Raoul Delfosse Movies

Michael Di Jiacomo made his directorial debut with this allegory that opens with a 12-minute black-and-white prologue about three French filmmakers who encounter the tuba-playing Tollkeeper (Mickey Rooney) on a silent stretch between two ghost towns in the Utah desert. In NYC, an armed thief (John Turturro) holds up despairing cabdriver Henry (Tim Roth), who tells him to go ahead and pull the trigger. With the thief gone, Henry's next passengers are the three Frenchmen seen earlier, and he takes them into New England where he's so spellbound by the beautiful Fatima (Mili Avital) that he takes a job with her irritating mother in order to maintain his pursuit of Fatima. Shown at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

The French Lesson was released in some markets as The Frog Prince. Studying at the Sorbonne, young British lass Jenny (Jane Snowden) lives with a rural, respectable French family. Her head full of curious romantic notions, Jenny would like to surrender her virginity, but only when the "right" boy comes along. Her choices boil down to two: Norwegian "hunk" Niels (Oystein Wiik) and arrogant local boy Jean-Philippe (Alexandre Sterling). To make certain that her ultimate decision is the correct one, Jenny establishes a series of offbeat conditions for her two Romeos. The film switches emotional and stylistic gears so often that, by the time the heroine has made her choice, some viewers may have forgotten how the whole thing started. The appeal of The French Lesson is almost completely dependant upon one's feelings towards mercurial leading lady Jane Snowden. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Unicorn (Jean Claudio), a top enemy agent, is accidentally killed by his own comrades during a shootout. To fool the Other Side, the New Avengers arrange an elaborate hoax to make it appear as though Unicorn is still alive. Unfortunately, the villains have captured a foreign Prince in hopes of exchanging him for Unicorn--and the Prince has been wired to explode in case the exchange goes awry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Imagine, for a moment, that a town in the American Old West was founded by and for French people, and that two of the sexiest women in modern times were rivals for control of that town. In Les Petroleuses, Frenchy (Brigitte Bardot) and Maria (Claudia Cardinale) are at war over an oil lease. Maria and her gang of train-robbing brothers got a poor haul on their last robbery. The only thing they found was one measly case with a geological map indicating that a nearby farm was a likely oil-drilling site. It's too bad for Maria that Frenchy has the deed to the farm. While the two of them feud over this and other issues, the bumbling local sheriff is desperately trying to learn French, so that he can woo one of these extraordinary dames. This film sounds as though it was intended as a comedy, but it was made as a perfectly straightforward, serious Western. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Dany (Samantha Eggar) is the ad agency secretary to Caldwell (Oliver Reed) in this psychological crime drama. She is asked to drive him to the airport and park the car in the lot after working at his home the night before. Getting in the wrong lane, she decides to use the car for a weekend getaway and return in time to collect Caldwell upon his return. Soon she is recognized in places she has never been before. She picks up a hippie (John McEnery) and makes love to him only to find he has stolen the car in the morning. Dany finds the car and the hippie, but there is now a dead body in the back seat. She finds where the dead man lived and takes the body to the house. Dany finds erotic nude photos of herself in the strange man's apartment even though the two had never met. She begins to suspect that her boss and his sluttish wife Anita (Stephane Audran) are setting her up to take the fall for the man's murder. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Roger Santet (Alain Delon) is a convicted murderer sprung from prison by the Sicilian clan headed by the aging Vittorio Manalese (Jean Gabin). They conspire to steal a large cache of jewels from an exhibit in Rome. As they are preparing for the heist, the mobster's American friend Tony Nicosia (Amedeo Nazzarri) suggests that a better way to get the rocks would be to hijack the transport plane while it is en route to New York. The dogged inspector Le Goff (Lino Ventura) is using all the available resources to thwart their plans. Though the heist itself is successful, Santet finds himself trapped by the mob because of his fling with Manalese's daughter-in-law (Irina Demick). ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide

Reno Davis (George Peppard) is an American writer who has retired from the gentle art of boxing. Now wandering through France, he takes a job as a tutor for the son of a wealthy widow. Anne de Villemont (Inger Stevens) employs Reno to help in the education of her son Paul (Barnaby Shaw). Reno is led to believe Anne's husband was a French general killed in the Algerian conflict. He is puzzled over Anne's fears that her eight-year-old son will be kidnapped. Reno discovers the family has ties to a fascist organization that plans to takeover France, Algeria and finally, all of Europe. He contends with the shady psychiatrist Morillon (Keith Michell) and mysterious family friend Leschenhaut (Orson Welles), both of whom scare Anne whenever they are around. Reno is framed for his best friend's murder as he and Anne become the targets of the ambitious and maniacal schemers who wish to rule the entire European continent. Reno and Anne escape by car and plane, dodging bullets and kidnap attempts as they try to protect Paul from being abducted. The chase ends at the Coliseum in Rome, where Reno and the villains engage in a showdown in this gripping, mysterious crime thriller. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In this WW II drama set during a weekend in June of 1940, German invaders force British troops to flee Dunkirk. The French soldiers stationed on a nearby beach also want to withdraw so they too can battle the Germans, but they have been ordered to stay in place and the British are to use the boats first. Though it is a bloody conflict and many innocent residents are killed, one young woman, Jeanne (Catherine Spaak) refuses to evacuate her home. She becomes friends with one of the French soldiers, Julien (Jean-Paul Belmondo) who later saves her from being raped. The situation on the beach grows increasingly tense as the waiting soldiers are easy targets for German warplanes. Julien tries to persuade Jeanne to leave this dangerous place. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Much of Orson Welles' latter-day reputation as an "unfathomable" genius rests upon his seeming unwillingness to tell a story in clear, precise fashion. Sometimes, as in such films as Touch of Evil, Welles' spotty storytelling skills can be forgiven in the light of the excellent visuals. In other cases, as in his 1962 adaptation of Kafka's The Trial, Welles'style comes across as empty virtuosity, precious and petulant when it should be profound. Anthony Perkins plays Joseph K, a man condemned for an unnamed crime in an unnamed country. Seeking justice, Joseph K is sucked into a labyrinth of bureaucracy (Welles once described the character as being a "little bureaucrat" himself, who deserves to be punished. This is never clearly expressed in the finished film). Along the way, he becomes involved with three women -- Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider, Elsa Martinelli -- who in their own individual ways are functions of the System that persecutes him.

While Welles considered The Trial one of his finest films, this enthusiasm is not universally shared; even his most fervent admirers have been known to emerge from a screening of the film with quizzical, disappointed expressions on their faces. On the plus side, Welles and his cinematographer Edmond Richard perform miracles in transforming an abandoned French railway station into the headquarters of a totalitarian, red tape-ridden society. It's also fun to hear Welles' voice emanating from several of the supporting characters (his post-dubbing budget was nil). All in all, however, The Trial never truly works; it is unfair, however, to lay the blame for this entirely on Welles, inasmuch as the 1948 and 1994 attempts to cinematize the original Kafka novel likewise came a cropper. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide