Tag Archives: Philippe Noiret

January, 1920. 350,000 French soldiers remain missing in action. Major Dellaplane tirelessly matches the dead and the wounded with families’ descriptions. Read More »

After Thérèse is acquitted of trying to poison her husband, Bernard Desqueyroux, she recalls the events that lead to her being charged. Read More »

Three aging and failed comedians, Georges Cox, Victor Vialat and Eddie Carpentier, hit the road again with a lousy production of a lousy play, of course under the worst possible conditions.
Read More »

Romance in the prime of life. When Lise’s car bumps Antoine’s bike, they recognize each other from a brief fling 20 years before while at the Sorbonne. Read More »

Murphy is the sole survivor of his crew, that has been massacred by a German U-Boat in the closing days of World War II. Read More »

In a farmhouse in southern Italy, an old woman dies. Her husband summons their sons: from Rome, Raffaele, a judge facing a political case for which he risks assassination Read More »

Like in many other Monicelli movies, the main theme of Amici miei is friendship, seen from a rather bitter point of view. It tells the story of four middle-aged friends in Florence who organize together idle pranks (called zingarate, “gypsy shenanigans”) in a continuous attempt to prolong childhood during their adult life…
Read More »

Roland Wolf wants to write a book about a TV game-show host, the hail-fellow-well-met Christian Legagneur, who invites Wolf to his country estate, promising several days of lengthy interviews. But Legagneur’s laughter and easy intimacy are empty of content for a book, and he’s constantly dashing off, promising Wolf more time later. Wolf seems to have his own mask: he’s brought a gun with him, and he’s curious about a woman who was a recent guest at the estate. There’s also Legagneur’s godchild, Catherine, recovering from mental illness, and hovered over by Legagneur and his secretary. As Wolf digs through desks, he discovers a murderous plot.
Read More »

This merry farce depicts a satirical view of the French society: Ten-year-old Zazie has to stay two days with her relatives in Paris, so that her mother can spend some time with her lover. However Zazie escapes her uncle’s custody and sets out to explore Paris on her own.
Read More »

On August 4, 1936, General Metaxas declared martial law in Greece. A union leader using the name Boutros is sought in Athens by Primoukis, a ruthless police leader. Boutros narrowly escapes and, early the next morning, jumps through the window of Marchese Margot Santorini, the wealthy Austrian-born wife of Rico, a penniless Italian diplomat and playboy. Margot is bored and without purpose: aiding Boutros’s escape invigorates her, and soon she is in love. The film briefly jumps to 1945 when Rico and Raoul (who assisted her out of love) meet in France to talk about her fate, and then jumps 30 years to Margot’s daughter’s visit to Greece to find out about her father.
Read More »