Louisa Colpeyn Movies
- 1978
Peppo (Roger Coggio) is married, an alcoholic, and has a teenaged son. The lovely Pauline (Elizabeth Huppert) is suicidal and has arranged everything very carefully for her coming demise. Just before she commits the fatal deed, she drives off on a goodbye drinking visit to her favorite bars. When she returns to her car, she finds Peppo lying in the back, taking a breather in the middle of a prolonged drinking bout. He drives her home, and they become acquaintances and, finally, lovers. In this comedy, they must now deal with all the suicide notes and funeral arrangements Pauline made when she was still determined to kill herself. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Roger Coggio, Elizabeth Huppert, (more)
- 1972
French director Claude Berri wrote, directed, and stars in this comedy as Claude, a bookstore owner whose personal life, like his struggling business, is failing. Claude is trapped in a loveless marriage to Isabelle (Juliet Berto), who does not seem to possess any sexual attraction to her husband or affection for her children. The only activity Isabelle does seem to relish is shopping, which means spending Claude's hard-earned income. Then salvation arrives in the form of a business brainstorm. Claude transforms the bookstore into a sex shop, selling everything from leather bondage paraphernalia to pornography; soon business takes off. The proprietorship of the sex shop and his friendship with a sexually uninhibited customer, Jacqueline (Nathalie Delon), open up new possibilities for Claude, and he realizes that he's been repressed. Although he encourages Isabelle to join him in his new erotic adventures, she is at first reluctant to embrace the swinging lifestyle; the couple's attempts at a ménage à trois are disastrous. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jean-Pierre Marielle, Claude Piéplu, (more)
- 1968
The original French title of Marry Me, Marry Me was Mazel Tov ou le Marriage, which was more appropriate to the ethnic ambience of this Claude Berri confection. Director Berri effectively casts himself as the protagonist, a Jewish encyclopedia salesman who impregnates the daughter (Elisabeth Wiener) of a Brussels diamond merchant. Anxious to do the right thing by marrying the girl, the salesman must first win the approval of her family. He takes English lessons from a beauteous British woman (Prudence Harrington), falling in love with her in the process. Coming to the conclusion that to marry into his expectant girlfriend's family would be a major mistake for all concerned, the salesman proposes to his tutor. When this falls through, he ends up with Girl Number One after all -- which turns out not to be so painful a proposition as he originally thought. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Claude Berri, Elisabeth Wiener, (more)
One of pioneering director Jean-Luc Godard's most accessible films is this French spin on Dolores Hitchens' novel Fool's Gold. It tells the tale of three disaffected youths who plan a burglary, leading to deadly results. The alienated young trio is marvelous, particularly Anna Karina, and the early scenes of their clearly overdeveloped fantasy lives are splendidly handled. Something of a companion piece to Godard's classic À Bout de Souffle, its young characters have the same odd mixture of fatalism and starry-eyed naïveté that is, by turns, appealing and tragic. Trivia buffs should note that the film gave its name to Quentin Tarantino's production company (A Band Apart), and several of its scenes are echoed in his Pulp Fiction. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
- Starring:
- Anna Karina, Claude Brasseur, (more)
- 1961
Transference of guilt, a theme near and dear to the heart of French author Georges Simenon, forms the basis of Passion of Slow Fire, adapted from Simenon's novel La Mort de Belle. American student Alexandra Stewart completing her education in France, turns up murdered. The prime suspect is professor Jean Desailly, inasmuch as Stewart was residing with Desailly and his wife Monique Melinard. While the professor is innocent, the impact of the tragedy causes him to kick over the traces, acquire a mistress, and ultimately kill her. Passion of Slow Fire was also released as The End of Belle. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jean Desailly, Alexandra Stewart, (more)
- 1949
Jacques Becker's Rendez-vous de Juillet has been credited as the first postwar European film to accurately depict the Continental "youth culture." Teenaged Lucien (Daniel Gelin) aspires to become a filmmaker, and to that end organizes his friends into a film unit. The young cineastes hope to make a journey into Africa, there to film an uncompromisingly realistic documentary. Amusingly, Lucien and his friends are shown to be rather ill-equipped for "real life," shuttling as they do between theatre classes, jazz bars and coffee houses. Also, Lucien will have to overcome some family problems before he can embrace the responsibilities of adulthood. The winner of a critics' award at the Cannes Film Festival, Rendez-vous de Juillet was released in the U.S. as Appointment with Life. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Gélin, Maurice Ronet, (more)
