Maurice Biraud – MRQE

Bartleby (1970/I)

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Adaptation of the classic Herman Melville short story. The narrator, an elderly Manhattan lawyer with a very comfortable business helping wealthy men deal with mortgages, deeds, and bonds, relates the story of the strangest man he has ever known.

Le Septième juré

Sat, 23 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

In a moment of madness a middle-aged, married and respectable pharmacist kills a young woman who is sun-bathing by a lake. Unable to take in what he has done, he flees from the scene of the crime and behaves as if nothing has happened. Eventually her boyfriend is charged with the crime and, in a strange twist of fate, the killer finds himself serving on the jury.

Le Passe-muraille

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Mr. Peek-a-Boo may seem like a puerile title, but it is a lot more graspable to non-French audiences than the original Garou Garou Le Passe Muraille. Bourvil stars as a minor bureaucrat who finds himself the reluctant recipient of magical powers. He is actually able to walk through solid walls, which should be no surprise to those who read the novel on which the film is based, Marcel Ayme’s The Man Who Walked Through Walls (truth in advertising!) He resists his friends’ suggestions that he utilize his power to commit undetectable thefts, but changes his mind when he meets reluctant thief Joan Greenwood. The special effects by Henry Harris and Paul Raibaud are fairly elementary, but good for a few laughs as Bourvil constantly makes monkeys of the gendarmes.

Le Gitan

Sat, 23 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Hugo Sennart is a French Gypsy, wanted by the police for theft. The same inspector who’s searching for him is also looking for a jewel thief, Yan Kuq, whose wife has died under suspicious circumstance just after a major burglary. The Gypsy needs to settle a few scores and make one more heist before going to ground, and, by coincidence, his path takes him close to Yan, who’s hiding in the hotel of a close friend and former lover, Ninie. The Gypsy lives by a code of honor, which puts him at risk on occasion; and he despises those who treat his people as worse than dogs. The police close in. Is there honor among thieves?

L’événement le plus important depuis que l’homme a marché sur la lune

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Marco Mazzetti, a driving instructor, lives with his wife Irène and their young child. After a series of dizzy spells, he goes to the doctor and discovers that he is four-month pregnant. Marco then becomes internationally famous…

Pays de cocagne

Sun, 12 Oct 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Pierre Etaixs most radical film, and perhaps unsurprisingly the one that effectively ended his career in cinema, Land of Milk and Honey is a fascinating investigative documentary about postMay 68 French society.

La Métamorphose des cloportes

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Three little criminals get a tip for a great coup with lots of money in it. Unfortunately they lack the starting funds to buy the required welding torch. So they persuade their successful colleague Alphonse to join their team. But the well thought-out coup fails, and Alphonse is the only one of them who ends up in jail for several years. When he’s released, he’s out for revenge.

Un taxi pour Tobrouk

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

During World War II, French Commandos join forces with a German officer in order to survive the African desert.