Francois Guerin Movies
- 1952
Benjamin (Jean Tissier) is the irresponsible patriarch of a fun-loving Roman family. Ostensibly the owner of a drug store, Benjamin would much rather rummage through ruins in search of ancient Roman artifacts. While searching for a valuable statue of the great God Jupiter, our hero must contend with his status-seeking wife (Huguette Duflos), who intends to marry off her daughter (Dany Robin) to a wealthy distant cousin. The comic complications come thick and fast when a genial escaped lunatic named Jupiter (Georges Marchal) shows up, and is immediately mistaken for the much-anticipated cousin. Jupiter is a faithful adaptation of a stage play by Robert Bolsey. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Georges Marchal, Dany Robin, (more)
- 1954
Mam'zelle Nitouche represented Fernandel's only 1954 film vehicle. The horse-faced comic actor is cast as Celestin, an organist at a girl's school. By day, Celestin is the meek and mild target of the girls' incessant practical jokes. By night, however, he is the celebrated composer of popular operas -- and the romantic vis-à-vis of a celebrated stage star. When schoolgirl Denise (Pier Angeli) stumbles onto Celestin's secret, she threatens to tell all -- but only if Celestin refuses to escort her to the opening night of his latest opera. As a result, Denise falls in love with a handsome young soldier, while Celestin is accidentally shipped off to an army camp. A series of silly coincidences brings happiness to all concerned by fade-out time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernandel, Anna Maria Pier Angeli, (more)
- 1958
The English-language title of this French gangster melodrama is Raids on the City. Michel Piccoli plays a police inspector whose best friend is murdered on the orders of gang boss Charles Vanel. The inspector knows full well that Vanel is too crafty and well-connected to ever stand trial for his crime, so he carefully lays a subtle trap for his adversary. Unfortunately, both Piccoli and Vanel are thwarted by a pair of scheming females. Director Pierre Chenal curiously misses every opportunity to sustain suspense in Rafles sur la Ville; the result is an attractive-looking but wildly uneven film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Piccoli, Charles Vanel, (more)
- 1958
In this French melodrama, a kind-hearted social worker helps a hapless waif by taking her into her home. She gets the girl a job working for her fiance, a doctor. The two fall in love. The patient social worker eventually confronts the two. Her anger is awesome. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1958
Michele Mercier stars as Nicole, a country lass who comes to the big city after winning a "new faces" contest sponsored by a movie studio. Betrayed by a man she thought she could trust, Nicole attempts suicide. She is saved from herself by her home-town fiancé, but the fact remains that she is now considered a failure. A last-minute twist of fate brings about a highly unlikely happy ending. Surprisingly, director Leonide Moguy seems to be taking Georges Tabet's script seriously, instead of treating it as a semi-satirical romantic trifle. The film's title, incidentally, translates to Give Me My Chance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michele Mercier, Nadine Tallier, (more)
- 1959
This is a wartime action drama featuring Cora (Françoise Arnoul) the same heroine (known as the "cat') whose activities in the French underground were featured in the 1959 film La Chatte. She is back, this time with a string of bad luck, starting with her capture by German forces. Once she is imprisoned, Cora's mind is bent by unscrupulous techniques generally referred to as "brainwashing," that leave her in the power of her captors. When she is released, they know she will gather information about the French resistance movement and then hand that info over to the Germans. Unfortunately for her captors, their technique cannot overcome Cora's loyalty to country and friends. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Françoise Arnoul, Francois Guerin, (more)
French director Georges Franju's Eyes Without a Face (Les Yeux Sans Visage) is an unsettling, sometimes poetic horror film. Pierre Brasseur plays a brilliant plastic surgeon, Prof. Genessier, who has vowed to restore the face of his daughter, Christiane (Edith Scob), who was mutilated in an automobile accident. With the help of his assistant (Alida Valli), he kidnaps young women, surgically removes their facial features, and attempts to graft their beauty onto his daughter's hideous countenance. This naturally has an adverse effect on the "donors," some of whom commit suicide rather than go through life faceless. Franju's haunting, muted handling of basic horror material is what lifts Eyes Without a Face out of the ordinary and into the realm of near-classic. When the film failed to draw crowds under its original title, however, the distributors decided to exploit it as a two-bit "scare" flick with the new title The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierre Brasseur, Alida Valli, (more)
- 1964
In this WW II drama set during a weekend in June of 1940, German invaders force British troops to flee Dunkirk. The French soldiers stationed on a nearby beach also want to withdraw so they too can battle the Germans, but they have been ordered to stay in place and the British are to use the boats first. Though it is a bloody conflict and many innocent residents are killed, one young woman, Jeanne (Catherine Spaak) refuses to evacuate her home. She becomes friends with one of the French soldiers, Julien (Jean-Paul Belmondo) who later saves her from being raped. The situation on the beach grows increasingly tense as the waiting soldiers are easy targets for German warplanes. Julien tries to persuade Jeanne to leave this dangerous place. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Paul Belmondo, Catherine Spaak, (more)
- 1968
Caroline (France Anglade) is the heroine who is pushed by her father into a loveless marriage with a lawyer. Unknown to her new husband, she lost her virginity to a handsome young officer the day the peasants stormed the Bastille. When her husband flees the revolutionary fervor, Caroline engages in a series of adventures. She is seduced, then raped before her husband returns and relative calm has been restored. The officer, now a member of Napoleon's court, and her husband are now safe. She conspires to leave her husband and return to the arms of her true love, the dashing officer to whom she has given her all. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
