Denise Peron Movies
Comic character actress Denise Peron often appeared in works of such esteemed European filmmakers as Andrzej Wajda and Claude Lelouch. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi- 1989
After moving to Switzerland to be the mail-order bride of an uncouth middle-aged Swiss man, Julie (Marie Gaydu), who comes from an island in the Indian Ocean, discovers that she cannot bear the man. After she leaves him, she embarks on an affair with Jean (Jean-Philippe Escoffey), the son of a local brickworks owner, much to the distress of that man's father. For a while their romance goes relatively smoothly, until the boy discovers that she is pregnant and won't submit to an abortion. Frantic, he goes haring off to some other country for a while. When he gets back, he gets hysterical about seeing their child. In this melodrama, when he finally decides to send Julie and her baby back to their remote homeland, the situation doesn't turn out well. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jean-Philippe Ecoffey, Denise Peron, (more)
- 1986
- R
This comedy-drama by first-time director and scripter Jean-Luc Trotignant details the exploits of a crass, low-life family. Achille Pinglard (Jean-Luc Bideau) is a factory foreman and his wife Ginette (Michele Brousse) works in a porno theater. Together, they are driving their daughter up the wall. She vents her feelings in her private diary, which her parents often expropriate for their own use. Meanwhile, the son in the family finds himself without a room after his parents rent it out to someone else, and the grandmother is a demented alcoholic invalid. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jean-Luc Bideau, Michele Brousse, (more)
- 1981
A young woman trained as an historian is intrigued by the diary of Flora Tristan, active in feminist causes in 19th century France. The quest to find more information about Tristan takes the historian on a trip to Lyons, where she begins to discover more about herself in the process of research. She accomplishes these discoveries somewhat enigmatically, however, through recording sounds like her own footsteps, for example. For feminists and other viewers, Flora Tristan seems to have been short-circuited by this latter-day admirer. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Rebecca Pauly, Jean Badin, (more)
Woody Allen's Love and Death is purportedly a satire of all things Russian, from Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoyevsky novels to Sergei Eisenstein films, but it plays more like a spin on Bob Hope's Monsieur Beaucaire. Allen plays Boris, a 19th century Russian who falls in love with his distant (and married) cousin Sonja (Diane Keaton). Pressed into service with the Russian army during the war against Napoleon, Boris accidentally becomes a hero, then goes on to win a duel against a cuckolded husband (Harold Gould). He returns to Sonja, hoping to settle down on the Steppes somewhere, but Sonja has become fired up with patriotic fervor, insisting that Boris join a plot to kill Napoleon. Intellectual in-jokes abound in Love and Death, and other gags are basic Allen one-liners; for instance, after being congratulated for his lovemaking skills, Boris replies nonchalantly, "I practice a lot when I'm alone." The pseudo-Russian ambience of Love and Death is comically enhanced by the Sergey Prokofiev compositions on the musical track. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, (more)
- 1974
In this French-language Swiss film, an up-and-coming young engineer briefly finds love with a waitress from Italy. However, he is married and is running for an elective post in his region of the country. When his feeling of coziness with the relationship exceeds his discretion, he allows word of it to get out, and that loses him the election. In addition, the waitress feels that he has been having a relationship with a woman in his imagination rather than with her and decides to end the affair. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
Having been forced into minor parts for several years by a debilitating illness, veteran film actor Michel Simon made a triumphant return to leading roles in the charming, poignant The Two of Us (Le Vieil Homme et L'Enfant). Simon plays a likeable old soak with one significant character flaw: he is a flagrant anti-Semite. During the Nazi occupation of Paris, 8-year-old Jewish lad Alain Cohen is sent to the country, there to live with the parents of his family's Catholic friends. One of those parents is, inevitably, Simon. Taking a liking to Alain, and unaware that the boy is Jewish, Simon attempts to introduce the lad to the doctrine of anti-Semitism. The boy plays along with the old man, teasing him about his prejudices. Despite their obvious philosophical differences, Simon and Alain form a strong and affectionate bond. Director Claude Berri, whose films have often touched upon the Jewish experience in France, once more draws from his own experiences to weave a sensitive, seriocomic scenario. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michel Simon, Alain Cohen, (more)
