Bernard Blier

Bernard Blier

Acting

January 11, 1916 — March 29, 1989
Buenos Aires, Argentina
186 movies

Biography

Bernard Blier (11 January 1916 – 29 March 1989) was a French character actor. His rotund features and premature baldness allowed him to often play cuckolded husbands in his early career. He proved to be one of France's most versatile and sought-after character actors, performing interchangeably in comedies and dramas. He often worked in Italian films, particularly in the last decade of his life. He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where his father, a researcher at the Institut Pasteur, was ...

🎬 Bernard Blier's Filmography

186 movies sorted by popularity

Before the Deluge
6.6

The title of this French "reality" drama, which translates to Before the Deluge, is a play on Louis XVI's famous prognostication, "Apres moi, le deluge." Set in 1950, the film concentrates on five Parisian adolescents. Certain that the next war will herald the apocalypse, the youngster make plans to run off to a desert island and set up a new society. This, however, will require money, which is why the boys decide to pull off a "necessary" robbery. Idealism collapses in the face of cold reality, as the five youths suffer from the consequences of their actions. Avant le Deluge was one of a group of films cowritten by director Andre Cayatte and Charles Spaak which endeavored to explore the touchy social issues of the day: others in the Cayatte-Spaak canon include the euthanasia-themed Justice est Faite and the capital-punishment tract Nous sommes tous des assassins.

Before the Deluge

1954
Bernard Blier, façon puzzle
8.0

In a career spanning more than half a century, Bernard Blier has shot more than 180 films. He alone represents a history of French cinema without having spent his time cultivating its legend. He crossed his century as an actor with the modesty of a craftsman. He believed in learning, know-how and transmission. He considered himself, like the butcher or the cabinetmaker, as a man useful to his fellow men. Bernard Blier found in Louis Jouvet, who was his teacher at the Conservatory, a master at playing, a mentor and even a spiritual father. Jouvet taught Blier the love of acting, theater and Molière. And if he knew how to take hold of Michel Audiard's best tirades like no one else, notably those of the "Tontons Flingueurs", it is to this apprenticeship that he owes it.

Bernard Blier, façon puzzle

2020
La Symphonie fantastique
6.4

The film is biographical, telling the story of the life and artistic struggles of the French composer Hector Berlioz. Berlioz is shown as a recalcitrant medical student in an anatomy class dreaming of becoming a composer; at a demonstration during a performance at the Paris Opéra conducted by Habeneck; at supper with other young artists (Hugo, Janin, Dumas, Mérimée, Delacroix); and chasing after his future wife Harriet Smithson, after a performance of Hamlet. Also depicted are his life in a garret, while suffering from an illness due to an abscess in the throat; a visit from his mother who curses him; and the composition of the Symphonie fantastique. The film then shows his marital breakdown, the premiere of his opera Benvenuto Cellini, his travels throughout Europe, his second marriage to Marie Recio (called "Marie Martin" in the film), public acceptance in old age and reconciliation with his son.

La Symphonie fantastique

1942
My Uncle Benjamin
6.1

Benjamin is in love with Manette, the innkeeper's beautiful daughter, but she has no intention of giving in to the young doctor until she sees the marriage contract, and marriage does not fit in with Benjamin's spirit of independence. For the same reason he resists the efforts of his sister Bettine to marry him off to Arabelle, the daughter of old Dr. Minxit. Benjamin does agree to go and meet the girl. But that evening his sister finds him at the inn together with Manette, who is arrested by her father. So she decides to go with Benjamin herself. But as result of an incident with the fat Marquis puts paid to the expedition. Benjamin is subjected by the Marquis to a humiliating practical joke. Benjamin is determined to got his revenge. He succeeds thanks to the gorgeous Vicomte Hector de Pont-Cassé, who also helps Manette with her problems against her father. But Benjamin is now arrested by the Marquis...

My Uncle Benjamin

1969
Quick Trial
6.2

After a terrorist attack against a train, the police arrest the young laborer Stefano Baldini, member of a group of militant leftists. Entrusted for interrogation to Sergeant Pendicò and special agents Lorusso and Spasiani, Stefano dies, after four days, in unclear circumstances. Doubting the official version of the police, the second time in which a young person died in custody, journalist Cristina Visconti tries, with the aid of the sister of Stefano, to discover the truth. They rub up against a conspiracy of silence that encircles the acts of Pendicò and his associates. Frustrated beyond reason, Cristina tries a desperate ploy: publishing a story without evidence in the newspaper, accusing the three agents of having caused the death of Stefano with their blows. Cristina is put on trial for defamation. Can she avoid going to jail and also reveal the facts surrounding Stefano's death?

Quick Trial

1974
Clockface Cafe
5.7

Julien Couturier and his wife Louise, a young couple from Auvergne who have come to Paris to try their luck for the first time in their lives, become the owners of the "Café du Cadran" ("Clockface Cafe"). On opening day, they meet the people who will become their clientele. It's a busy place, with regular customers served by two waiters, Jules and Victor. While Julien is comfortable in his role as boss, Louise doesn't quite get used to this urban world, where everything moves faster, especially human feelings. She often misses Marcenait, the village in Auvergne where she and her husband ran the "Café du Commerce". Mr. Luigi, a café customer and violinist who performs at the "Café de Paris", has undertaken Louise's cultural education. He teaches her how to dress and do her hair, while recounting his musical successes and travels, skilfully playing on his undeniable seductiveness...

Clockface Cafe

1947
A Legitimate Defense
6.0

Two friends from the last war, Pierrot, a bar owner, and Gustave, a police inspector, are in contact with a notorious gang of racketeers in Montmartre. Tired of putting up with Albert the King's demands, Pierrot kills the gangster during a bar brawl. His first instinct is to flee, but on Gustave's advice, he turns himself in to the law. All things considered, he'll be safer in prison than exposed to the reprisals of the "underworld". Pierrot goes to trial. He was acquitted as having acted in self-defense. But his release leaves him open to the vengeance of Bob, one of Albert's accomplices. Pierrot narrowly escapes an ambush, but is finally able to rid himself of the threat hanging over him, thanks to the friendship of Inspector Gustave, and finally reunites with the companion of his life, Dora, who has never stopped trembling for him.

A Legitimate Defense

1958
Bernard Blier | MovieMind AI