Roland Bertin Movies
Supporting actor Bertin has been onscreen from the '70s. ~ All Movie Guide- 1979
- R
The Bronte sisters are profiled in this biography. The film dramatizes the repressed Victorian lives of the three famed authors who all died young. Their writing, so full of life, was a total contrast to the reality of their existence, focused mostly upon arguing with their father and taking care of their younger brother. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Isabelle Adjani, Marie-France Pisier, (more)
- 1979
A good argument against capital punishment, this polemical as well as compelling docudrama tells the story of the arrest, conviction, and execution of a man who may have been innocent. In 1974 a young girl was kidnapped and murdered near Marseilles. The public was outraged at the crime, so when traveling salesman Christian Ranucci (Serge Avedikian) was arrested, the prevailing mood was to convict him. As this story unfolds, it is revealed that the court did not allow certain exonerating evidence to be presented nor contradictory witnesses to take the stand. Among the facets of the case that raised doubt was a red sweater found at the crime scene. It belonged to the killer but was several sizes too big for Ranucci. In brief, there is enough evidence to suggest that the real killer and kidnapper got away with it. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Serge Avedikian, Michele Marquais, (more)
- 1978
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) was a French philosopher and writer whose works helped to usher in the modern era, and were especially important in laying the groundwork for the idealization of nature and "primitive" societies, as well as much of the rationale for socialism. This film explores the last years of the great rebel's life, after he was forced into exile in 1762 by the publication of his book Emile. Living in Switzerland, Prussia and England, he was constantly hounded by churchmen for his nonconformity. Eventually, his troubles cause him to degenerate into a paranoid old lunatic. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- François Simon, Dominique Labourier, (more)
- 1977
La Part du Feu is a French idiom, and has to do with making a sacrifice for some gain. Hansen (Michel Piccoli) is a wheeler-dealer and building developer, who apparently manipulates people and situations just for the joy of it. In this melodrama, it was his wife Catherine's (Claudia Cardinale) money which enabled him to get into the real-estate business, but these days she is somewhat neglected. Jacques (Jacques Perrin) is his assistant, an eager but none too confident young man who has been having an affair with Catherine. The two of them worry a great deal about Hanson discovering their relationship. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Piccoli, Claudia Cardinale, (more)
- 1977
Based on a novel by Roger Borniche, this crime drama retells the story of the renowned gangster "Pierrot le Fou," whose band of robbers sought out banks and factories in the period just after the Second World War, when the French police forces were in disarray. In the movie, Alain Delon plays Robert, the gangleader, who plans for his gang to perform a large number of major robberies in one day. After that, he and his gang will retire comfortably for a time with the loot. Performed with split-second timing, the robberies go well almost to the end. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alain Delon, Nicole Calfan, (more)
Alain Delon plays Mr. Klein, a French-Catholic art dealer during the Nazi occupation. Strapped for cash, Klein takes financial advantage of his Jewish neighbors, knowing that they have no legal recourse. Ironically, Klein is himself mistaken for a missing Jew, a man who has been using Mr. Klein's name as a cover for his secret operations. As he desperately seeks out that man, he learns a bitter lesson about life in the other man's shoes. Star Delon is one of the four producers of this French feature. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alain Delon, Jeanne Moreau, (more)
- 1976
Violette (Isabelle Adjani) is fascinated with the shabby background and low-down ways of her boyfriend Francois (Jacques Dutronc), and despite her middle-class family's objections, she marries him. Unable to keep a job, and without any real skills, he has a hard time supporting them, especially after the birth of their baby. He turns to shoplifting, and she briefly leaves him when she discovers this. Sometime after they get back together, with money still in short supply, she takes a turn at shoplifting too, and gets a kick out of it. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Isabelle Adjani, Jacques Dutronc, (more)
For a change, the character portrayed by Gérard Depardieu in Maîtresse is relatively normal; it is the world around him which has gone slightly mad. Looking for a measure of affection and companionship, Olivier (Depardieu) crosses the path of the lovely Ariane (Bulle Ogier). She happens to be a professional dominatrix-and from the evidence we're presented, she's one of the most accomplished of her ilk. How this mismatched (to put it mildly) relationship can possibly work is the core of Maîtresse. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gérard Depardieu, Bulle Ogier, (more)
- 1975
- R
The heiress Claire (Charlotte Rampling) in this movie is the daughter of the Miss Blandish of the film No Orchids for Miss Blandish. She has been raised under the unsympathetic eye of her aunt (Edwige Feuillere), who has no intention of seeing her receive her large inheritance. A somewhat violent girl (her father was a mentally retarded killer), she has been confined in a mental asylum. All the men who help her meet tragedy and death in the course of the film, but Claire gets help from other quarters, and her prospects look good. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlotte Rampling, Bruno Cremer, (more)
- 1975
Based on a true story, Costa-Gavras' Special Section (Section Speciale) is set in wartime France, but the parallels to contemporary political persecution are inescapable. A young German naval officer is killed in occupied Paris. The supplicative Vichy government sets about to locate the perpetrators. Four idealistic young Frenchman are arrested, tortured and slated for execution. It is clear that it doesn't matter whether they're guilty or not: the flames of totalitarianism must be stoked, even with the blood of the innocent. And it's especially convenient if the accused are thoroughly expendable in the eyes of the authorities. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louis Seigner, Michel Lonsdale, (more)
- 1975
A woman working for a film director, who is also a third-world terrorist, seriously abuses herself (i.e., by burning herself with cigarettes) to induce the correct emotional tone in herself for the movie they are working on. Left on her own when the director is forced to flee from the secret police, she takes some of his clandestine documents and tries to find someone who will help. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Olga Karlatos, Roland Bertin, (more)
- 1974
This film by French director Alain Resnais (Last Year in Marienbad) is loosely based on a true story from the 1930s about financier, con-man and swindler Stavisky who was arrested in 1934 for selling phony stock but was never brought to trial. While in jail, he continued to engage in doubtful monetary transactions. As the rumors that he was being protected by high-ranking members of the government of the French Third Republic were undoubtedly true, the scandal had a profoundly unsettling effect on the French nation, already suffering from poor government handling of the Depression, and this incident nearly brought down both the government and the Republic. Stavisky's death in prison (an apparent suicide) triggered widespread unrest and rioting. In the movie, when Stavisky (Jean-Paul Belmondo) goes to jail as a young con-man, his embarrassed father commits suicide. Ruining countless lives in his stellar career as a big-money swindler, including that of his nobleman friend Raoul (Charles Boyer), Stavisky is shown to be a pawn in a still bigger swindle, one which will destroy the Left and open the way to fascism. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Paul Belmondo, Charles Boyer, (more)
As they travel the Mediterranean, a Guide (Sami Frey) tells many stories to the Interpreter (Delphine Seyrig) -- at her request -- but his biggest story seems to warp reality. A pair of anarchists bomb a government minister's family, killing all except a young girl, who now is guarded by a strange, brain-injured and sleepless man with only one memory. When this guard loses even that memory, he plans to kill himself. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
