Jacques Dufilho Movies
Supporting actor Jacques Dufilho first appeared onscreen in the '50s. ~ All Movie Guide- 1970
A wealthy French matron drives her captors crazy when she is kidnapped and help for ransom. Mathilde (Jacqueline Maillan) is married to a rich husband of questionable virtue. A dimwitted duo of aspiring crooks get more than they bargained for by the abduction of the woman. A French Air Force pilot is mistaken for a Russian cosmonaut when he accidently hits the eject button on his plane's control panel. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jacqueline Maillan, Dr. Robert Hirsch, (more)
- 1968
Pierre Clementi plays the title role in the French-filmed Benjamin. A callow teenager of the 18th century, Benjamin spends a summer with his worldly relatives on their summer estate. An orphan girl (Catherine Deneuve) living on a neighboring estate, inaugurates an affair with Benjamin. In true La Ronde fashion, the girl then sleeps with a landed-gentry (Michel Piccoli), who sleeps with a countess (Michelle Morgan), who ends up in the sack with her nephew Benjamin. Benjamin has also been released under the faintly misleading title The Diary of an Innocent Boy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Francine Bergé, Pierre Clémenti, (more)
The inaugural film effort of French director Jean-Jacques Annaud, Black and White in Color is set during World War I. Upon the outbreak of hostilities, a French trading post in West Central Africa finds itself at odds with a formerly peaceful German post, for no other reason than their parent countries are at war. The newly xenophobic French traders attack the Germans, only to fail in their efforts. Socialist Jacques Spiesser is put in charge of the debilitated French contingent, utterly discarding his former high ideals in the process. Filmed on location on the Ivory Coast, the satirical Black and White in Color (originally La Victoire en Chantant) won the American Academy Award for Best Foreign Film of 1976. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Carmet, Jacques Dufilho, (more)
- 1999
In this drama, three generations of the same family work together on a farm in rural France. Elderly Noel (Jacques Dufilho) takes pride in having worked this land nearly all his life. His son Marc (Jean-Pierre Darroussin) now carries most of the responsibilities of the farm (as well as the debts), and he's starting to buckle under the strain. And Marc's son Nicolas (Eric Caravaca) hasn't decided what to do with his life; he has little interest in farming, but he isn't sure where his real talents lie. One day, after helping his cows give birth to new calves, Marc gets word that he must destroy all his cattle to prevent the spread of Mad Cow Disease. This proves the last straw for Marc, and he commits suicide. Noel doesn't handle his son's death well and ends up in a retirement home, while Marc's wife gets a job as a cashier and Nicolas looks for work (with little success) while searching for a beautiful and mysterious woman to whom he gave a ride. Eventually, Nicolas gets an idea -- with the help of Noel and the rest of his family, he'll reopen a small house on the hillside and support themselves by working the land that adjoins the property. C'est Quoi La Vie? won the Grand Prize at the 1999 San Sebastian Film Festival, while Jacques Dufiho was given the award for Best Actor. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Caravaca, Jacques Dufilho, (more)
- 1975
A pair of elderly men, friends for 40 years, find their relationship stressed when they set up housekeeping together in order to save money. Exploring similar ground to that covered in Neil Simon's play The Odd Couple, which spawned a movie and a television series, Ce Cher Victor explores the tragic and dramatic aspects of the story. The two friends, meek, sensitive Anselme (Bernard Blier) and blustering Victor (Jacques Dufilho) are swiftly driven apart by circumstances. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bernard Blier, Jacques Dufilho, (more)
- 1972
Chut is an exclamation in French, rather stronger than "darn." It is the sort of thing one might say on being caught in a lie, or after hitting one's finger with a hammer. Unlike similar terms in English, this one carries a certain sense of self-mockery. In this French comedy, Fritz (Jacques Dufiho) is a con-man who has reason to say "chut," when he discovers that his phony corporation is being investigated by the police. He hopes to recover the phony stock certificates from his victims and return their money without their getting wise. His partners in the venture have other ideas, as do the police, so the chase is on. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1973
Spoofing local "true love confessions," this Spanish comic farce/melodrama tells the stories of a middle-aged resident of Madrid (Jacques Dufilho) and of a pregnant young woman from the countryside who longs for stardom. The man answers a personal ad in the newspaper, has a liaison with the already pregnant girl, and winds up raising her baby. She leaves him after the baby is born, and becomes a big star. The man sees her once more as she is performing as the headliner at a nightclub, but she dies onstage. The movie spoofs many aspects of Spanish society of the time, including the sappier forms of popular music. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1963
Director Jacques Baratier's Sweet and Sour is an independently produced project with a surprising amount of European movie-industry input. Guy Bedos, a Brando wannabe, plays one of several young French cineastes who take to the streets to make improvisational movies. The "cinema verite" quality of the film is somewhat undercut by the presence of major stars: Anna Karina, Simone Signoret, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Monica Vitti, Claude Brasseur, and many others. After several "spontaneous" vignettes -- a street tennis game, a striptease lesson, a West Side Story style gang rumble -- Guy Bedos announces he will go to Hollywood to film the life of Voltaire. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Guy Bedos, Sophie Daumier, (more)
- 1971
In rural Arkansas, strippers are using a bikini bottom made of stolen jewels. Two brothers, one a moonshiner who also uses moonshine as a tannery chemical, and the other a less-countrified lad, try to outwit both the police and the original thieves and steal the bikini for themselves. As it is constantly in use, this is easier said than done. However, they get to hang out in the strip joint and talk to naked and nearly naked girls a lot. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lino Ventura, Jean Yanne, (more)
- 1997
Celebrated blind poet Rene Kermadek (Claude Rich) is married to his former student Sibilla (Valeria Cavalli), who provides his only true connection to the world. Although Sibilla is a faithful and devoted wife, he suspects her of cheating on him -- currently with matador Manuel Fernandez (Gregoire Colin). Since she never succeeds in convincing him of her love, he plans his suicide. A multiple winner at Montreal's 1997 World Film Festival, this film was shot on locations in Switzerland, Spain, Italy, India, and Germany, the English title being Homer - Portrait of an Artist as an Old Man. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claude Rich, Valeria Cavalli, (more)
- 1959
Several top Italian stars, including Toto as a shopkeeper and Also Fabrizi as a tax collector, are featured in this entertaining comedy. The shopkeeper like a lot of others, does not want to pay the taxes he is normally assessed. By his reckoning, they are far too high. So when the tax collector comes around to go over his books, he tries whatever might work to get the man to skim them lightly, preferably looking the other way in the process. Whether or not these proddings are going to have any effect remains to be seen, but in the meantime, the taxman's daughter has fallen madly in love with the shopkeeper's son. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Totò, Louis de Funès, (more)
- 1959
Sly and greedy young people endeavor to use l'amour to get their hands on a fortune in this French comedy. The story begins when an aspiring young artist falls hopelessly in love with his model Julie, an extraordinarily beautiful redhead. He desperately wants to marry her, but his father insists that he abandon the foolishness of art and take over the family business. The dutiful young son does so, but deep down regrets not pursuing his dream. He marries another and produces a son. Eventually he dies, leaving his son only one third of his empire. The rest he bequeathed to the beautiful, long-gone Julie. The son is anxious to find this enigmatic woman so he can buy her out. Unfortunately, she too has died and left the money to her daughter, also a Julie. To get at the fortune, he launches a whirlwind courtship. Unfortunately, things don't quite work out as planned. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1963
A flamboyant, scatterbrained divorced woman allows a pompous composer to use her home to finish his unfinished symphony. He becomes involved in a accidental murder in this dark comedy of errors. Maria Schell stars as the pleasure seeking woman whose heartstrings are played by Paul Meurisse as the egocentric, self proclaimed musical genius. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maria Schell, Paul Meurisse, (more)
- 1967
The good news is that at last a scientist has discovered a way to disarm all the nuclear weapons in the world. The bad news is that he doesn't have altruistic intentions with regard to his new invention. Fortunately for fans of somewhat (?!) improbable spy movies, the professor is being sought by agents of both the Russians and the Americans, among others. The evil old professor has been keeping his daughter under wraps, almost a prisoner. He has also been keeping a mysterious sea monster in a pool on his estate, for reasons which remain unclear. What is clear is that somehow the professor's daughter will be saved, he will come to a bad end, and the world will be saved yet again from mad scientists. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marie-France Boyer, Ben Carruthers, (more)
- 1962
In this gentle anti-war comedy, a class of French schoolboys divides into two factions who begin to battle each other, with the victors claiming the buttons off the clothes of the vanquished. One day, some of the boys pull a strategic coup by running into battle naked, therefore leaving their enemies nothing to steal. However, after this stunning victory, one of their number turns traitor to the other side, helping them plot a secret attack that leaves the recent champions in defeat. The informer is eventually found out and punished for his crimes, so he takes the matter to a higher authority and tells his parents he's been beaten up by bullies. Soon Mom and Dad are making trouble for their son's schoolmates, with the culprits facing a stay in juvenile hall. La Guerre des Boutons was written and directed by Yves Robert, who had a distinguished career both in front of and behind the camera in the French cinema. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Richard, Jacques Dufilho, (more)
- 1962
While there is an element of science fiction to this political satire about Latin American dictatorships, that element is primarily used to promote the storyline and the message, and not as a value in itself. In a make-believe Spanish-speaking country of the Americas, a dictator (Zbigniew Cybulski) rules with the usual degree of corruption but as it turns out, his wife is the one who gives most of the orders. Two story strands are then woven together: a scientist has invented a way to replicate objects and, lo and behold, he discovers he can make a robotic duplicate of the dictator's wife. Meanwhile, an ardent, left-leaning revolutionary who happens to be a dead ringer for the dictator ends up taking over the tyrant's role when he is assassinated. So one has a robotic wife and a fake dictator now running a country which is none the wiser. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Zbigniew Cybulski, Sonne Teal, (more)
- 1989
This poetic French drama about the inner experience of a returning World War I soldier, is based on the much-loved and highly regarded novel La Vouivre by Marcel Ayme. Georges Wilson, a well-established presence on the French stage, makes his filmmaking debut as a screenwriter and director. A "vouivre" is a wood-nymph, beautiful but completely lacking in human sensibilities. At the start of the film, Arsene (Lambert Wilson), a discharged soldier, returns to his family's farm. His return provokes quite a reaction, as he had been presumed dead. He is tormented by memories of the war, and finds brief consolation in his experiences with the wood-nymph (Laurent Treil). However, despite her magical qualities, it becomes clear that even a peasant farmer has more richness and depth to his character than the soulless "vouivre" can ever attain. In the novel, it's not clear whether the wood-nymph is real or the product of hallucinations caused by a head injury Arsene sustained in the war. In this movie version, the reality of the "vouivre" is never questioned. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lambert Wilson, Jean Carmet, (more)
