Georges Simenon Movies

A couple's marital woes lead to a terrifying ordeal in director Cédric Kahn's Red Lights. Co-written by Gilles Marchand (Who Killed Bambi?) and Kahn's frequent writing partner Laurence Ferreira Barbosa, Red Lights is based on a novel by Georges Simenon. In the film, Antoine (Jean-Pierre Darroussin) seems to be looking forward to taking his wife, Hélène (Carole Bouquet), for a long drive. The plan is to leave Paris and pick up their children at camp that evening, then spend a couple of weeks in the country relaxing. But when Hélène keeps him waiting, Antoine begins to drink. After several beers and a scotch, the couple hit the road, and immediately run into traffic leaving the city. Antoine has been hearing stories of horrible accidents on the road all evening, but that doesn't stop him from driving like a madman. When Hélène complains about his erratic driving, things just get worse. When they're not bickering, they're glaring silently out at the dark road. Eventually, Antoine decides to pull over for another drink, and when Hélène threatens to take the car and continue on without him, he takes the keys with him into the bar. When he gets out, he finds that Hélène has gone, leaving a note on the car saying she's continuing on by train. Antoine races to the train station, but he's too late, so he wanders into a nearby bar. There, he buys a drink for a sullen young man (Vincent Deniard), who later approaches him in the parking lot, asking for a ride. The two soon come to a police roadblock, and Antoine begins to suspect that his traveling companion is the escaped fugitive for whom the cops are looking. Red Lights had its U.S. premiere at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

Traveling down the river from the distant Bolivian outpost of San Jacinto in 1945, moody traveler Timar (Grégoire Colin) reflects on his star-crossed affair with the eponymous Adela (Eulalia Ramon) at her husband's decrepit hotel. Because Adela was married, deceitful, and adept at using her feminine charms, trouble duly followed her steamy encounter with Timar, problems ranging from difficulty in finding good hired help to a sudden abundance of dead bodies, and culminating in a climactic courtroom showdown. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi

This Italian psychological thriller is based on as novel by Georges Simenon. Delon is an immoral, gynecologist who frequently cheats on his wife. He is also very successful and has a richly appointed office in Brussels. His good life begins to change when he finds himself receiving death threats and a mysterious teddy bear. After he finds himself responsible for two deaths, he relinquishes his womanizing ways and goes back home. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Loursat (Jean-Paul Belmondo) is a lawyer who has spent the last decade drinking himself into insensibility with a huge cache of gourmet wine in response to his grief at the death of his beloved wife. In the process, he has managed to alienate his now-grown daughter and is barely on speaking terms with his housekeeper. However, finding the corpse of a murdered young man in a room in his house snaps him out of his protracted reverie. He sobers up, investigates the murder, and takes his place in the courtoom to straighten out this mess. In the process, he wins back the respect and affection of his family. This courtroom drama and mystery is based on one of Georges Simenon's many novels. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Lonely and shy bachelor Monsieur Hire (Michel Blanc), suspected in the murder of a girl, secretly watches his young, attractive neighbor Alice (Sandrine Bonnaire) through the window. Once, when lightning flashes during a thunderstorm, she notices his face in the window and comes to him to find out what he is after. Adapting Georges Simenon's novel, Patrice Leconte emphasized the psychological drama rather than the detective story and created a film about loneliness and voyeurism; his cold precision is reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock or Fritz Lang. The low-key acting and moody soundtrack add a lot, but it's the director who deserves the most accolades, as he manages, with only glances and gestures, to achieve a degree of eroticism that other films fail to reach even through explicit sex scenes. ~ Yuri German, Rovi

Although based on a novel by Georges Simenon, director (and songwriter) Serge Gainsbourg has superimposed several dark emotions and a subtle brutality over the weak plot about a man's trip to Africa and his unfortunate passion for a murderess whose amorality sends the disillusioned fellow back to Europe. Sometimes described as frustrating and self-centered, reactions to this film swing across a broad spectrum of complaints -- not the least might be whether or not Gainsbourg is using a clichéd and stereotypical view of "dark Africa" to convey what he sees in his characters. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

In this murder mystery, based on a Georges Simenon novel, a homicidal maniac goes on a killing spree beginning with his wife, whom he kept in the cellar. He then kills six of her aged friends and is preparing to murder a seventh when the intended victim dies naturally. As a substitute, he murders his favorite hooker, a crime that leads the police right to him. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

At the beginning of World War II, while the Germans entered France from the north, many people had reason to believe that the Germans would not treat them kindly, and they fled by train to the south. This French film tells the story of a few of them. Because they were fleeing the best-organized bureaucrats in the world, many of them chose to flee in freight cars, unseen and unnoted. When Meyereu (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is separated from his wife during the escape, he allows a Jewish girl (Romy Schneider) to pose as his wife. As the deception continues, they come to care for each other, but she discreetly disappears when his real wife turns up. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Simone Signoret plays the title role in this dark melodrama from writer/director Pierre Granier-Deferre. The Widow Couderc is based on a novel by Georges Simenon. Here Signoret (who also starred in Le Chat, an earlier Granier-Deferre adaptation of a Simenon novel) plays a bitterly independent middle-aged widow; she is a farmer who takes in a handsome young drifter, Jean (Alain Delon), who turns out to be recently released from prison. Jean does odd jobs for the woman, who lives with her elderly father-in-law, Henri (Jean Tissier), who pretends to be deaf when it suits him, and surreptitiously has an intimate relationship with Couderc. It's Henri's house, and when Jean moves in, it gives the widow's resentful sister-in-law, Françoise (Monique Chaumette), the excuse she's looking for to get Henri to leave the house so she can sell it. The widow and Jean have a modest dream of using an incubator to raise chicks and make a decent living, but their plans are further complicated when Françoise's promiscuous teenaged daughter, Félicie (Ottavia Piccolo, who would go on to star opposite Delon again in 1974's Zorro) comes around with her infant son. Félicie clearly has eyes for Jean, and to the consternation of the widow, who holds his fate in her hands, Jean has trouble resisting the younger woman's charms. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

Cop-Out is a distressingly "mod" remake of the 1941 French film Strangers in the House. Taking over the role originally played by Raimu, James Mason stars as a retired, scotch-swilling attorney residing in France. Mason disapproves of his daughter's (Geraldine Chaplin) new boy friend (Bobby Darin), but rises to the young man's defense in court when the boy is arrested on a suspicious murder charge. The casting of Chaplin and Darin was meant to "reach" the youth market, but both are way too old for their characters. Cop-Out would have worked better (especially with audiences of the 1990s) without its trendy camerawork and wearisome generation-gap propaganda. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Maigret (Jean Gabin) is the detective who investigates a murder conspiracy. Gangsters from the United States try to kill a key government witness whose testimony could help land an influential mobster in jail. Maigret deals with the FBI and a series of shady underworld figures to save the life of the imperiled witness. The main character is a popular French detective taken from a novel by Georges Simenon. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

A venerable banker from Paris leaves for America when he discovers there will be an investigation into his questionable business deals. Accompanied by his faithful protégé Michel (Jean-Paul Belmondo), the pair travels to New York by plane and eventually to New Orleans by car. Michel plans to make off with the boss's money, but feelings of loyalty for the old man prevent him from carrying out his planned heist. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi