Georges Claisse Movies

In this snappy French comedy, a young man goes on a quest to find the enigmatic fast-food woman with "the hair the color of French fries" who gave him his first taste of l'amour. The fellow is the naive, amiable orphan Jean-Louis who spent his life with his elderly and very strict grandfather. Jean-Louis was a 25-year old virgin when the free-spirited young Parisian woman was temporarily stranded in his village after a bus broke down. She left him a changed man, and she also left a match book from a fast food restaurant called Fast Burger. Soon after his grandfather passes away, the innocent rube Jean-Louis hops on his bike and embarks upon a quest to Paris to find this enigmatic woman. But he is not prepared for the size of Paris, and instead ends up working at a Fast Burger outlet himself. Jean-Louis is a simple soul and freely expresses himself without guile. For some reason this endears him to the staff and management; soon he has been promoted into the upper echelons of the company. One day he meets a rather ditzy Metro security guard, Henriette, who is also at sea in the big city. The kindred spirits click and a sweet romance ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

An art restorer and (of neccessity) a bit of a historian, Eric (Tcheky Karyo) has been asked to come to a very spooky mansion to restore what looks to be a painting by a hideously deformed, mentally deranged artist who is only now becoming popular, years after his death. As he restores the painting, he begins to have strange flashbacks, as if he were the painter himself. Meanwhile, he is developing a relationship with the painting's lovely owner (Laura Morante). The painting is a picture of the girl's grandmother, and as the restoration progresses, both he and the girl begin to reenact the stormy relationship between the painter and his subject, as if they were possessed. One interesting feature of this film is that the dialogue alternates between Spanish and French. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This mystery is taken from the novel by best-selling author Guy des Cars. While on a voyage with his philandering wife (Assumpta Serna), Jacques (Xavier Deluc), in spite of the fact that he is blind, deaf, and mute, is accused of murdering an oily lounge singer. Deliot (Jean Carmet) is the defense attorney who tries to find the killer and defend Jacques, who inexplicably admits to a murder he did not commit. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This informative and disturbing docudrama is about the legal persecution of a whistle-blower, a VIP in a drug consortium with corporate offices in Basle, Switzerland. This executive went to the European Common Market (now the EU) with evidence of his company's malpractice. As a result, he was put in prison for industrial espionage for three months, his wife committed suicide during that time, and he was not allowed to go to her funeral. When he got out of prison on bail only because he managed to get to an outside lawyer, he discovered his small farm holdings in Italy were confiscated (Italy is a member of the Basle drug consortium). At the time of the filming of this documentary, the executive's legal fate was as yet undecided, but the film's implications that a drug company can be powerful enough to silence its accusers is a chilling indictment. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Femmes De Personne is a French "feminist" film that comes off as slightly misogynistic (not to mention misanthropic) at times. Is it possible to be happy in business and still be happy in bed? The four leading ladies, all successful career women, don't seem particularly blissful. On the contrary, their boudoir activity seems to be as much a trial as going to work each morning. Femmes De Personne was directed by novelist Christopher Frank, most of whose books are variations on the theme "It's miserable at the top". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Yves Montand stars in this French seriocomedy as a middle-aged waiter. He has long harbored dreams of becoming a singer, and is also anxious to prove he's as virile as he was when he started pushing plates. Montand gets a chance to rev up his sexual energy and his musical skills when an old flame (Nicole Garcia) reenters his life after 17 years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Charles is a middle-aged junk dealer, beset by several imagined illnesses. Lucie is his lady friend, a washed-up singer. Vulnerable and easily led, Charles and Lucie fall victim to a confidence scheme. Left penniless in the south of France, our hero and heroine find themselves the targets of pursuit, not only from the authorities but from the underworld. The curious result is that they regain their join in living. Charles and Lucie is one of a handful of amiable character studies (and the last one to date) directed by Abel Gance protegee Nelly Kaplan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This well-made period melodrama, set in late 19th-century France, highlights the worldly, flirtatious fashion of the day and the demands of genuine piety on the one hand and debauchery on the other. Aurore (Francoise Fabian) is a high-minded but flirtatious woman of society who charmingly refuses the attentions of one man, claiming she would have had to completely lost heart to marry such an old miser as he. She falls for completely debauched charmer Raphael (Maurice Ronet) and hopes at first to win him to a life of virtue. Unsuccessful in this and deeply obsessed with him, she then simply hopes to win him and, in the attempt, enters further and further into his depraved world. ~ Clarke Fountain, 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