Alexandre Trauner Movies

The very busy actor Michel Serrault lends his talents to the depiction of a monstre sacree of French literature, the extremely repugnant but very clever Paul Leautaud, who was famous for his rude, clever observations and his epigrams. Although unkempt and very mean, his rapier-like wit and strong lust were sufficiently magnetic that at the time of this film he was engaged in a long-term relationship with his equally vile mistress (Annie Girardot), and a new relationship with a librarian (Aurore Clement) who is a fan of his writing. The story is based on the author's personal diaries from the period. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

A virtual remake of its predecessor, Return of the Living Dead (1985), which itself was a tongue-in-cheek rip-off of director George Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968), this follow-up adheres strictly to a gore and gags formula. Jesse Wilson (Michael Kenworthy), is a young boy being bullied by thugs from the neighborhood when all of them discover a sealed drum containing a zombie corpse. The release of a gas from the container reanimates the dead in a nearby graveyard, thus releasing an army of the undead, which mindlessly crave living human brains. As Jesse tries to contact the military to put a lid on the situation, the zombies are dispatched through a variety of gruesome methods. Two stars of the first film, James Karen and Thom Mathews, return in essentially the same parts, but with different names, as their characters were previously slaughtered. Followed by a third entry in the seires, Return of the Living Dead 3 (1993). ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Duroc (Jean Rochefort) is a secret agent called on to deliver an exploding car to a gang of terrorists in this spy spoof. When someone leaks the plan to the terrorists, Duroc becomes the hunted rather than the hunter. He encounters several situations where people unwittingly interfere with his mission. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Middle-aged family man Frank (Jim Karen) trains teenaged Freddy (Thom Matthews) for his new job at a medical supply warehouse. In an effort to impress and frighten his young charge, practical joker Frank reveals that the warehouse basement contains a cannister full of a mysterious chemical capable of bringing the dead back to life. It seems that the cannister fell off the back of an army truck during an accidental outbreak of zombiedom. Frank and Freddy unwittingly inhale the chemical and release it into the warehouse. Turning to the operator of a nearby crematorium for help in destroying the suddenly undead specimens that surround them, they unwittingly awaken the residents of a nearby cemetary just as Freddy's pals arrive to party amidst the headstones and wait for their friend's shift to end. Meanwhile, Col. Glover (Jonathan Terry) waits for the call that his missing chemical weapon has been unleashed. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

Coming in on the heels of his internationally acclaimed first film, Le Dernier Combat, 26-year-old director Luc Besson created this tongue-in-cheek look at filmmaking and at the denizens in the tunnels of the Paris Metro -- a new kind of underground movie. Fred (Christopher Lambert) has just stolen some major documents from a birthday celebration given by the Paris elite for one of their kind, Helena (Isabelle Adjani). He takes off into the Metro just as it is shut down for the remaining few hours of predawn darkness and once in the Metro encounters several characters in the tunnels. There is a bodybuilder who works out with subway parts, a purse-snatcher, and a flower seller of dubious ethics. Inspired by the moment, Fred decides to recruit a few of the ubiquitous musicians who perform (some of the best music around) on the Metro's byways, and he creates a rock band. Through all of these encounters and activities, the police and others -- including Helena -- are after Fred for their own reasons, none of which coincide. As Fred discovers, going underground can be risky. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Lambert (Coluche) works at night as a gas station attendant, not even attempting to stay sober the rest of the time. Every night the young Bensoussan (Richard Anconina), a minor drug dealer, stops by the gas station on his motorcycle and the two men slowly establish a solid friendship. Their relationship deepens steadily, partly because Bensoussan reminds Lambert of his son -- and it is then revealed that Lambert is actually a former police inspector who hit the proverbial brick wall when his son died of a drug overdose and his wife left him. The well-developed, father-son-type friendship between Lambert and Bensoussan eventually causes the former police inspector to take up his old ways and go on a manhunt aided by Lola (Agnes Soral), Bensoussan's love interest. The two of them take on the underworld of drug cartels and hitmen, reaching ever closer to the highest bosses -- and closer to each other -- as their own lives are increasingly on the line. For some critics who may have been more accustomed to Coluche the comic, he may have been a little self-conscious in his part, and the movie slightly predictable, but at the same time Coluche received the 1984 Cesar award for "Best Actor" for his interpretation of Lambert, Richard Anconina received the "Best Supporting Actor" and "Most Promising Young Actor" awards, and two other Cesars went to this film for "Best Sound," and "Best Cinematography." ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

This French sex farce is translated in English as The Trout. Joseph Losey directed and co-wrote the film, which stars Isabelle Huppert as Frederique, a young woman living on her family's rural trout farm. Frederique is trapped in a dull marriage to a rube. She decides to leave him and the trout farm for the city; she wants to make her living in the financial sector. She ends up in a cutthroat corporate world and meets up with the sophisticated Lou (the legendary Jeanne Moreau). Frederique finds herself trading sexual favors for corporate advancement and becoming more deeply involved in a complicated series of business dealings. Eventually, she longs for a return to her simpler life on the trout farm. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi

Peter Sellers gets to play both hero and bad guy at the same time in this comedy variation on Sax Rohmer's infamous stories of Asian super-villian Fu Manchu. The 168-year-old Fu Manchu (Sellers) is starting to run out of the youth-preserving formula that has kept him alive and kicking for the past eight or so decades, and he decides it's high time he made up some more. However, the list of ingredients includes a few items you can't usually get at your corner drug store, and Fu and his minions become a crime wave of their own as they attempt to steal an ancient Egyptian mummy and the Crown Jewels of England. (In the meantime, Fu keeps his heart beating by administering himself the occasional electric shock.) When word gets out that the evil Fu Manchu is back, his long-time nemesis, Scotland Yard's Nayland Smith (also played by Sellers), is put on the case, but like Fu, Smith isn't quite the man he used to be after all these years. Peter Sellers also contributed to the screenplay of The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu without credit, and is said to have briefly taken over as director, though the results lack the snap of his best work; sadly, it would prove to be the great comic's last film. Sid Caesar, Hellen Mirren, and David Tomlinson also appear in the supporting cast. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In Fedora, Billy Wilder approaches Hollywood stardom in the same fashion as he did in Sunset Boulevard--with cynicism, regret, understanding, and awe. Fedora (Marthe Keller) is film's most intriguing movie queen. Rumored to be well into her sixties, the actress has remained a starlet for over four decades--retaining youth and radiance despite her advancing years. The mystery behind her numinous persona has never ceased to captivate audiences. Even now, as she lives in seclusion on the beautiful Greek island of Corfu, the public buzzes for her to return to the screen. When producer Barry Detweiler (William Holden) travels to Corfu, staking his faltering career on Fedora's return, he discovers the actress's tragic secret. Fedora's eternal loveliness may not be the result of defying her age, but of concealing her youth. ~ Aubry Anne D'Arminio, Rovi

Having covered a great deal of autobiographical ground in The Two of Us (1967) director Claude Berri offers us further glimpses into his formative years in The First Time. Once more, Alaine Cohen plays Berri's young alter ego. This time, Cohen is on the verge of sexual awakening--and he's not sure exactly how to react to this. We are also shown what it is like to grow up Jewish in the France of the early 1950s; it's not always easy, of course, but one can survive when armed with humor and heart. The First Time was released in France as La Premiere Fois in 1976, two years before its American premiere. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Man Who Would Be King opens with author Rudyard Kipling (Christopher Plummer) working in his study. His solitude is broken by the arrival of a tattered, half-mad derelict, who is soon revealed to be his old acquaintance Peachy Carnahan (Michael Caine). As Kipling listens in rapt fascination, Peachy relates the incredible adventures of himself and his partner-in-chicanery Daniel Dravot (Sean Connery). Con men Carnahan and Dravot have masterminded all sorts of underhanded money-making schemes, the most elaborate of which takes them to a remote city in the hills of eastern Afghanistan. Here, through methods both foul and fair, Daniel passes himself off as the incarnation of Alexander the Great, the better to lay his hands on the vast riches all around him. Unfortunately, Daniel begins to believe his own lies, and the results are disastrous for both himself and Peachy. Inadvertently exposing Daniel's scheme is his native wife, played by Shakira Caine (Michael Caine's real-life wife). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This film is a French period comic romance, set in the time just surrounding the French Revolution (1789). "Year Two," of the French title refers to the second year following the revolution. Those who guided the French Revolution renamed the days of the week, the months of the year, and much more. They also began their calendar from the time of the revolution. In this film, Jean-Paul Belmondo plays the husband of a vivacious, two-timing, and socially ambitious young woman (Marlene Jobert). After he kills one of her aristocratic lovers, the husband flees to the New World (the Americas). He returns to France after the revolution, finds that he has been divorced, and then works hard to woo his ex-wife away from all the important men and outlaw aristocrats she is spending time with. Happiness reigns anew as, remarried, they both attain aristocratic status in Napolean's regime. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Nina (Melina Mercouri) is a former silent-film star from Russia who abandons her career to care for her son. She is a single mother -- the boy's father is a famous actor who wants nothing to do with either Nina or her child. She joins an acting troupe where she impersonates a famous French fashion designer, but she leaves the group in Krakow, Poland, when her true identity is discovered. She travels to France, taking several odd jobs in Nice to support her son. When the boy grows to young adulthood, he is recruited to fight during World War II for the French and later the British. He is decorated for valor and returns to locate his estranged mother after two years have passed. Upon arriving home, he finds that his mother had died several years earlier but that she meticulously wrote over 250 letters to give her son moral support and encouragement in the years to come. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi