Bernard Leonard Movies
- 1988
In this reportedly autobiographical piece, Michel Legrand makes his directorial debut. He is much better known for his orchestral scores for other movies. In this story, he is fourteen and living in Paris under the German occupation. It is June of 1944, and he and his mother, along with a young woman (who despite her youth is nearly twice his age), steal some bicycles at the train station and cycle their way to a town on the seaside at Normandy just as the invasion is getting underway. Curiously, the woman finds time to initiate the boy into sexual life in an unlikely location: under a bush in a field littered with corpses of the newly dead. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Annie Girardot, Sabine Azéma, (more)
A harmonious fisherman who lives his life peacefully drifting with the tides finds himself drawn into a political plot after rescuing two Americans from the wreckage of a crashed airplane. Countryman is a man of knowledge, a man who lives by the land and leads a noble life. When the solitary fisherman sees an airplane crash into a nearby swamp, he heroically comes to the rescue of the two surviving passengers. For his efforts, Countryman is not commended, but branded an enemy agent along with the two Americans from the airplane. The man responsible for transforming the selfless hero into a desperate fugitive is the power-hungry General Sinclair, a man so consumed by his quest for glory that he is willing to destroy anyone who gets in his way. Now, in order just to survive, the peace-loving Rastafarian must flee into the Jamaican wilderness and share his knowledge of the land with his new American friends. And though Countryman is a gentle soul at heart, he proves capable of unleashing a furious display of acrobatic hand-to-hand combat when forced to fight for what is right. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- The Countryman, Hiram Keller, (more)
- 1967
Pop Game marks the directorial debut of Francis Leroi. A teenage couple travels from their provincial town to taste life in Paris, moving into a vacant apartment and later making friends with another teenage boy with some money. The trio indulges in petty crimes like shoplifting and spend time at the movie theater. After the girl has an affair with a writer who leaves her when she becomes pregnant, the despondent girl throws herself in front of a moving car and suffers a miscarriage. Leroi obviously draws inspiration from the works of Truffaut, and Godard, but this film about the changes of the youthful trio entering adulthood reflects elements of his own stamp of originality. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Bellus, Bernard Leonard, (more)
