Georges Casati Movies

In spite of spending three hours developing the story of French peasant Charles Saganne (Gérard Depardieu), the sweep of this epic skims over the qualities that transformed Saganne from an ordinary officer to a great military leader. Saganne was first sent to a garrison town in North Africa before Colonel Dubreuilh (Philippe Noiret) assigned him to other missions, finally giving him a chance to exercise his innate ability to lead men. After a tragic hiatus in Paris where he fails to promote the colonialist cause, he returns to the Sahara and outshines his past accomplishments, leading a ragtag band of Arab dissidents in some brilliant military maneuvers -- for which he won the French Legion of Honor. His newfound recognition also attracted a society maven who became his wife, and after his tour of duty has ended Saganne moves with her to the village where he was born. But the year is 1914 and Saganne's peaceful village idyll was not meant to endure -- he is again called off to war, and to his destiny. Even though the costuming, landscape, battles, and charisma of Depardieu as Saganne and Noiret as Colonel Dubreuilh are outstanding, and several subsidiary characters deliver emotionally compelling vignettes, the protagonists as an ensemble have not been scripted with much depth of character -- making the three-hour epic seem a bit too long in the end. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

A tough but honest cop must clear his name after a corrupt colleague implicates him in a murder in this French thriller. Ferrot (Yves Montand) is a hard-as-nails police detective who is attracted to a beautiful woman named Sylvia (Stefania Sandrelli). Sylvia, however, is having an affair with Ganay (Francois Perier), who happens to be Ferrot's superior on the force; Ganay happens to be married to Therese (Simone Signoret), who is handicapped. Sylvia is found murdered, and Ferrot is assigned to investigate; Ferrot is convinced that Ganay killed Sylvia because she wanted to end their relationship, but to his dismay, Ferrot discovers that the killer has placed a number of false clues that point the blame toward Ferrot. Police Python 357's brisk cutting earned editor Marie-Josephe Yoyotte a Cesar Award (the French Oscar). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This light comedy finds an inept reporter keeping his job only because his uncle owns the paper he works for. He is assigned to cover the story of a woman giving birth to sextuplets on a small island off the coast of France. The gullible reporter is given a false story, by a social worker, that Martians have landed on the island. When he prints the story, the island is besieged with visitors and curiosity seekers. Among the visitors are two beings from another planet who really believe their interplanetary brethren have arrived. The sextuplets are born, but the reporter is fired. He missed two really big scoops that have the newborns taken away in a spaceship by their father, a real alien. A giant dinosaur-like creature emerges from the watery depths of the ocean to see what all the fuss is about. The reporter and babies are long gone and the disinterested monster gives the island one last look before going home. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide