Michel Francois Movies

Al Pacino stars as Tony Montana, an exiled Cuban criminal who goes to work for Miami drug lord Robert Loggia. Montana rises to the top of Florida's crime chain, appropriating Loggia's cokehead mistress (Michelle Pfeiffer) in the process. Howard Hawks' "X Marks the Spot" motif in depicting the story line's many murders is dispensed with in the 1983 Scarface; instead, we are inundated with blood by the bucketful, especially in the now-infamous buzz saw scene. One carry-over from the original Scarface is Tony Montana's incestuous yearnings for his sister Gina (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio). The screenplay for the 1983 Scarface was written by Oliver Stone. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Les Mistons (aka The Mischief Makers) was the second short-subject film directed by Francois Truffault. Exploring subject matter that he'd later expand upon in his work (though less conventionally), Truffault takes us into the world of pre-teen boys. The protagonists are a group of scruffy Parisians on summer holiday. They play, discourse, wreak havoc on their elders, and experience a variety of sexual awakenings. It is hard to find Les Mistons on a videocassette all by itself; usually it is bracketed with one of Truffault's later features, most often the thematically similar 400 Blows. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Gerard Philipe stars in the lavishly appointed adventure film Le Meilleure Part. Philipe is cast as a dedicated constructive engineer, presently working on a huge dam project. Faced with a deadline, he must complete his project despite such obstacles as strikes, accidents, and illness. But there's another reason for his haste: the engineer is suffering from a heart ailment and may not have all that much time left on Earth, much less on the job. Le Meilleure Part was directed by Yves Allegret, whose usual preoccupation with nastiness and hypocrisy are put on the back burner this time out. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

More closely associated with adventure films in the postwar years, French filmmaker Henri Decoin switches creative gears with the pleasant "coming-of-age" seriocomedy Clara De Montargis. Michel Francois plays Renaud, a teenaged hitchhiker who thumbs a ride from the very beautiful--and very much older--Clara de Montargis (Ludmilla Tcherina). Instantly falling in love with Clara, Renaud follows her wherever she goes, hoping eventually to consummate the one-sided romance. In the interim, he undergoes several curious adventures, including episodes involving a hammy provincial actor and a gregarious drunkard. Throughout all of this, Clara remains aloof and enigmatic; will Renaud eventually be able to break through her icy veneer and declare his ardor? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Originally La Cage aux Rossignois, A Case of Nightingales could just as well have been titled "The Noel-Noel Show," inasmuch as the famed French actor is both star and co-screenwriter. Having completed a book about his experiences as a reform-school teacher, Clement Mathieu (Noel-Noel) is unable to interest a publisher in the project. To make ends meet, he takes a promotional job with toy-airplane manufacturer Raymond (Georges Biscot), who as a gesture of friendship serializes Mathieu's memoirs in the Paris Telegram. Astonished by the story, Mathieu's girlfriend Martine (Michel Francey) wants to know more -- whereupon Mathieu recalls how he was able to organize a group of the most incorrigible reform-school inmates into an angelic-voiced boys' choir (hence the film's title). His tale told, Mathieu is himself astonished to discover that Martine is the cousin of one of his former pupils! An overly melodramatic finale mars this otherwise sensitive comedy-drama. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The all-purpose title Woman Who Dared was trotted out for the American release of Jean Gremillon's Le Ciel et a Vous. Madeline Renaud stars as Therese, the wife of aviator Pierre Gauthier (Charles Vanel). Seeking an outlet for her own adventurous spirit, Therese decides to become a pilot herself. Weaving in and out of the proceedings dispensing worldly-wise philosophy is a piano teacher played by Jean Debucourt. Filmed in 1944, Woman Who Dared made it to American shores five years later. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide