Patrick Dewaere Movies

This film is a French period comic romance, set in the time just surrounding the French Revolution (1789). "Year Two," of the French title refers to the second year following the revolution. Those who guided the French Revolution renamed the days of the week, the months of the year, and much more. They also began their calendar from the time of the revolution. In this film, Jean-Paul Belmondo plays the husband of a vivacious, two-timing, and socially ambitious young woman (Marlene Jobert). After he kills one of her aristocratic lovers, the husband flees to the New World (the Americas). He returns to France after the revolution, finds that he has been divorced, and then works hard to woo his ex-wife away from all the important men and outlaw aristocrats she is spending time with. Happiness reigns anew as, remarried, they both attain aristocratic status in Napolean's regime. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This English-language French production, directed by Rene Clement is a psychological/spy thriller, and features an excellent score by Gilbert Becaud. Faye Dunaway is Jill, the wife of a former industrial spy (played by Frank Langella). Her husband's employers are not perfectly reconciled to his retirement, however, even though he is firm in his refusal to rejoin them. As the film proceeds, we discover that Jill is a nervous sort, and the spymasters seek by various means to take advantage of her nervous temperament in order to induce her husband to work for them again. ~ Clarke Fountain, 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

Sometimes the story that a journalist is assigned lands him with a boring tale. That's what Francois (Jean-Michel Folon) believes when he is given the job of writing about a "worker"'s life. When he meets the man, he discovers that the man's wife has just left him and moved back to her mother's. The newsman and a friend of his take the poor man out on the town to comfort him. The reporter also interviews the woman who is making the worker's life difficult and even finds a way to fix things up between the couple. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In truth, there are two French Detectives in this European crime melodrama. Lino Ventura plays an aging, been-around gumshoe, while Patrick Dewaere is his young, callow and cynical associate. The two detectives don't like each other much at first, but this will change. Their current assignment: getting the goods on a corrupt politician. Occasionally more violent than it needs to be, The French Detective has the twin advantages of authenticity and sincerity. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Patrick Dewaere plays Andre, a hot-tempered young man who whiles away his spare time by fantasizing about the action films of Douglas Fairbanks. For years, a relative of his has promised him a job. For years, he has waited for the job, but to no avail. Finally too frustrated to stand it any more, Andre beats up the relative's boss. Then his girlfriend (Miou-Miou), tired of his tantrums, refuses to see him any more. This prompts even more extreme behavior on his part, though he harms no one but himself this time. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Also known as The Best Way to Walk, this film was originally released in France as La Meilleure Façon de Marcher. It was the first feature-length effort of François Truffaut associate/disciple Claude Miller. Patrick Dewaere and Patrick Bouchitey head the cast as a pair of teenage summer-camp counselors. Despite their late-adolescent rivalries and sexual confusion, each of them achieves some sort of awakening. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, Temistocle Orimbelli (Ugo Tognazzi) is a middle-aged man with a profound appreciation for womankind -- an appreciation that does not extend to Cleofe (Garbiella Giacobbe) his dried up old shrew of a wife. He is much taken with the charms of his sister-in-law Matilde (Ornella Muti), who is a widow. The attraction appears mutual, but he has first to overcome the obstacle of wifely suspicion in order to consummate the union. Eventually, he is able to appear at his boat at the same time as the lovely Matilde, and what had begun as a simple assignation turns into a complex tragedy. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Like other young men in his soccer-obsessed town, a belligerent and rebellious factory worker Francois Perrin plays on a local team. His obnoxious tendencies endear him to no one. Trouble brews when a woman cries rape and the team's star player becomes the chief suspect. To protect the valued kicker, the team owners decide to frame the boorish Francois for the crime. As a result, he loses his job, gets booted from the team and tossed into jail. Shortly thereafter, the team is en route to a key match and their bus gets into an accident (in one of the story's comical highlights) that disables half the team. Now desperate for players, the owners arrange to get Francois temporarily released. The rest of this lively French farce follows Francois as he gets sweet revenge upon all those who wronged and rejected him. The screenplay was penned by distinguished writer/director Francis Veber, who is best known for writing La Cage aux Folles. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A large international cast takes part in this comedy in which the stories of numerous individuals whose cars are stalled in a massive Roman traffic jam are told. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The title Serie Noire refers to a popular French mystery series, and literally means "Black Series." The story is based on American author Jim Thompson's hardboiled detective story A Hell of a Woman, and is close in spirit to the U.S. film noir mysteries of the 1940s. Frank Poupart (Patrick Dewaere) is a 30-year-old loser, a salesman who is barely scraping by, whose wife has just left him "just to think things over." He meets Mona (Marie Trintignant), a quiet, dreamy 15-year-old girl whose aunt has offered her to him for his sexual pleasure in return for a sweater. They become lovers, and both of them see a way out of their impoverished dead-end existence when Mona tells him that her aunt (who is also her landlady) has a large stash of money hidden away. They decide to kill her, and also kill a Greek boxer who owes Frank money, making it look like a murder/suicide. When Frank's wife returns to him, eager to begin their marriage again, he kills her out of sheer frustration. Later he is blackmailed by Staplin (Bernard Blier), his employer, and is left with no loot, no wife, three heinous crimes on his hands, and a clueless adolescent girlfriend. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This is a quiet drama about the struggles of a former drug addict and dealer, Bruno Calgagni (Patrick Dewaere), as he is released from prison in the U.S. and arrives back home in France. His unhappy father blames this disgraceful prison stint for the death of Bruno's mother. No one wants to hire an ex-con, and a romantic liaison with another, very delicately balanced former addict only adds to the burden Bruno is carrying. Mauvais Fils skillfully limns Bruno's daily fight to keep his head above water. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In French filmmaker Bertrand Blier's seriocomic Beau Pere, Ariel Besse plays a 14-year-old girl who is perversely attracted to her 30-year-old stepfather (Patrick Dewaere). Daddy fends off these unnatural attentions, but eventually gives in and allows himself to be seduced. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide