Yves Peyrot Movies

The Death of Mario Ricci is a Swiss/French/West German coproduction, filmed on location in Switzerland. Gian-Maria Volonte stars as a TV newscaster who journeys to a remote alpine village to interview a famed malnutrition expert. Upon his arrival, Volonte learns that there's an ongoing investigation in the village concerning the mysterious death of an Italian immigrant. Inexorably, the journalist becomes involved in the investigation, and with equal inexorability the chain of evidence leads to the malnutritionist. The Death of Mario Ricci is consistently lovely to look at, though dramatically it's as hollow-centered as a piece of Swiss chocolate. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this drama, a provincial girl goes to Paris in search of her fortune. Although she finds the City of Light to be quite different from what she'd imagined it to be, the girl manages to retain her dignity. It is only after she is thoroughly disillusioned by her experiences there that she returns to her country life. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Lafayette (Gerard Depardieu), a young-ish misfit Frenchman and Nocello (Marcello Mastroianni), an older misfit Italian, live in a run-down section of New York City and are friends. Lafayette works for Flaxman (James Coco), an excitable antiquarian who owns and runs something called the "Roman Museum," by means of which he upholds the standards of a former age. Lafayette also works for a women's lib group, which one day decides to "rape" him to see how the shoe fits on the other foot. Rather than being much bothered, Lafayette starts a liaison with the woman who actually had sex with him. In this rambling tale, these men are shown to have great difficulty enduring intense emotions, and the situations that arise force them to confront this difficulty repeatedly. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

The first English-language film from Alain Resnais, this drama about a spiteful, alcoholic novelist contains the French director's typically playful surrealist touches and recurring use of characters shackled by memory. John Gielgud stars as Clive Langham, a drunken author in failing health who spends an increasingly intoxicated evening at his Rhode Island estate working on his new novel. Clive bases the characters in the melodramatic story on his own family, including his two sons, Claude (Dirk Bogarde) and the illegitimate Kevin (David Warner), as well as Claude's wife Sonia (Ellen Burstyn). Imagining a bitter love triangle full of spite between the three protagonists of his tale, Clive uses generous doses of imagination and symbolism, including a discordant soccer player (Denis Lawson) related to Kevin and werewolves. When his real-life family appears for a meal with Clive, however, they are not quite the embittered, devious players in the author's booze-fueled fiction. Although dividing critics between those delighted with Resnais' comic flourishes and others annoyed by his arty pretensions, Providence (1977) swept the Cesar Awards, France's Oscar equivalent, winning seven including Best Director for Resnais. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

A doctor gains a new perspective on her life and career when she faces a life-threatening illness in this drama. Francoise (Annie Girardot) is a French physician with a very busy schedule. While she's well respected by her patients and colleagues, she has precious little time to spend with her husband Gerard (Francois Perier), her pregnant teenage daughter Elisabeth (Isabelle Huppert), or her sullen son Julien (William Coryn). She somehow manages to find time for her lover Daniel (Jean-Pierre Cassel), but Francoise's life is already starting to fray at the edges when she receives the upsetting news that she has cancer. Francoise, however, learns to put on a brave face and faces her disease and its difficult treatment with optimism and a fierce resolve. Annie Giradot's performance in Docteur Francoise Gailland earned her a Cesar (the French Academy Award). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi