Claude Brasseur Movies

Two francophones have become roommates in Montreal. One is from France, the other is from Quebec. Their love-lives revolve around affairs with married men who leave them on the weekends for their families in the countryside. Nicole thinks she has finally found a "live one" when she discovers that the doctor she has met is single and American. She returns with him to the U.S., but soon returns to her friend Lucie, who has had yet another affair with a married man. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

The most powerful officers of a bank are implicated in a financial scandal, despite their efforts to disassociate themselves from it. When the top brass fire Henri Rainier (Jean-Louis Trintignant) because one of his clients has been accused of fraud, he doesn't take it lying down. He knows that the man who actually approved the client's loans was the bank's director. He must expose these and other shady financial transactions by his superiors in order to avoid being framed by them. This straightforward drama, which depicts the anxious situation of a man without allies, caught, despite his best efforts, in the throes of a vast land fraud, is based on a true story and was inexplicably very popular in France. It won Césars for "Best Screenplay" and "Best Director," and the Prix Louis Delluc, a venerable annual prize given by French journalists for the best French film of the year. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

L'Etat Sauvage is based on the novel by Georges Conchon which won the highly esteemed Prix de Goncourt. The story chronicles the mindless racism of both the departing French colonial overlords and the emergent black Africans in a newly emerging African state. Laurence (Marie-Christine Barrault) suffers the outrage of her white acquaintances, including her former lover Gravenoir (Claude Brasseur) and her ex-husband Avit (Jacques Dutronc), for her affair with Patrice Doumbe (Doura Mane), an official in the new government. He in turn is ridiculed by his fellow cabinet ministers for stepping out with a white woman. The vilification escalates to such a point that Patrice is brutally murdered, and Laurence barely escapes the country alive, with the help of her ex-husband Avit. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This French comedy is the sequel to the well-regarded Pardon Mon Affaire. This version centers on the sexual fantasies of a quartet of four married, middle-class men attempting to deal with the onset of middle-age. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Former film critic André Téchiné directed and co-wrote this offbeat crime drama. Samson (Gérard Depardieu) is a down-on-his-luck boxer who manages to win a fortune thanks to a fixed fight. However, while Samson and his girlfriend Laure (Isabelle Adjani) are trying to get away with the money, he is killed by a gunman who looks just like Samson (and is also played by Depardieu). Laure is crushed, but in time she finds herself attracted to Samson's murderous double; he is also drawn to her, and they eventually become lovers. The supporting cast includes Marie-France Pisier and Jean-Claude Brialy. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

When he is not working as a stage performer, Emile (Yves Montand) works as a small-time con-man. He has a brand-new plan for a big job and needs the services of one of his former assistants. He also persuades a young actress to help out with part of the plan: kidnapping the child of a very shady arms merchant who will be pressured to keep the police off their backs. Emile is a kindly man with more charm than skill. When his plans go badly awry, he sends the two assistants away as a couple, along with the baby they had planned to substitute for the child in the arms merchant's house. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

An ordinary man is driven to violence in the name of revenge in this drama. Paul Varlin (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is a businessman who decides to take his wife and daughter on a vacation. While stopping for gas, Varlin's wife is accosted by a gang of motorcycle thugs, who progress from ogling her legs to raping both the wife and the young girl, and then killing them both. When Varlin discovers this horrible crime, he takes it upon himself to track down and kill the bikers in the name of justice. L'Agression also features Catherine Deneuve and Claude Brasseur. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The difficulty experienced by a softcore porn film producer, who must somehow transform an academically praised novel into an erotic thrill-fest, is the subject of this comedy. In the film, Claude Brasseur is Manuel, who confronts vain but..incapable..male stars, an inane and silly script, sexually obsessed cameramen and more. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In this French psychological drama, the tensions of show business parallel and increase the tensions on a married couple, both of whom are performers. The stage magician "Magico" (Claude Brasseur) is married to a singer (Bulle Ogler). Their lives are already somewhat complicated, but as they unravel, they become involved with the mob and drug-trafficking. Eventually, Magico is forced into being a stool-pigeon for the police. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In this humorous French crime drama, Cave (Claude Brasseur) is a small-time hood, doing jail time for his deeds. While there, he makes friends with a much bigger criminal, and promises to help him out when they leave prison. The big-time hood is killed soon after his release from prison, but by that time Cave has learned enough to blackmail his accomplices, who are all important men in their town. He also manages to win the affection of the gangster's girlfriend. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Bernadette Lafont is as alluring as all get out in Such a Gorgeous Kid Like Me (original title: Une Belle Fille Comme Moi). She plays a crafty murderess who uses her not inconsiderable charms to disarm her victims and trap unwitting males into helping her. Lafont relates her steamy past to an ingenious criminology student, and in the end, he is as "hooked" as any of the other men in the women's life. Based on the novel by Henry Farrell (and more than a little inspired by such Hollywood "black widow" films as The File on Thelma Jordon), Such a Gorgeous Kid Like Me is one of the most consistently enjoyable of Francois Truffault's films of the 1970s. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Two men search for the wife of one of the men when he falsely claims she left him earlier that morning. The distraught husband attempts suicide before returning home to find his wife has not left him. This plodding and talkative film tries to be funny but fails miserably. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi