Pascal Jardin Movies

After a nurse is captured in Vietnam, a group of soldiers attempt a rescue in this dubbed actioner. ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi

An inventor and a small-time industrialist, Guillaume (Louis De Funes) has come up with something which will take advantage of air pollution and manages to confuse a delegation of Japanese into placing an order for 3,000 of the things. Just a few obstacles stand in the way of his delivering on the order. For one thing, he has no factory in which to make them. He decides to dedicate all the extra space in his house to building them, though perhaps he should have told his wife (Annie Girardot) first, because she seems to have been made unhappy by these developments. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Old Gun (Le Vieux Fusil) stars Philippe Noiret as an aging, embittered French physician. During the occupation, Noiret loses his wife and daughter to Nazi bullets. He vows to personally kill every one of the Germans responsible (along with a few who weren't) in order to assuage his grief. Romy Schneider and Jean Bousse costar in this heart rending character study. Philippe Noiret was justifiably honored with the French Cesar Award for his towering performance in Old Gun. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The 1970 French crime flick Borsalino featured Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo as charismatic gangsters in 1930s Marseilles. Belmondo was killed off in that film, but Delon survived to show up in the 1974 sequel Borsalino and Co. (actually filmed just after the original, but not released for several years). Seeking redress for the death of his partner, Roch (Delon) disposes of his enemies in a variety of novel (and gruesome) methods. Both Borsalino and Co. and its predecessor were inspired by Eugene Saccomano's novel The Bandits of Marseilles. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Le Secret, based on a novel by Francis Ryck, begins with the escape of mental patient David Daguerre (Jean-Louis Trintignant), who kills an asylum guard in the process. Daguerre hides out in the home of writer Thomas Berthelot (Philippe Noiret), explaining that his wounds and bruises are the result of torture at the hands of the "special police." Berthelot and his wife, Julia (Marlène Jobert), are willing to believe that Daguerre is a fugitive from oppression, especially after their house is surrounded by a group of soldiers on maneuvers. The couple tries to help David escape to Spain, but Julia, who during most of the proceedings has been attracted to the escapee, becomes convinced that Daguerre is insane and kills him in self-defense. The surprise ending leaves the audience wondering whether or not the man had been telling the truth all along. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this French police thriller, Le Guen (Jean Gabin) is an old-style police inspector, near retirement. When Gassot (Fabio Testi) escapes from the mental institute for the criminally insane, Le Guen is the best man to track him down. After all, he put him away years before. Gassot leaves behind a string of corpses and takes up with a prostitute while Le Guen chases him. Gerard Depardieu makes one of his first screen appearances here, in a small part. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Simone Signoret plays the title role in this dark melodrama from writer/director Pierre Granier-Deferre. The Widow Couderc is based on a novel by Georges Simenon. Here Signoret (who also starred in Le Chat, an earlier Granier-Deferre adaptation of a Simenon novel) plays a bitterly independent middle-aged widow; she is a farmer who takes in a handsome young drifter, Jean (Alain Delon), who turns out to be recently released from prison. Jean does odd jobs for the woman, who lives with her elderly father-in-law, Henri (Jean Tissier), who pretends to be deaf when it suits him, and surreptitiously has an intimate relationship with Couderc. It's Henri's house, and when Jean moves in, it gives the widow's resentful sister-in-law, Françoise (Monique Chaumette), the excuse she's looking for to get Henri to leave the house so she can sell it. The widow and Jean have a modest dream of using an incubator to raise chicks and make a decent living, but their plans are further complicated when Françoise's promiscuous teenaged daughter, Félicie (Ottavia Piccolo, who would go on to star opposite Delon again in 1974's Zorro) comes around with her infant son. Félicie clearly has eyes for Jean, and to the consternation of the widow, who holds his fate in her hands, Jean has trouble resisting the younger woman's charms. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

A woman (Regine) seemingly welcomes circumstances that can only be described as self degrading. She has a job doing voice overdubs and mimics a duck by putting a clothespin on her nose and marbles in her cheeks. Her date with an actor goes wrong when the man has an insatiable foot fetish. Her spare time is spent giving false information as a witness to accident she never observed and torturing herself to see how much she can take. She engages in prostitution just for fun and writes letters to the police claiming she shot a man when she finds the bleeding victim. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Mara (Rita Hayworth) is the lonely owner of a gas station on a remote road leading to Salina, Mexico in this psychodrama. A young hippie (Robert Walker Jr.) is mistaken for her son who had left four years earlier. He is encouraged to stay and develops an amorous relationship with his supposed sister Billie (Mimsey Farmer). He looks into the family history and discovers Billie may have killed her own brother and Mara could very well be covering up the crime. Warren (Ed Begley) and Mara dance the frug in this feature, the last for Begley who died in April, 1970 and the second to last film for legendary screen siren Hayworth. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Chamoun (Michel Constantine) and his wife May (Senta Berger) arrive in the desert and take up residence in an abandoned house. Sheriff Brade (Hans Meyer) is suspicious of the couple and their beer-drinking mule. He discovers the woman is hiding out from the mafia after killing a gangster. Fearing retaliation from the mob, their solitude is interrupted by a visit from a crook who has stolen some diamonds. Chamoun agrees to help the criminal Kalne (Julian Mateos) if he gives him half of the loot. As two policemen watch the house, Kalne and Chamoun try to double-cross each other out of the diamonds in this crime drama that ends in tragedy. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

This engaging comedy concerns the tattoo on the back of a military nobleman and the wily art dealer who covets the work of art. The Count (Jean Gabin) has a Modigliani tattoo, and when Mazeray (Louis De Funes) sees it, he wishes to add it to his art collection. The Count only wishes to retire to a life of good wine and fine food, but the maniacal Mazeray will stop at nothing to obtain the Modigliani, even if it means skinning the Count alive. Gabin and De Funes combine their legendary comedy stylings that have long endeared them to film fans far beyond their native France. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi