Jean-Pierre Cassel Movies

American in Paris star Gene Kelly returned to the City of Light as both star and director of The Happy Road. Kelly and Barbara Laage play single parents with one child each. Gene and Barbara don't know each other at the outset, but are drawn together when their kids run away from their Swiss boarding school. Kelly and Laage realize that the two children wouldn't be so unhappy with their lot if their parents would marry again. The parents, having fallen in love, oblige. The Happy Road tends to bludgeon its audience with whimsy at time; Gene Kelly, as always, is charming, and less affected than usual. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jean-Pierre Cassel is ideally cast as the hopelessly optimistic Candide in this noir updating of Voltaire's classic 18th-century social satire. Candide has been assured by his ivory-tower professor (Pierre Brasseur) that whatever fate befalls him, he will be all the better for it. Armed with the confidence of the ignorant, Candide is abused by practically everyone he comes across (he has a particularly rough time in a German POW camp), but somehow emerges with his faith in humanity unscathed. His picaresque adventures take him all the way to the Americas, both North and South. Just as in most stage versions of Candide, some of the supporting actors play double and triple roles: Robert Manuel, for example, portrays all the German officers Candide meets. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

American actress Jean Seberg, stars as Claire, a wayward wife, in this routine sex comedy by director Philippe de Broca. Claire's husband is not especially exciting -- he is a button-down civil servant -- and so it is not unusual that she lapse into an affair with Antoine (Jean-Pierre Cassel). There is a serious problem with her choice of a lover, because Antoine happens to be the live-in, "significant other" of Claire's best friend Madeleine (Micheline Presle), a fashion designer. Claire's tangled love life gets worse when Antoine gives every indication he wants to marry her, get a job, and make himself legitimate for once. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The eponymous French corporal, played by Jean-Pierre Cassel, is ensconced in a German POW camp. Cassel plots with his friends Claude Brasseur and Claude Rich to escape, but all three are recaptured. When the corporal plans another getaway, he finds that one of his chums isn't interested anymore. After a brief liaison with the daughter of a German dentist, Cassel once more tries to break out...and once more...and once more. Finally free from his captors, Cassel joins the resistance with his loyal pal Brasseur. The Elusive Corporal was a return to the themes of freedom and personal dignity inherent in Jean Renoir's earlier La Grande Illusion (1938); alas, Renoir had very little control over the final cut of the later film, and tended to dismiss the whole project as a mere "entertainment" in his declining years, though he remained proud of his closing panorama shot of Paris, which wordlessly expressed the euphoria of freedom. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The oddly featured poet Cyrano De Bergerac(Jose Ferrer, reprising an Oscar-winning role in Michael Gordon's Cyrano De Bergerac), he of the enormous nose, and musketeer D'Artagnan (Jean-Pierre Cassel) lend a hand to put down a revolution in 17th-century Paris. While they bravely fight for the monarchy, the men dally with two comely courtesans (Sylva Koscina and Daliah Lavi). Though paired off with satisfactory partners, the couples find that a switcheroo might afford them each true love. Director Abel Gance and Nelly Kaplan wrote the screenplay, which united period characters Cyrano, from Edmond Rostand's play, and D'Artagnan, from Alexandre Dumas' Three Musketeers, in this romantic swashbuckler. Though French cinema pioneer Gance was near the end of his career, Kaplan was just beginning. She would go on to write, edit and direct several more films. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

A sleepy Spanish town is turned upside down by the arrival of a French stripper. She undergoes an emergency appendectomy and is operated on by a married, middle-aged doctor. When he falls for the woman, he lengthens her recovery time because he wants her to stay. The man's wife leaves him as gossip sweeps the townsfolk about the alleged affair between doctor and patient. The stripper stays with a local French teacher until she gain return to work, avoiding the doctor. Things get back to normal when the stripper finally leaves and the doctor and his wife reconcile. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Ken Annakin's large-canvas comedy Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines is set in 1910. In order to boost circulation of his newspaper, Lord Rawnsley (Robert Morley) offers 10,000 pounds to the first person who can fly across the English Channel. A huge number of hopefuls enter the contest, including the scheming Sir Percy Ware-Armitage (Terry-Thomas), who, with the help of his henchman Courtney (Eric Sykes), attempts to sabotage the other entries. There is also a love triangle featuring Orvil Newton (Stuart Whitman) and Richard Mays (James Fox) competing for the heart of Patricia Rawnsley (Sarah Miles). ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Director René Clair pokes fun at the gentlemanly art of warfare that existed in the 18th century in this war comedy. Jean-Pierre Casell plays a soldier of fortune who tries to mediate in a conflict between two Dukes that led to battle. He mediates in the name of a fickle princess to negotiate peace among the rival factions. When he returns, Casell discovers that the princess has eyes for yet another man and that the war is the last thing on her mind. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In 1944, with Paris on the verge of Liberation by the allies, Adolph Hitler ordered that the City of Light be blown up and burned to the ground. General Dietrich Von Choltitz, after much rumination, decided that he didn't want to go down in history as the man who destroyed Paris. His refusal to follow Hitler's orders would make him a pariah in Germany for the rest of his life; nor was his gesture ever rewarded by the Allies. From this very human story in the midst of one of the most inhuman conflicts in history grew the screenplay (by Gore Vidal and Francis Ford Coppola) of the all-star, internationally produced Is Paris Burning? Whereas the earlier The Longest Day was able to support a castful of celebrities and brief subplot vignettes, Is Paris Burning? seems more weighted down than weighty. Still, a modern audience will have fun playing "spot the star" throughout the film, especially when those spotted stars include the likes of Gert Frobe (as Choltitz), Jean-Paul Belmondo, Alain Delon, Kirk Douglas (as Patton), Glenn Ford (as Bradley), Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, Robert Stack, and even Anthony Perkins as a wide-eyed GI. Filmed on a gargantuan scale, Is Paris Burning? was based on a book by Larry Collins and Dominique LaPierre. The film was lensed in black and white, save for the Technicolor finale (in the original road-show prints). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Released in France as Jeu De Massacre, The Killing Game tips its hat to the "Op-Art" generation by offering two comic strip artists as its protagonists. Husband-and-wife cartoonists Jean-Pierre Cassel and Claudia Auger make the acquaintance of eccentric playboy Michel Duchaussoy. So avid a fan of the couple's work isDuchaussoy that he acts out the plotlines of their cartoons in his lavish mansion. When Cassel and Auger kill off one of their characters, Duchaussoy tries to murder Auger, then attempts to commit suicide. Packed away to a sanitarium, Duchaussoy is eventually released and reunited with the cartoonists, who have decided to avoid any future difficulties by purging all violence from their work! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A gorgeous woman takes it upon herself to make a man fall for her, whether he likes it or not, in this romantic comedy. Gaspard (Jean-Pierre Cassel) is a successful musician who owns a large estate in the country; he lives a quiet life with few distraction, and prefers to keep it that way. However, Gaspard's peace is disturbed one day when he gets into a minor traffic accident with Felicia (Brigitte Bardot), a beautiful but eccentric divorcee driving a Rolls-Royce. Felicia is immediately taken with Gaspard, but he doesn't much care for her; sensing a challenge, Felicia makes it her goal to turn Gaspard's head and make him fall in love with her. However, the harder Felicia tries, Gaspard puts up an even greater fight, and their potential romance turns into a high-stakes battle of wits. While Brigitte Bardot was still lovely and glamorous at 35 when she made L'Ours et la Poupee, she was nearing the end of her career as Europe's greatest female star; within five years, she would retire from acting. Collectors take note: though this film was originally shot and released in Eastmancolor, at least one U.S. video release issued the picture in a dubbed, black-and-white version. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Based on a novel by Charlotte Armstrong, the story concerns Helene (Stephane Audran), the wife of a hopeless would-be writer and drug addict. Her husband's best friend tries to lay a trap for Helene, so that she will be forced to pay dearly for a divorce settlement. Also conspiring against Helene is her father-in-law, who wishes to wrest her child away from her. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In typical Luis Buñuel fashion, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie surrealistically skewers the conventions of society. Buñuel applies his surrealist touch to a mundane event: a dinner party that may never come to pass. A group of well-to-do friends attempt to gather for a social evening, but are thwarted at every turn. The initial problem seems to be a simple scheduling mistake, but the obstacles become more and more bizarre. At one point, the guests are interrupted at the table by an army on maneuvers. Later they learn that they are merely characters in a stage play and so cannot have dinner together. These misadventures are combined with symbolic dreams of the various characters, some of which also involve interrupted dinners. Wicked social satire and one of Buñuel's funniest films. Winner of the Academy Award for "Best Foreign Film" in 1972. ~ John Voorhees, All Movie Guide