Michel Bouquet Movies
Putting his plans for a medical career in abeyance to work as a baker and bank clerk, Paris-born Michel Bouquet began taking acting lessons during the war years. Firmly established as a stage performer, Bouquet made his first film, Monsieur Vincent, in 1947. Years of slugging away in secondary film roles paid off when, in the early 1960s, Bouquet was "rediscovered" by such New Wave filmmakers as Francois Truffault. Claude Chabrol. Michel Bouquet has become a favorite purveyor of complex character roles in Truffault's The Bride Wore Black (1967) and Mississippi Mermaid (1969), and in Chabrol's La Femme Infidele (1969), Just Before Nightfall (1971) and Cop Au Vin (1985) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Pierre Fresnay stars as St. Vincent De Paul in this reverent but realistic French biopic. The film traces "Monsieur Vincent's" progress from his days of forced servitude in Algiers to his entry into the priesthood, culminating with his Herculean efforts on behalf of the ill and destitute in early 17th-century France. Featured in the huge cast are Aime Clairimond as Cardinal de Richelieu and Germaine Dermoz as Queen Anne of Austria. Made under the most trying of conditions over a two-year period, Monsieur Vincent remains the chef d'ouevre of director Maurice Cloche. The film won France's Grand Prix award in 1947, and the following year was honored with Hollywood's "best foreign picture" Oscar. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierre Fresnay, Lise Delamare, (more)
- 1949
In the traditions of Jean Renoir and Jean Cocteau, Pattes Blanches is a heady mixture of stark realism and fairytale artifice. The title translates to "white spats", said spats being worn constantly by the wealthy, eccentric Fernand Ledoux. Already an object of derision from the villagers, Ledoux is in danger of physical assault when he begins making advances towards the girl friend of the town's saloon keeper. The lady in question is played by Suzy Delair, a vibrant actress who (as proven in this film) should not be judged by her lackluster performance in Laurel and Hardy's Utopia (1951). Pattes Blanches is a freeflowing adaptation of a play by Jean Anouilh. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernand Ledoux, Suzy Delair, (more)
- 1952
The short stories of Guy de Maupassant enjoyed a renaissance in the early 1950s, thanks in great part to the Max Ophuls production Le Plaisir. In Trois Femmes, three De Maupassant stories are dramatized, each conveying the central theme of women falling in love. In the first, a black female carnival entertainer causes an uproar when she falls in love with a white soldier. In the second, a young bride is pressured into having a baby to collect a huge inheritance. And in the final episode, a pregnant girl is "adopted" and protected by a small circle of friends. In standard De Maupassant fashion, each of the three stories in Trois Femmes is capped by a surprise twist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jacques Duby, René Lefèvre, (more)
Night and Fog represents the peak of director Alain Resnais' activities as a short-subject filmmaker. Framed as a documentary, the film is an unsettling view of life inside the Nazi concentration camps of World War II. As he would in his later features (Hiroshima Mon Amour, Last Year at Marienbad et. al.) Resnais toys with chronology, with memory becoming present reality and vice versa at several critical junctures. Jean Cayrol, later responsible for the script of Resnais' Muriel (1962), wrote the narration for Night and Fog. The film was originally released in France as Nuit et Brouillard. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1959
Feeling hamstrung and confined by Hollywood, writer/director Robert Siodmak returned to Europe to make most of his latter-day films. Produced in France, Magnificent Sinner stars Curt Jurgens as Czar Alexander II, with Romy Schneider as schoolgirl Katja. The Czar takes Katja as his mistress, elevating her to princess status. The romance leads to court intrigue, and is instrumental in Alexander's ultimate assassination. Magnificent Sinner was originally released as Katia; it was a remake of a 1938 French film of the same name, which starred Danielle Darieaux. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Romy Schneider, Curd Jürgens, (more)
- 1964
Jean Delannoy's This Special Friendship (Les Amities partculieres) is set in a boy's boarding school of the early 1930s. Two of the students, Francis Lacombrade and Francois Leccia, become close friends. Lacombrade has definite ideas concerning homosexuality: he's dead set against it, and is willing to blow the whistle on anyone whom he suspects to be "different." When Lacombrade himself comes out of the closet, as it were, the loyal Leccia arranges for the private meetings between Lacombrade and his vis-a-vis Didier Haudepin. Michel Bouquet, a young priest assigned to teach at the school, begins to suspect that something "unnatural" is going on, whereupon Leccia defensively spreads the rumor that Bouquet is himself fooling around with some of the students. Dismissed from the school, Bouquet has a heart-to-heart with Lacombrade about being too judgmental. Torn about by indecision and conflicting emotions, Lacombrade chooses the most drastic means of solving his own sexual ambiguity. Based on a novel by Les Amities Particulaires, This Special Friendship was considered controversial enough in 1964 to be held from American release for nearly three years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Didier Haudepin, Francis Lacombrade, (more)
- 1965
Tigre (Roger Hanin) is a French undercover agent sent to stop ex-Nazis in their attempt to take over Latin America. He is captured and flogged by henchmen for the group who assist in political revolutions with men and money. Marilyn Monroe-clone Margaret Lee co-stars in this routine spy thriller with plenty of violent fights and comic-book style action. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roger Hanin, Roger Dumas, (more)
- 1965
When a French secret agent is set the task of securing a shipment of sunken gold somewhere off Martinique, he finds that he first must outwit a band of rebels who are also after it. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- 1967
Lamiel (Anna Karina) is a poor orphan girl who climbs her way to the social elite in this 19th-century costume drama. A doctor (Michel Bouquet) lives vicariously through Anna as he oversees the progress of his female protégé. Lamiel finds love with a young thief who steals into her bedroom after her marriage to a penniless count (Jean-Clause Brialy), and the two experience a romantic rendezvous of forbidden love after Lamiel goes from being a poor peasant woman to living a life of comparative luxury. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Karina, Jean-Claude Brialy, (more)
In this complex spy-thriller, the US radar installations in Greece are suddenly jammed and a NATO security agent is killed. The prime suspect is his own wife, who is innocent. She investigates on her own to prove it and ends up entangled in an espionage conspiracy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maurice Ronet, Jean Seberg, (more)
This Francois Truffaut thriller is based ona novel by William Irish (aka Cornell Woolrich), whose books had been adapted by Alfred Hitchcock on many previous occasions. Jeanne Moreau stars as a woman whose fiancé is nastily murdered by five men. Utilizing a series of disguises, the cool-customer Moreau tracks down all five culprits, sexually enslaves them, and then engineers their deaths. The ominous musical score was written by Bernard Herrmann, another frequent Hitchcock collaborator. The Bride Wore Black was initially released in France as La Mariee etait en Noir. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeanne Moreau, Claude Rich, (more)
Stéphane Audran plays the title character, Hélène Desvallées, the bored wife of insurance executive Charles Desvallées (Michel Bouquet). Charles suspects Hélène of playing the field, so he has a private detective locate his wife's lover, author Victor Pegala (Maurice Ronet). Confronting Victor, Charles tries to adopt an air of indifference, but the conversation ends with the husband bludgeoning the author to death and then calmly disposing of the evidence. When Hélène is questioned about Victor's murder, she discovers on her own that her husband is guilty. Instead of turning him in, Hélène is so thrilled that Charles cares so deeply about her that she is more in love with him than ever before. The Unfaithful Wife was directed by Claude Chabrol, the then real-life husband of leading lady Stéphane Audran. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stéphane Audran, Michel Bouquet, (more)
A rare mid-career flop for director François Truffaut when it was released, Mississippi Mermaid has become a cult favorite, thanks in part to the availability of the original French version, which added 13 minutes to the U.S. release running time. Adapted from a story by William Irish, it's a noirish tale of a man who orders a mail-order bride but receives instead a con woman. Louis Mahe (Jean-Paul Belmondo) owns a tobacco factory on the remote Indian Ocean island of Reunion. His bride, Julie Roussel (Catherine Deneuve), looks nothing like the photo she sent him, but she explains that she had forwarded a picture of a friend instead. After Louis allows Julie access to both his personal and company bank accounts, she disappears with most of his fortune. Heartbroken and bitter, he takes a holiday in the south of France and improbably spots "Julie" on a TV news story. When he tracks her down, she reveals her real name, Marion, and how she and her con-man boyfriend, Richard, had intercepted the real Julie on the boat Mississippi that was headed for Reunion. Richard threw Julie off the ship and Marion assumed her identity, but once the two thieves returned to France, Richard made off with the money. Marion professes that she fell in love with Louis, and he believes her. They try to make a life together in France, but a private detective whom Louis and Julie's sister, Berthe, had hired to find Marion, tracks them down to a house they have rented in Aix en Provence, forcing them to go on the run. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Paul Belmondo, Catherine Deneuve, (more)
- 1969
This film documentary of Paris combines the earliest known photography with modern color. Famous personalities that have lived and worked in the city of lights will be more familiar to Parisian viewers. Jean-Paul Belmondo narrates the feature throughout. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Paul Belmondo
- 1970
- R
Based on a Eugene Saccomano novel entitled The Bandits of Marseilles, this movie was followed by a sequel entitled Borsalino and Co. This movie captures the mood of 1930 Marseilles beautifully with the use of ambience and music. Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo portray two gangsters who kill their way to the top. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alain Delon, Jean-Paul Belmondo, (more)
Based on a novel by Charlotte Armstrong, the story concerns Helene (Stephane Audran), the wife of a hopeless would-be writer and drug addict. Her husband's best friend tries to lay a trap for Helene, so that she will be forced to pay dearly for a divorce settlement. Also conspiring against Helene is her father-in-law, who wishes to wrest her child away from her. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stéphane Audran, Jean-Pierre Cassel, (more)
- 1970
A veteran paratrooper murders his Vietnamese wife when he finds her in the arms of a younger man. Garal (Maurice Ronet) makes it back to the army base where his drunken roommate provides him with an iron clad alibi. Jauran (Michel Bouquet) is the local police inspector who befriends the Garal, unaware he is the killer. The younger man is accused of the woman's murder, but the paratrooper begins to feel overwhelmed with guilt. The longer he remains silent about the crime, the more psychological torture he must endure. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maurice Ronet, Michel Bouquet, (more)
- 1970
A crackdown on drugs leads a burned out cop (Michel Bouquet) to take the law into his own hands and seek revenge against villainous drug dealers. Word comes down from above that the United States feels French authorities have been lax on their arrests of the dealers. A violent action feature finds the harried inspector battling his colleagues as much as the criminal element targeted for extermination. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Bouquet, Françoise Fabian, (more)
- 1971
This satirical French drama is based on a novel by Antoine Blondin. Fired by wanderlust and urged on by his mother, Taitro leaves his wife and children to seek work in Paris. The mother is hoping to break up the marriage, as she doesn't like her daughter-in-law. Thanks to his mother, Taitro has letters of introduction to various people, one of which actually proves to be of help. While rich in adventure, his stay in Paris does not result in work or even in much satisfaction. He returns to his wife, but when they embrace, his wife is shot by his mother, who hoped she had caught her with another man. Though his Parisian friends welcome him back, Taitro is unable to settle down, and takes up the life of a vagabond. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Bouquet, Jeanne Moreau, (more)
- 1971
In this whimsical French comedy, Cookie (Sheila White) is a tough, sweet little rich girl, and is rather smart, too. She's smart enough and charming enough to outwit her kidnappers by setting one against the other until they have all killed each other or died trying to prove their worth to her. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1971
Claude Chabrol, the French filmmaker known for his masterful explorations of crime, suspense, and the darker sides of human nature, directed this drama about a man forced to come to terms with his double life. Charles Masson (Michel Bouquet) is a successful ad man with a loving wife, Helene (Stephane Audran), two children, and a close friendship with his next-door neighbor Francois Tellier (Francois Perier), an architect who designed both of their houses. However, Charles has a secret -- he's been having an affair with Francois's wife Laura (Anna Douking). Charles and Laura share an enthusiasm for sadomasochism, and one night while mock-strangling her during lovemaking, Charles goes too far and kills Laura. At first, Charles seems to get away Scot free -- he's not considered a suspect, and while someone did see him leave the scene of the crime, that person declines to inform the police. But Charles cannot escape his conscience, and he eventually feels compelled to tell both Helene and Francois, neither of whom react with any particular shock or dismay. Juste Avant La Nuit was adapted by Chabrol from a novel of the same name by Edouard Atiyah. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Bouquet, Stéphane Audran, (more)
- 1971
This French documentary about Czechoslovakia covers the period following World War II, beginning with the Russian occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1945, up to 1970.The narration and historical commentary is by Nanterre University professor Kostas Papaioannou. The famous "defenestration of Prague" is one of the many events discussed. The son of Masaryk, the founder of Czechoslovakia, was forced to make concessions transforming Czechoslovakia into a communist state and in retaliation, was thrown out of the window of a government building in Prague. The joy of liberation from the Germans was swiftly followed by the miseries of Soviet occupation and later Soviet domination. This documentary abounds in wry visual ironies, including its final shot of General Dubcek. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1971
Nolan (Serge Reggiani) was set up to take the fall for a crime committed by his whole gang, and as a result, his brother is dead and he is forced to do a stint in prison. Nolan comes out of prison looking for his former compatriots, and not just to shake their hands. He runs into an old girlfriend, Madeleine (Jeanne Moreau), now a respectable doctor's wife. Another woman he encounters, Lea (Simone Signoret), betrays him to an enemy. The remaining cast includes a number of fine French actors who add depth to this suspense thriller (Charles Vanel, Marcel Bozzuffi, Andre Pousse, Michel Bouquet, Amidou and Jean Desailly). This is a French language film, with no dubbing or subtitles. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Simone Signoret, Serge Reggiani, (more)
- 1972
L'Attentat is a political thriller based largely on a true story (the Ben Barka affair), which recounts how the French government and the American CIA connived to have a socialist in exile murdered before he could return to his homeland and start a revolution. Darien, a French journalist (Jean-Louis Tritignant), lures his friend Sadiel (Gian Maria Volonte) from his safe refuge in Geneva to appear on an American-made TV show. In doing so he is, perhaps unwittingly, setting him up for murder. Captured at the border by the French police, Sadiel is given over to a mysterious general from another country who tortures him to try to find out who his supporters are. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Piccoli, Jean-Louis Trintignant, (more)
