Darry Cowl
Alfred lives with his mother in a small village keeping chickens and selling eggs at the local market. He doesn't speak, except to his mother and to children. He has a girlfriend of sorts, although she shies away from any physical contact with her. But more than anything, Alfred wants a child. As natural fatherhood is out of the question he takes the next best option, and makes an application to adopt. With a very un-French lack of bureaucracy Alfred's adoptive son arrives, but turns out not to be the bouncing baby he was hoping for. [taken from London Film Festival 2006 catalogue]
Le Cou de la girafe (The Giraffe's Neck) is a 2004 French/Belgian film directed by Safy Nebbou.
A musical drawing room farce set in Paris in October, 1925. Gilberte, in middle-age, flirts with men but loves her husband Georges, wishing he were more demonstrative. He's negotiating a deal with an American, Eric Thomson, who turns out to be Gilberte's first husband from an annulled and secret stateside marriage. Along with her sister Arlette, Gilberte begs Eric not to tell Georges about the marriage. Meanwhile, a young artist, Charly, pursues Gilberte while Arlette tries to match him with the young Huguette, who loves him. Will Eric play along or try to re-win Gilberte's affection? Can Gilberte play one off against another? And who will manage to kiss whom on the lips?
Based on a novel by Jean-Claude Izzo, this melancholic movie focuses on three sailors being the last remaining crew members on their ship which is aground in the harbor of Marseille. After the owner has sold the "Aldébaran", only the Lebanese captain Aziz, the Greek Diamantis and the Turk Nelim are stuck on the boat for a lack of prospects. Aziz doesn't want to return to his wife, Diamantis tries to find a girl he left at the age of 20 and Nelim, young and foolish, just wants to have fun...
Between Alice, a hospital nurse and Aldo, a shampoo sales representative, things have turned sour of late. Alice blames her husband for lacking ambition and contemplates divorce.One day Aldo wins the ten million euro lotto prize. But, unwilling to share the bonanza, he keeps mum about it, all the more as he finds out Alice has an affair with Gérard, Aldo's former friend and ... new boss. However, Aldo, leading a double life, starts spending his money ...
When their behavior and brushes with the law drive their mother to abandon them, Jonathan and Vivi hire a private detective to find her.
The solitary and largely self-contained Augustin (Jean-Chretien Sibertin Blanc), on obscure young actor of bit-parts and advertisements, has but one ambition - to play the lead role in a Kung Fu epic. But hours of Kung Fu practice alone in his room are not enough. Augustin knows he must pack up and start a new life in China... or at least that part of China within bicycling distance: Chinatown in south-east Paris. There he meets Ling (Maggie Cheung), a young Chinese woman who practices ocupuncture, and little by little, Ling's needles awaken emotions in Augustin that his virginal body had never dreamed of. Where will this lead him? To Kung Fu stardom, maybe not, but to another destiny, a quirky but logical continuation of the same dream.
After the death of his controlling wife, a retiree decides to take the trip of his dreams to Tahiti, in French Polynesia. All he needs is the money. Poker and the strange complicity of a talking cat will be his best assets to raise funds.
Pierre Richard directed, co-scripted and stars in this French comedy. Former top film comedian Romain (Richard) is on a downward spiral -- rehearsing a play directed by his sister while also dealing with his wife, mistress, taxes, low self-esteem, demands for attention from his two children, and a private detective attempting to snap incriminating photos. Producer Jean-Louis Levi appears in a cameo as a poverty-stricken bum.
In France during World War II, a poor and illiterate man, Henri Fortin (Jean-Paul Belmondo), is introduced to Victor Hugo's classic novel Les Misérables and begins to see parallels between the book and his own life.
The leader of a nudist colony enlists the help of left-wing militant when he mistakenly believes he should receive the Legion of Honor.
Marc Elbichon, a novice private sleuth, is investigating a wave of assassinations bearing a particular characteristic: the perpetrator, dubbed the "telephone killer" always strangles his female victims with a telephone cord.
Maximin, priest in a little village in the South-West of France, inherits from his brother a brothel in Thailand, although he's always been told it was a very strict catholic school. The journey to Asia is full of surprises (a plane hi-jack, pirates...) and once in Thailand, Maximin is taken into 'political' turmoils.
In antique Rome, a simple pepboy for chars becomes involved in a coup against Cesar. Rahatlocum is a North African Roman colony where Julius Caesar came to spend an expensive holiday. The revolt rumbles among the small people who find a leader in the person of Ben-Hur Marcel.
A highly stylized surreal farce about the events leading up to Custer's Last Stand anachronistically reenacted in an urban renewal area in modern Paris.
When Charles Le Braque learns that his boss' 17 years old daughter is pregnant, he fears that his 16 years old nice Joel from France, who's spending her vacation with them in Canada, might fall into the same trap. So he and his wife decide to give her the lecture of plants and bees... but it turns out that she's already well informed, gives them a lecture about simultaneous orgasms. She inspires the sexually repressed couple to start experimenting with "modern" forms of sex.
Rosemonde, hailed as "the Princess" reign over a slum in the Paris suburbs. Herbert, a reporter who came to investigate on the pollution, ends up in a grinding machine of her invention. Rosemonde resells the bones to the church authorities who use them as holy relics. Inspector Adrian Bondu is handling the case... But a young hippie who looks like Jesus will have Rosemonde suddenly feel very earthly feelings...
Gabriel Pelletier's life is no bed of roses. Not because of his job: he is a successful sales manager. But on account of the various wrongdoings committed by his kin. First, there is his daughter Nicole, who has just developed an infatuation with a young man who is not only a revolutionary student but the the son of a Sicilian mobster as well. Then he has to cope with Bernard, his brother-in-law, a ladies'man who has been vamped by one of the sexy daughters of the Sicilian. Let's not forget Albert, his own brother, an avant-garde filmmaker also in trouble with Lombardi, the omnipresent gangster. To crown it all, Maryse, his domestic worker, is a Maoist militant!... In the end, poor Gabriel can't take it anymore. He hits the road and calls it quits.
Monsieur Gentil runs a perfume factory. He is a shy man, bullied by Madame Marthe, the manager, and spurned by Cléo, the young travel agent he is in love with. He 'd rather be a tough guy than a wet blanket and his meeting with Durante, a gangster, will be decisive. Considering him a providential piggy bank, Durante, following the advice of his boss Spinosa, entrusts the" education" of Gentil to two experts, Perrugo and Bersone.
A scientist from the East happens in France where it is supposed to improve one of his inventions. But it is much more interested in the fact to enjoy it and have fun ...
Pétepan learns that his money has been lost by Robinhoude brothers.He asks his assistants to withdraw his amount from the bank.
Up the Himalayas... Up the Yang-tze... Up in a balloon... Up-stage with a stripper... Up-town in Hong Kong... You can't keep a great adventurer down
A confused pair of airport luggage carriers get involved in the disappearance of some suitcases.
I Brutos arrive in the town of Fresno during a gunfight and mistakenly think it is a celebration of their arrival and start shooting their guns and kill all the villains and the town undertaker. They take over the undertaking duties but bury the bodies in an Indian burial ground upsetting the local Indian tribe.
Jockey Jack has a bill open with a gangster just released from jail. He somehow manages to parry the gangster's knife attack backstage at a theatre and the latter ends up dead being put into a double bass case. A day later the gangster mysteriously has disappeared, but it turns out that he was carrying a bet ticket for a horse race now worth over a million. A turbulent run for the money begins.
Strip-tease has a pleasing Paris setting and a convincing strip club atmosphere, where a roster of exotic dancers do their thing. Making the club atmosphere work is the animated Dany Saval, as a charming gossip and outspoken cheerleader for the art of the strip-tease. Berthe encourages Ariane to loosen up and enjoy what she's doing.
"Les petits matins" is a story of eighteen-year old Agathe (Agathe Aëms) with a firm independence of men even if she uses them to get to the côte d'azur. Along the way she meets a lot of people , mostly men. And the director does not spare the sterotypical image of early 60s middle aged male cliches to lampoon. But this is all very light stuff, nothing too intellectual. But it's often charming, and there's a bevy of well-known actors involved. Jean -Claude Brialy (the pompous, self absorbed male lead of Rohmer's "Claire's Knee"), Claude Rich, Lino Ventura, François Perrier, Pierre Brasseur, and the couple Bernard Blier & Arletty, who team up here for the first time since Marcel Carné's "Hôtel du Nord" (1938).
Albertine, a young woman from Bordeaux, leaves her town and her husband to discover the joys of the French capital. Thanks to her friend Cécile, she penetrates Parisian high society and becomes the subject of rivalry between Dr André Challenberg and a fashionable young novelist, Didier Marèze.
The title role in the French comedy-fantasy A Martian in Paris is filled by Darry Cowl. The higher-ups in Mars want to learn all about that strange commodity, peculiar to the planet Earth, known as "Love". Darry soon figures out what makes the world go 'round when he meets the gorgeous Nicole Mirel. A Martian in Paris was obviously inspired by the 1960 American comedy A Visit to a Small Planet, which starred Jerry Lewis. Darry Cowl's imitation of Lewis is passable, but it certainly didn't fool the "Le Roi Crazy Jerry" idolators at Cahiers du Cinema and Positif magazine.
Charles and Jeanne Renard live with their young kids in a dormitory town. Everyday train and metro,work and return by train and metro to the dormitory town (the famous french sentence "Métro,boulot,dodo"). But how fragile is marital bliss ?
Les amours de Paris focuses on three disparate couples and their problems in the arena of romantic love. One couple is comprised of a faithful husband and a sick wife whose stay in the hospital is not so bad because she has taken a sudden interest in her doctor. In the second pairing, a womanizer comes to see that the model who is in love with him is worth more than yet another conquest. And to complete the trio, two zany people finally realize they are a couple.
The seven stages in the life of the modern Frenchwomen are disclosed by seven directors in a witty way: 1 - Childhood, 2 - Adolescence, 3 - Virginity, 4 - Marriage, 5 - Adultery, 6 - Divorce, 7 - The Single Woman.
A modern re-telling of the Robinson Crusoe story. But, this time, our hero is a macguivering expert. So he creates himself a modern paradise based on his beloved delivery tricycle that we saw in the previous movie"The tricyclist".
Bum Archimède wants to spend the winter in prison, but to get there proves not to be that easy.
A beautiful 18-year-old orphan escapes from a reformatory and hooks up wth a gang of jewel smugglers, and decides on a life of crime. However, she falls for and marries a policeman, putting a crimp in her criminal career.
A French animal lover protects a dog and a mouse wanted by Soviet scientists for their space program.
Manuel, a landowner in Jamaica, arrives in Paris on vacation. There he meets Olivia, a Spanish popular singer and falls in love. Olivia leaves Paris to play in a casino of the Riviera and Manuel follows her there. Maxime lives in Cannes, uncle of Olivia, a trickster who poses as a magician and has great influence on Annie, an eccentric billionaire. At the same time, Simeon, Annie's secretary tries to bribe the magician to influence Annie to accept to marry him, but as Maxime also wants to marry her, Simeon uses the services of a private detective. Manuel receives a telegram asking him to return to Jamaica. So, Annie proposes them a cruise aboard his yacht and invites Olivia.
Jojo’s ambition is to become a gangster, but to be admitted into a gang he has to prove himself by committing a daring act. To that end, he kills someone in broad daylight, not knowing that his victim is an actor who is playing a scene in a film directed by a cranky film-maker (Darry Cowl). The murder is caught on film, leading Commissaire Bernard (Michel Simon) to think that the killer will be easy to find. Sure enough, Bernard soon makes his arrest, a clown from a circus, but then he faces an almost insurmountable problem. The clown has an identical twin, who is also a clown with the same circus. Both men claim to be innocent…
Antoine Peyralout is baker Mouillefarine's tricycle delivery man. Comical and stuttering, Antoine shows more interest in the local soccer team than in professional integrity. A wedding cake pays the price for it and the young man is dismissed. Not dispirited in the least, Antoine decides to go to Nice, where his favorite team will play the final of the Cup. On his merry (and eventful) way, he has the opportunity to save a pretty camper, Popeline, with whom he falls in love. Once in Nice, he discovers that Dabek, the brilliant goal-keeper is not up to his task following bad news...
When he learns that his daughter is to be engaged to the son of a rich businessman, Leon Martin realizes that extreme measures are needed to create a good impression.
Peter Simon, a famous American writer, deserts his girlfriend Eva to live incognito at a small Normandy inn. Eva shams her own murder for revenge. Meanwhile, a young reporter, Françoise, has tracked Peter down. The news of the crime quickly spreads and, believing Peter to be the murderer, the village is in an uproar. Despite misadventures galore, everything turns out right and Peter takes Françoise on their honeymoon.
The fake private detective Mike Spillone is hired by two old ladies to find out if Brigitte, the wife of their nephew Otello Bellomo, has a lover. Brigitte is a physician but the two aunts are unaware of the fact. While investigating, Mike and his assistant Johnny discover Brigitte with a prospective patient, the marquis De Vitti who was shot by the husband of the woman he tried to seduce. Afterwards Spillone finds her with her husband who he believes to be her lover.
Two French advertising agencies vying for a contract with a manufacturer of washers. The manager decides to hire the agency submitting the best advertising campaign. Jean Francois, head of the A.P.N., has the great idea of looking for an authentic Portuguese washerwoman to present the ads. But competition, the O.P.I., led by the attractive Catherine, on a trip to Portugal, check the washer ideal. It is a shy girl who is happy with life in Portugal and refuses to accept the proposals of Catherine. And here intervenes Jean François, who pretends to fall for her to take her to Paris ..
Due to an urgent need of money, Agnes participates in an amateur striptease contest. Her new boyfriend, Daniel, who is a reporter by profession, covers the contest for his magazine.
On Christmas Eve, Françoise, a manicurist at the Paris-Palace-Hotel, is invited to celebrate by Henri Delormel, an attractive fifty-something man. She later meets Gérard driving a Cadillac, and passes herself off as the wealthy Delormel's daughter. For his part, the young garage employee claims to own the vehicle.
Jules Duraton is the headmaster of Chatelbourg's high school. He is happily married, has a teenage daughter named Solange, and everything would be for the best of all possible worlds if he and his family were not the namesakes of the protagonists of a famous comic series broadcast every day on Radio Monde "La Famille Duraton". Day after day, the real-life Duratons are made fun of because of their surname and Jules just can't take it any more. That is why he decides to sue the radio station responsible for his misfortune.
