Bernard Blier Movies
Born in Argentina to French parents, Bernard Blier studied acting at the Paris conservatory. After a short theatrical career, Blier made his movie bow in 1937's Trois-Six-Neuf. Following World War II service, the prematurely balding Blier became established as something of a "new Raimu", distinguishing himself in an exhausting variety of major character roles. He was awarded an honorary Cesar (the French Oscar) in 1989 for lifetime achievement. Bernard Blier was the father of director Bertrand Blier, and he co-starred in his son's black comedy Buffet Froid (1979) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1964
And Suddenly It's Murder! is a regulation Dino De Laurentiis concoction: Big stars, lavish production values, muddleheaded plot. Three Italian couples go on separate vacations to Monte Carlo. When they open their suitcases, a body tumbles out of one of the grips. The rest of the film is a macabre variation of La Ronde, with the body being transferred from room to room and the innocent being implicated along with the guilty. Among the discomfited tourists are Alberto Sordi, Vittorio Gassman, and Silvana Mangano. Originally released in Italy in 1959 as Crimen, And Suddenly It's Murder! didn't make it to the States until 1964; some English-language prints bear the title Criminals. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Silvana Mangano, Bernard Blier, (more)
- 1963
- NR
Before Greed in the Sun was released to the States by way of MGM, this French/Italian co-production had made the European rounds under the titles 100,000 Dollars au Soleil and Centomilia Dollare al Sol. As any good linguist can gather, the catalyst for this action melodrama is 100,000 dollars---actually 100,000 dollars worth of guns and ammunition, unknowingly transported to African insurrectionists by truck driver Reginald Kernan. Fellow trucker Jean-Paul Belmondo teams with his girlfriend Andrea Parisy to hijack the shipment. Gert Frobe, head of the trucking company, offers Kernan a large reward for the return of the truck and its contents. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Paul Belmondo, Lino Ventura, (more)
- 1989
This tepid actioner is taken from the popular comic strip by Francesco Altan. Ada (Marie Louisa) is the heir who promises her dying father she will look for the son he left behind in Africa 20 years before. Her scheming cousin Nancy (Charley Boorman) tries to get Ada disinherited. Ada runs into several colorful characters -- a homosexual couple who grow tomatoes and sell ivory, a Spanish Civil War veteran, and some nasty Nazis. She also contends with her pretentious Spanish maid Carmen (Victoria Abril) and the handsome native Bumbo (Isaach de Bankole). ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marie Louisa, Richard Bohringer, (more)
- 1951
Noel (Bernard Blier), a grown-up mama's boy, falls heir to a busy matrimonial bureau. Assuming command of the operation, Noel becomes fascinated with the various degrees of loneliness which prompt his clients to seek out his services. As a result, he begins to place his own loneliness and sense of inadequacy in perspective. The supporting characters are drawn in broad strokes, though they never lapse into ridiculous caricatures. Agence Matrimoniale would make a piquant double feature with the Hollywood comedy-drama The Model and the Marriage Broker (1952). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bernard Blier, Michele Alfa, (more)
- 1965
In this comedy anthology, the sex-capades of several Italian couples are chronicled. In "The Scandal," a dull and insensitive husband is unaware that his lonely wife has been flirting with a young buck at a vacation resort. When the husband finally finds out, he gets jealous and the marriage is renewed. In "Sin in the Afternoon," a movie producer is frustrated because his wife refuses to touch him, and so he winds up picking up a comely woman off the street and taking her to a motel. "The Victim" chronicles the relationship between an insanely jealousy woman and her beleaguered husband, whom she drives away. She, seeking revenge, begins an affair with his best friend. In the final episode, "Modern People," a deeply indebted cheese maker is given the option of paying the debt in cash or allowing the debtor an evening of lovemaking with his gorgeous wife. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nino Manfredi, Fulvia Franco, (more)
- 1975
The famed Italian film director Pietro Germi (his sharply observant and satirical films include The Immoralist, and Divorce Italian Style) began work on this comedy, but died before he could do more than write the screenplay. However, he lived long enough to choose Mario Monicelli as his successor. In the story, four friends keep their friendship alive and their Tuscan town lively by means of an endless series of practical jokes and pranks of various sorts. Perozzi (Philippe Noiret) works on the night desk of a newspaper, reporting on crime. Mascetti (Ugo Tognazzi), an aristocrat, has seen better days. They are joined in mischief by Melandri (Gastone Moschin) and Necci (Duilio DelPrete), an architect and a cafe-owner by profession respectively. When the town doctor (Adolfo Celi) manages to outwit the collective efforts of the four, he is soon invited to join their little club. The rhythms of life in a cheerful provincial town are effectively unveiled in this zany and affectionate film. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ugo Tognazzi, Philippe Noiret, (more)
- 1970
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
- Starring:
- Jacqueline Maillan, Dr. Robert Hirsch, (more)
- 1959
In this drama, a Parisian vagabond decides to get himself arrested so he can spend the winter in a warm, cozy jail. Unfortunately his attempts fail until his pal shows him how to steal purebred dogs and then bring them back for a reward. He does well, and decides to winter in the Riviera, but first he must figure out how to keep from getting arrested since another "pal" has ratted on him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Gabin, Darry Cowl, (more)
- 1961
Georges Lautner, a popular French director of comedies and romantic dramas, tries his hand at a war film in this routine tale set in a small French town during the German Occupation. A microcosm of the country as a whole, the town is divided between the resistance fighters and those who turn a blind eye to the occupying forces. The mayor (Bernard Blier) at first appears to be just a leisurely yet effective, middle-aged man who is willing to help people out when the need arises. But as circumstances take a more serious turn, the mayor shows that he is also capable of heroic action. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bernard Blier, Lucille Saint-Simon, (more)
- 1954
The title of this French "reality" drama, which translates to Before the Deluge, is a play on Louis XVI's famous prognostication, "Apres moi, le deluge." Set in 1950, the film concentrates on five Parisian adolescents. Certain that the next war will herald the apocalypse, the youngster make plans to run off to a desert island and set up a new society. This, however, will require money, which is why the boys decide to pull off a "necessary" robbery. Idealism collapses in the face of cold reality, as the five youths suffer from the consequences of their actions. Avant le Deluge was one of a group of films cowritten by director Andre Cayatte and Charles Spaak which endeavored to explore the touchy social issues of the day: others in the Cayatte-Spaak canon include the euthanasia-themed Justice est Faite and the capital-punishment tract Nous sommes tous des assassins. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marina Vlady, Bernard Blier, (more)
- 1966
In this comedy, a hapless fellow's life changes dramatically after he is accidentally (a computer malfunctioned) "playboy of the year," by an international men's journal. The publisher's know it's all a mistake, but decide to turn this regular joe into every woman's fantasy. In true "pygmalion" fashion, the suddenly suave finds himself paraded across Europe and getting his picture taken with the most beautiful women around. Trouble brews when a female reporter learns the truth and tries to decide whether or not to publish the story. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Alexander, Renato Salvatori, (more)
- 1974
In this broad, slapstick crime comedy, a trio of burglars rob the wrong apartment, but decide to hold the inhabitants hostage over the weekend, until they can get to the bank to cash a check written by their captive. Things don't work out smoothly, and they have to flee to the countryside. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1979
- R
Buffet Froid is an absurd black comedy that cunningly reverses the conventions of the crime thriller to comment on the alienating and dehumanizing effects of contemporary urban life. It starts with Alphonse Tram (Gérard Depardieu) discovering that his casual subway acquaintance (Michel Serrault) is lying down with Alphonse's penknife sticking out of his belly. When he tries to report the crime to his neighbor, a police inspector (Bernard Blier), the latter refuses to listen, saying that he is not at work now. Later, Alphonse's wife is killed, and her hapless murderer (Jean Carmet) almost immediately confesses to Alphonse, but neither the husband nor the police inspector seem to be shocked. The three embark on a series of adventures and bizarre encounters in modern Paris. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gérard Depardieu, Bernard Blier, (more)
- 1975
The advertising business is the background for this drama about the struggles between a jaded old-timer (Bernard Blier) and his former employee (Francis Perrin), an idealistic young man who starts his own company and wants somehow to tell the truth about the products he is pushing. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bernard Blier, Francis Perrin, (more)
- 1976
Two middle-aged victims of the war of the sexes, Paul and Albert (Jean-Pierre Marielle and Jean Rochefort) run away from their families at the same time. They indulge themselves by eating what they want to, when and where it pleases them. Trouble finds them in the form of their abandoned wives, and the film moves very much into the realm of symbolic and sexual fantasy from this point onward. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Pierre Marielle, Jean Rochefort, (more)
- 1946
No "story by" credit is bestowed in the 1942 French filmization of Carmen, though its debt to novelist Prosper Merimee and composer George Bizet is more than implicit. Filmed in Spain by a largely French cast and crew, Carmen stars Gallic heartthrob Vivien Romance in the title role, and the equally attractive Jean Marais as Don Jose. Director Christian-Jaque was quite outspoken in his admiration of the western films of John Ford, so it's no surprise that Carmen is staged like a western, with plenty of deep-focus landscape shots of smugglers and soldiers galloping across the horizon. Even the basic story, of Don Jose's dissolution at the hands of the seductive Carmen, lends itself to the western approach, if one thinks of the hero as a federal marshal gone bad through the influence of a clever saloon gal. Carmen received very little play when released in America in 1946, due in part to the 1947 Columbia Technicolor adaptation The Loves of Carmen, which starred Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Viviane Romance, Elli Parvo, (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
- 1965
Marcello Mastroianni portrays the handsome lover Casanova pitted against a thoroughly modern woman. This is a legendary hero often depicted in movies, but this time he is portrayed with a slightly different problem - the only time he's "in the mood" is when he feels that he is in danger. His job as NATO officer offers plenty of opportunity for his sexual arousal problems to be assuaged. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marcello Mastroianni, Michele Mercier, (more)
- 1971
- R
Dick Clement directed this late-in-the-game spy thriller, starring Kirk Douglas. Douglas plays Andrej, a drone that smuggles books out of communist countries. Unfortunately for Andrej, he is mistaken for a spy and gets into a series of convoluted situations. Fabienne (Marlene Jobert), who lives with Sir Trevor Dawson (Trevor Howard), a randy British minister, is the slinky sex-bomb who finagles Andrej into the heart-thumping predicaments. Also on hand is Tom Courtenay as Baxter Clarke, an inept counter-espionage agent, who manages to make Andrej's already bad situation worse. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kirk Douglas, Marlène Jobert, (more)
- 1975
A pair of elderly men, friends for 40 years, find their relationship stressed when they set up housekeeping together in order to save money. Exploring similar ground to that covered in Neil Simon's play The Odd Couple, which spawned a movie and a television series, Ce Cher Victor explores the tragic and dramatic aspects of the story. The two friends, meek, sensitive Anselme (Bernard Blier) and blustering Victor (Jacques Dufilho) are swiftly driven apart by circumstances. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bernard Blier, Jacques Dufilho, (more)
- 1968
Coplan (Claudio Brook) is a free-lance undercover agent who offers his services to the highest bidder. He receives a phone call from an old girlfriend in Turkey imploring him to see her immediately. The panic-stricken woman gives sketchy details of a plot that threatens world security. When Coplan arrives, he is told the woman has been killed, and the trail of the murderer leads to her brother (a mad scientist driven insane by radioactive fallout from a failed experiment). The mad scientist tries to hunt down Coplan with a bow and arrow. Coplan believes he sees his girlfriend alive, or is it her sister? The secret agent uses all of his resources to survive long enough to save the world from the brother's evil plan. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claudio Brook, Margaret Lee, (more)
- 1958
Crime and Punishment is Dostoyevsky's story about the Nietzchean student Raskolnikov, played in this 1958 French film version by Bernard Bleier. Raskolnikov believes himself above such bourgeois concepts as morality and conscience, which leads to his murder of a hateful old woman. A perceptive police inspector (Jean Gabin) wears down Raskolnikov's sociopathic tendencies, until the student--who has a conscience after all--breaks down and confesses. Updated and set in Paris, this adaptation of Crime and Punishment has been released in the US as The Most Dangerous Sin. Other versions of the Dostoyevsky original have starred actors as wildly diverse as Peter Lorre and George Hamilton. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Gabin, Marina Vlady, (more)
