Claude Brasseur Movies

This fast-paced mystery is in part based on a novel by Yves Ellena and is at least equally based on the 1943 classic Le Corbeau, which in 1951 was produced in English by Otto Preminger as The Thirteenth Letter. In this movie, someone is using a pirate radio broadcast to dish the dirt on the lives of the elite of a small French town. Among the suspects for this increasingly damaging activity are a cynical journalist and an unusually honest cop. The story proceeds to a climax in the town's church, while the increasingly vituperative townspeople clash with one another. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Claude Brasseur stars in this cinemadaptation of the Moliere play Georges Dandin, ou le mari confondu. Written in 1668, the play has been somewhat dwarfed by such like-vintage Moliere classics as The Imaginary Invalid. Still, it was popular enough in its time to inspire imitation, most notably Betterton's Don Juan and The Amorous Widow. The plot, involving a wealthy man's avoidance of marriage until he is trapped by a crafty widow, is but a peg upon which to hang any number of comic complications and character vignettes. Brasseur's leading lady is the toothsome Zabou. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this routine psychological thriller, a husband and wife try to jump start their failing marriage by taking a vacation in Haiti, only to find more problems waiting for them after they arrive. Alan (Claude Brasseur) is an older and experienced writer who is suffering from serious writer's block because his aloof, younger wife Lola (Sophie Marceau) is pointedly ignoring him. Once in Haiti, Alan goes on a bender, convinced that Lola is not going to change, and she, in turn, decides to have some fun with another man. While in a drunken stupor one evening, Alan accidentally kills a mugger who attacks him and is seen by a devious couple who opt for making some money on what they know. As a blackmail scheme takes shape, it has an interesting effect on Alan and Lola's relationship. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Set up along the general plot lines of films like The Dirty Dozen, this routine spy-action drama of espionage and counter-espionage involves ten men trained by NATO attache Straub (Edward Meeks) for a dangerous special mission. The men include leader Larcier (Claude Brasseur), a Romani, a man who is a crack shot, a safe-cracker, a professional mountain climber, and others. The team's assignment is to scale a rocky cliff somewhere in the Mediterranean area, rescue a general from captivity before he is forced to reveal NATO secrets, and bring the general back safely. After the men successfully complete the mission with only two casualties, NATO reveals a cold-blooded brutality that changes the picture and continues the violence. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

This well-articulated, engaging story about the differing fortunes of two brothers just after Algeria's war for independence is conventional in its outlines, and may have several more characters than can be developed in a short time, but its subtle handling by director Ariel Zeitoun helps to counteract those flaws. Rego (Christophe Malavoy) has just returned from a tour of duty in Algeria where he escaped the demands of his budding musical career. Now that he is back, his former agent does not welcome him with open arms because he is still mad over Rego's sudden departure, just when things were going well. The delinquent, wild teenager Antoine (Pierre-Loup Rajot) is Rego's younger brother, now in love with his new music teacher (Gabrielle Lazure), and his persistence in going after the reserved young woman ends in a brief and forbidden fling -- and trouble for her. As events continue on their course, the fate of the two brothers is vastly divergent, even though they continue to have a strong bond between them. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

In this French drama, a Secret Service agent becomes a novelist after he is forced to retire. He writes about experiences he had as a spy in his novel. Adventure ensues when he and his editor, also a writer, whom the ex-spy regards as too stuffy for his own good, wind up in Africa where they must overcome their mutual dislike and investigate the murder of a renowned physicist. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Violent scenes, such as a woman doused with gasoline and set on fire, do nothing to help this melodramatic crime-drama rise above others in its genre. When a police commissioner is determined to track down sources of corruption that reach up to the higher echelons of government he has no idea who he can trust and who not. Without the support of his love interest, a dedicated journalist, he would not stand a chance. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

An acting couple is forced to assess their life together when the wife falls for a wealthy horse-breeder while shooting a film. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

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, Rovi

La Boum stars Sophie Marceau as a 13-year-old French girl, coping with domestic problems. Her parents, played by Claude Brasseur and Brigitte Fossey, are on the verge of a marital breakup. This is coupled by a traumatic move to Paris, and Marceau's problems in adjusting to her new surroundings and schoolmates. Though nothing new, La Boum is disarmingly diverting, a real audience pleaser (as proven by its huge international box-office take). Even as the film was making the American rounds, a sequel, La Boum 2, was in the editing stages. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The time is the 1930s and two Soviet spies (both Frenchmen by nationality) have been helping Communist factions during the Civil War in Spain. It is the time of Stalin's iron rule in the USSR, and the two agents are suddenly called to Moscow by the KGB. Knowing that they are in trouble for no fault of their own, fear drives one of them to suicide while the other gets his lover and her child and begins a run for his life, knowing that the KGB will never let him go free. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

The "black robe" in the title of this suspense film belongs to a female lawyer, Florence Nat (Annie Girardot) who has just lost a case in which she defended Simon Risler (Claude Brasseur), a man wrongly accused of murder. Risler escapes before he can be put in prison, and seeks help from attorney Nat in finding the real killer, partly by going after the police inspector who framed him in the first place. A retired surgeon, in the process of setting up a drug rehab clinic gets involved in solving Risler's case, and soon the solution seems to be pointing to high-ranking figures with every desire and ample means to keep the truth well-hidden. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi