Charles Vanel Movies

Charles (Charles Vanel) is a 100-year-old perfume magnate who decides to marry the equally ancient Emmanuelle (Denis Grey) in the French sex comedy. Company executives and family members scramble for position in the wake of the surprising announcement. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Val Brosse (Bruno Cremer) is a private eye gets who gets involved with Francoise (Catherine Alric) and what seems to be the murder of a wealthy old man, Mathieu (Charles Vanel). The story develops along the lines of romance and intrigue, until both threads are woven into a final denouement. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Director Francesco Rosi earned a Best Foreign Film Academy Award nomination for his drama Tre Fratelli (Three Brothers), an adaptation of a work by Andrei Platonov. When the matriarch of an Italian family dies, the husband brings his three boys, each of whom are facing difficult personal problems, back to their farmhouse. Raffaele (Philippe Noiret) is a judge who fears being executed over the politically unsettling case over which he is presiding. Rocco (Vittorio Mezzogiorno) is quite religious and dreams of helping troubled teenagers. Nicola (Michele Placido) is a worker involved in a labor dispute as well as a failed marriage. Each of the men grieves in his own way, while also wrestling with the other emotional issues that are pressing on them. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

While leaving her husband, whom she now detests, Alice (Sylvia Kristel) drives into the countryside but must stop at an old house when her windshield cracks mysteriously. She is received at the house as if expected, and spends the night there while her car is being fixed. The next day, she cannot find the highway she turned off of, and returns again to the old house where a young man tells her she must "accept things." Once more she leaves, only to encounter a peasant wedding which is frighteningly boisterous and bawdy, whereupon her windshield breaks again. She returns to the mansion for the last time, where the truth is finally made apparent to her. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Alain Delon stars in this French/Italian prison-break film. When his son is falsely imprisoned, Delon contrives to bust the boy out. As the title indicates, what comes around goes around in this tense programmer. Delon also cowrote and co-produced. The film was released in Europe as Comme Un Boomerang. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Francesco Rosi utilizes the breathtakingly beautiful Italian landscape in an unspecified Italian city to hatch this mystery film involving murder and corruption in high places. As the film begins, a well-known prosecutor is killed. The murder turns out to be the first in a series of murders -- and all the victims are judges. With Italy lapsing into chaos because of the crimes, the craggy and careworn Inspector Rogas (Lino Ventura) is brought in to solve the murders. Rogas thinks that a man, sent to prison for a crime he didn't commit, is the person responsible for the killings. But when Rogas reports that fact to his superiors, they want nothing to do with the case. When more killings occur, Rogas uncovers a plot involving his superiors who are using one man's revenge murder as a ploy in order to affect nefarious changes on the entire country. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

A youngish sales employee of a computer firm is blackmailed into helping a group of mysterious Bulgarian industrialists who have come to his office. A government contract is being sought for a businessman who is in danger of bankruptcy. This is the first movie feature by French television director Michel Mitrani. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

An artist grows hateful of commercial demands on his questionable talents when his friend and artist commits suicide. He puts the blame for his friend's death on an art critic and a shady art dealer. He is able to take out his frustrations on the pretentious critic at a party. When an elderly man moves into the boarding house, he brings a machine he invented that can make people realize their subconscious dreams. Hoodlums break in and steal the machine, telling the old man that the young artist is also involved in the crime. This leads to the older man's death and puts more pressure on the artist's already fragile mental state. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

A young female film editor specializes in discovering why other women degrade themselves in pornography and prostitution. She has a relationship with a boring artist, and her life is uneventful until she encounters an older, more worldly art dealer. The man shows her his photographs and she is mesmerized by a picture of a naked woman in chains. The man tries to hide the photo, but she is insistent on seeing it. The man admits this is how he gets aroused, by taking pictures of the bound beauties. The woman asks to come to a photo session where she is repulsed and intrigued at the same time. She leaves, but later returns to the man at his office and becomes hooked on his sadomasochistic voyeurism and begs to become the next model for his camera in the upcoming photo session. He brings in another woman and the session degenerates into a lesbian love fest that the man eagerly captures on film. Shamed, debased and degraded, she pulls her car onto a train track and contemplates her demise. Injured but not dead, she is straddled in her hospital bed when the man comes to visit. She goes into a psychedelic hallucination dream sequence in which her sexual escapades flash before her eyes as the man and her artist boyfriend engage in fisticuffs. Yikes! ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

In this WW II drama, twelve captured French soldiers await their impending executions in a German prison camp. Fortunately, a wily resistance fighter and his men come to rescue the ill-fated dozen. The rescue attempt succeeds, but the rebels become worried when they discover a thirteenth prisoner who has come with the others. This fellow carries no ID, and now the fighters must decide whether he should die on the spot or continue on with the others. One of the group members votes for immediate execution. Later the stranger accompanies the group on a raid and ends up nearly sacrificing his life to save a child from being shot. The rebel leader is not impressed and orders that one of the men kill the stranger down by the river. The dutiful soldier listens to the stranger who tells him the truth: he is a deserter and a fervent pacifist. The soldier allows the deserter to escape. That night the stranger returns and tries to warn the rebels of a Nazi ambush. The group leader heads off to warn the others, but he is too late and they are all recaptured. Later all but the pacifist are hanged. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this espionage drama, international spies stalk a German scientist in possession of important information about a rocket re-entry project. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

When young girls continue to disappear from a small, snowbound village, the police sent an officer out to investigate. The officer is approached by a retired government worker who contends the killer is probably someone like themselves. The old man theorizes the murderer kills out of extreme boredom just to liven things up. The policeman follows the clues that lead to the old man. After he kills the old man, the officer is overtaken by the same urge to kill that plagued his adversary. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi