Paulette Dubost Movies

This French film is an old-fashioned melodrama with a love triangle, a talented starlet, and a duel. It is set in 1930 when talking films were just coming into vogue and threatening to overshadow theatrical plays. The film features cameos by famed French actors of that time period. Victor Derval is returning home after a performance when he is hailed by Lisa, a young Hungarian woman. Lisa's motives are mysterious; is she simply a star-struck peasant girl, or an ambitious, manipulative aspiring star? Derval is taken with her, and she soon finds herself Derval's personal secretary and is to move into his home where his son Paul, an aspiring writer/revolutionary, also lives. Both men fall for Lisa, who has already fallen in love with the limelight. She will eventually get her wish, but not without paying a price. Though generally beloved by all Parisians, Victor Derval has one detractor, playwright Coste who hates that Derval freely edits his work on stage. Paul, enraged at his father decides to plot revenge, but cannot decide whether he should kill his father or design something a little more creative. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This comic excursion from Louis Malle is set in May 1968, concurrent with a series of Parisian student uprisings. After the death of family matriarch Mme. Vieuzac (Paulette Dubost), the survivors converge on the French countryside for her funeral; they include her two sons, Milou (Michel Piccoli) and Georges (Michel Duchaussoy); Camille (Miou-Miou), Milou's daughter; Camille's husband and children; and granddaughter Claire (Dominique Blanc), a lesbian. With the latest news of rebellion from Paris as their soundtrack, the family members argue over property, revive long-simmering arguments, and watch in dismay as an unlikely love affair begins. When the student uprising threatens to spill over into their community, the family heads for the hills, where the great outdoors only intensifies their reunion. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

This sequel to Dear Detective suffers from the same trouble as most sequels in that it does not live up to the original film. Police director Lise Tanquerelle (Annie Girardot) marries Antoine Lemercier (Philippe Noiret), an expert in Greek history. While honeymooning in Greece, they are approached by Pochet (Francis Perrin), a young archaeologist who discloses his latest discovery to the couple. He has uncovered the buttocks of Venus Heroclitus. Agnes (Catherine Alric) is Pochet's disgruntled wife who allows the statue to be stolen by a Greek sailor. When the sailor is found dead, Antoine and Porchet are indicted for murder. The two escape in order to track down the real culprit in this crime comedy adventure. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Dear Inspector and Dear Detective were the English-language titles of Philippe De Broca's Tendre Poulet. Annie Girardot plays the old flame of Greek professor Philippe Noiret. The prof tries to rekindle the flames of passion, but Girardot seems curiously preoccupied. It turns out that she's a detective on the trail of a murderer. The film served as the basis for the 1979 American made-for-TV movie Dear Detective, starring Brenda Vaccaro and Arlen Dean Snyder. A DeBroca-directed sequel, Jupiter's Thigh, was filmed in 1979, again with Annie Girardot and Philippe Noiret. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Two of the most beautiful women in the European cinema of the 1960s -- Brigitte Bardot and Jeanne Moreau -- team up under the direction of Louis Malle in this engaging comedy/adventure. Maria Fitzgerald O'Malley (Bardot) is the daughter of an Irish political dissident who has traveled to Latin America with her father to take part in an anarchist political uprising. When her father is killed, Maria, left to her own devices, happens upon a traveling circus, where she strikes up a friendship with one of the performers, also named Maria (Moreau). Maria O'Malley joins up with the carnival, and she works up a dance routine with Maria; the act is a smash hit, especially after the Irish Maria accidentally loses part of her costume during a performance. Despite their success, the two Marias find themselves increasingly distressed with the poverty and brutality of the peasants' lives, and they soon decide to use their talents in support of revolutionary leader Flores (George Hamilton). Viva Maria!'s original ending was trimmed slightly for its American release, but the complete version was later released in the United States on DVD. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this drama, two total strangers suspect each other of murdering their own wives. The trouble begins when an unhappily married architect becomes obsessed with a murder trial in which a husband allegedly murdered his wife. The architect begins collecting newspaper clippings. Although the charges against the accused are dropped, the architect is convinced that the man is guilty. He even visits the husband. After talking to him, the architect is more sure than he was before. The architect gets into trouble after his own wife's body is discovered in a ravine. The other husband, believing the architect did it, begins blackmailing him. Later the cops find the architect's collection of clippings. The husband, now convinced that the architect is out to destroy him, murders the architect. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this lightweight French comedy a pair of sharpers, Cathy (Jeanne Moreau) and her ex-husband Michel (Jean-Paul Belmondo) attempt to bilk a miserly millionaire out of his fortune during his visit to the French Riviera. Unfortunately for them, he is just as crafty as they are. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

The seven major sins receive treatment from some of France's greatest directors in this lively portmanteau. "Anger" by Dhomme, chronicles a single horrific day when every bowl of soup in France is found to contain a fly. This causes a devastating nationwide revolt. "Envy" by Molinaro tells the story of a chambermaid whose dream of sleeping with a millionaire comes true. Unfortunately, she goes back to work and finds herself still consumed with jealousy. De Broca's "Gluttony" provides one of the film's most enjoyable episodes as it follows the exploits of a voracious family heading off for a funeral. "Lust" by Demy is set at a Parisian sidewalk cafe and eavesdrops upon the lusty conversation between two young men, one of whom has x-ray eyes that enable him to see through women's clothing. "Laziness" by Godard features real life matinee idol Constantine as a movie star who finds himself too sluggish to respond to the starlet trying so hard to seduce him. "Pride" by Roger Vadim tells the satirical tale of a philandering wife who changes her mind and stays with her husband after learning that her happy home is being threatened by another woman. Finally in Chabrol's "Greed," young men who have pooled their meager resources to buy a prostitute, fight for the chance to be with her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Love and the Frenchwoman (La Francaise et L'Amour) concentrates on the nature of love by illustrating seven separate aspects of the emotion. In "Childhood," 9-year old Pierre-Jean Vaillard suffers a traumatic experience when he takes his parents' "cabbage patch" theory of conception too literally. In "Adolescence," a little girl (Annie Sinigalla) constructs an elaborate fantasy world on the occasion of her first kiss. "Virginity" is a study in frustration, as betrothed couple Valerie Lagrange and Pierre Michel agonizingly await their wedding-night consummation of their ardor. "Marriage" finds a union ending almost before it begins as a pair of newlyweds (Marie-Jose Nat and Claude Rich) bicker all the way to their honeymoon rendezvous. "Adultery" allows husband Paul Meurisse the opportunity to calmly provide an object lesson to his wife's lover Jean-Paul Belmondo. In "Divorce", a couple (Annie Girardot and Francois Pierer) find that it's impossible to have a "civilized" breakup. And in "A Woman Alone," bigamist Robert Lamoreaux meets his Waterloo in the forms of Martine Carol and Sylvia Montfort. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide