Henri Lanoë Movies

Craving a change in lifestyle, jewel thief and eight times-divorced Edouard (Jean-Paul Belmondo) leaves Paris for the Patagonian jungle. One day, while out gathering grubs, he makes the acquaintance of an extraterrestrial little girl (Thylda Bares) who materializes out of nowhere and proceeds to speak to him in perfect French. In short order, ambitious astronomer Dr. Margaux (Arielle Dombasle) -- who has long looked for evidence of extraterrestrial life -- arrives on the scene as part of a top-secret mission, complete with her nasty secret service operative (Patrick Bouchitey). Margaux and Edouard gradually learn that the little girl, called Lulu, is from a small planet populated by child-sized beings who take special pills to ensure eternal life. Lulu, who came to Earth to experience human emotions, left her pills at home and is aging at a rate of ten years every hour. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

Very few people know that Pierre Marroux (Yves Montand) is the father of the famous terrorist Netchaiev (Vincent Lindon), and that's the way he likes to keep it. His boy is now presumed to be dead, and he has a job to do, protecting the safety of those who pay him. However, the boy has recently returned to Paris with a group on an operation. Netchaiev is tired of being a hunted man and is shopping his potential confession around for the best deal. This puts him at odds with his colleagues past and present, and his life is in great danger. When Pierre learns of the situation, he tries to use his skills to find his son before his killers do. Along the way, he learns that the French government has a very shady deal with the terrorists, and it wants Netchaiev dead, too. This thriller is based on a novel by Jacques Semprun. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Celine (Sophie Marceau) must choose between Tarquin (Lambert Wilson) and Aurele (Stephane Fries) in this historical drama set during the French Civil War of 1793. The Republican Army decimated Western France when an insurgence of peasants, clergy, and aristocrats loyal to the Royalists staged a counterrevolution. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Juliette (Nastassja Kinski) is a hairstylist who is diagnosed with cancer in this tearjerking romantic drama. Her illness leads her to oncologist Raoul Bergeron (Michel Piccoli), and she ends up as his mistress. When Juliette falls in love with Raoul's intern Clement (Jean-Hughes Anglade), the jealous doctor threatens to sabotage Clement's career. Juliette spends the rest of the film jumping from Raoul to Clement and back again. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

On Ne Meurt Que Deux Fois, a French murder mystery based upon a novel of the same name, is an unusual, involving film with excellent performances by its entire cast. Police Inspector Staniland (Michel Serrault) is investigating the death of a pianist. While conducting his investigation and looking through the victim's apartment, he meets Barbara (Charlotte Rampling), the mistress of the murder victim. Barbara confesses to the crime, but Staniland, based on his observations and experience, does not believe her. He then sets out to find the truth, with surprising results. Both Serrault and Rampling are outstanding in this well-directed, well-paced film. On Ne Meurt Que Deux Fois was also released as He Died With His Eyes Open and won the Jury Prize at the 1985 Montreal World Film Festival. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

This epic story about a Louisiana plantation owner trying to hold on to her estate before, during, and after the American Civil War, a place ironically called "Bagatelle," rides on the illustrious fame of Tara and its more famous mistress in another Southern state. Virginia Tregan (Margot Kidder) comes back to Louisiana after finishing her schooling in France and is soon left without financial support when her father dies. Motivated by dire economic straits, she marries the owner of Bagatelle, but her real love turns out to be the steward (Ian Charleson). Husbands come and go while the steward remains in the background, and clichéd characters abound: a chamber-maid whose husband is tragically murdered for supporting the Abolitionists, an evil aristocrat who rapes and kills Tregan's daughter, and the matriarch herself. The original six hours of TV miniseries time was cut to a three-hour cinema format, but the downsizing in this Danielle Steele-type story also extends to the acting, cinematography, dialogue, and dramatic interest -- making it a bagatelle rather than a real gem. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The Last Strange Voyage of Donald Crowhurst is a non-fiction book by Ron Hall and Nicholas Tomblin about a man who first cheated to win an international sailing competition and then disappeared from his sailboat in the final lap of the race -- a story that serves as the inspiration for this film. Director Christian de Chalonge and writer Andre G. Brunelin have changed the setting to France, with a Frenchman named Julien Dantec (Jacques Perrin) as the sailboat enthusiast and the international race is now a French competition. Julien is actually an electronics professional who is down on his luck when he decides to enter the race. He is led astray from his original good intentions by a low-life press agent who convinces him it would be well worth his while to win the race by illegal maneuvering. As he sets off, flashbacks tell how he came to be on the sailboat; later he has long monologues -- several of them, and in-between he occasionally battles to stay afloat on an uncooperative sea. For awhile, he sets down in Brazil when he considers abandoning the race, but seemingly compelled to finish what he started, he continues onward with his ill-fated journey. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

Henry Volney (Yves Montand) is a crusading district attorney who refuses to believe the official investigation on the death of an assassinated President in this uneven suspense thriller. He interview a waitress who is the only one who can positively identify the killer, but conspirators trace his call and are able to capture him. Montand gives a good performance, but the plot is too full of holes to be effective and is too implausible to be believable. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Roland Fériaud (Lino Ventura), on returning from a seaside vacation, discovers a corpse in a room adjoining his. He is abducted by a mysterious group who take him to a clinic of some kind, where he is interrogated. He is shown a small suitcase he has never seen before, and he tries in vain to understand what it is his captors want. Director Jacques Deray specialized in this kind of thriller, which is a typical specimen of the genre. At this time Lino Ventura was at the peak of his stardom, playing silent, stoical heros after the manner of Jean Gabin. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Based on a novel by Roger Borniche, this crime drama retells the story of the renowned gangster "Pierrot le Fou," whose band of robbers sought out banks and factories in the period just after the Second World War, when the French police forces were in disarray. In the movie, Alain Delon plays Robert, the gangleader, who plans for his gang to perform a large number of major robberies in one day. After that, he and his gang will retire comfortably for a time with the loot. Performed with split-second timing, the robberies go well almost to the end. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Alain Delon plays Mr. Klein, a French-Catholic art dealer during the Nazi occupation. Strapped for cash, Klein takes financial advantage of his Jewish neighbors, knowing that they have no legal recourse. Ironically, Klein is himself mistaken for a missing Jew, a man who has been using Mr. Klein's name as a cover for his secret operations. As he desperately seeks out that man, he learns a bitter lesson about life in the other man's shoes. Star Delon is one of the four producers of this French feature. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The on-again, off-again relationship between a man and a woman who first meet during a shipwreck (she is a Salvation Army soldier, he is a sailor, both are adrift) is the subject of this French film. The two meet and separate numerous times during the movie, until they are finally able to accommodate one another. In the meantime they are out of synch, each discovering a new facet of their lives to explore at just the wrong time for the other. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide