Danièle Lebrun Movies

This gently observed saga from France - a family-friendly drama leavened with occasional humor - follows the plight of an 8-year-old boy and his 12-year-old sister, who must cope with their parents' divorce and the plight of being continually shuttled back-and-forth between homes. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

This French romantic comedy-drama concerns Claude Langmann (Claude Berri, who is also the director) a middle-aged auctioneer who is in a loving marriage with his second wife of 15 years. Though he is deeply in love with his wife and has remained faithful to her, he finds himself unable to perform in bed. His wife says she is satisfied with Claude's love and tenderness, but he visits a sex specialist anyway. There he learns of Viagra, which is not yet approved in France, though it is available in Switzerland over the counter. Soon Claude is on his way to Geneva, and eager to prove his manhood, tries to bed Agnes, his very attractive and very available assistant. His daughter, who also comes along for the trip, interferes with her own problems. La Debandade is a lightly funny, touching looking at male sexuality during life's later years. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

The film is based on a true story of a young actor, Robert Hugues Lambert, who was hired to play the role of aviation hero Mermoz in occupied France during WW II. But his career came to a brutal end when his homosexuality was discovered and he was sent to a Nazi camp. The Vichy government's directive to bring to screen edifying films based on national myths, such as Charlemagne or Joan of Arc, led one producer to decide to make a film about Mermoz, an airmail pioneer who perished at the height of his fame, crashing in 1936. This symbolic figure was also an activist in an extreme rightwing party, the vice-president of a movement known as 'The Crosses of Fire.' Lambert, a relatively obscure theatre actor was hired for his physical resemblance. Another actor was hired to complete the film, but the sound crew managed to smuggle a microphone through the barbed wires to get a recording of Lambert's voice. The film had its premiere in Paris, but Lambert was shipped to Auschwitz, never to return. Based on this story, Jean Claude Grumberg wrote a fictional comedy about making a film during the Occupation. He decided that only a comedy could narrate the way most French people went about their business with their heads in the sand during the Occupation, seeking refuge in derivative comedy. The film's light tone, however, changes dramatically at the end when Lambert is taken away. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi

Irony abounds in this French comedy that tells the tale of an unsophisticated, rather dim-bulbed country lad who follows the advice of a former French freedom fighter and tries to change himself into a hero of the recently ended French Resistance. Poor Albert is no stranger to deceit. For his first 12-years, his mother led him to believe that his father was a war hero. He is devastated to learn that his father really died of alcoholism. During the war, Albert does all he can to avoid fighting for the Resistance, even though the Nazis control his village. He marries and moves in with his wife's family, innocent of the fact that the whole time he is there, they are concealing downed British fliers. The night their town is freed, Albert leaves for Paris where he meets Dionnet, "The Captain," a bona-fide Resistance hero. It is he, who teaches Albert how to successfully change his identity. After much practice and memorization, Albert finally has a new identity and goes to work as a secretary for Mr. Jo, a former double agent. Albert stays in a boarding house, where a resident prostitute teaches him about lovemaking. Meanwhile, Albert becomes recognized as a courageous patriot, a role he manages to sustain only a little while before it all falls apart and the painful truth is finally revealed. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this crime comedy set in the interracial slums of Marseilles, the children are pressed into service to run small-time theft rings to pay for their father's drug or booze habits. However, when the whole city is divided up into two rival gangs, the mothers decide they have had enough of this abusive foolishness. They take over the entire criminal business of the city, and ensure that their darlings steal from the rich instead of from other poor people. The story of this revolution is narrated by a sympathetic parish priest (Jean-Pierre Darroussin). ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Uranus is set in a post-war French village that has been all but obliterated by the bombing. Jean-Pierre Marielle plays a middle-class family man who agrees to shelter many of those who've lost their homes. The polyglot of political beliefs held by these new tenants sows the seeds of discontent. The most vocal of the town's dissidents are the Communists, who terrify everyone with threats of turning in collaborators to the French Forces of the Interior. The only person in town afraid of no one is hulking innkeeper Gerard Depardieu, whose ultimate death uncovers much of the hypocrisy disguising itself as patriotism in the village. While never exactly sympathizing with the collaborators, Uranus is careful to point out that the "unofficial" executions of these unfortunates was no more morally acceptable than the Nazi invasion that encouraged collaboration in the first place. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

French filmmaker Nadine Trintignant writes and directs the 1971 drama Ça N'Arrive Qu'Aux Autres (It Only Happens to Others), based on her real-life experiences with actor husband Jean-Louis Trintignant. Catherine (Catherine Deneuve) and Marcello (Marcello Mastroianni) lose their baby daughter Camille to a deadly illness. In order to mourn their loss, they shut themselves off from the world by hiding in their apartment. After weeks of seclusion, Marcello decides to break their isolation. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi