Jacques Portet Movies
- 1987
Johnny Monroe may be small in stature, but size is no measure of a person's capacity to enjoy life. In this touching buddy-picture, Monroe, a little person, befriends a young mute man after the lad saves him from a beating by some toughs. Johnny is actively involved in the criminal world but is very much of an outsider, confined to petty violations of the law. Johnny treats Ben, who lost his voice in a boyhood accident, to a view of life in a very different world than he has known, giving him his first encounter with a prostitute, the experience of a first (small) theft, and an elegant dinner at a very fancy restaurant. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Luc Orofino, Philippe Caroit, (more)
- 1974
Focusing on the characters of those involved, this French drama explores a political campaign in a small town and the corruption which enters into it. Sex education gets the countrified locals all roused up against a citified school reformer, even though it is actually a side issue. The farmer whose concerns are picked up as a theme by the right-wing politicos figures out that he is being used. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1973
Le Feu Aux Levres is a French drama about the determined efforts of the wife of a sex researcher to reveal her husband's hypocrisy and get revenge for his humiliating behavior to her. At the beginning of the film, the husband is reading humorous letters from the sexually frustrated to an informal gathering of sex researchers. One of the researchers is playing "footsie" with the wife, and she leaves the meeting with that fellow and has sex with him while the meeting continues. Her husband discovers them together, and humiliates her. She later picks up a yellow journalist at a porno cinema, and after sex, persuades him to research the foibles of the men around that table, so that she can do a little humiliating of her own. This film, with its many sexual situations, was considered to be softcore porn at the time of its release though it is rather tame by more recent standards. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Olga Georges-Picot, Bernard Verley, (more)
- 1970
An unsettled teen (Jacques Portet) who was born in Tunisia but brought to France for adoption in early childhood searches to discover his North African roots. Leaving France, he is cared for by an elderly woman who delights in giving him tours of Tunis. When he feels that time is passing him by too quickly, he sets out to earn enough money to return to continue his journey of self discovery. The woman tries to tell him that time will pass no matter what happens, but the boy is determined to travel. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick Jouane, Jacques Portet, (more)
- 1970
Helene (Sylvia Fennec) is the straight laced girl who falls in love with a strange and decidedly sick young man. On a visit to his family, she discovers his father is a sadist and his nymphomaniac sister likes to see men beaten up for excitement. Her boyfriend turns out to be the strangest of them all as he murders young men with a glove fitted with razor sharp claws. Even stranger is the fact Helen covers up for her lover's crimes and eventually marries him. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sylvie Fennec, Daniel Emilfork, (more)
- 1969
- R
A love triangle is the basis of this chilly romantic drama. The story centers on an engineer who marries a recently widowed woman. The trouble begins when the new groom begins an affair with his bride's comely daughter. Though the wife knows about it, she holds her peace. Time passes and she finds that the triangle has become tiresome and so asks her husband to get rid of the girl. The somewhat dutiful husband obeys and begins looking for a suitable suitor for the girl. Unfortunately, no sooner does he succeed than he gets terribly jealous and picks a fight with the girl's new love. It is a terribly battle and the husband ends up seriously injured and bedridden. Ironically, both women lovingly tend to his recovery. At the story's end, a group of officials enter the engineer's mansion to give him a special award for his good work. Unfortunately, as they enter, three gunshots ring out from the bedroom. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1969
- R
The title Life Love Death (originally La Vie, L'amour, la Mort) pretty much runs the gamut of the subject matter which normally appeals to French filmmaker Claude Lelouch. Awaiting execution for murder, Souad Amidou reflects on the events leading up to this sorry contingency. It seems that Amidou can only cohabit with prostitutes, thus he seeks out satisfaction in all the side streets of Europe. Disturbed by a whore's insults when he was unable to perform, Amidou goes completely off the deep end and begins cutting a swath of death from one end of Spain to another. Lelouch's principal stylistic decision in Life Love and Death is to draw as many parallels as possible between sex and bullfighting. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Amidou, Caroline Cellier, (more)
- 1968
A recently widowed woman in her early 40s receives a visit from a younger engineer. After the funeral of her husband, the two fall in love and marry. The woman's teenage daughter has eyes for her new stepfather and lets him know her attraction in no uncertain terms. Soon the man is sleeping with mother and daughter while mom keeps silent to keep peace on the home front. The daughter is soon courted by a young man with marriage on his mind, but he shoots the stepfather in a hunting accident. Mother and daughter care for him as he recovers from his wounds. When officials come to the house to give the engineer a coveted award, they leave when they see the house appears to be deserted. Sealed off from the outside world, the trio continues their unusual menage-a-trois, as mother and daughter vie for the man's affections. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ingrid Thulin, Jean Sorel, (more)
- 1967
French director Claude Lelouch followed up his hit A Man and a Woman with this tale of a love triangle set against the background of late 1960s political unrest. A French television reporter, Robert Colomb (Yves Montand), on assignment in Kenya, has an affair with a young fashion model, Candice (Candice Bergen). He returns to Paris and tries to reinvigorate his marriage to Catherine (Annie Girardot) by going on a second honeymoon. But Candice follows him to Paris and they resume their affair. Many more romantic entanglements follow. The movie was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yves Montand, Annie Girardot, (more)
- 1965
Four young Frenchmen enamored with romantic images of American movie gangsters, quit their jobs to become crooks themselves in this comedy. Unfortunately, none of the lads have the knack for pulling off capers. For example, when they try to abduct a movie star they end up with her stand in. Unfortunately, despite their lively antics, the four come to a bad end in the French version of this film. In the American release, they meet a gentler, more carefree end. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Pierre Barouh, (more)
- 1958
- NR
Les Tricheurs (The Cheats) was director Marcel Carne's first film after a two-year absence from the screen. On the surface, the film is a gallic variation of an American "j.d." film, with young, aimless teenagers being led astray by jazz music rather than Rock 'N' Roll. But there's much more to the story than that: Carne's youthful characters are not so much people as symbols of the postwar relaxation of worldwide manners and mores. In anticipation of the "hippie flicks" of the 1960s, the main characters indulge in a great deal of sex, but abstain from true love and commitment, citing these things as irrelevant in a world full of instant gratification. Of the cast, Pascale Petit stands out as a trendy young girl whose willingness to follow the crowd leads to tragedy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pascale Petit, Andréa Parisy, (more)
