Jean Topart Movies
- 2000
The son of actor Bernard Blier, director Bertrand Blier is known throughout France for his documentaries and dark depictions of sex and its impact on society. Though his influences and personal opinions clearly shine through, Les Acteurs is a satirical take on the ups, downs, and numerous implications of life in showbiz as told by a variety of real-life French actors. Among the featured cast are André Dussollier, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Jacques Villeret, Claude Rich, and Pierre Arditi, all of whom play themselves. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- André Dussollier, Jean-Pierre Marielle, (more)
In a routine murder mystery based on a novel by Dominique Roulet, a cruel, wheelchair-bound invalid (Stephane Audran) who consistently terrorizes her teen son Louis (Lucas Belvaux) into abject obedience, is threatened with the loss of her home by a conniving trio who want her property as part of a deal for a lucrative development project. The three men are comprised of a butcher (Jean-Claude Bouillaud), a doctor (Jean Topart), and a notary (Michel Bouquet). Louis is a postal worker who is fending off the attentions of Henriette at the office (Pauline Lafont), and brings his mother all the mail scheduled for their trio of enemies, whereupon she steams it open and keeps herself informed about their plans. In retaliation for their attempts to seize his home, young Louis pours sugar into the butcher's gas tank which ultimately causes a fatal accident, and in fact, the doctor's wife has also died in a car accident. And now the notary's mistress is missing. Enter, at last, the imperious and heavy-handed Inspector Jean Lavardin (Jean Poiret) to finally go after the clues and the suspects until the case is solved. He succeeds admirably, and as a consequence, appears on his own in 1985's Inspector Lavardin. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Poiret, Stéphane Audran, (more)
- 1975
Adolescence and sexuality hits Daniel (Louis Julien) particularly hard, and the romantic hypocrisy of the adult world nearly drives him to distraction. He drops out of school, sponges off his father (Michel Aumont), who has divorced his mother, and has a brief romance with an older woman, an actress (Nathalie Roussel). When she is revealed to him as the opportunistic hussy she is, he goes home to attempt suicide. His mother (Joelle Bernard), who has been having problems of her own, comes upon him just as the attempt fails, and the two of them find themselves laughing at their problems. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louis Julien, Nathalie Roussel, (more)
From Dr. No director Terence Young comes this action thriller starring Charles Bronson as Joe Moran, an ex-con whose old gang of drug dealers has just been released from prison. When it turns out the thugs have been holding a grudge against him, they kidnap Moran's wife, played by Liv Ullmann. In order to get her back and get his revenge, Moran is forced to take on the whole crew by himself. Written by Albert Simonin and Shimon Wincelberg, Cold Sweat was based on the novel Ride the Nightmare by Twilight Zone scribe Richard Matheson. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Bronson, Liv Ullmann, (more)
- 1969
In this thrilling mystery of mistaken identity, Jacques (Pierre Vaneck) is a piano player in a nightclub who is approached by a man he never met before. The stranger offers him a job posing as the husband of a mentally challenged woman. He will be rewarded for taking care of the woman. Since his contract has expired at the club, he readily accepts the proposition. The stranger turns out to be the valet of the woman, who other than playing with decapitated dolls, seems quite normal. Jacques and the woman end up falling in love. He looks just like her husband who disappeared during an African safari. It turns out the missing man is a former Nazi hiding out from the international police. Soon agents converge on the house along with the man who had supposedly vanished, leading to an inevitable showdown. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierre Vaneck, Elsa Martinelli, (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)
- 1967
Originally titled Le Soleil des Voyous, Action Man teams two veteran international film stars: France's Jean Gabin and America's Robert Stack. Gabin plays an ex-criminal, now reformed and ensconsed in a respectable executive job. Stack plays an unreconstituted crook who wants to inveigle Gabin into one last caper. The crime goes off like clockwork, but drug dealers who want a piece of the action kidnap Gabin's wife Suzanne Flon and hold her for ransom. Stack ends up sacrificing his own life to save those of Gabin and Flon. Based on a novel by J. M. Flynn Action Man is the sort of bread-and-butter fare that director Jean Delannoy, famed for his earlier spiritual classics La Symphonie Pastorale (1946), Le Jeux Sons Faits (1947) and Diary of a Country Priest (1950), dealt with in his twilight years. In certain gamier markets, Action Man was released as Leather and Nylon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Gabin, Robert Stack, (more)
- 1966
Michele Mercier, leading lady of many a quasi-erotic Angelique film, stars in the French Black Sun. This time Mercier plays a young Gallic heiress. She's in Algeria, looking for her long-lost brother. She's not looking for danger, but that's what comes her way from every nook and cranny. Valentina Cortese costars. Before it became an American Late Late Show mainstay, Black Sun was known as Soleil noir. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michele Mercier, Daniel Gélin, (more)
- 1964
Gerard Barray heads the cast of the French swashbuckler Clash of Steel. Upon being ejected from his throne, King Henry of Navarre plots to regain his power. Upon this slight plot peg hangs a tapestry of fantastic swordplay and elaborate battle sequences. The film's 79-minute running time indicates that some of the racier scenes were lost in transit to American theatres. Italian leading-lady Giana Maria Canale provides the well-upholstered love interest. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1959
Also known as Experiment in Evil, Jean Renoir's Testament of Dr. Cordelier was originally produced for French television. This retelling of the Jeckyll-Hyde legend adheres to Renoir's long-standing leitmotif of the individual who must stand alone because he is incapable of conforming. The original Robert Louis Stevenson story is updated, making several pointed comments about the good-evil dichotomy of the modern world. One problem: by utilizing the standard live-TV multicamera technique, Renoir is never able to impose his own high artistic standards. Telecast in France in 1961, Testament of Dr. Cordelier was never released theatrically in the US, though in recent years it has been made available on videocassette. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Louis Barrault, Jean Topart, (more)
