Brigitte Fossey Movies
The daughter of a French schoolteacher, Brigitte Fossey made her auspicious film bow, before she reached the age of eight, in Rene Clement's Forbidden Games (1952). Fossey remained a successful child actress until she reached the age of 10, at which time she voluntarily retreated to private life. After studying dance, piano and philosophy, she worked as an interpreter/translator in Geneva, then returned to films in 1967. Her credits as an adult performer include Francois Truffaut's The Man Who Loved Women (1977) and Robert Altman's Quintet (1979). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1992
The small port town in Brittany in this movie has its charms, but they are largely invisible to the children growing up there. In the first place, they are deeply disturbed at the sudden death of an elderly woman who is one of their favorite teachers under what appear to them to be suspicious circumstances. They launch an investigation and start a little newspaper to report their findings in, as a result of which the workings of their little town are made extremely clear. When "suspects" refuse to cooperate with them, they persecute him (or her) with pranks until they do. Naturally, their teacher's replacement has her work cut out for her, but she eventually accomplishes this by taking an interest in her predecessor and the student's investigations. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brigitte Fossey, Jacques Dufilho, (more)
- 1992
Is Nosfer Arbi a vampire? Or is he just a very emaciated, very strange and possibly quite lonely young man from an Arabic country with an obsession with death? On the other hand, why is the previously cheery Parisian teenager Nathalie Belfond throwing fits and speaking in Arabic? Her strange behavior began with the appearance of a caped and cadaverous man outside her window. Mr. & Mrs. Belfond have their hands full trying to sort this mess out, in this extremely unusual and award-winning comedy which puts a new wrinkle on the vampire mythos. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruno Cremer, Brigitte Fossey, (more)
Karel Kachyna and Ota Hofman adapted Michael Jacot's novel for this drama of a mime artist in Nazi-occupied Paris who is forced to put on a show for Red Cross observers in the Nazis' model "city of the Jews," Terezin, Czechoslovakia. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Courtenay, Brigitte Fossey, (more)
- 1989
Thomas (Alain Musy) is living with his mom and granddad in a huge country house. He makes a teltext phone call requesting that Santa Claus visit his house for Christmas. Instead, a crazed lunatic in a Santa outfit comes to visit, and for the rest of the film, Thomas is kept busy fending off the murderous Santa, in this French-style and relatively nonviolent thriller. Despite a superficial resemblance, this movie is not intended for child viewers the way Home Alone is - not least because by the end of the film, the kid no longer believes in (or cares about) Santa Claus. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brigitte Fossey, Louis Ducreux, (more)
- 1988
- PG
Cinema Paradiso offers a nostalgic look at films and the effect they have on a young boy who grows up in and around the title village movie theater in this Italian comedy drama that is based on the life and times of screenwriter/director Giuseppe Tornatore. The story begins in the present as a Sicilian mother pines for her estranged son, Salvatore, who left many years ago and has since become a prominent Roman film director who has taken the advice of his mentor too literally. He finally returns to his home village to attend the funeral of the town's former film projectionist, Alfredo, and, in so doing, embarks upon a journey into his boyhood just after WWII when he became the man's official son. In the dark confines of the Cinema Paradiso, the boy and the other townsfolk try to escape from the grim realities of post-war Italy. The town censor is also there to insure nothing untoward appears onscreen, invariably demanding that all kissing scenes be edited out. One day, Salvatore saves Alfredo's life after a fire, and then becomes the new projectionist. A few years later, Salvatore falls in love with a beautiful girl who breaks his heart after he is inducted into the military. Thirty years later, Salvatore has come to say goodbye to his life-long friend, who has left him a little gift in a film can. In 2002, over a decade after the film's original release, Tornatore brought the original 170-minute director's cut to American screens for the first time. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Philippe Noiret, Salvatore Cascio, (more)
- 1985
A tribute to the late, great French director Francois Truffaut, this documentary was undoubtedly named after his last movie, Vivement Dimanche, released in 1983. Included in this overview of Truffaut's contribution to filmmaking are clips from 14 of his movies arranged according to the themes he favored. These include childhood, literature, the cinema itself, romance, marriage, and even death (The Green Room). Of lesser notice in this documentary is the life of the man himself. There are some scenes of his receiving an award or two and some interview footage, but nothing extensive. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- 1984
In this French domestic comedy, a young boy lives in a Paris apartment surrounded by three generations of single women: his mother, her mother, and his great grandma, each with their own ideas on how a boy should be raised. Naturally this is quite confusing for the lad. Things get especially tense when he develops a crush on his teacher; and his mother is wooed by another man. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brigitte Fossey, Stéphane Audran, (more)
- 1984
Les Fausses Confidences is a commedia dell'arte written in 1735 by the French playwright Pierre de Carlet Chamblain de Marivaux (1688-1763), mercifully known simply as Marivaux. This cinematic adaptation is by Daniel Moosmann, and it remains faithful to Marivaux' elegant wit and sensibilities. The simple story focuses around the desire of Dorante (Jean-Pierre Bouvier) to win over the heart and subsequently, the fortune of the wealthy, young, and beautiful Araminte (Brigitte Fossey). To better forward his amorous goal, Dorante enlists the aid of Araminte's valet -- the man who conveys both true and false "confidences" to the unsuspecting young woman. It is the combination of truth and falsehoods, and the young Dorante's desire for both the woman and her wealth, that set up entertainingly ambiguous situations, typical of Marivaux comedies. Thrown into the plot is a domineering mother (Micheline Presle) who has plans for Araminte to marry a well-established Count. The excellent acting ensemble is complemented by good cinematography, costuming, and musical score. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brigitte Fossey, Fanny Cottençon, (more)
- 1984
Based on Heinrich Von Kleist's novel, "The Foundling," Strana Passione twists and turns through the death of one son, adoption of another, and the latter's ultimately tragic relationship with his adoptive parents. While out in his carriage with his young son, Piachi (Fernando Rey) picks up Nicolò, an orphaned street urchin, and takes him to a clinic where Piachi's son catches a virulent sickness plaguing the town, eventually succumbing to the illness. Piachi is grief-stricken and reaches out to Nicolò, deciding to adopt him into the family and raise him as though he were his own son. The once-impoverished orphan is multi-talented but not necessarily virtuous, and after reaching manhood, he marries an appropriate woman for his station in life but chases after the gorgeous mistress of a local bishop. The next woman he pursues is Elvira (Brigitte Fossey), his own adopted mother, using a ruse because he looks just like a man she loved long ago. His scheme unbalances what is left of the woman's delicate emotional health, and she loses touch with reality as she retreats into her own world. Before Piachi can retaliate, Nicolò uses his legal rights to evict Piachi and his ailing wife from their own home -- a violent and extreme action that pushes Piachi over the edge -- and seals the fate of Nicolò and of Piachi himself. Throughout this complicated tale of moral turpitude, Nicolò has no visible motivation for his actions, which leaves a hollow core and no depth at the heart of the story. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernando Rey, Brigitte Fossey, (more)
- 1984
In this made-for-television detective story set in the early 1930s, a missing Swedish millionaire is the target of a journalist who sets out to discover exactly what happened to the man and whether or not he is still alive. The biggest lead he has is the millionaire's attractive mistress, and the story takes off from there. Although the pace is slow and the ending no great surprise, the average TV-viewer would find this mystery entertaining by small-screen standards. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Erland Josephson, Brigitte Fossey, (more)
In this excellent drama centered around family relationships, especially that of parent and child, the problems of single motherhood are addressed from several perspectives. Isabelle (Brigitte Fossey) is a movie star in German cinema, and after she wraps a successful film in Berlin, she leaves to spend some time with her little daughter Emilie (Camille Raymond) and her parents in Normandy, France. Isabelle's mother Paula (Hildegarde Knef) was born in Germany and married her French husband after a romance that began in the war-ravaged city of Berlin. Isabelle's parents take care of Emilie while she is working because she insists on remaining a single mother -- although her lover follows her to Normandy and stays in a nearby hotel while she is with her parents. During a 24-hour period, the unresolved problems between Isabelle and her mother and father rise to the surface -- and cannot be ignored any longer. It is not an easy situation, especially since both parents are angry about some aspects of Isabelle's career and/or life that she may not be able to change. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brigitte Fossey, Hildegarde Knef, (more)
- 1983
Based on Erskine Caldwell's novel, Le Batard could also refer to this French film born from an American novel, with the American South transformed into the south of France. An unemotive Gerard Klein is Patrice, the Paris automobile mechanic who travels to Marseille to identify the body of his loose-living and long-lost mother, who has been found murdered. After proceeding to kill off her barroom boss, he meanders around the south of France looking for sexual relationships. He comes across a teenage musician and is attracted enough to her obvious appeal to establish a more permanent liaison, taking her with him to Paris to set up housekeeping -- for she is pregnant. Soon she is driven to the limits of depression and boredom caring for their home and a new baby, and he has reached his limits of confinement and responsibility -- so he takes off again. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gerard Klein, Julie Jezequel, (more)
- 1983
Unfortunately bound by clichés and stereotypes rather than original insights and new viewpoints, this condensed movie version of an 8-hour television series does not do complete justice to its noble topic of courage in the face of the World War II holocaust. The story is based on the memoirs of Martin Gray (Michael York plays the older Gray and Jacques Penot the younger), a Polish Jew who survived the Warsaw Ghetto and escaped Treblinka, the Nazi death camp where his mother and brothers died. After leaving Treblinka, Martin returns to Warsaw in time to join the Jewish insurrection at the Warsaw ghetto. In 1943, thousands of Jews in the walled ghetto revolted and fought the German occupation forces for six weeks, killing 5,000 Germans but losing their heroic struggle -- that six-week battle is a major focus of the film. Miraculously, Gray survives the war and moves to France where he meets and falls in love with Dina (Brigitte Fossey) -- and then has a major second tragic episode in his life that opens this film, and in the story and in real life it inspires him to write his memoirs. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael York, Brigitte Fossey, (more)
- 1983
In this comic and perceptive story, Billy mistakes another apartment for his own on the eve of his wedding and wanders in to meet a woman who immediately mesmerizes him, causing all sorts of problems in what used to be an uncomplicated life. After Billy (Richard Berry) and his bride-to-be Nina (Zoe Chauveau) move into a housing project still in its finishing stages, Billy walks into the wrong apartment when he forgets which floor he is supposed to be on. When he sees Viviane (Brigitte Fossey) he is transfixed by her, and since her husband has just ended their marriage, she is particularly susceptible. Without explaining where he actually lives or that he is getting married, Billy seduces Viviane, but then does not have the courage to break off his wedding. When Viviane rejects their affair and takes off for Paris, Billy goes in search of her -- not knowing that Nina's father has caught on to Billy's extra-marital activities and would like to express a few viewpoints of his own in that regard. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Berry, Brigitte Fossey, (more)
Directed by TV-anthology veteran Jeannot Szwarc, Enigma has a certain small-screen "feel" to it. Adopting a musical-comedy foreign accent, Martin Sheen plays Alex Holbeck, an Iron Curtain defector who returns to East Germany at the behest of the CIA. His mission is to save five political "undesirables" from the communists. Holbeck runs up against some formidable opposition, namely ambitious KGB agent Dimitri Vasilkov (Sam Neill) and a quintet of highly trained Soviet assassins. Brigitte Fossey co-stars as Holbeck's former love, whom he involves in his escape plans by asking her to romance the susceptible Vasilkov. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martin Sheen, Brigitte Fossey, (more)
- 1982
Polish director Krzysztof Zanussi once more explores the dilemma of intellectualism at the expense of humanity in 1982's Imperative. The story concerns math professor Robert Powell, who feels that there is something lacking in his ever-so-precise life. What is missing is truth, specifically philosophical truth. Thus he philosophizes at great length, allowing director Zanussi plenty of room for didactic but little room for warmth. Leading ladies Brigette Fossey and Leslie Caron occasionally melt through the cold logic of Imperative. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Powell, Brigitte Fossey, (more)
- 1982
This sequel to La Boum, a teenage romantic comedy that was a big box-office success in Europe, revisits Vic (Sophie Marceau), who is now 15 years old and living in a slightly more stable home, since her parents (Brigitte Fossey and Claude Brasseur) have resolved their differences and stopped bickering. Love has come to Vic's grandmother (Denise Grey), who is thinking of getting married again. And romance is knocking on Vic's door as well when she meets a boy in her class named Philippe (Pierre Cosso). But now Vic has to decide if this is real love -- and if it is, if she should go all the way with Philippe. Like the first film, Le Boum 2 was a solid moneymaker, and it earned Sophie Marceau a César Award (the French Oscar) as Most Promising Young Actress of 1983. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sophie Marceau, Claude Brasseur, (more)
- 1981
Therese, Catherine, and Alain (Carole Laure, Brigitte Fossey, and Bernard Giraudeau) are three friends who undergo several personal trials and tribulations over an eight-year period in which all three try to hang on to their original visions of who they are and what they want out of life. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carole Laure, Brigitte Fossey, (more)
- 1981
- R
La Boum stars Sophie Marceau as a 13-year-old French girl, coping with domestic problems. Her parents, played by Claude Brasseur and Brigitte Fossey, are on the verge of a marital breakup. This is coupled by a traumatic move to Paris, and Marceau's problems in adjusting to her new surroundings and schoolmates. Though nothing new, La Boum is disarmingly diverting, a real audience pleaser (as proven by its huge international box-office take). Even as the film was making the American rounds, a sequel, La Boum 2, was in the editing stages. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claude Brasseur, Brigitte Fossey, (more)
- 1981
- R
An ambitious Parisian fashion designer finds romance and great career success in this story about the life and loves of the legendary couturier, Coco (Gabrielle) Chanel. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marie-France Pisier, Timothy Dalton, (more)
- 1980
This is a quiet drama about the struggles of a former drug addict and dealer, Bruno Calgagni (Patrick Dewaere), as he is released from prison in the U.S. and arrives back home in France. His unhappy father blames this disgraceful prison stint for the death of Bruno's mother. No one wants to hire an ex-con, and a romantic liaison with another, very delicately balanced former addict only adds to the burden Bruno is carrying. Mauvais Fils skillfully limns Bruno's daily fight to keep his head above water. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick Dewaere, Brigitte Fossey, (more)
- 1979
The relationships between men and women are examined in this drama. The story begins as two young women set out to find their own identities independent of men. One begins directing a video production unit for sociological research while the other becomes a successful garage mechanic. As she heads her garage, she finds she has little time for her husband and child. Both women discover a communication gap amongst the people they work with, leading the sociologist to become disillusioned. Meanwhile the mechanic finds a void in her life that is only filled by her family. Without them she is miserable. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Geraldine Chaplin, Brigitte Fossey, (more)
