Michel Blanc Movies
One of his country's most popular and prolific funnymen, French actor, comedian, writer, and director Michel Blanc has made a career out of turning the mundane into the sublime. Short, bald, and bearing unremarkable features, Blanc derives his charisma from his presence as a performer who is equally adept at portraying the extremes of comic excess or psychological drama, the latter of which he demonstrated with particular aplomb in Monsieur Hire.Born in Paris on June 16, 1952, Blanc did his secondary studies at the Pasteur school in Neuilly. It was there that he became acquainted with Josiane Balasko, Thierry Lhermitte, Christian Clavier, Gérard Jugnot, and Marie-Anne Chazel, with whom he would form the legendary comedy troupe Le Splendid. In addition to performing a number of shows, the group also collaborated onscreen, their most notable effort being the farce Les Bronzés (1978). The film and its sequel Les Bronzés Font du Ski (1979), proved to be hugely successful in France -- and were two of the country's most domestically profitable films to date.
Blanc broke into film in 1973 and had his first memorable role alongside fellow-Splendid Thierry Lhermitte in Bertrand Tavernier's 1975 period drama Que La Fête Commence.... He had film breakthrough in 1984 with his directorial debut, Marche a l'ombre, a light drama in which he starred as a man who is forced to deal with sudden unemployment. The film proved to be surprisingly popular in France, and Blanc's profile was further heightened two years later when director Bertrand Blier asked him to replace the recently deceased Patrick Dewaere to star opposite Gérard Depardieu in Tenue de Soirée. Blanc earned the Best Actor prize at Cannes for his portrayal of a nebbish husband who is seduced by a thuggish burglar (Depardieu).
The actor broke out of the comedy mold in 1989 when he was cast as the eponymous protagonist of Patrice Leconte's brilliant psychological drama Monsieur Hire. Blanc earned considerable praise for his portrayal of a lonely, withdrawn murder suspect, and he duly established himself as one of the relatively few comedic actors to make a successful transition to drama. After further work in a number of comedies, as well as collaborations with Claude Berri (Uranus, 1990), Peter Greenaway (Prospero's Books, 1991), and Blier (Merci, La Vie, 1991), Blanc returned to the director's chair in 1994 with Grosse Fatigue. A biting comedy about the French entertainment industry that also featured Blanc in the lead role of an emotionally exhausted actor, the film was a financial and critical success in France, and the actor-director earned a prize at that year's Cannes Festival for his original screenplay. As a director, he followed up Grosse Fatigue with a return to the arena of psychological drama with Mauvaise Passe (1999). The story concerned a down-on-his-luck expatriate Frenchman living in London -- who becomes caught up in the prostitution industry; it featured a strong cast that included Daniel Auteuil, Stuart Townsend, and Peter Mullan. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- 1973
Unable to put a single word on paper, a youngish man with one novel to his credit finds that his life is crumbling to ruins around him because of his severe case of writer's block. He tries every remedy known to man and makes up a few new ones in this comedy. All his efforts are futile: he loses his girlfriend and his apartment and has a succession of misadventures until finally, homeless and hospitalized, he rediscovers his inspiration. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bernadette Lafont, Jean-François Stévenin, (more)
The humanistic actions of Philippe D'Orleans, the cultured gentle regent to young Louis the XV in pre-revolutionary France (1719) are chronicled in this French costumer. Though the regent endeavors to keep his subjects cultured and happy to stop the peasants from rising up, he knows he has no real royal authority. To assist, D'Orleans enlisted the aid of a priest, who unfortunately cared nothing for his God, nor anyone but himself. The regent becomes distraught after his daughter, with whom he has been accused of committing incest, dies. His natural idealism is also shaken when he must execute a band of revolutionaries. True joy will only be found when the peasants successfully overthrow the aristocrats who held them down so long. The film's soundtrack features the music of the real Phillippe D'Orleans. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Philippe Noiret, Jean Rochefort, (more)
- 1975
Two men are driving a refuse truck to a dump site and stop for a hamburger. Krassky (Joe Dallesandro), one of the two, strikes an acquaintance with Johnny (Jane Birkin), the girl who works in the restaurant. They swiftly become lovers. However, Krassky is basically a homosexual, and must consummate their lovemaking in a slightly unusual way. His fellow truck-driver, Padovan (Hugues Quester), is also his lover. Padovan is intensely jealous, and attempts to kill Johnny. When Krassky fails to defend her, Johnny berates him, and he and Padovan resume their journey together. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jane Birkin, Joe Dallesandro, (more)
Director Roman Polanski casts himself in the lead of the psychological thriller The Tenant. Trelkovsky (Polanski) rents an apartment in a spooky old residential building, where his neighbors -- mostly old recluses -- eye him with suspicious contempt. Upon discovering that the apartment's previous tenant, a beautiful young woman, jumped from the window in a suicide attempt, Trelkovsky begins obsessing over the dead woman. Growing increasingly paranoid, Trelkovsky convinces himself that his neighbors plan to kill him. He even comes to the conclusion that Stella (Isabel Adjani), the woman he has fallen in love with, is in on the "plot." Ultimately, Polanski assumes the identity of the suicide victim -- and inherits her self-destructive urges. Some critics found the movie tedious and overdone; others compared it to Polanski's early breakthrough, Repulsion. The film was based on Le Locataire Chimerique, a novel by Roland Topor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roman Polanski, Isabelle Adjani, (more)
Also known as The Best Way to Walk, this film was originally released in France as La Meilleure Façon de Marcher. It was the first feature-length effort of François Truffaut associate/disciple Claude Miller. Patrick Dewaere and Patrick Bouchitey head the cast as a pair of teenage summer-camp counselors. Despite their late-adolescent rivalries and sexual confusion, each of them achieves some sort of awakening. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick Dewaere, Patrick Bouchitey, (more)
- 1977
In this satire, Coluche plays an inept king of France who is continually in danger of overthrow or murder by his scheming court and is kept on the throne by the efforts of his Musketeers, who also serve by wringing extra taxes out of the already hard-pressed population. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Coluche, Dominique Lavanant, (more)
- 1978
L'Adolescente (The Adolescent) was the second directorial stint for French film star Jeanne Moreau. This possibly autobiographical piece is set during the early war years. Laetitia Chauveau plays a twelve-year old girl whose future is determined by the events of one long summer holiday in the country in the period just before the outbreak of the Second World War. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laetitia Chauveau, Simone Signoret, (more)
- 1978
- R
Six vacationers from France find themselves on the sunny shores of Africa in a vacation village where organized fun is the order of the day. Spoofing such faddish getaways as "Club Med," the story focuses on the trials of a married couple who can't quite live up to their ideals of an "open" marriage, an overweight man who insists on trying to ski, a bore who cannot be gotten rid of, and a variety of small-time womanizers. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Josiane Balasko, Michel Blanc, (more)
- 1979
Michel Serrault plays a double role in this lighthearted comedy. An ineffectual actor is called on to portray his look-alike cousin, a prominent politician who is driven into hiding after he learns of an assassination plot. Jean Poiret plays the political consultant who recruits the uncured ham for the role of his life. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Serrault, Jean Poiret, (more)
- 1980
Based on a popular novel by Pierre-Jakez Helias, Horse of Pride is set in a hardscrabble peasant community in Brittany. Covering the years 1908 through 1918, the film concentrates on the lives, customs and aspirations of the community's populace. The visuals are complemented not by dialogue but by "voice of God" narration. This is a wise stylistic choice, since the central theme of the film is the perpetuation of Brittany's culture via oral, rather than written, history. Horse of Pride is an unusually straightforward effort from the normally ultrastylistic director Claude Chabrol. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jacques Dufilho, Bernadette Lesache, (more)
- 1980
Rien ne va plus, by director Jean-Michel Ribes, is a series of comedy sketches of disparate quality, on the social, cultural, and political foibles that make the French, French. Various settings and character types are given a once-over, including pseudo-intellectuals, punk bikers, right-wingers, and patrons of a low-end cafe. Some of the skits seem to revolve around a good idea, but when the script and dialogue have to deliver, the idea tends to deflate before being realized. Comics Jacques Villeret and Roland Blanche are among the actors featured here. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jacques Villeret, Eva Darlan, (more)
- 1981
Based on a successful cabaret theater play, Come to my Place, I'm Living with my Girlfriend features Guy (Michel Blanc) as a carefree and morally challenged gas station attendant suddenly in need of a place to live. It seems his boss caught him trying to cheat his customers, and Guy was thrown out on his ear. He saves the day for himself by wheedling his way into the good graces of two friends, Daniel (Bernard Girardeau) and Francoise (Therese Liotard), a young couple who are easy-going and willing to share their apartment with him "for a few days." The "few days" turn into week after week, as Guy connives to stretch out his good fortune as far as he can. Acting as though his welcome will never wear out, he further strains the relationship with Francoise and Daniel by entertaining a series of girlfriends - for whom he has an undying passion. His antics begin to short-circuit the happy relationship that Daniel and Francoise have always enjoyed, and sooner or later, the problem of "Guy" will have to be resolved before fuses are blown for good. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bernard Giraudeau, Michel Blanc, (more)
- 1981
Two single, quiet, and physically plain neighbors in an apartment building meet each other and strike up a friendship - something they both had needed for a long time. As their relationship begins to convert into a romantic pairing, the two go ahead and become lovers. Although that seemed to be the ultimate expression of their feelings, the couple start to question whether or not they were happier sharing their original, unfettered friendship -- and reconsider their options. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Blanc, Anémone, (more)
- 1981
The pain of writer's block is examined in this drama that centers around the daily anxieties of a frustrated writer who can't. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1982
Three workers in a social services office on Christmas Eve find themselves the center of a vortex of rag-tag humanity that all need their professional help, and more. Their visit from Santa Claus does not involve a trip down a chimney, but a walk-in by a somewhat derelict, irascible St. Nick hunting for the unfortunate Mrs. Nick, whose girth is wider than her husband's because she's carrying the future little Nick or Nicola -- she also has a sack, given that she is a bag lady, and she herself is in need of an orthodontist. This unusual couple is complemented by other characters in need of assistance, including a woefully abject transvestite and one character who no longer needs assistance because corpses are pretty much beyond help. Events conspire to bring everyone to the zoo, a fitting place for the cast of eccentrics, social workers not excluded. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Josiane Balasko, Anémone, (more)
- 1983
In a comedy that is dead-in-the-water, a disconnected series of events serves as a framework for Jerry Lewis to put on his stock-in-trade mugging act. He plays a Las Vegas policeman visiting his ex-wife in France, only to be caught up in the shenanigans of a group of art thieves. His ex-wife has remarried and her husband is undercover among the art thieves, carrying out an assignment given him by his superiors in the police force. Inevitably, the current husband and the ex-husband are bound to clash. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jerry Lewis, Michel Blanc, (more)
- 1983
This routine farce is about a lowly police inspector who falls for a sophisticated woman, unaware that she is involved in fencing stolen art. He pursues her with undying diligence until they finally get together -- but by that time they are on the wrong side of the law and in trouble. As usual with director Patrice Leconte, Michel Blanc plays the lead. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jane Birkin, Michel Blanc, (more)
- 1983
In this uneven take-off on some reluctant resistance fighters in World War II, a family of musicians find themselves the unwilling hosts of a segment of the German High Command when their Paris mansion is taken over by the occupying forces. What happens next is a series of individual skits, cameo appearances, and zany interludes that are not necessarily as strung together as they are strung out. Characters include: Adolph Hitler's melodious half-brother whose singing style is hilariously close to that of Julio Iglesias, a "good" German officer, stereotypical of any of those found in post-World War II movies, and a woman who provides the comedy in a 1970s television talk show when she expounds on what really happened in the Paris villa back when. It is the acting which carries the day for this film, more than the actual script or cinematic development. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christian Clavier, Michel Galabru, (more)
- 1984
The film tells the tale of the adolescent son of two wealthy socialites who have left him home alone while they go out on the town. At home, the boy begins a series of wild daydreams. He finds himself aboard an elevator that takes him through the Earth and onto another planet. There he finds the "Nautilus," Captain Nemo's submarine. He also finds Nemo's ape/man assistant. Together they begin a series of spectacular adventures. They encounter many storybook characters along the way. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Seth Kibel, Jason Connery, (more)
- 1984
In this standard, light drama about two friends adjusting to change, François (Gérard Lanvin) and his side-kick Denis (Michel Blanc) come back to Paris from the Mediterranean only to find that the jobs they had been promised are illusory -- now they must survive however they can. The two go to live among some African squatters, and since they cannot get a legitimate job, they get an illegal one -- transporting stolen goods. Even that proves to be short-lived once they are caught, and so they make plans to go to New York and look for Mathilde (Sophie Duez), the dancer who has captured François's heart. Although the storyline is weak and the protagonists' friendship uncharted territory, this film is entertaining and did quite well when first released in France. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gérard Lanvin, Michel Blanc, (more)
Menage begins as a comedy of sorts, but be warned: it develops into a very dark, very confusing probe into the seamier aspects of Parisian life. Gerard Depardieu plays a crude but charismatic thief, whose own gayness does not prevent his commiserating with those of the opposite sex. Miou-Miou and Michel Blanc are young, impoverished lovers who fall under Depardieu's influence. He gains their confidence by introducing them to kinky sex, then sucks them into a vortex of crime. Director Bertrand Blier, who in most of his films has explored the awesome power (rather than pleasure) of sex, nearly outdoes himself in Menage (aka Tenue de Soiree). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gérard Depardieu, Michel Blanc, (more)
