Marie Laforêt Movies

This French drama, adapted from the novel Playback by Didier Daeninckx, centers on small-town girl Johanna (Virginie Ledoyen) who dreams of becoming a rock star. Johanna and her shy friend Jeanne (Maidi Roth) perform in a small mining town when Parisian Luc (Marc Duret), on a visit to close the mine, catches their act. When Luc loses his job, he becomes their representative. At a talent show for solo performers, Jeanne sings backstage while Johanna lip-syncs onstage. Fame follows, but Johanna's promiscuous activities and drug use create frictions with her friends. As Pierre Montgolfier, a friend of Jeanne's mother, veteran performer Serge Reggiani offers a rendition of the 1943 tune "Douce France." Shown at the 1997 Venice Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Three French women in their 20s wrestle with their feelings about the nature of romance in this drama that chronicles their love lives over a 6 month period. The film opens with scenes that not only introduce the women, they also tell the viewer what is to become of two of them. Marie, who likes having sex with different partners, is a stockbroker. She is first seen climbing a huge tree to tell a portly office messenger of her love for him. Jeanne is married and works as a waitress. She finds her estranged husband in a restaurant. Alice, an art history student, is frigid and has low self-esteem because her father was domineering. She is first seen lying nude on a canvas. An artist pours paint upon her body. The film jumps back six months. The three women are at a local pool engaging in some post work-out girl talk. It is frank, graphic and quite sexual. Sex scenes illustrate their stories. Marie keeps sleeping around while Jeanne becomes a part-time hooker. Alice considers giving herself to a painter who creates tableaux of ecstatic naked women covered in paint. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Since Moliere's plays are national classics of France, an air of reverence surrounds them. However, they are for the most part comedies based on older commedia del'arte storylines and acting conventions (which most closely resemble the broad humor of the American vaudeville or the British music halls). Moliere's big innovation was to give the stock characters from these ancient themes an actual script to follow, rather than leaving them to improvise their own lines. His lines were usually much, much wittier. Otherwise, these tales are every bit as farcical (and sometimes slapstick) as anything from The Three Stooges or, for that matter, the classical farces of Plautus. However, when the actors ham it up in their parts too much, eyebrows are raised. This multinational production of Moliere's classic L'Avare, or The Miser is an excellent case in point. The lead role of Arpagone, the miser, is played exhuberantly by Alberto Sordi, who for years has traded (on and off the stage) on his pinched, miserly appearance and his romantic skittishness - somewhat akin to the shtik perfected by Jack Benny in the U.S. These characteristics also fit the role to a "T." In the story, the miserly widower is trying to arrange things for the maximum safety of his funds and to prevent his children from doing something stupid, like marrying poor people. In the meantime, his well-known wealth has made him the target of sinister matrimonial designs by the murderous sister of a powerful cardinal. He decides to find a suitable bride for himself to stave off this unhappy prospect, and at the same time arrange good marriages for his son and daughter (who have other people in mind). A triple wedding will cost little more than a single one, and will save him lots of money. Needless to say, everything goes wrong (and finally goes right) in this romantic farce. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Before was made into the famous Mozart opera, Le Mariage de Figaro was an incredibly famous French comedy and political satire by Beaumarchais (1732-1799). Beaumarchais was at least as interesting a character as any in his plays; among other things, he was a litigious watchmaker, a playwright, and spy who was also one of the fundraisers for the American Revolution. Even though this otherwise completely silly and very popular story was written by a man who was (at the time) spying for the monarchy, it was also considered seditious, and Louis XVI tried (unsuccessfully) to have it banned. So much for the powers of an absolute monarch. This filmed production of the play is most notable for having been financed by ticket subscriptions. The familiar story concerns the trials and tribulations of the duplicitious Count Almaviva (Claude Giraud), as he tries to have his cake (marriage to the lovely Suzanne, played here by Fanny Cottencon) and eat it, too, by avoiding a contracted marriage to Marceline (Line Renaud), to whom he owes a lot of money. The figures in the story scheme and plot for and against one another in the most vigorous manner possible, and they eventually discover some unlikely truths. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Francois Marboni (Victor Lanoux) is a butcher who is being blackmailed for having an affair with the prostitute Rache (Pauline Lafont) in this black comedy. He decides to hire a hit man when the blackmailer demands that he start cutting his profit margin to the bone. Francois soon becomes a target of the hitman he hired. Michel Aumont plays the policeman who also covets Rache, with Francois Stevenin as the hilarious hit man. Marie Laforet stars as Francois' space-cadet spouse Marthe. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Using a collage of individual Argentine exiles in Paris as well as pulsating tango music and talented dancers, director Fernando E. Solanas has patched together a diverse picture of humanity trying to cope with political and social tensions. This disparate group is in the process of mounting a stage play called "Gardel's Exile." The playwright, Juan Dos (Juan #2, Miguel Angel Sola) is busy scribbling away in Argentina and smuggles out his results to Juan Uno (Juan #1) in France. Maria is one of the actresses in the play who has been so long in France she is neither French nor Argentinian. Mariana is Maria's mother, and the lead actress in "Gardel's Exile," and she is having an affair with Juan Dos. Another exile, Gerardo, is desperate to find his granddaughter who was born in prison. And so it continues -- an array of people trying to make sense of their lives in exile. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Considered more as a vehicle to display Jean-Paul Belmondo than as an independent, wartime action story, Les Morfalous rides the crest of the French actor's popularity and delivers a tale that highlights his persona. Belmondo is a member of the French Foreign Legion sent with others to Tunisia in 1943 to recover a fortune in gold from a certain French bank before the Germans get to it. Then the Legionnaires are ambushed by German troops and the few left alive manage to get hold of the treasure but they cannot agree on what to do with their booty. Between their disagreements and the surrounding German army, the action heats up. Belmondo fans will be disappointed that he does not perform any of his famous stunts in this film -- always a drawing card -- and some viewers may find the humor too crude. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Andre Joeuf (Jean Poiret) is the coldly calculating president of an insurance company who, when faced with the imperative of firing some of his highly paid executives, invites them all over to his country estate for a weekend to indulge in a few games of musical chairs. Anyone left standing after each round will be out his job. The mix of people at the estate and their relationships to each other and their boss, as well as the character of the boss himself, are enough to make most business majors switch to art history. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

When the local police inspector was found dead in a prostitute's house, police division commissioner Stan Borowitz (Jean-Paul Belmondo) is sent to investigate the situation. Posing as the prostitute's long-lost brother "Antonio Cerruti," he discovers a mare's nest of police corruption. In fact, in this comedy thriller the whole town is corrupt. If they were closely examined, Stan's methods for pursuing this investigation might embarrass the police. For instance, he drives into a criminal's house in a fancy, expensive race car. In another incident, he callously blows up a casino owned by Musard (Georges Geret), one of the town's crime bosses. On that occasion, he first forces Musard to remove his clothes, and the poor criminal watches his casino explode from across the square while standing naked in a phone booth. Meanwhile, Stan seduces the lovely Edmonde (Marie Laforet). This box-office smash was the first of four wildly successful collaborations between Belmondo and director Georges Lautner. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Prostitutes from Athens are transported by truck for the pleasure of the occupying Italian Army in this World War II drama. The 15 women are driven by a young lieutenant who gives a ride to a fascist major. Tension mounts between the two soldiers as the truck is attacked, and some of the women are killed. Love blossoms between one of the prostitutes and the lieutenant, and he encourages her to return home knowing he will never see her again. Two versions exist: the 136-minute original and an obviously chopped up 97-minute version. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Marie (Marie Laforet) is a wealthy French female who receives a precious jewel from a secret service agent in this spy comedy. The agent is killed, and Dr. Kha (Akim Tamiroff) leads a group of international spies who are out to get Marie and the jewel. She is chased through several countries by the bad guys. Claude Chabrol makes use of his wry humor ala Alfred Hitchcock in the action scenes. Soviet agent Ivanov (Serge Reggiani) and American agent Johnson (Charles Denner) also have their eyes on the prize. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide