Gerard Hernandez Movies

When a man kills his wife -- who happened to be the most hated woman in the village -- no one is sure if he should be punished or congratulated in this darkly farcical comedy. Jojo (Jacques Villeret) runs a small farm in rural France, and asks for little from life; all he wants to do is finish his chores, tend his goats, and work on his stamp collection. But Jojo's wife Lulu (Josiane Balasko) will not hear of it; often drunk and chronically ill-tempered, Lulu goes out of her way to make Jojo miserable, and she's earned the frightened enmity of nearly everyone in town. After Lulu destroys both his stamp collection and his milk pails in a fit of pique, Jojo visits a lawyer, Jacquard (Andre Dussollier), and posing as a wife-killer, asks how he would defend him in court. With Jacquard's strategy fresh in mind, Jojo contemplates doing away with Lulu when he finds out that she's already made plans to finish him off with poisoned wine. A sudden fight with a bread knife finds Lulu dead and Jojo on trial for murder. Jacquard finds himself putting his earlier theories to work when he's hired to defend Jojo, but to his surprise, many of Jojo and Lulu's neighbors arrive to lend a degree of support. While practically no one will say that Jojo is innocent of the crime, everyone agrees that the community is better off without Lulu -- and are willing to say so in court. Un Crime Au Paradis is a remake of the 1951 hit La Poison; the box-office success of Un Crime Au Paradis in France led to a theatrical re-release of the earlier film. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this mainstream French comedy, a television writer creates a hit series based on the experiences of her housekeeper. The writer Nathalie does this in desperation as she has a deadline and is utterly blocked. She goes to Petlet and begins transcribing her memories of the lively goings on in her rural home village. Each memory is an episode in itself, and the show becomes a smash hit, but when Petlet realizes that her boss has been cashing on her life stories and taking all the credit, she gets angry and quits leaving Nathalie with no maid and no one to watch her children. Later Petlet's adult children demand that their mother return to demand credit and a piece of the action. But Petlet remains undecided. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Lucky Luke, the cowboy, his faithful horse Jolly Jumper, and his dog Rantanplan, are all out fighting their perennial enemies, the Dalton brothers, in this cooperative animated adventure from Hanna-Barbera and Morris Gascinny. To accommodate American audiences, Hanna-Barbera removed Luky Luke's ever-present cigarette, and eliminated some of his "ethnic" pals to avoid any potential problems in the minority department. For many Luke fans, these alterations were tantamount to destroying a character they have known since 1945, and so the feature was bound to receive mixed reviews by those for and against the changes. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Based on pulp master Jim Thompson's Pop. 1280, Bertrand Tavernier's Coup de Torchon is a sardonic thriller that remains true to its source's spirit, even as it transposes the action from the American South to colonial West Africa. Lucien (Philippe Noiret) is the bumbling police chief of Bourkasa, a dusty outpost in rural Senegal. Badgered by local thugs, Lucien initially comes across as a pathetic oaf unable to stand up for himself. Things at home are scarcely better, as Lucien finds himself harried by his nagging wife, Huguette (Stéphane Audran), who is carrying on an affair with a man she claims to be her brother (Eddy Mitchell). Without warning, Lucien embarks on a nonchalant killing spree, murdering everyone who has ever mistreated him. As he sets about "cleaning the slate," Lucien intensifies his affair with ditsy Rose (Isabelle Huppert), all the while pining for the newly arrived schoolteacher, Anne (Irene Skobline). Remaining above suspicion even as bodies pile up, the seemingly witless Lucien gradually develops a twisted logic for his actions, animating his crusade with an evangelical purpose. By movie's end, Tavernier leaves little room for redemption, leaving the joyless Lucien mired in a moral quagmire of his own making. ~ Elbert Ventura, All Movie Guide

Pierre Richard directs and stars in this comedy about a ghost writer employed by a successful comic. He assumes the comic's identity and talks his way into a joint venture with an Italian screen star. The two travel to Tunisia to work on their collaboration and experience romantic and professional comic mishaps. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide