François Dyrek

Hippolyte, the titular oddball, is a far from typical country lawyer. He has been happily married to the woman of his dreams for 15 years, but has an incurable penchant for practical (or rather impractical) jokes.

Themroc, a bachelor house painter living at home with his mother, leads a sad and colorless life. One day, after a run-in with his boss, he rebels. He wrecks his apartment, rejects every facet of bourgeois life, and begins acting like an urban, modern-day Neanderthal.

France, 1893. Joseph Bouvier attempts to shoot his love who refused to marry him and to commit suicide. Upon release from the filthy asylum where he was placed, with bullets still remaining in his head, he wanders the country roads and rapes and murders many teenagers over years. The judge Rousseau captures him, but to serve his ambition seeks to avoid that Bouvier is simply declared insane.

Ralf Milan, a hitman, arrives in Montpellier to kill an important witness. He checks in a hotel without knowing that his neighbour has become neurotic after his wife left him.

Complications abound in this French film, which tells the story of a filmmaker who is attempting to put his real life into a movie; his interactions with the people in the movie he is filming create reverberations in his "real" life, although the past remains unchanged. Among the complications is his growing regard for the woman who plays his cinematic wife. She may wind up replacing his actual wife in real life. One of the highlights of this film is the insight it gives into the actual mechanics of filmmaking.

Although based on a novel by Georges Simenon, director (and songwriter) Serge Gainsbourg has superimposed several dark emotions and a subtle brutality over the weak plot about a man's trip to Africa and his unfortunate passion for a murderess whose amorality sends the disillusioned fellow back to Europe. Sometimes described as frustrating and self-centered, reactions to this film swing across a broad spectrum of complaints -- not the least might be whether or not Gainsbourg is using a clichéd and stereotypical view of "dark Africa" to convey what he sees in his characters.

Édith Giovanna Gassion is born in 1915. As a young girl she sings on the streets of Paris until a nightclub owner, Louis Leplée, discovers her. When he is murdered the composer Raymond Asso takes care of her and lets her perform at the ABC theatre, which leads to her breakthrough.

François, a miserable football player, becomes a town hero after bringing victory in an extremely important game. He uses his fame for revenge on the team star for the previous mockeries.

Paul Martin and François Leroux are brothers-in-law and comics without fame. One day, the famous television comics, Gaëtan, finds himself in the little theater where Paul and François produce themselves under the name of "Gagsters".

A young boy commits a simple act of theft that sends his quiet town into a frenzy over the course of one unforgettable summer. Eleven year old Petit Jean has two uncles: His kindly Uncle Arthur is a good neighbor and law-abiding citizen, but Arthur's brother Andre is a notorious thief. When Andre is arrested for stealing chickens, he denies any wrongdoing yet winds up in jail regardless - the unfortunate victim of his own his bad reputation. Meanwhile, on the outside, the townspeople remain split over the decision to pin the crime on Andre despite the notable lack of evidence. Little do they realize that Jean Petite is the real thief, because he's not talking.

A look at 18th-century France, when the depravity of the authorities contributed to social oppression, and the uprisings flared up one after another.

In 1920, Major Dellaplane, a man of honor and ethics, searches for missing French soldiers. He meets Madame Irène de Courtil, a politically connected Parisian, and their paths cross.

No description available.

American actor-director Arnold Barkus made this low-budget French film, a comedy set in New York, with scenes taking place in Chinatown, in a Franco-Greek cabaret, and on the Brooklyn Bridge. Brooklyn-born Max suspects his girlfriend Sophia has been cheating on him. His French pal Jean and a young woman, Vita, step in with a scheme to get back at Sophia, a character who is never seen during the entire film. Included is a parody of the Russian roulette scene from The Deer Hunter (1978).

Emile Michel, Lapland, orphan, is obliged to bring back within the tribe the ancestral totem: a gold plumb line "borrowed" formerly by his grandfather Raymond Michel. His quest will take him aboard a floating boat that crosses Baffin Bay in the icy waters of Greenland.

In the Médoc, a young woman is found drowned. An accident, her influential family of winegrowers maintains. Or rather murder, as the American inspector Morrison suspects. If so, why? What secrets this family keeps?

Jean-Marie Fayard is a young examining magistrate in a large provincial french city. He belongs to that generation of judges who are endeavoring to re-adapt the notion of justice to our changing times. His methods are not agreeable to every one. Criticism and pressure are brought to bear upon him but he is aware of his value, professionally, and refuses to make any concessions. He follows an unwavering course. He uses dynamic methods and takes uncustomary initiatives. He behaves like a crusader, a battler, whence the nickname given him by the reporters : the sheriff.

A woman's father, a scientist, receives repeated death threats and eventually ends up dead. Receiving no help from the police, the woman begins to realize that she is next.

Three men with a penchant for gambling on the horses soon find themselves in trouble because of their addiction. Pierre (Michel Piccoli) is the math whiz who uses his talent for picking the winners. Charles (Michel Galabru) is the wealthy scrap-iron magnate who has embarrassing evidence on many prominent political figures. Loic (Jacques Dutronc) is the aspiring politico who seeks to further his career by any means possible. Charles approaches Loic and asks his political party for a loan in hopes of fixing an upcoming race....

In this family comedy, Papa has no end of trouble getting his young son to accept his new girlfriend.

The small Norman village of Allouville is proud of its thousand-year-old oak tree. But one day, a project of enlargement threatens the tree. The deputy Charles Crétois was keen on this project, which allowed him to continue the speculation he had been indulging in on certain lands. He is supported by the mayor of Allouville to whom he promised the Legion of Honor. But the whole village protests: they want to save the oak tree.

No description available.

The story of a notorious French criminal gang of the 1910s.

A young Swiss drug addict has been imprisoned for robbery, and must wait and wait for his upcoming trial, all the while isolated and without hope of parole - the police are convinced he is a dealer and not just a user. He hears from his son that his girlfriend has a new man, and begins to despair of ever coming to trial, or of having another relationship like the one he lost. This fiction film is said to be based on a true story.

Molinat is assigned to the case of a man found with a bullet in his ear on the shore of a little Atlantic coast resort he knows well. Indeed, he used to live there before his wife disappeared at sea, never to be found again. As the ocean rejects a new corpse everyday, the mystery thickens and the list of potential suspects grows longer. This slows Molinat's progress as much as the cumbersome Leroyer, sent in to spy on him and hopefully impede his progress. The tension mounts and the ring involving the three young ladies in the grey mansion, the village idiot and the real estate agent starts spinning out of control.

Following a car breakdown, Miss Annie, director of a weight loss center, meets a certain Mr. Kelvo, a car champion. But instead of helping her, he rapes her. She decides to take revenge and follows him.

Young Martin has been acting strange. At his school, his teacher and classmates notice that he is less talkative and more withdrawn. When those around him begin to prod, they discover that Martin’s single mother has died. Fearful that he will be sent away from home now that he has no parents, Martin looks to his friends for help. With Jerome leading the charge to save Martin from the orphanage, the first thing they decide to do is dispose of the mother’s body.

Two retirees obsessed with their desire to know everything put their knowledge into practice in a constantly awkward way.

In Montmartre, Paris, two friends are leading a happy carefree Bohemian existence. Jean-Luc is a cabinetmaker, Mathieu is a sculptor. Then they both meet the love of their lives and decide to get married. Unfortunately, the objects of their desire are not so eager to be drawn into matrimony.

Heavy traffic in the summer. Bad luck for Juliet, Albert, Jaeger and Arthur who does not reach their destination. Involved in a terrible accident that will change their lives forever.

Pierre, a young man in his thirties, grew up with his two brothers in a city in the suburbs of Paris. He still lives there today with his wife, Deborah. His everyday life is divided between a job where he is exploited, discussions with his friends and brothers, family meals and unpreventable altercations with the cops.

Doctor Valois has invented the "flashage", a cure for depressed people. After having tested it on monkeys, he tries with a first human patient, Alain Durieux. This is great success, everybody's happy except may be Alain's wife, Jeanne, who's worrying about the changes in Alain's personality. Other patients use the treatment with similar successes, and Valois's happy about it. But the monkeys are changing: non-cured ones are made mad by the over-stability and stereotyped behaviour of the cured ones. So are the humans. When Valois realises he can't stop the process, he decides to "flash" himself.

Whilst King Gros Pif I amuses himself at debauched banquets, his musketeers pursue their tax-collecting duties with a malicious zeal. Goaded by the court jester (who is also the Queen’s lover), the ministers decide to put an end to this regime and have the King locked up. Hearing the news, the famous Chevalier Blanc comes to his rescue. Aided by the knight and his cousin Lucienne, the King flees to Flanders, where he devises a scheme to win him back the throne of France...

At the turn of the century, an unusual woman refuses to become an object to be desired or played with. Instead she wants to succeed on the stage of politics in the Third Republic.

Young aristocrat Arnaud de Maule hires female private detective Claude Alphand to investigate a strange cult, the Church of the Final Revival, that tried to recruit his girlfriend Chloé, who then disappeared, and it now stalks him.

Brave peasant of the country of Caux, Henri Duchemin is recovering badly from the death of his married wife, whom he loved dearly. After seeing a TV show, the man is convinced that his late wife has reincarnated into a cow.

Jeanne, mother of two children, loses her husband. She meets Pierre, abandoned by his wife.

No description available.

"Le Crabe Tambour" ("Drummer Crab") is the nickname for the mysterious central character, Willsdorff (Jacques Perrin), an Alsatian, whose doomed, out-of-date career is recalled through the tales of three naval officers currently serving aboard a French supply ship in the North Atlantic.

An old vagrant accidentally meets a man who has just killed his wife. They are both housed with an old woman who lives in the nostalgia of a youthful love.

Bertille is an old woman who lives in the countryside. Her relatives reunite there with her as she is about selling the property. They don't take long to out their true intentions which are merely material on her estate. Also, Bertille is afflicted by her youngest son who has been in prison for a decade. Decades of fighting over Einstein's stick of truth has made Bertille very frail and easy to come down on.

In a cul-de-sac in the Faubourg-Saint-Antoine, Leon shares two rooms with his sister Marie. In one, he receives his clients: he is a tailor. In the other, Marie receives her own: she is a clairvoyant. Leon was happy until he learned what Marie was hiding from him. She is actually a prostitute, and Maxime, her supposed fiancé, is her pimp. On the same day, Leon also discovers love in the form of Arlette, a provincial young woman picked up by Marie.

A young couple becomes entangled with a younger woman, resulting in tragic consequences.

This is a surreal comedy is about a factory set in a barren landscape that dispenses a minute portion of water to stragglers carrying pans as receptacles. Inside, the workers seem to be doing nothing that makes any sense, and they are watched over by a periscope set up by twins who run the factory. An unexplained, plain woman living on the premises is sought after by the whimsical foreman (Maurice Benichou) -- also known as the "gardener" because he has planted flowers in the coal wagons that remain on a maze of train tracks -- the only "stock" owned by the company.

A 40-year-old mechanic whistles at a passing teenager; she stops and upbraids him. In embarrassment, he claims he was whistling at her companion, her 14-year-old cousin, Isabelle. This changes Isabelle's outlook on life: her favorite story is Anderson's "Little Mermaid," and she thinks that in Georges she's found her prince. She follows him, engages him in conversation, and turns up at his flat. At first, he pushes her away and tells her she's nuts, but slowly he finds that she brings out of him a playful self, and he likes her devotion. The attraction builds, threatening Georges' adult relationships, including that with Nelly, his sweetheart. Where on earth can this affair lead?

No description available.

1957. For several months, Henri Charlègue, the ex-director of the newspaper "Alger democratic", banned, has been living in hiding. Suspected of belonging to the FLN, he is actively sought by paratroopers.

In 1944, in Paris, the leader of a resistance network is looking for the traitor who gave away a radio operator.

Tired of being a housewife, Annie wants to work. Between her professional life and her responsibilities as a parent, she can no longer cope. She decides to leave and starts writing a memoir of her life...

In this rambling comic tale about a man and a wife, with four children, who calmly announce to the children that they want to divorce one another, it is impossible to tell who is dissatisfied with whom about what. They had seemed to be a perfect couple. Their flabbergasted children have mixed feelings, and the most difficult thing about the divorce, besides understanding why it is taking place at all, is deciding what will happen with the couple's numerous pets.

“Each of you is an ambassador, and we are sure that each of you will be the best ambassador of our country.” This is how the film begins; a speech to emigrant workers for France. Salah left his three sisters and his mother to become an ambassador, going to work on a Defense site, wading in the mud, he works with a jackhammer. Salah wanders in search of work and housing. Coming up against racism from the owners claiming the respectability of the building and the good neighborhood, he finds himself in a hotel in the Goutte d'Or district. The body of Mehdi, friend of Salah, was found in the Canal Saint-Martin, murdered by a fascist commando, and Ali died of a bullet, killed by a racist janitor. Faced with crimes that remain unpunished, Salah and his friends organize, unite with the French working class to defend their lives and their right to work.

This fast-paced mystery is in part based on a novel by Yves Ellena and is at least equally based on the 1943 classic Le Corbeau, which in 1951 was produced in English by Otto Preminger as The Thirteenth Letter. In this movie, someone is using a pirate radio broadcast to dish the dirt on the lives of the elite of a small French town.

A good country priest discovers that he is a father and must assume his role, a task all the more delicate since his son is a thug.

Last feature film of Stanislav Barabas

Two young men, Zim and Jean-Pierre, both sentenced for a minor offence, recognize one another when they are released from prison on the same day. One wants to reform, but his friend wants to stay a crook. The first one gets a job and begins improving his life, while the young criminal ends up incarcerated for stealing cars.