thriller that fails to deliver very much suspense or fear, in spite of the requisite shock scenes and mystery over who is perpetrating them. The story opens with a pending marriage, tragically aborted when the groom dies under suspicious circumstances, and continues several years later when Nathalie (Carole Laure), a single mother, receives "breather" phone calls and finds the bloody heart of an animal on her car seat. That is followed by another such donation sent to her workplace and labeled as the heart of her little daughter. Although gruesome, these incidents alone are not enough to create an atmosphere of foreboding, anxiety, or apprehension -- as Nathalie seems just a few steps from unconcerned. If she is not affected, any tension created by the scenario is diffused, leaving the audience in neutral. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi