Alain Poiré Movies

Francis Veber wrote and directed this film adaptation (with animated opening credits) of his own play, Le diner de cons, about a competition among a group of friends to see who can find the stupidest person to bring to dinner (as indicated by the original French title, since "con" means someone who's a total dumbbell). The dinners are held each Wednesday night, and French publisher Pierre Brochant (Thierry Lhermitte) has found a world class nincompoop -- Finance Ministry accountant Francois Pignon (Jacques Villeret) who uses matchsticks to build small-scale replicas of monuments. Things quickly go awry after Pierre wrenches his back at golf. He nevertheless makes an effort to attend the dinner with his prize dunce. Francois arrives at Pierre's luxury apartment, but Pierre is in such pain they never exit the apartment for the dinner. Instead, Pierre is trapped in a situation where Francois' stupidity turns his life into a comic hell. In 1993, Villeret created the role of the dimwit onstage during 600 performances of a 27-month run, and the play also had a 1994 London production. In addition to Veber's Oscar-nominated screenplay adaptation of Jean Poiret's La Cage aux Folles (1978), reworked into The Birdcage (1996), other American comedies originated in French screenplays by Veber -- The Toy (1982), The Man with One Red Shoe- (1985), Three Fugitives (1989), and Fathers' Day (1997). Shown at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

With a few sly nods toward Hitchcock, this romantic French crime thriller follows book editor Pierre Duval down a ruinous road of illicit passion, treachery, mystery and murder. His fateful journey begins when his married lover Claire Jaillac tells him that she is going to move to the Moroccan wilds with her husband, an engineer who has been hired to oversee the construction of a dam. Not wanting to give up a good thing with no fight, Duval arranges to write her husband's biography and accompany them. Unfortunately Duval and Bernard Jaillac get on the plane, but Claire does not. They are not their long before Duval begins to suspect that he is the object of a deadly conspiracy. Despite his growing paranoia, Duval keeps quiet. On the day he finally decides to speak up, a plane lands and out steps Claire Jaillac. But she is not the Claire that Duval loved. This is an entirely different woman, a real stranger. This leaves Duval to begin trying to figure out his lover's true identity. The new Claire has other plans though and after she seduces Duval, she presents him with a dark plan that seals his fate. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this fast-paced French comedy, a gambler, anxious to escape the thugs who pursue him after her reneged on a bet, mistakenly agrees to enter the safety of the Amazon jungle with an ethnologist's son to search for the missing soul of an ailing Indian. Perrin's ordeal begins in an elevator where he encounters Campana, the French scientist who was raised in the distant jungle, and his companion Wanu, an Amazon shaman who has left his remote home to help Campana campaign on the rain forest's behalf. When Wanu, wearing little more than feathers, skins and a plate in his lip, suddenly tweak's the nose of Perrin and proclaims him the "chosen one," Perrin is naturally surprised. He is more surprised when Wanu shows up in his lavish apartment that night, drugs him and covers him with ritual markings thereby creating a magical link between them. The next day Wanu suffers a heart attack that he interprets as the theft of his soul. He beckons Perrin beside him and insists that he go to the jungle and find his soul, which has taken the form of a jaguar. Unfortunately for Perrin, the dense jungle proves to be far more dangerous than any gambler's henchmen and comical chaos ensues as he struggles to survive. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

After raising her daughter to be a beautiful young woman and developing a lively career as a wallpaper designer, one would think that Julie's (Miou-Miou) life was rather full. However, she recently got an offer from the French consul to a mission in Pondicherry, India to teach her skills to Indians. She can only do this if she gets her high-school diploma, something she neglected to do earlier. The idea of this new post motivates her to rectify her youthful omission, and she goes back to school in Montparnasse. Just before classes are to start, her current boyfriend's (Maxime Leroux) condescending ways prove too much for her, and she breaks up with him, reacting to that by getting drunk. Thus, when she has to take the subway to school on the first day, being unfamiliar with the route and somewhat the worse for wear, she gets lost. Fortunately, she meets an elderly man (Yves Robert), a retired musician for the Paris Opera, who is headed for the very same destination. The two form a relationship of mutual encouragement and support, and Julie is then ready to cope with the mostly positive challenges of her new studies. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

A modern farce about medieval life, this is a time-travel comedy by French director Jean-Marie Poire. A 12th-century nobleman, Godefroy (Jean Reno), and his squire Jacquouille (Christian Clavier) are the victims of a mistake by an aging wizard. While trying to work another spell, the sorcerer accidentally transports the pair to the late 20th century. To his great dismay, Godefroy finds that his family is now poor and has sold their estate to Jacquouille's rich descendants, including Jacquart (also played by Clavier). The insensitive new owners plan to turn the castle into a modern hotel. Meanwhile, the sorcerer asks his own descendant for help in trying to get his charges to return back to medieval times. The film, which details with comic precision the differences in manners and technology between the two eras, was a huge hit in France. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi

This 1990 French film presents idyllic episodes from the childhood of novelist and filmmaker Marcel Pagnol (1895-1974). Together, the episodes present a portrait of an ordinary family with an extraordinary ability to love. Set in Provencal in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the film first introduces members of the family, including Marcel (Julien Ciamaca). When he is still a preschooler, his father Joseph, a teacher, takes him to classes to watch over him. Marcel, however, learns along with the other children and starts to read out loud in class. Astonished, Joseph (Philippe Caubère) writes a sentence on the blackboard and asks, "What does that say?" Marcel, reading the words, says, "The father is proud of his little boy." This little scene establishes the tone and meaning of the film. Flashing ahead seven years, the camera then follows the Pagnols after they leave Marseilles for a summer vacation in the Provencal countryside, there to bask in the simplicity of rural life. From then on, it is not what happens to the family that engages audiences; it is how it happens -- with a quiet exuberance and joie de vivre. Besides Marcel and his father, the vacationers include his mother, Augustine (Nathalie Roussel), a beautiful and kindly homemaker; Marcel's little brother Paul (Victorien Delamare); and his Uncle Jules (Didier Pain) and Aunt Rose (Thérèse Liotard). After they arrive at their cottage, 11-year-old Marcel wastes no time wading into the greenery in search of adventure. What he finds is another adventuresome boy, Lili de Bellons (Joris Molinas), a native of the region. They become friends and fellow explorers, capturing cicadas, climbing rocks, and even invading an eagle's cave. Sometimes they just have fun shouting to hear an echo boomeranging back. At meal times -- often outdoors -- fresh fruit and good-natured repartee satisfy appetites. For spectator sport, the diners listen to the occasional religious arguments between Uncle Jules, a God-fearing Catholic, and Joseph, a God-doubting agnostic. Augustine and Aunt Rose avoid the polemics, for they have more important matters on their minds: keeping house, watching children, and planning the next day's menu. And then the film takes a turn toward real drama. Uncle Jules, full of tales about his prowess as a hunter, persuades Joseph, full of ignorance about guns and hunting, to go on a bird hunt. Woe is Papa, Marcel thinks. When the day of the great hunt arrives, Marcel secretly follows Joseph and Uncle Jules into the woods, setting the stage for the film's climactic moment. ~ Mike Cummings, Rovi

This poetic French drama about the inner experience of a returning World War I soldier, is based on the much-loved and highly regarded novel La Vouivre by Marcel Ayme. Georges Wilson, a well-established presence on the French stage, makes his filmmaking debut as a screenwriter and director. A "vouivre" is a wood-nymph, beautiful but completely lacking in human sensibilities. At the start of the film, Arsene (Lambert Wilson), a discharged soldier, returns to his family's farm. His return provokes quite a reaction, as he had been presumed dead. He is tormented by memories of the war, and finds brief consolation in his experiences with the wood-nymph (Laurent Treil). However, despite her magical qualities, it becomes clear that even a peasant farmer has more richness and depth to his character than the soulless "vouivre" can ever attain. In the novel, it's not clear whether the wood-nymph is real or the product of hallucinations caused by a head injury Arsene sustained in the war. In this movie version, the reality of the "vouivre" is never questioned. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Twenty-one-year-old Valentine (Sophie Marceau) works part time as a teacher while she prepares for her all-important final exams. She meets Edouard (Vincent Lindon), a rock musician who hopes to someday be a composer. Despite the fact that the two have different schedules and career agendas, they engage in a passionate affair. Valentine compares her relationship with Edouard to the dry dissertation of Moliere's The Misanthrope during her oral exams at the Sorbonne. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Advertising executive Gerard Floque (Roland Giraud) has the worst day of his life in this routine comedy. He comes home after losing his job to find his daughter arrested on drug charges and his wife Cecile (Clementine Celaire) in bed with a famous television personality (Gerard Rinaldi). Gerard finds romantic solace in the arms of his former secretary Martine (Mary-Anne Chazel). ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

A look at Communism behind the Iron Curtain, this comedy is set in a posh Moscow hotel run by the hypocritical Igor (Philippe Noiret). Igor is busy making money off his black market dealings when Party officials and the KGB land at his hotel. They are looking for Jewish dissidents and just the kind of activity that is keeping Igor in good caviar. Unless he wants to shovel snow in Siberia, Igor has to find a way to safely get the Jewish dissidents out of his hotel and cover up his black market tracks. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Co-adapted by director Claude Berri from a novel by Marcel Pagnol, this hugely successful French historical drama concerns a bizarre battle royale over a valuable natural spring in a remote French farming community. City dweller Jean Cadoret (Gérard Depardieu) assumes ownership of the spring when the original owner is accidentally killed by covetous farmer Cesar Soubeyran (Yves Montand). Soubeyran and his equally disreputable nephew Ugolin (Daniel Auteuil) pull every dirty trick in the book to force Cadoret off his land, but the novice farmer stands firm. Although the Soubeyrans appear to gain the upper hand, the audience is assured that they will eventually be foiled by the vengeful daughter of the spring's deceased owner -- thus setting the stage for the film's equally successful sequel, Manon of the Spring. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this standard romantic drama, a tangled web of relationships may not be that easy to straighten out for the people involved. Marc (Daniel Auteuil) is a lawyer married to Jeanne (Sophie Barjac), but his roving eye leads him into sexual encounters with other women on a regular basis -- and although his wife loves him deeply, she throws him out one day when she can no longer stand his philandering. After their split, she begins a romantic fling with Antoine (Jean-Pierre Marielle), who moves in with her after awhile. At the same time, Marc meets and falls in love with Samantha (Emmanuelle Beart), a prostitute who reciprocates his feelings. Circumstances place all four -- Marc, Samantha, Jeanne, and Antoine under the same roof -- a combination of cross-references that soon threatens to disintegrate, at least in part. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi