Danièle Delorme Movies

In 1917, the French army used a brutal technique in its attempt to prevent mutinies by its increasingly disaffected soldiers. After lining a unit up on parade, one randomly chosen soldier would be required to step forward and he would be shot, as an example to the others that refusal to fight would not be tolerated. He would go down on the record books as having been a traitor to his country. The general known as "the butcher of Hurlus" was particularly enthusiastic in his use of this technique. This film is an adaptation of Jean Amila's novel Le Boucher des Hurlus. The story, set in the aftermath of the war, concerns Michel (Stanislas Crevillen), a young man orphaned in this manner. He lives with his mother until she collapses under the wave of vituperation from the women in her community, who consider her murdered husband to have been a traitor. When he is sent to an orphanage, he discovers that many of the children in it are there for the same reason he is. Michel decides to escape his captivity and kill the general who ordered his father's death. He and the other children like him are able to get away from the orphanage, in the course of their journeys, they tour the grim battlefields of the recent war. Together, they return to Paris, determined to exact their revenge. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Homosexual love among the ravages of war would be more convincing in this tale of a lesbian relationship if the war itself were more than just a vague backdrop to the story. November Messing (Gabriele Osburg) is a young Jewish woman forced to flee the growing Nazi menace in Germany in 1933. She finds a safe haven with a family in Paris, but then both the young man in the family and his sister, develop a romantic attachment to November. The relationship between November and the sister wins out, and although November is Jewish, there is no regard for the Gestapo who take over the city or the panic that forces many to leave Paris as soon as possible -- the Jewish woman and her lesbian relationship are oddly isolated. This split with reality influences other aspects of the film and may raise the objections of some viewers. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In making this film about a director who is presently working on an autobiographical movie, real-life director Elie Chouraqui has played on a Jewish cultural theme (the "reel" director is Jewish) and the intermixing of 1960s movie-making techniques. In the film, director David is in his 30s and his autobiography brings in details about his growth to adulthood -- his early life along the seacoast in Normandy, his parents, his education, and in the present, his sister and her husband, and a few of his own lovers. Visions of the past enhance the events of the moment, such as in the scene of David's mother's death. In the end, viewers may be able to answer the question posed by the title -- "What makes David run?" ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Anne (Jane Birkin) is a seriously disturbed young woman who is driven to leave her husband for awhile and go home to her parents in the countryside. Once there, she comes up against many of the primal causes of her own imbalanced mind. Her father is in an indecisive relationship with both his wife (Natasha Parry) and his mistress (Eva Rensi), and does not seem a pillar of stability himself. When Anne confronts her father, their relationship degenerates, leaving little promise for the future. Viewers should take note that the film deals with social taboos, such as incest. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This French comedy is the sequel to the well-regarded Pardon Mon Affaire. This version centers on the sexual fantasies of a quartet of four married, middle-class men attempting to deal with the onset of middle-age. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The line between fantasy and reality is once more blurred in this Belgian/French drama about a professor of literature who develops an obsession with a beautiful woman he meets (or imagines meeting) in the woods. He has an affair with this woman, but before he can run off with her, his daughter, who is an object of his incestuous desire (as several daydream sequences make clear), kills the stranger. Perhaps, though, his daughter only kills his daydreams when she gets married. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The young protagonist of this French film has decided to live his life "as a poem," but finds that this is not possible. He is also undecided about whether he is homosexual or not, and if so, what to do about it. His disinterest in coping with messy realities is sufficient to send him to his death by a drug overdose. The story is told using excerpts from the man's diary, with flashbacks, and through his asides to the audience. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Simon (Jean-Claude Trintignant) gets out of prison and summons his old friend Charles (Charles Gerard) and Martine (Christine Lelouch), his one time lover now married to a wealthy man. The three kidnap a little boy and then blackmail the bank where the boy's father works to pay the ransom of one million dollars. The publicity-conscious bank pays the ransom but the rest doesn't go exactly as planned. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This amiable French comedy stars Philipe Noiret as Alexander, an shiftless farmer who prefers sleep to work. After his nagging wife dies, Alexander becomes even lazier. The farmer becomes entranced by a beautiful young woman, and proposes marriage. But when his prospective wife gives evidence of being just as domineering as wife number one, Alexander balks at the altar and retreats to his previous life of ease. Originally titled Alexandre Le Bienhereaux, Very Happy Alexander was directed by Yves Robert, best known for his international success The Tall Blond Man with the One Black Shoe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide