Jacques Doniol-Valcroze Movies

Jacques Rivette's epic-scale meditation on art, politics and relationships is an eight-part, 740 minute drama that begins as an examination of two Parisian theater companies. Lili (Michele Moretti) is a member of an experimental troupe preparing a radical new interpretation of Aeschylus's Seven Against Thebes, while Thomas (Michel Lonsdale) is in charge of a state-funded group who are rehearsing another work by the same ancient Greek playwright, Prometheus Unbound. Drifting in and out of the orbit of these two groups are Sarah (Bernadette Lafont), an author and longtime friend of Thomas; Colin (Jean-Pierre Léaud), a deaf street musician; Frederique (Juliet Berto), a sexy confidence woman, and the bohemian owner of a knick-knack shop who often changes her name (Bulle Ogier), among many others. Colin tries to search out the meaning of a strange note handed to him by a mysterious stranger, while Frederique becomes party to a similar message. As it happens, both learn of the possible existence of a secret society of thirteen powerful individuals who are the true rulers of Paris, but neither is sure if the group exists in history or the present day, and they have very different notions of what to do with this information. Jacques Rivette originally screened Out 1 as a work in progress (titled Out 1: Noli Me Tangere) at a pair of screenings in Paris in the fall of 1971; it was originally conceived as a project for television, but became a theatrical film after it was rejected by French broadcasters. While a four-hour version, Out 1: Spectre, began making the rounds of film festivals in 1974, the film didn't appear in its full twelve-hours-plus version until 1989, when a new cut of Out 1 appeared at the Rotterdam Film Festival. The final cut of Out 1 appeared with English subtitles in London in 2006, and has subsequently been screened in Vancouver, New York City and Chicago. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Antoine (Robert Lamoureux) was a pleasant and agreeable man for years, until a small inheritance begins to give him some dangerous ideas about gaining wealth and women. Partly in order to win the affections of a young woman, he becomes a small-time con man on the basis of some ideas his accountant has planted in his mind. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A young, easygoing pilot (Jacques Weber) discovers the mutual attraction between his chief pilot's wife (Anicee Alvina) and himself. The two become lovers, and are nearly discovered on several occasions. However, when the wife becomes pregnant, her husband (Heinz Bennent) has reason to believe he is not the father and, indeed, that the culprit is the young pilot. He arranges for the young man to have an unfortunate accident, and all proceeds as if nothing had happened. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This dark French comedy satirizes suburban living. Marthe Keller and Jacques Higelin play a newly married couple who have just moved into the suburbs. Nearly everything is oppressive: among other things, the walls of their house are too thin and their neighbors harangue them with complaints of all kinds. They also suffer from the difficulties of the commute to work. When this routine nearly drives the wife to suicide, they are both relieved when their house literally blows up around them. They then discover another set of indignities while they are at the hospital. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Carl (Matthieu Carriere) is the young scholar who comes to live with French geologist Julian (Maurice Garrel) and his wife Isaballe (Marie Dubois) and two children. Carl is eager to study with the famous geologist, but soon he is involved in a love affair with his mentor's wife. A jealous laborer tells the husband of the tryst and Isaballa confesses to her husband. He has tempered his once callous exterior and gruff demeanor in the wake of his wife's infidelity in this plodding romantic drama. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In this provocative sci-fi drama from Alain Resnais, a man wakes up in a hospital after an attempted suicide. He has invented a time machine that has proven effective, but only transports the subject back in time for one minute. Upon his release, he gets his hands on the machine to go back to a time he fondly remembers spending with a woman he apparently has feelings about. The two stroll on the beach before she leaves for Scotland. He follows her, but tragedy ensues and it is not clear if he has killed her or if she died an accidental death. The time-machine angle of the film features a dreamlike series of flashbacks making it unclear if the action is presently unfolding or is merely a vague memory from the past. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Two lovers have an adulterous affair in this moral melodrama from Spain that carefully sidesteps condemnation of the church. Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Yelena Samarina star as the illicit lovers in this feature that is visually stunning but fails to go beyond the superficiality of the characters. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In this romance, a youthful painter, vacationing in the French Riviera, falls in love with a beautiful woman who, unfortunately, has come there to tryst with her older, married lover, a Chilean diplomat. To her disappointment, he does not come, so the painter and the girl team up and begin exploring the Riviera together. But try as he might, the painter cannot get her to forget her diplomat, and so his love remains unrequited. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A few gratuitous erotic scenes undermine the supposed seriousness of this routine drama of murder and intrigue by director Jacques Domiol-Valcroze. The past comes back to haunt a young film producer when he makes an unexpected return trip to a nightclub one afternoon and discovers a murder victim. The dead man was a fellow partisan, a comrade-in-arms in the fight against the Germans in France in World War II. Just a moment after his discovery, the producer is knocked out cold. As the mystery of why the man in the nightclub was killed begins to be solved, the producer's behavior during the war suddenly occupies center stage. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this standard comedy of sex and odd manners, a few men and women converge on a picturesque chateau for the reading of a will and then start pairing off. One of the women lives with her successful photographer-boyfriend, and she arrives at the chateau because she is supposed to have inherited something. Before too long, she has fallen for the lawyer reading the will. In the meantime, her boyfriend arrives in the guise of her brother, and he is attracted in a big way to his girlfriend's cousin. So while she goes after the lawyer, he is occupied with his own pursuits. The maid in the chateau, in turn, is undecided about whether to accept the romantic overtures of a young valet. There are a few potholes in these roads to romance, but given the tone of the proceedings they are not likely to cause serious damage. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide