Jean-Claude Dreyfus Movies

Abandoned by the world and left to fend for himself as the Nazis continue their march across Europe, one-time bohemian turned Catholic convert Max Jacob finds help coming from the most unlikely of places as he awaits the train that will take him to a Concentration camp. The year is 1944, and as the Gestapo storm the abbey of Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire to arrest the Max Jacob (Jean-Claude Brialy), it appears as if the homosexual Jew who had previously rubbed elbows with Pablo Picasso and Jean Cocteau during the Bateau-Lavoir years will now become just another victim of Hitler's murderous regime. Later, as Jacob sits in Drancy awaiting deportation, a young orphan whom he had once saved from the streets sets out to return the favor by any means necessary. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

French filmmaker Stephane Clavier directs the comedy Lovely Rita: Patron Saint of Lost Causes, based on the novel by Benjamin Legrand. The director's brother, French TV star Christian Clavier, is the comedic star. He plays accountant Edgar Lamarck, who gets unwittingly involved in criminal situations. After getting messed up in a financial scam with Thierry (Eddy Mitchell), he ends up disposing of a body with prostitute Rita (Julie Gayet). She also happens to be an art thief who has just stolen a priceless Botticelli from an art dealer (Jean-Claude Dreyfus). ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

A young French sailor falls in love with a Russian tourist during a passion-filled three-day furlough, but is whisked away for a months worth of submarine duty before he can learn her last name and Moscow address. When he is finally freed again, he embarks upon a search for his lost love. Unfortunately, while his aim is true, his timing is off. His first stop is the broadcast headquarters of a major television network. He arrives shortly before the place blasted apart by a bomb. Later, he goes to the apartment of a noted talk-show host in hopes of receiving air-time during which he will plead for information concerning his lost love. But things don't come out as planned for somehow, the sailor ends up considered the prime suspect in the bombing while the real-life terrorist and his cohort, who happen to be in the same apartment building in hopes of knocking off a crooked judge. A hostage situation quickly develops in which the sailor and the talk-show host are trapped in the apartment with a daffy lady neighbor and her child. Meanwhile the leader of a SWAT team tries to concentrate on his work and ignore the increasing pressure placed upon him by his mistress to leave his wife. Up until the story's bloody finale, the film contains plenty of humor mixed with the action. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This episodic French comedy chronicles 10 minutes in the lives of seven people living in the same apartment block. The stories are set in early May at 7:50 p.m., ten minutes before the name of the new president of France is to be announced on television. The episodes are all presented in real time and as they progress, they eventually come together and give the viewer a complete picture of all that is happening in that single building. Within are scenes of a Mideast wedding that disintegrates into a brawl, an unemployed executive who cracks under stress and accidentally shoots his wife, and a pretty nurse who makes bold sexual advances to her biker-neighbor after she goes to borrow a cup of flour. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The sorry story of the Vichy government of France from 1940 to 1945 is the subject of this thoughtful historical drama. In return for a swift surrender in 1940, the French government was allowed to retain, in Vichy an unoccupied portion of the country. There, at the Hotel du Parc, the government enacted and carried out its own decrees, which paralleled the Nazi persecution of Jews elsewhere. While the film itself simply tells its story in a straightforward manner that reviewers found quite creditable, it is remarkable for the fact that it was actually made and released. Why? Because it punctures the convenient illusions so many had constructed about the period, and reveals that far from being coerced into cooperating with the Germans, a large number (perhaps a majority) of Frenchmen were quite enthusiastic. In fact, the producer found it extremely difficult to get anyone to cooperate in making the film, and it took him over six years to bring together the resources to begin shooting. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Lorraine and Gille are sharing a romantic dinner at a cafe in Rome while they celebrate their relationship with a vacation to that historic city. Gille is suddenly still, as he hears a voice out of sight that sounds familiar. Eventually he places it: it is the voice of his former flame Laura, a married woman he had a particularly wild affair with years ago. Rather than turn around and confirm that it is really her, instead he tells Lorraine all about that earlier romance, much to her discomfort. All the action in this film takes place in "real" time at the restaurant in question. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Who would have expected Brigitte to marry a prisoner with a long sentence in the first place? In this romantic action movie, that is only the first in a long line of surprising actions by the young woman. Somehow, she manages to get hooked to the young prisoner before realizing that he'll be locked up for another three or four decades. She decides that this is much too long to wait to spend time with her sweetheart and decides to learn how to fly a helicopter. Why? So she can fly in and take him out of his prison yard, which is exactly what she does, thrilling romantics all over France and seriously upsetting the authorities. This award-winning film (it's a 1991 Cannes jury-prize winner) is based on a true incident from 1986. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A post-apocalyptic future becomes the setting for pitch black humor in this visually intricate French comedy. The action takes place within a single apartment complex, which is owned by the same man that operates the downstairs butcher shop. It's a particularly popular place to live, thanks to the butcher's uncanny ability to find excellent cuts of meat despite the horrible living conditions outside. The newest building superintendent, a former circus clown, thinks he has found an ideal living situation. All that changes, however, when he discovers the true source of the butcher's meat, and that he may be the next main course. This dark tale is played out in a brilliantly designed, glorious surreal alternate world reminiscent of the works of director Terry Gilliam, who co-presented the film's American release. Like Gilliam, co-directors Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro hail from an animation background, and have a fondness for extravagant visuals, absurdist plot twists, and a sense of humor that combines sharp satire with broad slapstick and gross-out imagery. This mixture may displease the weak of stomach, but those attuned to the film's sensibility will be delighted by the obvious technical virtuosity and wicked sense of humor. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

This fast-paced mystery is in part based on a novel by Yves Ellena and is at least equally based on the 1943 classic Le Corbeau, which in 1951 was produced in English by Otto Preminger as The Thirteenth Letter. In this movie, someone is using a pirate radio broadcast to dish the dirt on the lives of the elite of a small French town. Among the suspects for this increasingly damaging activity are a cynical journalist and an unusually honest cop. The story proceeds to a climax in the town's church, while the increasingly vituperative townspeople clash with one another. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In cold-blooded, vigilante style, a mother exacts revenge for the deaths of her daughter and her daughter's lover in this run-of-the-mill thriller by Alain Bonnot. Jeanne Dufour (Annie Girardot) knows her daughter lives on the wrong side of the law, but when the daughter takes part in a bank robbery and is mercilessly shot down by her supposed cohorts -- who also kill her boyfriend -- the mother vows to avenge her death. Her resolve starts her off on a series of violent and calculated murders executed with no concern for possible consequences -- a dangerous attitude to assume. Within a tightly-paced story, Jeanne is remote in action and emotion, making it difficult to care about what she is doing, or why. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

Despite a fast-paced story that slams the broadcast industry and lotto mentality, this sci-fi action thriller emphasizes action over anxiety, and so its hunt-and-kill premise is less exciting than it sounds. Based on a Robert Sheckley tale, the action is brought about by a television show invented by money-motivated executives with ratings on the brain. The idea is to choose someone from the vast sea of the unemployed and cast them as the "hunted," while five others are the "hunters." The prey receives a million dollars if he or she can outsmart the five hunters, and a hunter gets $100,000 for finding and killing their human target. François Jacquemard (Gerard Lanvin) is chosen to be the man who has to outsmart the five hitmen, and when he proves to be too good at it, the TV executives have to find a way to outsmart him. All the drama, from beginning to end, is played out under the watchful eyes of multiple TV cameras, on the ground and in the air, while blood-thirsty viewers stay glued to their sets like Romans watching the gladiators -- but unlike the Romans, they are regularly interrupted by those annoying commercial breaks. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide