Christian de Chalonge Movies

Serial killers appear in small numbers almost everywhere. Their motives vary, but in every case they are a peculiar breed. This chilling, true historical drama follows the activities of one such man, apparently motivated by greed and opportunism more than anything else. In France during the Nazi occupation, Dr. Petiot (Michel Serrault) offered to help Jews escape the Nazis. They would come to his house, and he would kindly give them lethal "vaccinations" for their anticipated travel to Argentina. Then he would steal everything the brought with them (in addition to their up-front payment to him) and burn their bodies in his home-made crematorium. His crimes were discovered in 1944 when his overburdened furnace drew attention of authorities to him. He escaped capture for a time, but was tried and executed in 1946 for the murder of 27 persons, though (as is often the case with these ghouls) the actual count may have been much higher. This film tells Dr. Petiot's story in an abstract and impressionistic manner which is leavened with a certain amount of black humor. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The Last Strange Voyage of Donald Crowhurst is a non-fiction book by Ron Hall and Nicholas Tomblin about a man who first cheated to win an international sailing competition and then disappeared from his sailboat in the final lap of the race -- a story that serves as the inspiration for this film. Director Christian de Chalonge and writer Andre G. Brunelin have changed the setting to France, with a Frenchman named Julien Dantec (Jacques Perrin) as the sailboat enthusiast and the international race is now a French competition. Julien is actually an electronics professional who is down on his luck when he decides to enter the race. He is led astray from his original good intentions by a low-life press agent who convinces him it would be well worth his while to win the race by illegal maneuvering. As he sets off, flashbacks tell how he came to be on the sailboat; later he has long monologues -- several of them, and in-between he occasionally battles to stay afloat on an uncooperative sea. For awhile, he sets down in Brazil when he considers abandoning the race, but seemingly compelled to finish what he started, he continues onward with his ill-fated journey. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The most powerful officers of a bank are implicated in a financial scandal, despite their efforts to disassociate themselves from it. When the top brass fire Henri Rainier (Jean-Louis Trintignant) because one of his clients has been accused of fraud, he doesn't take it lying down. He knows that the man who actually approved the client's loans was the bank's director. He must expose these and other shady financial transactions by his superiors in order to avoid being framed by them. This straightforward drama, which depicts the anxious situation of a man without allies, caught, despite his best efforts, in the throes of a vast land fraud, is based on a true story and was inexplicably very popular in France. It won Césars for "Best Screenplay" and "Best Director," and the Prix Louis Delluc, a venerable annual prize given by French journalists for the best French film of the year. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Director Christian De Chalonge uses a docudrama-styled approach to tell the lonely story of Portugese workers in France. In hopes of avoiding the Army, a boy leaves Portugal bound for Paris to find a job. He meets other Portugese upon his arrival but spends most of his time wandering the streets of Paris when his friend cannot be found. The tedium of the feature overshadows the good intent to bring attention to the plight of immigrant workers struggling to survive in a new country. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide