Paul Guers Movies
In this romantic French drama, an older man remembers a meaningful summer romance he had in 1958. It begins as Victor is seen staring into the flames of an apparent bonfire. He is remembering the day he met Yvonne in the luxurious lobby of a Swiss hotel on Lake Geneva. They encounter Dr. Meinthe, the cultured but flagrantly gay medico who provides some form of service for the Algerian war. Together, the threesome revel in a relaxing time all the while, poking fun at the elegant folk around them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hippolyte Girardot, Sandra Majani, (more)
- 1988
Yves Montand plays himself in this musical romantic comedy by Jacques Demy. Demy and Michel Legrand wrote the songs with Montand in mind as a tribute to the famous French singer and actor in his most celebrated roles. Choreography is provided by Michael Peters for the many background dancers who hoof it around Montand, with set designs by Bernard Evein. Mathilde May plays Montand's love interest, a young singer who becomes a star when she takes the place of the diva who backs out weeks before opening night. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yves Montand, Mathilda May, (more)
- 1984
In this confusing, surreal, and slow-paced drama that swings back and forth from strange to farcical, Robert (Alain Delon) meets Donatienne (Nathalie Baye) on a train. She tells him a story about a woman and a man who meet on a train and subsequently spend a night - only one night - in a glorious sexual encounter before they part forever. He is so taken with her that he ends up in her mountain chalet, not just for one night, but for many - drinking beer and forgetting about his wife in Paris. Donatienne then has sexual relations with all the men in her neighborhood - and the film steps fully into a bizarre world in which neither Robert nor Donatienne can honestly relate to each other. The mystery about what is going on is revealed in the end, but by then the film - verbose, inscrutable, and artificial - may have alienated more than one viewer. On the other hand, the performances of Delon and Baye stand out against this flawed backdrop, an achievement recognized at the 1984 Cesars when Delon won the Best Actor award for his role as Robert. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alain Delon, Nathalie Baye, (more)
- 1975
Though it is not quite a softcore pornographic film, this sex drama never quite manages to tell a story. Guests gather for the porcelain anniversary of a couple. When another woman's husband leaves her in front of everyone's eyes, the anniversary-celebrating husband gallantly makes loves to her in front of the same people. Then a sexual and confessional free-for-all erupts, until one of the wives, repulsed, runs away. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mylène Demongeot, Sybil Danning, (more)
- 1974
The overheated romanticism of genteel upper-class Frenchmen in the 19th century was at least as lush as that of the British in the same era. This film, based on the novel by Alfred de Musset, explores the love-life of a young writer with a highly excitable nature. Octave (Alain Noury) suffers a nervous breakdown after getting wounded in a duel with his friend because of their romantic rivalry for an older woman. Hallucinating, he drives his love away when she comes to see him, and she is lost to him, perhaps forever. Despairing, he is comforted by an older man who offers him time with his mistress, but even this solace goes awry. He despairs of his life, but recovers nicely when he meets the similarly sensitive and highly eccentric woman writer George Sand. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alain Noury, Paul Guers, (more)
- 1973
Le Feu Aux Levres is a French drama about the determined efforts of the wife of a sex researcher to reveal her husband's hypocrisy and get revenge for his humiliating behavior to her. At the beginning of the film, the husband is reading humorous letters from the sexually frustrated to an informal gathering of sex researchers. One of the researchers is playing "footsie" with the wife, and she leaves the meeting with that fellow and has sex with him while the meeting continues. Her husband discovers them together, and humiliates her. She later picks up a yellow journalist at a porno cinema, and after sex, persuades him to research the foibles of the men around that table, so that she can do a little humiliating of her own. This film, with its many sexual situations, was considered to be softcore porn at the time of its release though it is rather tame by more recent standards. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Olga Georges-Picot, Bernard Verley, (more)
- 1969
Delphine (Dany Carrel) is a country girl who travels to the big city in search of feminine emancipation and freedom. Attending wild parties and nightclubs, she meet a young rock star. She becomes pregnant by him and after she has an abortion, the singer could care less about her. Delphine is always followed by a little boy throughout the feature who constantly asks "what is your name?" She also confides in a boozing, middle-aged cynic who has given up on life but helps the young girl. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dany Carrel, Maurice Ronet, (more)
- 1967
In this exploitation drama, a young woman's dreams of marital bliss with a handsome playboy are shattered when she finds out that he is a white slaver who wants her to be his newest hooker. He sends her to a client aboard a yacht. She tries to flee but gets caught and is sent to a hellish punishment place called "The Hole." Meanwhile the playboy is left to sort out his feelings for her. Unbeknownst to him, the cops are hot on his trail. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1966
Caught in an unhappy marriage, Piera Fabbri (Giovanna Ralli) leaves her physicist husband Andrea (Paul Guers) and runs off with her lesbian lover, Luisa (Anouk Aimee). However, Piera soon discovers that her new-found relationship may not be the answer to her problems. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Giovanna Ralli, Anouk Aimée, (more)
- 1965
This uninhibited Italian comedy was originally titled Il Magnifico Cornuto. Ugo Tognazzi plays a philandering businessman, inordinately proud of his hyperactive libido. Claudia Cardinale is his sexy wife, which makes one wonder why Tognazzi would ever want to stray. Be that as it may, Cardinale decides to take revenge on her roving hubby by launching an affair of her own. The beauty part is that she's almost able to get away with her hanky-panky without her self-absorbed husband ever catching on. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claudia Cardinale, Ugo Tognazzi, (more)
Bay of the Angels (La Baie des anges) stars Jeanne Moreau as a middle-aged Parisian gambling addict who leaves her husband and children and heads for the roulette tables of Nice. There she meets young and handsome Claude Mann--a meeting which coincides with Moreau's first winning streak. She latches onto Mann in the belief that he's a good luck charm, and remains with him even when she starts losing heavily. Mann, emotionally drained, walks out of the relationship. The film ends with Mann entreating Moreau to return with him to the bourgeois existence that she'd escaped in the first scene. Bay of the Angels was directed by Jacques Demy, just before he achieved international fame with his musical films Young Girls of Rochefort and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeanne Moreau, Claude Mann, (more)
- 1962
In this convoluted drama, a young woman and two cousins, whom she doesn't know, find that they are named as beneficiaries in their grandmother's will. The young woman, because she's never met them, mistakes a friend of her cousin, for her cousin. Meanwhile a maid begins sleeping with the butler, and the woman's real cousin falls in love with the lawyer. When the real cousin gets there, the mix-up is resolved. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1962
The French omnibus feature Tales of Paris is made of four separate romantic playlets, each with its own cast, director, and scenarist. "The Tale of Ella," directed by Jacques Poitrenaud, stars Dany Saval as an ambitious nightclub performer who very nearly messes up her chances for success by bullying a mild-looking but important producer. "The Tale of Antonia," directed by Michel Boisrond, finds housewife Dany Robin exacting a sweet revenge on her cheating husband. "The Tale of Francoise," directed by Claude Barma, concerns the efforts of Francoise Arnoul to test the fidelity of her best friend's lover. And "The Tale of Sophie," directed by Marc Allegret, features Catherine Deneuve as a goody-two-shoes who fabricates a torrid romance in order to be accepted by her sexually knowledgeable schoolmates. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Françoise Arnoul, Françoise Brion, (more)
- 1962
Gentle Art of Murder is comprised of a trio of short crime tales: "The Spider's Web," "The Fenyrou Case" and "The Mask." An international all-star cast appears in these filmed playlets, wherein each perfect murder turns out to be less than perfect. The stories are linked by "bookend" scenes in which an aspiring wife murderer goes to a movie house and watches the three cautionary tales unreel. Nearly three hours long, Gentle Art of Murder holds both the audience--and the would-be killer--in thrall. The film's original title was Crime Does Not Pay, though it bears no relation to the MGM short-subjects series of the same name. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edwige Feuillère, Pierre Brasseur, (more)
- 1962
This uneven drama by Argentine director Leopoldo Torre-Nilsson, co-scripted with his wife Beatrice Guido, focuses on the problem of accepting unpleasant truths -- or not. Four women have suffered the loss of their missionary husbands at the hands of some Native Americans along the Amazon. Now the four are making a pilgrimage to the site of the murders to pay homage to their spouses and participate in a reunion of various church groups. A journalist tags along for the story and interviews each woman in turn in order to gather background on their husbands. But when someone shows up who witnessed the deaths, the truth sends one grieving wife over the edge. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maurice Sarfati, Alida Valli, (more)
- 1961
This routine film by novice director Jean-Gabriel Albicocco handles the taboo subject of a homosexual relationship between women, though the story still implies that if a man falls in love with a lesbian she can change her sexual orientation. Loosely based on a novel by Honore de Balzac, a skirt-chasing fashion photographer meets a charming young woman who captures his interest immediately. She is not wholly forthcoming, but after a period of time, he realizes that he is in love with her -- she is not just another conquest. It takes awhile before he also realizes that she is the partner of his femme associate who is possessive, at the very least. As it turns out, one corner in this odd triangle is highly unstable. This was one of the early films of Françoise Dorleac, Catherine Deneuve's beautiful sister who was killed in an automobile accident in 1967. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marie Laforêt, Paul Guers, (more)
