Macha Meril Movies

Adorable Menteuse is a mild French comedy starring Marina Vlady. She plays a garrulous 18-year-old girl who can't go five minutes without telling a lie. When she falls in love with an older man (all of forty!), she vows to reform and speak nothing but the truth. But Vlady's reputation precedes her, and as a consequence her gentleman friend refuses to take anything she says seriously. Adorable Menteuse has also been issued under the title Adorable Liar. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This tragic love story finds Jeanne (Macha Meril) in love with a young man who has suffered through a bad childhood. Although he holds a steady job, he is haunted by his past, quits his job and joins a group of hippies. Despite the urgings of the lovely Jeanne, the boy cannot overcome the severe emotional scars that eventually lead to his imminent demise. The young girl returns to her comfortable middle-class home when her intellectual interventions on her boyfriend have failed. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Belle de Jour dramatizes the collision between depravity and elegance, one of the favorite themes of director Luis Buñuel. Catherine Deneuve stars as a wealthy but bored newlywed, eager to taste life to the fullest. She seemingly gets her wish early in the film when she is kidnapped, tied to a tree, and gang-raped. It turns out that this is only a daydream, but her subsequent visits to a neighboring brothel, where she offers her services, certainly seem to be real. This illusion/reality dichotomy extends to the final scenes, in which we are offered two possible endings. Thanks to a question of copyright and ownership, Belle de Jour disappeared from view shortly after its 1967 release, not even resurfacing on videotape. When it was reissued theatrically in 1994, many critics placed the perplexing but mesmerizing film on their lists of that year's best films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The film that has become the master work in Italian horror maestro Dario Argento's canon, Deep Red holds up brilliantly despite the plethora of copycat slasher films it inspired in the years to follow. The film opens with a flashback murder shown from the perspective of a child while an eerie nursery rhyme plays. Cut to the present, pianist Marc Daly (David Hemmings) witnesses the murder of a psychic while chatting with his drunken pal, Carlo (Gabriele Lavia). While the police investigate, Marc joins forces with attractive reporter Gianna (Daria Nicolodi). Once Marc realizes that he is a target for the killer, he seeks help from Giordani (Glauco Mauri), a professor of the paranormal, who soon becomes one of the killer's victims. Marc's research leads him to an abandoned house where he discovers a secret room that hides a corpse. Before he can call the cops, he is knocked out and awakens to find the place in flames while Gianna holds him. Racing to the neighbors to call for help, Marc discovers an important clue that leads him to a nearby school where he finally finds the killer's identity. The madman attacks him, but the police arrive to save Marc. Though the case appears to be solved, Marc comes to the disturbing realization that one piece of the puzzle remains. ~ Patrick Legare, All Movie Guide

In this western, the sixth in the European-produced "Winnetou" series, Old Surehand and his Apache sidekick Winnetou endeavor to capture the outlaws who killed their friend the wagon master. To do so, Winnetou volunteers to guide the leaderless wagon train across the treacherous Indian land himself. Sure enough, they encounter Navajos, but fortunately Winnetou manages to get them safe passage until an avaricious oil swindler tries to cheat local settlers out of their land and ends up killing the Navajo leader's son. Naturally the Indians assume that Winnetou has betrayed them and go to war against the settlers. Fortunately, Surehand rides to the rescue. He is accompanied by the swindler whom he captured. Peace is restored. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Julie Andrews delivers a virtuoso dramatic performance in Duet for One. Based on a play by Tom Kempinski, the story concerns brilliant concert violinist Stephanie Anderson (Andrews) who is slowly succumbing to the ravages of multiple sclerosis. Stephanie's problems are compounded by her cheating husband David Cornwallis (Alan Bates), and her protégé Constantine Kassanis (Rupert Everett), who shows signs of "selling out" to popular entertainment. Max von Sydow, who previously co-starred with Andrews in Hawaii, plays psychiatrist Dr. Louis Feldman, who tries to help Stephanie cope with her debilitations, but who ends up as much an albatross around her neck as David and Constantine. Critics are still divided over whether or not the mystical sequences between Andrews and the ghost of her violin teacher (Sigfrit Steiner) truly work within the context of the plotline. Duet for One was the third English-language production for Russian filmmaker Andrei Konchalovsky. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Simon (O.E. Hasse) fought in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), but now he is an old man, readying himself for death. His daily life is filled with memories, reveries, feelings, and small but meaningful encounters; these are the stuff the film is made up of. Some of the musings are of a hallucinatory nature, as when he meets with a tramp during imaginary walks. Others are more ordinary, as when he interacts with his son's family or enjoys looking at the pretty women in the building across the street. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Director Jean-Luc Godard narrates this study of a married woman who begins an affair with another man. After becoming pregnant, she is unable to figure out which man is the father of her son and must choose between the two. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

The logical consequences of unrestrained hedonism are explored in the sensationalistic Italian drama La notte dei fiori. A woman pop star and her decadent entourage disport themselves in a country estate, making love, playing psychological games, and finally, committing multiple murders. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A woman who is tried of being pushed around discovers the alternative isn't all she thought it might be in this provocative comedy. Claudia (Antonella Ponziani) is a woman in her early thirties who works as a production assistant on a popular talk show, though she doesn't much care for her job. Claudia also isn't so thrilled with her boyfriend Giovanni (Mario De Candia), especially since he's invited a large percentage of his free-thinking extended family to stay at their apartment -- his divorced parents (Macha Meril and Piero Natoli), his sister and her kids, and his father's new significant other (Tasha Rodrigues). To make matters worse, Giovanni is an actor who has been between jobs for some time, and Claudia is the only person living in the flat who has a steady income and a willingness to perform household maintenance. The stresses of both work and her home life are taking a toll on Claudia, who is suffering from a number of minor ailments. Giovanni's mother, a follower of New Age healing techniques, is convinced Claudia's problems are psychosomatic, and when she teaches her a way of ridding her mind of debilitating energies, Claudia is transformed into a new woman. But Giovanni's family soon discovers that the newly empowered Claudia isn't about to put up with them, while Claudia finds her new emotional strength only lasts for so long. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This poetic French drama about the inner experience of a returning World War I soldier, is based on the much-loved and highly regarded novel La Vouivre by Marcel Ayme. Georges Wilson, a well-established presence on the French stage, makes his filmmaking debut as a screenwriter and director. A "vouivre" is a wood-nymph, beautiful but completely lacking in human sensibilities. At the start of the film, Arsene (Lambert Wilson), a discharged soldier, returns to his family's farm. His return provokes quite a reaction, as he had been presumed dead. He is tormented by memories of the war, and finds brief consolation in his experiences with the wood-nymph (Laurent Treil). However, despite her magical qualities, it becomes clear that even a peasant farmer has more richness and depth to his character than the soulless "vouivre" can ever attain. In the novel, it's not clear whether the wood-nymph is real or the product of hallucinations caused by a head injury Arsene sustained in the war. In this movie version, the reality of the "vouivre" is never questioned. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Set against the Allied invasion of North Africa in 1942, this overly-ambitious, comedy-drama focuses on the relationship between its two central characters, Leon Castelli (Roger Hanin) a half-Algerian, half-French bartender, talkative, but with a generous soul, and Etienne Labrouche (Philippe Noiret) the French colonial mayor of the town. Leon gets propositioned on a business deal by an American soldier and joins him in setting up an "underground" night spot in an abandoned airplane hangar that soon catches on and thrives like weeds in a garden. Etienne, in the meantime, starts an affair with the governess of his children and is caught out by his wife, who sends the woman packing. Since the ex-governess needs to support herself somehow, she accepts a waitress job working in the underground nightclub. The word gets out, and before much time has gone by, the nightclub is trashed by a hired gang. Furious at Etienne because he feels this is the mayor's way of paying him back for hiring the governess, Leon picks up a shotgun and goes to Etienne's estate seeking revenge. But fate has other ideas, and when he arrives, Leon discovers that Etienne's father has just died and left a bombshell of a revelation about his parentage that changes everything. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this French fantasy/comedy, the Maoist Chinese, by some miracle, have occupied Paris (and France) overnight. The patience of these stern, work-oriented and quite puritanical communists is finally completely worn down by the quarrelsome, cynical and decadent French, who cannot cooperate properly even when they are willing. Unappreciated, ignored, and thoroughly disgusted, the Chinese soon pack up and leave. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide