Jean Poiret Movies

This slapstick comedy concerns a college professor who stages a one-man vendetta against television. A hare-brained inventor has produced an aerosol spray that when applied effectively renders television antennae useless. Armand (Bourvil) enlists the help of a gymnast who scales heights to apply the spray to the receivers of his students to keep them from being polluted by the senseless medium. Soon the stuffy network executives launch an all-out search for the perpetrator as television revenues plummet. The police are soon called in to solve the mystery as the professor and his crew slowly move towards their ultimate goal of spraying the Eiffel tower. Armand demands an audience with the President and uses his threat to cut off all television to insure the meeting will take place. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In this French farce, a lazy member of a family of down-and-out aristocrats refuses to help the destitute family survive. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Triquet (Bourvil) is a policeman who is forced to retire early when he nabs too many crooks while he is not on the clock in this satirical crime comedy. He captures a criminal who is headed for the guillotine, but the condemned man escapes when the instrument of death malfunctions. Triquet is called on to find the crook and convince him that, according to the law of the land, since the execution attempt failed, he is free from his death sentence. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This feature takes a comedic look at how four women lose their virginity. Among the scenarios are a couple who can't bring themselves to make love before marriage and a woman marrying for money while keeping her first love on a string. An inept couple begin a hilarious honeymoon night, and a teenage girl decides it is time to give in to her hormone heavy boyfriend. When she finds him drunk and unable to perform, she picks up a stranger for sex. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

A mystery playwright finds that he is the target of a killer. Fancying himself a sleuth, he insists upon solving the puzzle himself. Among his chief suspects are an old friend, his irresponsible wife, a flirtatious secretary, or his assistant -- who is actually the talent behind his successful plays. The popular stage and screen team of Michel Serrault and Jean Poiret would both be more widely known for their contributions to Edouard Molinaro's La Cage Aux Folles (1978). ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

The French omnibus feature Tales of Paris is made of four separate romantic playlets, each with its own cast, director, and scenarist. "The Tale of Ella," directed by Jacques Poitrenaud, stars Dany Saval as an ambitious nightclub performer who very nearly messes up her chances for success by bullying a mild-looking but important producer. "The Tale of Antonia," directed by Michel Boisrond, finds housewife Dany Robin exacting a sweet revenge on her cheating husband. "The Tale of Francoise," directed by Claude Barma, concerns the efforts of Francoise Arnoul to test the fidelity of her best friend's lover. And "The Tale of Sophie," directed by Marc Allegret, features Catherine Deneuve as a goody-two-shoes who fabricates a torrid romance in order to be accepted by her sexually knowledgeable schoolmates. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The four "truths" are in this instance, four different romantic or dramatic vignettes in a slightly uneven compilation film. All four segments are loosely related to fables by the 17th-century French poet Jean de la Fontaine. In the first fable "Death and the Woodcutter" directed by Luis Berlanga, a well-adjusted, normal organ grinder runs up against the obstacles of torpidity and bureaucracy combined, driving him to the brink of despair. In the second story "The Crow and the Fox" directed by Hervé Bromberger, an insecure husband keeps his beautiful wife locked up, though an amorous neighbor is determined to outsmart him and get to her. In the third fable "The Tortoise and the Hare" directed by Allesandro Blasetti, a wife is unwilling to share her husband with a mistress. In the last fable "Two Pigeons" by René Clair, a fashion model (Leslie Caron) and a lowly worker (Charles Aznavour) are thrown together by unexpected circumstances. The American release of this film cut the first segment, reducing the fable parodies to three. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

A young girl leaves her home in a small country town for the big city life in Paris. Her dreams of a career and her search for true love are exploited by a tabloid newspaper who publicize her search for Prince Charming. Comedy ensues when a local boy falls in love with the girl and is affected by the sensationalistic slants depicted by the girl's search for true love. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Love and the Frenchwoman (La Francaise et L'Amour) concentrates on the nature of love by illustrating seven separate aspects of the emotion. In "Childhood," 9-year old Pierre-Jean Vaillard suffers a traumatic experience when he takes his parents' "cabbage patch" theory of conception too literally. In "Adolescence," a little girl (Annie Sinigalla) constructs an elaborate fantasy world on the occasion of her first kiss. "Virginity" is a study in frustration, as betrothed couple Valerie Lagrange and Pierre Michel agonizingly await their wedding-night consummation of their ardor. "Marriage" finds a union ending almost before it begins as a pair of newlyweds (Marie-Jose Nat and Claude Rich) bicker all the way to their honeymoon rendezvous. "Adultery" allows husband Paul Meurisse the opportunity to calmly provide an object lesson to his wife's lover Jean-Paul Belmondo. In "Divorce", a couple (Annie Girardot and Francois Pierer) find that it's impossible to have a "civilized" breakup. And in "A Woman Alone," bigamist Robert Lamoreaux meets his Waterloo in the forms of Martine Carol and Sylvia Montfort. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide