Nadine Alari Movies
- 2006
The bleakest and most claustrophobic nightmare of many a European actualizes in director Régis Wargnier's apocalyptic thriller Pars vite et reviens tard (AKA Have Mercy on Us All). Not long after his abandonment by his girlfriend, French police captain Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg is confronted by a string of bizarre signs strewn across Paris - strange talismans and omens that appear inexplicably on Parisian doors, whispered words that forebode an unspeakable onslaught of doom. All suggest someone's crude warning, and a riddle that Adamsberg must solve to stave off a coming tragedy - but the meaning eludes the captain until calamity hits: the Plague returns, wiping out scores of victims in its wake. And more problematically, it appears that some malevolent soul is single-handedly controlling the outbreak, willing it wherever he or she chooses. Lucas Belvaux, Marie Gillain, Michel Serrault and Mathias Mlekuz co-star; Wargnier co-authored the script with Harriet Marin, Lawrence Shore, Julien Rappeneau and Ariane Fert, adapted from the novel by Fred Vargas. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- José Garcia, Lucas Belvaux, (more)
- 2002
With Laurent Cantet's Time Out (L'Emploi du Temps) as an inspiration, actress-turned-director Nicole Garcia's fourth feature film, L'Adversaire, is a fictionalized account of what may have gone through the mind of real-life serial killer Jean-Claude Romand. Daniel Auteuil portrays Jean-Marc Faure, who, like Romand, had fooled his friends, family, and the bank for 18 years. Though those who knew Faure believed he was a physician employed by the World Health Organization in Geneva, he actually had no qualifications for the position, and had never held a real job. As part of the façade, Faure commuted to Switzerland daily, and obviously knew his way around the WHO. However, he had no job to perform there. Though he acquired an enormous overdraft at the bank, they believed he was a well-known doctor, and incorrectly assumed he would repay them shortly. Nearly two decades after his original untruth, Faure is nearly found out. Rather than enduring the shame of his long-time fraud, Faure opts to murder his wife, children, and parents. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Auteuil, Géraldine Pailhas, (more)
After spending some time with his diplomat father in Germany, a young French medical student returns by train to Paris to resume his studies. He is puzzled by the harsh treatment he receives from customs at the border but doesn't begin to understand why until he gets home and discovers a mummified head in his luggage. He suspects that someone at customs put it there, but is not sure. Instead of reporting the meandering body part, he decides to investigate it using the tools he has as a medical student. It appears to be the head of a Russian who died somewhere in Asia. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emmanuel Salinger, Thibault de Montalembert, (more)
- 1983
This undistinguished, cardboard-character action-thriller has a team of super-cops, four men and one woman, tracking down a black-leather biker who kills off young women in a prostitution ring who are trying to escape their miserable life. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierre Massimi, Chantal Nobel, (more)
- 1982
- R
An acting couple is forced to assess their life together when the wife falls for a wealthy horse-breeder while shooting a film. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miou-Miou, Claude Brasseur, (more)
Based on a melancholy romance by Francoise Sagan, this film recounts the circumstances of a relationship from start to tragic finish. Among other things, it features an early film appearance by Gerard Depardieu in a small role. Gilles (Marc Porel) works for a news agency and has an American mistress. It is a good job, and his mistress is very pretty, but he feels depressed. He is unable to shake his melancholy and goes to visit his sister in the countryside. There, he meets a mature woman whose inner richness attracts him. They form a relationship which brings her back to Paris with him. She has cut all her ties to her old life in order to be with him and then discovers that her love for him is much greater than his for her, though he does not wish to be unkind. Indeed, he cannot conceal that he is bored with her. Devastated, and wishing to set him free, she commits suicide. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claudine Auger, Marc Porel, (more)
- 1970
This three-part film begins with a young woman married to an older, cold-hearted man in the year 1200 AD. Two rivals have a sword fight over the affections of the lonely woman. Part two takes place in 1910 and finds an amorously unfaithful wife taking on her many lovers while her unsuspecting husband lurks nearby. The final part finds a count and countess engaging in extramarital affairs in France during the 1840s. The count seduces the chambermaid while the countess sleeps with a virile young poet. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ghita Nørby, Jacques Mauclair, (more)
- 1968
Caroline (France Anglade) is the heroine who is pushed by her father into a loveless marriage with a lawyer. Unknown to her new husband, she lost her virginity to a handsome young officer the day the peasants stormed the Bastille. When her husband flees the revolutionary fervor, Caroline engages in a series of adventures. She is seduced, then raped before her husband returns and relative calm has been restored. The officer, now a member of Napoleon's court, and her husband are now safe. She conspires to leave her husband and return to the arms of her true love, the dashing officer to whom she has given her all. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- 1967
Doucet (Jacques Brel) is a dedicated and happily married schoolteacher in a small town. One day he is accused of making sexual advances toward a fourteen-year old girl. One of his young students has come home with a ripped dress and a story about the tutor's misconduct. The police and the mayor are called in to investigate the allegations, and another girl accuses him of seduction. Yet another girl comes forward to indicate the teacher also made advances towards her. A series of flashbacks tell why each of the girls has made these serious charges against the concerned scholar. He maintains his innocence while the investigation threatens to destroy his marriage, career and life. Director Andre Cayatte is a former attorney who draws upon his legal experiences to reveal social injustice. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jacques Brel, Emmanuelle Riva, (more)
- 1966
This documentary takes a scientific look at animal reproduction from the lowest of forms to the patterns of their human counterparts. Education narration is provided by several expert scholars who have carefully researched the subject. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- 1965
The first film directed by Costa-Gavras, The Sleeping Car Murders was based on a novel by Sebastien Japrisot. During a Marseilles-to-Paris overnight train trip, a girl is found dead in a sleeping car. As Paris detective Yves Montand steps up his investigation, more and more passengers turn up murdered. The unlikely climax is the only sore point of this otherwise well-wrought mystery. Bereft of the politicizing of Costa-Gavras' later works, The Sleeping Car Murders exhibits the director's fondness for American "film noir" thrillers. The film first hit Parisian movie screens under the title Compartiment Tueurs. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yves Montand, Jean-Louis Trintignant, (more)
- 1961
This modest, unpretentious French film is a streamlined version of the true story previously cinematized as The Song of Bernadette (1943) Daniele Ajort plays the simple 19th-century French peasant girl who insists that she has experienced a vision of the Virgin Mary. Once this sighting becomes common knowledge, Bernadette's very existence becomes a religious and political hot potato. Thousands of people flock to the grotto at Lourdes where Bernadette claims she has seen the Holy Mother, believing that the waters therein contain recuperative powers. Bernadette dies under a cloud of controversy, but is ultimately elevated to sainthood by the Vatican. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1961
An unresolved love triangle is at the heart of this romance directed by Jacques Bourdon and starring Anna Karina as a woman who takes off for a vacation in Corsica, leaving her lover behind in Paris. While enjoying the sun and sand, she dutifully writes to her love back home but at the same time, she slowly starts to become entranced by a young, attractive local man (Jacques Perrin). Their relationship touches off romantic sparks that eventually ignite an interlude of passion. Unfortunately for the woman, her Parisian lover suspects something might be going on and shows up on her doorstep to investigate. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Karina, Jacques Perrin, (more)
- 1958
Le Joueur is French director Claude Autant-Lara's spin on the oft-filmed Dostoyevsky novel The Gambler. Set in 19th century Baden-Baden, the film details the trials and tribulations of several chronic gamblers, foremost among them young Alevei (Gerard Philipe). In love with Pauline (Liselotte Pulver), the daughter of nearly-impoverished general Zagoriensky (Bernard Blier), Alevei tries to save Pauline from penury by instructing her in the ways of the gaming tables. Unfortunately, Alevei is too late to prevent Pauline from destroying herself, both figuratively and literally. The best-known cinemadaptation of the Dostoyevsky original was 1949's The Great Sinner, starring Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gérard Philipe, Liselotte Pulver, (more)
- 1951
Set in a fancy resort hotel, Le Dindon is based on a stage farce by the inimitable Georges Feydeau. The title, which translates to "The Turkey," refers to the sort of fellow who spends his time romancing the wives of others. All the usual stock characters are in attendance, including the amorous fashion plate, the wry playboy, the ripe-for-cuckolding husband, his impressionable wife, and a pompous, easily deflatable authority figure, in this case a cavalry officer. It was de rigeur for Feydeau to include at least one character with a "funny" physical or vocal impairment. This time, it is the stone-deaf wife of a lecherous bellhop. There's a plot, to be sure, but that plot is soon forgotten amidst a maelstrom of assignations, misunderstandings, misrepresentations and ever-slamming doors. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nadine Alari, Jacqueline Pierreux, (more)
- 1951
Originally titled Un Grande Campon, The Perfectionist is a tailor-made vehicle for Pierre Fresnay. The star plays a brilliant and celebrated surgeon, on the verge of achieving his life's goal: a membership in the Academy of Medicine. Unfortunately, the surgeon's medical accomplishments are counterpointed by his less-than-admirable private life. One of the victims of the surgeon's single-minded pursuit of success is his woefully neglected life. He finally awakens to his domestic responsibilities only to lapse back into his old habits at the first opportunity. A subplot concerns a young medical student who bids fair to achieve the same measure of success as the elder surgeon -- and to make the same grievous errors on a personal level. The Perfectionist was the 1951 winner of France's Les Victoire Cinema Francais, the Gallic equivalent to Hollywood's Oscar. The film was the third feature-length directorial effort of Yves Ciampi, himself a onetime medical student. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierre Fresnay, Renee Devillers, (more)
- 1950
Loving husband Charles (Bernard Blier) brings his handsome young friend Maurice (Michel Auclair) home to meet his wife, Fernande (Madeleine Robinson). Charles' equally loving missus is delighted to have Maurice as a guest. A little too delighted, as it turns out. In the course of a single evening, Fernande and Maurice become lovers, then conspire to murder poor Charles. There are too many plot twists to detail here--and besides, it isn't fair to give away surprise endings. Suffice to say that, despite the farcical nature of the plot, L'Invite du Mardi is anything but amusing...especially to the character played by Bernard Blier. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Madeleine Robinson, Nadine Alari, (more)
- 1946
Droll French comedian Noel-Noel essays the title role in Le Pere Tranquille (The Quiet Daddy). Contrary to expectations, the star isn't a secret father, but in fact the unknown head of a WW2 resistance movement. By playing the fool whenever the Nazis are around and about, Noel-Noel is able to conceal his double life and successfully carry out his various sabotage missions. This deft combination of comedy and melodrama builds to a particularly suspenseful climax. Le Pere Tranquille was directed by Rene Clement, who also helmed the classic "underground" film Battle of the Rails. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Noël-Noël, Nadine Alari, (more)
