Fernand Sardou Movies
Character actor in French films; he frequently appeared in films starring Fernandel. ~ All Movie Guide- 1976
The sweet elderly aunt and her two nieces survive the vendetta killing of their whole family because they are out picking flowers at the time. Undaunted, the aunt, a tough old Corsican, tracks down and kills all but one of the men who wiped out her kinfolk. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hélene Dieudonné, Yvette Maurech, (more)
- 1971
When he gets separated from his unit, Laforet (Roger Van Hool) becomes a de facto deserter during 1939 fighting in the French provinces. Most of the story concerns his love affair with a local farmgirl, as he competes for her affection with a refugee from Spain. When he presses her to make a decision between them, the choice doesn't go in his favor. Soon after this he joins up with the Resistance movement. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1971
French comic Louis De Funes stars as Henri, who has a very unfortunate accident while on his way to arrange some sort of shady deal on the Italian border. He has tried desperately not to let his better impulses get control of him; nonetheless, he has already picked up a hitchhiker (Olivier De Funes) and a married woman in distress (Geraldine Chaplin) when his car runs off the road, falls over a cliff, and lands in the crown of a tree. The efforts of this threesome to cope with the situation and get rescued constitute the body of this film. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Geraldine Chaplin
- 1969
Jean Renoir's last completed work was this made-for-television effort, comprised of three short films along with a musical interlude courtesy of Jeanne Moreau. Included are The Last Christmas Dinner, The Electric Floor Waxer and A Tribute to Tolerance. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernand Sardou, Nini Formicola, (more)
- 1964
Inspector Cruchot takes his daughter to visit beautiful St. Tropez to celebrate his recent promotion to sergeant and ends up trying to arrest a beach full of nudists. Meanwhile, his daughter has her own problems when she, ashamed of her social status pretends to be an heiress and ends up getting involved with art thieves. This lively entry in the French "Gendarme" series follows what happens next. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louis de Funès, Michel Galabru, (more)
- 1963
The French-made Of Flesh and Blood plays like "Dostoyevsky Meets Roger Corman." Robert Hossein finances his participation in a card game by stealing parts from a jeep. He cheats at cards, and has his hands broken as a consequence. Understandably unnerved by all this, Hossein murders an old woman. THEN...he becomes involved with passerby Renato Salvatori, who is fresh from an affair with Anouk Aimee. Three gold stars to anyone who can figure out the significance of all this. Maybe Of Flesh and Blood made more sense in its original French-language version Les Grands Chemins. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Hossein, Anouk Aimée, (more)
- 1963
In this low-budget crime drama, French teen idol Johnny Halliday sings one song before the feature begins. He is then chased by a bunch of notorious gangsters because he destroyed their drugs. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Johnny Hallyday, Sylvie Vartan, (more)
- 1961
In this thriller, a greedy young woman becomes a police informer. Her father is in prison for participating in a jewel theft. The girl is looking for the jewels he hid. Unfortunately, she must compete with other real criminals. In the end she is arrested for killing her own lover. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1959
Jean Renoir never made any secret that Picnic on the Grass (Le Dejeuner sur L'Herbe) was inspired by the impressionist paintings of his father Auguste Renoir, and also of Edouard Monet. The near-surrealistic plotline concerns priggish US presidential candidate Paul Meurisse, who carries on a sterile, clinical courtship with Ingrid Nordine. Proposing that he and Nordine have an image-boosting "picnic on the grass", the scientifically-oriented Meurisse is distracted by the visceral charms of country girl Catherine Rouvel. Previously a strong advocate of "artificial sex", Meurisse changes his mind after dallying with the lusty Rouvel. Almost childlike in its approach to the material at hand, Picnic on the Grass is one of Renoir's most playful efforts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Meurisse, Catherine Rouvel, (more)
- 1958
Variously titled La Parisienne and Une Parisienne, Parisienne, this Franco-Italian co-production is one of Brigitte Bardot's best vehicles. The daughter of the Premier of France (no, not DeGaulle!), La Bardot is married to Henri Vidal, the premier's chief aide. When Vidal shows signs of straying from his marital vows, Bardot decides to fight fire with fire. She enchants visiting nobleman Charles Boyer, who invites her to a romantic rendezvous on the Riviera. The outraged Vidal tracks down the would-be lovers, only to discover that nothing has happened-both Bardot and Boyer fell victim to head colds, and spent the weekend sneezing rather than smooching. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brigitte Bardot, Charles Boyer, (more)
- 1958
Un Drole de Dimanche (What a Sunday) stars Danielle Darrieux as Catherine and Bourvil as her ex-husband Jean. By chance, Catherine and Jean are reunited five years after she walked out of his life. In a fit of romantic nostalgia, Jean mentally reconstructs the events that led up to their separation. He then determines to win her back, certain that he'll never, ever make the same mistakes again? or will he? Listed fifth in the cast of Un Drole de Dimanche is a young sprout named Jean Belmondo, who as Jean-Paul Belmondo would burst onto the international film scene in Godard's Breathless. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Danielle Darrieux, Bourvil, (more)
- 1958
La Moucharde stars Dany Carrel as a young miss who loves neither wisely nor well. Duped into a life of crime, Carrel remains on the wrong side of the Law because she's hopelessly in love with a two-bit crook. Soon she becomes as jaded and hardened as her criminal cohorts. When the police threaten to throw her in the Bastille, Carrel agrees to turn informer, with the expected disastrous results. A few nude scenes enabled La Moucharde to receive bookings on the U.S. "art-house" circuit. For those not interested in nudity, the film ends with a thrill-packed chase. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dany Carrel, Pierre Vaneck, (more)
- 1956
Marguerite de la Nuit is filmmaker Claude Autant-Lara's spin on the "Faust" legend. Though updated to 1925, the story of the ageing pedant who sells his soul to Satan in exchange for youth and knowledge is fairly faithful to the Goethe original. The one major alteration is Satan's decision to "go easy" on the long-suffering Marguerite (played by Michele Morgan). His Satanic Majesty is portrayed with a surfeit of wry Gallic charm by Yves Montand. As Autant-Lara's follow-up to his classic Le Rouge et le Noir, Marguerite de la Nuit cannot help but disappoint; on its own, however, it's not bad. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michèle Morgan, Yves Montand, (more)
- 1954
Letters from My Windmill (Les Lettres De Mon Moulin) was adapted by French-filmmaker Marcel Pagnol from three short stories by Alphonse Daudet. The first, "The Three Low Masses," involves a clergyman whose taste for gourmet foods leads him to confrontation with Satan. "The Elixir of Father Gaucher" tells of a group of monks who deal in homemade wines and spirits to replenish their church coffers. And "The Secret of Master Cornille" is the story of businessman's harmless ruse which snowballs into near-tragedy. Roger Crouzet plays Alphonse Daudet, who repairs to a deserted windmill to write the three stories dramatized herein. The US prints of Letters from My Windmill contain subtitles written by Hollywood expatriate Preston Sturges. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roger Crouzet, Robert Vattier, (more)
- 1952
French novelist-turned-film director Marcel Pagnol made this black and white feature in 1953, He later wrote a novel based on his original script, which in turn was the source material for two much better known films made by director Claude Berri in 1986 - - Jean de Florette and Berri's own version of Manon des sources. Released uncut for the first time in 1988, Pagnol' s feature has a hefty running time of over four and a half hours. The story concerns the efforts of the beautiful shepherdess Manon Cadoret (played by the director's wife Jacqueline Pagnol) to avenge the death of her father Jean de Florette. The chief culprit in that death is a hapless peasant (played by veteran Marseilles comic Rellys), who, sadly, is desperately in love with Manon. Manon's revenge involves cutting off the town's water supply, drawing the wrath of the villagers. Her only ally is the town's somewhat haughty schoolteacher (Raymond Pellegrin), who she eventually marries. The action of this film corresponds roughly to Berri's version of Manon des sources. His Jean de Florette focused on events surrounding the father's death, which is here covered mostly in dialogue. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jacqueline Pagnol, Raymond Pellegrin, (more)
- 1952
The unbeatable combination of star Fernandel and director Henri Verneuil strikes again with Le Fruit Defendu (Forbidden Fruit). Fernandel plays a rural doctor, trapped in a dull, uneventful marriage. During a visit to the city, the doctor falls for a young lady (Francoise Arnoul) of very loose morals. Unwilling to relinquish this affair upon returning home, the doc works out a clever scheme whereby he can install the girl in his own home without arousing the suspicions of his wife (Claude Nollier) . How he does this, and how he's finally caught, is handled in a hilarious but scrupulously tasteful fashion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernandel, Claude Nollier, (more)
- 1950
Produced in 1950, the French Three Sinners was adapted by Charles Plisnier from his own novel Meurtres. The film was billed as the dramatic debut of comic-actor Fernandel, and though it really wasn't, he acquits himself nicely in a rare serious assignment. The topic is euthanasia: Noel Annequin's (Fernandel) dying wife begs her husband to put her out of her misery. He does so, then confesses his crime to his three brothers, all pillars of the community. Pursuing their own selfish agendae, the brothers cart their sibling off to a lunatic asylum. Only Noel's niece Martine (Jeanne Moreau) remains loyal, and it is Martine who sets the wheels in motion for a happier ending than the audience has been conditioned to expect. Incidentally, the title is ironic: as the plot unfolds, the viewer realizes that Noel's hypocritical brothers are the real sinners of the piece. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernandel, Raymond Souplex, (more)
