Michel Duchaussoy Movies
French actor Michel Duchaussoy essayed supporting parts in numerous European movies. The Killing Game (1967), a cult item about a comic-strip writer (Jean-Pierre Cassel) who stages a real-life mystery, was Duchaussoy's best-known film in the United States. Otherwise, most of the actor's cinema appearances (Bye Bye Barbara, La Main, Nada) were unseen outside the confines of France. Michel Duchaussoy was one of many top-flight French actors to appear in the rousing The French Revolution--which again was deemed to have little resale value beyond Europe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1967
Released in France as Jeu De Massacre, The Killing Game tips its hat to the "Op-Art" generation by offering two comic strip artists as its protagonists. Husband-and-wife cartoonists Jean-Pierre Cassel and Claudia Auger make the acquaintance of eccentric playboy Michel Duchaussoy. So avid a fan of the couple's work isDuchaussoy that he acts out the plotlines of their cartoons in his lavish mansion. When Cassel and Auger kill off one of their characters, Duchaussoy tries to murder Auger, then attempts to commit suicide. Packed away to a sanitarium, Duchaussoy is eventually released and reunited with the cartoonists, who have decided to avoid any future difficulties by purging all violence from their work! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Pierre Cassel, Claudine Auger, (more)
- 1968
Louve (Daniele Gaubert) is an accomplished cat burglar on the prowl for a new partner in crime. When she can find no one to share in her criminal adventures, the former acrobat uses her talents to walk on wires, scale walls and pull off a heist at the home of some wealthy patrons busily engaged in social snobbery. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniele Gaubert, Michel Duchaussoy, (more)
Stéphane Audran plays the title character, Hélène Desvallées, the bored wife of insurance executive Charles Desvallées (Michel Bouquet). Charles suspects Hélène of playing the field, so he has a private detective locate his wife's lover, author Victor Pegala (Maurice Ronet). Confronting Victor, Charles tries to adopt an air of indifference, but the conversation ends with the husband bludgeoning the author to death and then calmly disposing of the evidence. When Hélène is questioned about Victor's murder, she discovers on her own that her husband is guilty. Instead of turning him in, Hélène is so thrilled that Charles cares so deeply about her that she is more in love with him than ever before. The Unfaithful Wife was directed by Claude Chabrol, the then real-life husband of leading lady Stéphane Audran. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stéphane Audran, Michel Bouquet, (more)
- 1969
- R
In this thriller a beautiful girl approaches a journalist in a Parisian bar. Her clothing is in tatters and she seems dazed. She tells him that someone has drugged her and that she needs a place to rest. The gentlemanly journalist obliges and takes her home. The following day, she has fully recovered and they stroll through town. The woman believes that someone is following her, and she suddenly disappears. Later the writer reads the paper and learns that her body was found in a car wreck. He is highly skeptical and tries to find her. Sure enough, he learns that the death was a ruse staged by her stepfather who wanted to collect on her insurance policy. The journalist saves the young woman from her step-parent, and the two fall in love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ewa Swann, Philippe Avron, (more)
- 1969
This suspense story finds a severed hand leading to the psychological demise of the people who come in contact with it. The hand is removed when the murderers fail to stuff all of the victim's body into a trunk. The mastermind of the killing is murdered by his wife and her lover in a macabre scene that parallels the fate of the first victim. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Natalie Delon, Henri Serre, (more)
Claude Chabrol directs the tense psychological thriller Que la Bête Meure (This Man Must Die). When his young son is the victim of a hit-and-run car accident, writer Charles Thenier (Michel Duchaussoy) is determined to find the killer. Obsessed with avenging his son's death, he carefully records his thoughts in a diary. He travels to Paris and meets actress Helene Lanson (Caroline Cellier), who is a prime witness to the accident. After they start up a love affair, he discovers that the driver of the car was her brother-in-law, Paul Decourt (Jean Yanne). Paul also owns the auto repair shop that fixed up the car after the accident. Believing Paul is the killer, Charles befriends his son Phillipe Decourt (Marc Di Napoli). As it happens, Phillipe also wants Paul dead for his own reasons. Charles manages to get invited to the family's seaside home in Brittany in order to finally get his revenge, but things don't work out according to plan. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Duchaussoy, Caroline Cellier, (more)
Based on a novel by Charlotte Armstrong, the story concerns Helene (Stephane Audran), the wife of a hopeless would-be writer and drug addict. Her husband's best friend tries to lay a trap for Helene, so that she will be forced to pay dearly for a divorce settlement. Also conspiring against Helene is her father-in-law, who wishes to wrest her child away from her. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stéphane Audran, Jean-Pierre Cassel, (more)
- 1970
Celine (Bernadette Lafont) is a free-spirited woman who marries a dull, middle manager named Philippe (Michel Duchaussoy) in this comedy drama. The union results in her being pegged as a household ornament for her husband by her husband's coworker. She makes friends with a woman who shows her how to juggle the couple's living expenses to get whatever material goods she desires. When the couple entertains the coworker and his wife, the drunken men suggests they swap wives. Celine strips the man and makes him look at himself in a mirror to prove he is not desirable. Celine turns to painting and writes papers on the inequity between genders as she asserts her independence and gradually frees herself from her husband's claustrophobic world. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bernadette Lafont, Michel Duchaussoy, (more)
- 1970
An artist grows hateful of commercial demands on his questionable talents when his friend and artist commits suicide. He puts the blame for his friend's death on an art critic and a shady art dealer. He is able to take out his frustrations on the pretentious critic at a party. When an elderly man moves into the boarding house, he brings a machine he invented that can make people realize their subconscious dreams. Hoodlums break in and steal the machine, telling the old man that the young artist is also involved in the crime. This leads to the older man's death and puts more pressure on the artist's already fragile mental state. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Duchaussoy, Charles Vanel, (more)
- 1971
In this French romance by documentary director Frederic Rossif, a young woman whose life has lost its savor after she has had an abortion, finds new reason for living as she embarks on a seaside romance with a married, bird-watching professor. The romance flowers in seaside walks and long discussions in which they read quotations from favorite authors. When they are not alone together, they encounter colorful locals. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1972
In this drama, a famed dying surgeon has his brain transplanted into the body of a race car driver who is dying of brain trauma. The operation is a success and the surgeon is happy--until he discovers that the racer's lover is his own daughter. Now what can he do? ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1973
Le Complot is based on a true spy story of double-, triple- and quadruple-cross. The plot is galvanized by Charles DeGaulle's decision to pull French troops out of Algeria. The central characters include a group of pro-Gaullists, a gang of left-wing insurgents, and the police. It all sounds a great deal like The Battle of Algiers, but there are enough nuances to sustain the suspense. The film's 120 minutes hold up well--though you may not get all 120 minutes on commercial TV, due to the film's "R" rating. Complot is also known by the English-language title The Conspiracy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Rochefort, Michel Bouquet, (more)
- 1973
Losing her young lover makes Helene (Annie Giradot) feel old, so she heads off to a health resort she has heard does wonders for people. The treatments really do make her and the other guests feel better, and for a while that is enough. She cavorts nude on the beach with the head of the clinic (Alain Delon), made unself-conscious by an excess of vitality. However, she stumbles upon the clinic's dark secret: the clients' rejuvenation comes at the expense of Portuguese youths, who arrive at the clinic to work in the gardens and are never seen again. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alain Delon, Annie Girardot, (more)
Also known as Nada, The Nada Gang is a lesser effort from director Claude Chabrol. A group of European terrorists calling themselves the Nada kidnaps an American ambassador. Their hideout is besieged by a sadistic police official and his minions. Thanks to the official's eagerness to pull the trigger, everyone winds up dead, including the ambassador. The Nada Gang was based on a novel by Jean-Patrick Manchette. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fabio Testi, Maurice Garrel, (more)
- 1974
The fantasies and dreams of two over-the-hill actresses are intertwined with their realities, as the two roommates struggle to survive their day-to-day lives in the expensive and difficult world of Paris. In the end, their struggles are eased when the widow of a man they had both been married to gives them a small legacy. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hélène Surgère, Sonia Saviange, (more)
- 1974
- R
Charlotte is better known by its original French title, La Jeune Fille Assassinee. The film combines Roger Vadim's overriding twin fascinations: eroticism and death. Charlotte (Sirpa Lane) dreams of dying violently while in the throes of an orgasm. This curious desire is the principal motivation for her entering into a life of crime. In addition to directing Charlotte, Vadim also produced, scripted, and played a major on-screen role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roger Vadim, Sirpa Lane, (more)
- 1974
Not quite in the same league as the runaway hit The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe, this 1974 sequel is still amiable and enjoyable on its own terms. Once more, innocent violinist Pierre Richard (the tall blonde man of the title) is up to his neck in espionage. Enemy spy boss Jean Rochefort, sore at how Richard inadvertently bollixed up his last caper, demands that the hapless musician be killed. In true "Good Soldier Schweik" fashion, Richard manages to avoid annihilation, never dreaming that anyone means him harm. Mireille Darc is back as Richard's "play horsie with me!" girl friend. The Return of the Big Blond has some of the ambience of the 1965 spy spoof That Man from Rio, especially in its colorful Brazilian backdrops. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierre Richard, Mireille Darc, (more)
- 1975
Leo (Sven-Bertil Taube) is a screenwriter. He goes to Paris and gets an assignment: to change an already written screenplay into something appropriate for Scandinavian audiences and to develop a romantic liaison in the story between an astrological Leo and a Virgo. He travels to an island off the coast of Sweden and diligently sets out to change the screenplay. However, he is soon distracted by the arrival of his own "Virgo," the airplane stewardess he had ogled on his return flight. Chances for the script's timely revision look slender, but there is a happy ending. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sven-Bertil Taube, Agneta Eckemyr, (more)
- 1977
When Carrier (Jean Yanne), a dangerous paranoid schizophrenic, receives an inheritance, it lends fuel to his violent fantasies. He has a relationship by mail with Ambrose (Alain Delon), the one man who can stop him from killing a theater full of people. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alain Delon, Jean Yanne, (more)
- 1977
Bachs, a clerk in a music store, has written a musical comedy. He is overjoyed to find someone who believes that it can be produced. In this comedy, the scheme concocted by the producer, who has no money of his own, is to cast rich people in leading roles with the hope that they will then sponsor the production. However, while they can be seduced, these spoiled scions of the moneyed classes are not so easily fooled. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Darry Cowl, Maurice Risch, (more)
- 1977
Alain Delon rushes through the leading role of the French The Hurried Man. Delon plays a married man whose drive for success and power blinds him to conventional morality. If he can climb to the top of his profession by being cold and ruthless, why not satisfy his sexual appetites in the same manner. It comes as no surprise when Delon's misdeeds turn on him and destroy him. The Hurried Man was originally released in France as L'Homme Pressé. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alain Delon, Mireille Darc, (more)
- 1979
Je Te Tiens Tu Me Tiens Par La Barbichette refers to a French children's game, where two children hold one another's chins and stare at one another. The one who laughs first, loses. In this satire, a police detective (played by Jean Yanne) is investigating the disappearance and kidnapping of the host of a television dance show (played by Jean-Pierre Cassel). However, instead of finding his man, he is trapped into becoming a contestant on a children's quiz show. What's worse is that he becomes a very successful contestant. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Yanne, Micheline Presle, (more)
- 1983
Although written and directed by the well-known Roger Vadim (And God Created Woman), this movie about life and love among a group of high schoolers on vacation in the countryside has nothing to distinguish it beyond the typical couplings and uncouplings found in other movies in the same genre. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Caroline Cellier, Michel Duchaussoy, (more)
