Michel Serrault Movies

An international comedy sensation based on a successful French stage play, La Cage aux Folles depicts the farcical chaos that results when a gay man attempts to pose as straight for the benefit of his son's future in-laws. Renato (Ugo Tognazzi) owns a popular nightclub and is the long-time lover of Zaza (Michel Serrault), a female impersonator who is the club's main attraction. Unfortunately, Renato's son Laurent (Remy Laurent) has told none of this to his future father-in-law, an important figure in a morally conservative political organization. Not wanting to ruin his son's chance of happiness, Renato agrees to pose as a straight man, but he finds his familiar habits, and those of the even more flamboyant Zaza, getting in the way at every turn. Zaza is the one who comes up with what he thinks is an ideal solution: he'll dress in drag and pose as Renato's wife. Naturally, the plan does not pan out as expected. La Cage aux Folles' pleasant, unthreatening comic sensibility attracted a large mainstream audience in both Europe and the United States, which was at the time unusual for a film with a homosexual theme. Indeed, the film was popular enough to inspire two remakes: a stage musical and, nearly two decades later, the Hollywood comedy The Birdcage with Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, and Gene Hackman. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

The lightly mocking title Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (Préparez Vos Mouchoirs) sets the tone for this Bertrand Blier-directed amalgam of the sentimental and sardonic. Gérard Depardieu plays an at-wit's-end husband, Raoul, who'll go to any lengths to sexually satisfy his wife, Solange (Carole Laure). Raoul decides that the best thing to cure Solange's boredom would be if she took a lover; thus, he chooses Stéphane (Patrick Dewaere) for the "job." But Stéphane isn't any more successful in arousing Solange than her husband had been. Eventually, it is a 13-year-old boy who quenches Solange's erotic yearnings. Get Out Your Handkerchiefs won a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar as well as a French César award for Best Score (by Georges Delerue). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this wartime comedy, Robert Lamoureux plays a General in the Resistance. With an unlikely team of French patriots, he easily outwits the buffoonish Germans and steals the master copy of their plans to invade England. By doing so, he prevents the invasion and makes it more likely that the Allies will win the war. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The title refers to the means of entry into the sewers of Paris. Here we find a group of misfits who've given up on humanity and have decided to dwell below the pavement. The group has its own hierarchy, of course, and soon the conditions that drove them underground begin to manifest themselves without the influences of the Outside World. The satirical thrust of The Holes is muted somewhat by the dubbed English dialogue, though we can discern the subtext from the subtle facial expressions of such expert farceurs as Michel Serrault. This film was originally distributed in France as Les Gaspards. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Sometimes a reporter's urge to tell the truth is unquenchable, at least when the reporter is Dolannes (Jean-Pierre Mocky). Unfortunately, his newspaper is owned by corporations which like to keep things on an even keel, and his stories are often "spiked," (kept quiet). Frustrated, he leaves the paper and starts his own, telling just who received what bribe in the sports world, unmasking the pretensions of a politician doctor who does abortions, and generally telling the all-too unwelcome truth. For a little while, he lives in a reportorial paradise. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This is one of the seemingly innumerable French comedies made in the early '70s featuring the musicians-turned-comedians, Les Charlots. They play a group of inept but good-hearted fellows who help a small market owner compete with a large supermarket across the street by shoplifting enough from the big store to enable the smaller store to carry on. The store owner is able to re-do his little store and, though it offers little competition to the larger one, he is bought out for a lot of money. Highlights include a motorcycle chase and several songs. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This French comedy is the first feature film directed by the well-known television-director Pierre Tcherina. In the film, the most elaborate designs of a greedy family are unwittingly undone by an ailing old man. The family has made a complicated financial arrangement which will result in their owning the lovely resort villa the old man is living in, but until he dies they are obligated to let him continue living there. Actually, the old man wouldn't be there in the first place, but the family arranged for him to live there as they expected him to die at any moment. Instead, he lives through the Second World War and the years following, completely oblivious to their plots to do away with him; he is extremely grateful for their attentiveness and generosity, and is saddened as, one after another, they drop by the wayside. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this French suspense drama, Paul (Jean-Claude Brialy) is a decent man in an ugly situation. His wife (Stephane Audran), who was crippled in their second year of marriage, has become a bitter and unpleasant virago. Though he keeps company with a lovely mistress (Catherine Spaak), the wife is still a considerable burden. When she dies in an automobile accident, he is relieved. That relief is short-lived, however, because his sister-in-law (Stephane Audran, again) comes to live with him immediately. For reasons of her own, she re-creates his wife's shrewish persona and even uses her wheelchair. At the same time, someone tries to blackmail him by suggesting that he killed his wife. Naturally, when the blackmailer (Robert Hossein) is found dead, he is the chief suspect. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Alfred (Michel Serrault) doesn't work. He lets his wife do that. Instead, he plays the horses, and wanders about, hitchhiking. His sly laziness serves him in good stead when he is kidnapped by people he thought were giving him a ride. He wakes from unconsciousness in a coffin in Istanbul, pockets full of counterfeit cash. Another gang, not the one that kidnapped him, accosts him and tries to find out what kind of smuggling scheme would send him in the coffin. The original gang then makes its presence known, and Alfred tries with some skill to play one against the other in this gangster farce. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A wealthy French matron drives her captors crazy when she is kidnapped and help for ransom. Mathilde (Jacqueline Maillan) is married to a rich husband of questionable virtue. A dimwitted duo of aspiring crooks get more than they bargained for by the abduction of the woman. A French Air Force pilot is mistaken for a Russian cosmonaut when he accidently hits the eject button on his plane's control panel. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide