Daniel Gélin Movies

This talky French costume drama chronicles the adventures of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette as they attempt to flee Paris during the 1791 revolution. While en route to Varennes, the couple encounter and have philosophical debates with a number of fascinating historical figures including Thomas Paine and Restif de la Bretonne. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A Yugoslavian man meets a woman in Paris, where he has come to do some research, and their mutual attraction leads to a liaison and shared adventures, not many good. They are both survivors from Nazi concentration camps which automatically gives them a kindred understanding. Their past comes back to haunt them though as they run into an ex-German soldier who shows them a skull from a person that had been tortured - an act that infuriates them so much that they knock down the German and steal the skull to finally put it in the French memorial for deportees. As they travel around the streets of Paris, they are constantly reminded of the previous Nazi presence, or run into Nazi-like behavior. There is a reprieve from Paris, however, as they separately go to Normandy where her family lives. Once together there, they go for a walk and come across some inane adults playing war games in German bunkers on the beach, reminders of the D-day landing on Normandy. By now it seems that their unwanted run-ins with a painful past have got to end, one way or another. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This French comedy is the sequel to the well-regarded Pardon Mon Affaire. This version centers on the sexual fantasies of a quartet of four married, middle-class men attempting to deal with the onset of middle-age. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Sometimes a reporter's urge to tell the truth is unquenchable, at least when the reporter is Dolannes (Jean-Pierre Mocky). Unfortunately, his newspaper is owned by corporations which like to keep things on an even keel, and his stories are often "spiked," (kept quiet). Frustrated, he leaves the paper and starts his own, telling just who received what bribe in the sports world, unmasking the pretensions of a politician doctor who does abortions, and generally telling the all-too unwelcome truth. For a little while, he lives in a reportorial paradise. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This French thriller is based upon a theory about the conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy. The story begins as a reporter is informed that one of his friends may have been shot by two gunmen in an American car. The reporter goes out looking for his friend, who did not die after the shooting. Along the way he is shot at and beaten up. This does not deter the intrepid journalist who keeps getting closer to the truth. Eventually he learns that the Euro-Mafia and the French Secret police are involved in the shooting. The reporter then encounters an American who tries to dissuade him from pursuing the mystery because it is far too complex to really know the truth. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this Danish movie by an American director, Birthe Tove plays Christa, a ravishingly beautiful airline stewardess who lives, it seems, to seduce men. Her seductions include men whom she is not able to take to her bed. All of these men are stunned by her beauty and her aggressiveness, and serve only to highlight her attractiveness by providing a kind of darkened backdrop to it. She has had a son by an earlier lover, and he lives with her parents. The child's father continually makes a spectacle of himself by demanding more from Christa than it is reasonable to expect, and his suicide prompts feelings of relief. Aside from Tove's performance, this film was the object of unintended mirth at its first screenings. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A professor, his wife, a student, and a married woman travel to a hotel on the edge of the forest for a week-long vacation. The forest represents the world outside their experiences and spheres of influence. When they enter the forest, their thoughts, words and actions become one. The married woman's husband comes to collect her although she is not ready to rejoin the real world. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Two vacationing businessmen -- or are they gangsters? -- inflict endless humiliations upon one another by way of their henchmen and women in this offbeat comedy, as they make their way to a chateau on a stolen invitation to play in a high-stakes poker game. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A French soldier is discharged from the army and returns to his village in the early days of World War ll. His daughter is pregnant, but the father is the son of the local mayor, who refuses to let his son marry the girl. When Italy declares war on France, two Italian workers are nearly lynched by an angry mob. The film takes a seriocomic look at the effect World War II has on the small French town. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Originally L'Heure de la Verte, the French Hour of Truth Stars Brett Halsey, Corinne Marchand and Karl Boehm. At the end of World War 2, a Nazi escapes arrest by assuming the identity of concentration camp victim. 20 years later, he is threatened with exposure. The only way out would seem to be murder. Hour of Truth was lensed largely on location in Israel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The people of a small town in France react differently to the Nazi occupation in this World War II action drama directed by Claude Chabrol. Mary (Jean Seberg) is willing to risk her life to help the resistance movement in spite of her husband's acceptance of the situation. The movement is slowed by an informer and another man who pretends to help the resistance fighters but leads them to the Nazis and steals their possessions. This is one of the few French films that accurately illustrates that the heroic resistance movement was a small minority and most people were content with the Nazi occupation as long as they had bread and wine. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide