Bernard Le Coq Movies

A young man leaves home when he finds the marriage of his mutually adulterous parents to be hypocritical in this romantic comedy satire. He has a gay artist pursuing him and a mistress he does not care for very much. When he leaves home, the mother beds down with the homosexual while his father takes on his son's former mistress. The young man meets a girl, and the two have an affair while the May 1968 riots in Paris enfold. She leaves him for a while to take part in the political turmoil, but returns to her apolitical lover when her efforts prove to be ineffective. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Claude Sautet's romantic drama César et Rosalie (Cesar and Rosalie) stars Romy Schneider as Rosalie, a beautiful young woman happily married to successful businessman Cesar (Yves Montand). One day, Rosalie's former flame David (Sami Frey) appears and attempts to win her back. Cesar reacts with a jealous intensity never before seen by Rosalie, and because of that, she returns to David. She remains conflicted as to with whom she should be, but eventually, one of the men does something which resolves the situation. César et Rosalie contains one of the first screen appearances of French actress Isabelle Huppert. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

In this French film, Rose (Simone Signoret) is the pillar on which her family depends, and against which it pulls. These forces are held in equilibrium until a murdered woman's body is found near their farm, the Les Granges Brulees of the film's title. At first, Police Inspector Larcher (Alain Delon) feels that the evidence points to her youngest son. By the time everyone in the family is cleared of suspicion, long-buried truths about each of them will be revealed, and the family will never be the same again. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

When Joelle (Nathalie Courval) notices that the "one of a kind" watch given to her by her lover Norbert (Jean-Claude Brialy) is also being worn by Olivia (Marcha Grant), she and the other woman strike up an acquaintance. They discover that they had been told the same lie by the same man; not only is he being unfaithful to his wife with a mistress, he is being unfaithful to one mistress with yet another! The two watch-wearing mistresses put their heads together to think up an appropriate punishment. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The advertising business is the background for this drama about the struggles between a jaded old-timer (Bernard Blier) and his former employee (Francis Perrin), an idealistic young man who starts his own company and wants somehow to tell the truth about the products he is pushing. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, over-achieving men who are involved in a multi-car automobile accident meet and get to know one another in the hospital. One collects old furniture under the guise of being an antique salesman, another stars in television commercials, and another is an inventor. Meanwhile, the wives of three of them meet and get a taste of freedom without their husbands. Eventually their differences are resolved and happiness is enjoyed by all. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Running nearly three hours, Maurice Pialat's Van Gogh is a leisurely paced look at the famous painter's final year. Pialat's portrait differs from many other films in that he shows Van Gogh (Jacques Dutronc) as being reasonably sane and he focuses on the everyday events of the painter's life and art. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide

This fluffy French romantic comedy chronicles the love lives of several lovers and relatives. Margeau has just arrived in Paris from New York. Twenty years before, she left her husband, a painter and many years her senior and her daughter Jess, who now sells classic cars with her partner the clumsy Mario. Jess is recovering from an accidental overdose on sleeping pills. Her hospitalization brought Margeau home. Jess has a young boyfriend, a musician not terribly interested in sex, and a 17 year old son from her ex- husband Pierre. A restaurateur Pierre now lives with a very young African student. The hospital shrink helping Jess ends up having an affair with her son. Before the film ends and Margeau returns home, Jess comes close to death three more times. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A successful prostitute attempts to fashion a homeless man into her ideal pimp in this unconventional, darkly humorous French drama. Marie (Anouk Grinberg) has no real need for a pimp, being a self-reliant, unabashed woman so fond of her job as a hooker that she is able to convince strangers to try it themselves. Indeed, her financial success allows her to take care of Jeannot (Gérard Lanvin), an impoverished vagrant whom she finds on the streets. She provides him with a bath and a place to sleep, and the two rapidly become lovers. Nevertheless, Marie is soon imploring Jeannot to act as her pimp, begging him to slap her around and take her money. He takes to his new role and soon decides to talk a manicurist (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) into becoming the next member of his stable. The newcomer's inexperience proves to be his downfall, however, as the manicurist lands him in trouble with the law. Director Bertrand Blier attempts to create a controversial look at sexuality by combining black comedy with scenes of smoky sensuality, though many critics found the central premise and the presentation of Marie's contradictory, masochistic character too unconvincing for the film to be fully successful. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

Bertrand Tavernier directed this hard-hitting anti-war drama. In November of 1918, just as World War I had come to a close, Capt. Conan (Phillippe Torreton) and his men await new assignments in Bucharest. Conan regards himself as a warrior, not a soldier: while a soldier will fight in a war, it takes a warrior -- unafraid to take risks, confront death, and spill blood -- to win one. Conan is convinced that it was the bloodthirsty valor of himself and those under his command that won the war against Germany. However, while Conan's dark nature was a boon to the Army during the war, it's a distinct disadvantage in peacetime, as Conan and his friends Norbert (Samuel LeBihan) and De Sceve (Bernard LeCoq) are instructed to patrol the now peaceful border. Conan and his compatriots have become too acclimated to battle to leave it behind and begin staging raids in the mountains of the Balkans. The situation comes to a head when two women are killed in a combination robbery and attack on a nightclub; Conan and his men are to be court martialed for their actions, driving a wedge between him and his close friend Norbert, who respects Conan but lacks his reckless enthusiasm for battle. Capitaine Conan earned Cesar awards for Torreton's performance and Tavernier's direction. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide