Serge Reggiani Movies

This French drama, adapted from the novel Playback by Didier Daeninckx, centers on small-town girl Johanna (Virginie Ledoyen) who dreams of becoming a rock star. Johanna and her shy friend Jeanne (Maidi Roth) perform in a small mining town when Parisian Luc (Marc Duret), on a visit to close the mine, catches their act. When Luc loses his job, he becomes their representative. At a talent show for solo performers, Jeanne sings backstage while Johanna lip-syncs onstage. Fame follows, but Johanna's promiscuous activities and drug use create frictions with her friends. As Pierre Montgolfier, a friend of Jeanne's mother, veteran performer Serge Reggiani offers a rendition of the 1943 tune "Douce France." Shown at the 1997 Venice Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

In real life, filmmaker Simon Reggiani's father, Serge Reggiani, was a desperately ill elderly alcoholic and also a renowned singer and cinematic leading man (mostly in France). In an effort to sustain his father's interest in life, he cast him in the central role in a biographical pseudo-documentary. In the story, Simon convinces his father to join him on a journey to Italy, where he can meet the man who can ease the guilt he has carried for almost seventy years; he believes he was responsible for the death of his infant brother. Reviewers indicate that Serge's performance was extraordinarily magnetic and skillful. Furthermore, the caring son reported that the film served its purpose of keeping his father lively and interested in life; indeed, he has gone on to take major roles in several more films. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In this somewhat odd exploration of human romantic difficulties, the people in the film are all put under extra stress by the fact that on the day in question, they have lost an hour to daylight savings time. In addition, it is a full moon. Neither factor improves their response to the mild stresses they experience, which have been building up for several years. The beginning of the film shows a number of couples getting married, and follows them and a few others a few years later, on the day of the time change. ~ Clarke Fountain, 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 critically acclaimed French drama blends film noir and science fiction elements in a story about a strange and deadly plague. A sexually transmitted disease called STBO is sweeping the country; it's spread by having sex without emotional involvement, and most of its victims are teenagers who make love out of curiosity rather than commitment. While a serum that can treat the disease has been formulated, it's been locked away in an inaccessible government building, and most of those suffering can't get at it. A woman known as "The American" (Carroll Brooks) has hired Marc (Michel Piccoli), who is deep in debt and desperate for cash, to steal the drug; Marc enlists the aid of Alex (Denis Lavant), the teenage son of one of his close friends, to help pull off the robbery. Alex is in love with Lise (Julie Delpy), a girl his age that he's been involved with, but he finds himself attracted to Anna (Juliette Binoche), Marc's younger lover who is determined to stand by her man. Mauvais Sang received the Alfred Bauer Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival and the International Fantasy Film Award at the Fantasporto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

With no other apparent purpose than simply recording the making of The Beekeeper by director Theo Angelopoulos, this documentary is a very slight offering. Maria Hatzimichali Papliou follows the shooting schedule of the film from northern Greece to the Peloponnesus, and captures director Angelopoulos teaching Greek to Marcello Mastroianni when not engaged in directing his other actors. Interviews with Mastroianni, Angelopoulos, and a few other actors in the drama round out the documentary. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Perhaps a little over-ambitious for the casual audience unfamiliar with the Italian world of entertainment and politics, La Terrazza involves a total of eight main protagonists and how they have changed or are changing. All eight are sitting on a terrace talking, while flashbacks and flashforwards fill in their past, present, and future relationships. Enrico (Jean-Louis Tritignant) is a burnt-out screenwriter, Amedeo (Ugo Tognazzi) is a self-made producer, Mario (Vittorio Gassman) is a communist member of parliament who is having an affair with the married Giovanna (Stefania Sandrelli) and is otherwise having a hard time trying to tow the tough, virtuous line the party demands. Giovanna, as well as the other women on the terrace, have all the spirit of people looking forward to the future while the men have been there and found it wanting. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

The 14-year-old younger sister of a 20-year old girl who died in a horrible accident remembers her sister in a series of flashbacks and compares them to what she is able to discover about the older girl, who was considered by the family to be a bit of a black sheep. This sentimental drama about upper-class life was based on the novel by Claire Gallois. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Violette (Isabelle Adjani) is fascinated with the shabby background and low-down ways of her boyfriend Francois (Jacques Dutronc), and despite her middle-class family's objections, she marries him. Unable to keep a job, and without any real skills, he has a hard time supporting them, especially after the birth of their baby. He turns to shoplifting, and she briefly leaves him when she discovers this. Sometime after they get back together, with money still in short supply, she takes a turn at shoplifting too, and gets a kick out of it. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Marcello Mastroianni stars in this French farce, an absurd "western" set in Paris, with Mastroianni as the incurably vain General George Armstrong Custer. Richard Nixon is the American president, but everyone is costumed appropriately for the previous century. Buffalo Bill (Michel Piccoli), the famous scout, is here portrayed as a limp-wristed bungler. Ugo Tognazzi plays one of Custer's Native American opponents; he runs a curio shop selling Native artifacts made in sweatshops by white women. The climactic battle is held in a large construction excavation where Les Halles market used to be. The language the two sides use to justify their conflict is lifted from that used in the then-current Vietnam War. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This French crime drama tells the story of an ill-fated quartet of burglars and hoodlums. Two older burglars, near retirement, dream of making one last big heist. One of them has a daughter, whom he has tried to keep away from his business. Still, when she falls in love with a young thug, her father feels he must help the young man. He shows him the ropes as best he can, and brings him along on a bank job. One of the older men is killed, and the boy is captured. The girl helps him escape from jail, with unfortunate results. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Nolan (Serge Reggiani) was set up to take the fall for a crime committed by his whole gang, and as a result, his brother is dead and he is forced to do a stint in prison. Nolan comes out of prison looking for his former compatriots, and not just to shake their hands. He runs into an old girlfriend, Madeleine (Jeanne Moreau), now a respectable doctor's wife. Another woman he encounters, Lea (Simone Signoret), betrays him to an enemy. The remaining cast includes a number of fine French actors who add depth to this suspense thriller (Charles Vanel, Marcel Bozzuffi, Andre Pousse, Michel Bouquet, Amidou and Jean Desailly). This is a French language film, with no dubbing or subtitles. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi