André Valardy Movies

A bittersweet drama covering 30 years in the lives of group of friends and colleagues united by their devotion to the theatre, 30 Ans begins in Paris in 1974, when Aurelian (Laurent Lucas), his girlfriend Barbara (Nathalie Richard), and childhood friend Antoine (Gregori Derangere) form a theatre. Taking the plight of Pinochet's oppressed Chile as its cause, the theatre attracts the involvement of Jeanne (Anne Brochet), a young actress who immediately sparks the attentions of both Aurelian and Antoine, the latter of whom seduces her. When Chilean dissident actor Luis (Hector Noguera) is brought to the theatre by Barbara's diplomat father, Jeanne falls in love with him, and the two carry out an affair that ends when a sudden development causes Jeanne to disappear. Eight years later, Aurelian has a new girlfriend (Julie Depardieu) and is directing a travelling troupe, and Antoine is a high-priced image consultant who gets his old friend a gig at Dunkirk. Aurelian, deeply immersed in a mid-life crisis, still loves Jeanne, continuing to carry a picture of the enigmatic actress in his wallet and writing about her in his diary. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

When Catherine (Nathalie Baye) is caught with her illicit lover by her father-in-law Paul (Michel Serrault), the concerned father leaves to tell his son Thomas (Francois Dunoyer) about the incident. Paul is injured in an auto accident and returns home in a wheelchair unable to speak. Catherine's guilt weighs heavily on her as she hopes to never let Thomas know she was unfaithful. She panics and seeks a way to eliminate Paul in this psychological thriller. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In this farcical look at a female detective/mystery story writer, Cathy Palmer (JoBeth Williams) is an ordinary housewife living in Ohio with a condescending husband who is far from ideal. When Cathy wins a writing contest and has the chance to go to Paris and meet the author of the romance novels she loves, her husband tries to prevent the trip. In the end, Cathy's interests prevail, though her husband still refuses to go with her. After arriving in Paris, Cathy is knocked down by a car and wakes up in the hospital with all memory of her past life erased. In its place, she believes she is Rebecca Ryan, the heroine in the romance novels she has read. Carrying her unconscious role to the hilt, she dresses in elegant clothes and meets the comically rattled Alan McMann (Tom Conti) who becomes her partner, of sorts. Little does she know that Alan is not Rebecca's secretary, but the actual ghost writer of the Ryan novels. Cathy begins to suspect that villains are lurking everywhere, and her intuition in that regard is unerring -- she has doubts about the klutzy leader of the French opposition party (Giancarlo Giannini), and it turns out her doubts are well-founded. As the plot thickens, it becomes apparent that sooner or later Cathy-cum-Rebecca will have to realize the truth about her identity, but in the meantime, much skullduggery awaits. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

A man is left grieving for his dead family after they were shot down in a train station, innocent bystanders to a robbery gone wrong. They were never vindicated since the police seem unable (if not reluctant) to solve the case. Driven in part because he survived and they did not, and frustrated with the inept police, the man starts his own investigation with the aid of a right-wing organization that advocates citizens' militias. He discovers that a woman who also survived the train-station massacre has a brother with blood on his hands -- he is clearly the mastermind behind the "robbery" killings -- staged to effect the politically-motivated assassination of one particular man. He and the woman join ranks to bring the brother to justice, but soon they themselves are being hunted down because they know too much. The right-wing group comes on the scene again, catalyzing a final showdown that seems inevitable from the beginning. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Elements of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream are mixed with a few doses of Bell, Book and Candle in the French Rendez-Moi Ma Peau. A contemporary witch decides to switch the personalities of two wildly divergent mortals. The comic complications involve the "uptight" character's attempts to adapt to a freewheeling lifestyle, and vice versa. Some potent satirical points are made, but for the most part we're in this for the laughs, and nothing but the laughs. Director Patrick Schulmann doubled as the film's screenwriter, then trebled as musical composer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this family comedy, Papa (Claude Brasseur) has no end of trouble getting his young son to accept his new girlfriend. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Proof of the success of French filmmaker Edouard Molinaro is the fact that several of his home-grown hits have been remade as American films. The most recent example of this is 1996's The Birdcage, a highly profitable reworking of Molinaro's La Cage aux Folles (1978). The director's 1973 comedy A Pain in the A... also went the Cage aux Folles route of enjoying worldwide popularity, then undergoing an Americanization process. In the Molinaro original, Lino Ventura plays a friendless hit man who holes up in an Italian hotel room, awaiting the opportunity to knock off his target, a mob witness. No sooner has Ventura drawn a bead on his would-be victim than he is interrupted by the comically suicidal Jacques Brel, who wants to jump from the open window in the assassin's room. The banter and byplay between Ventura and Brel is priceless, especially when veering towards the "sick" humor that Molinaro handles so well. Based on a play by Francis Veber, Pain in the A... was remade by Billy Wilder as Buddy Buddy (1978), with Walter Matthau as the hit man and Jack Lemmon as his unexpected guest. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide