Word: noiret
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...being hunted for murder. The inspector (Jean Rochefort) doesn't realize it, but he's just hit upon the motive for the puzzling case he is trying to solve. Bernard Descombes, disaffected son of a Lyons clockmaker, has inexplicably killed a right-wing factory informer. His father, Michel (Philippe Noiret), is shaken by the news, but his beefy face betrays hurt and bewilderment rather than outrage. The glib explanations offered by the press and the police don't satisfy him. He knows his son had no strong commitment to leftist politics, and he doubts the dismissal of Bernard's girlfriend...
Hardly a conventional crime film, The Clockmaker arouses virtually no suspense. We know that Bernard committed the crime; we're only uncertain about his reasons. Because the clockmaker's search for a motive is the only spring that propels the plot, the film sags frequently along the way. Only Noiret's performance keeps us from losing interest entirely as we wait and wait for Bernard to be nabbed or for some new hint about his motive to turn up. Noiret resists any temptation to make Descombes a heroic, larger-than-life figure; he is just a regular guy sweating...
Another French movie, THE CLOCKMAKER, is more sober but similarly slight. Philippe Noiret, a worthy actor with the wistful, befuddled expression of an alpine rescue dog, appears as a widowed father whose son has collaborated in the killing of a factory foreman. The son is on the run with his partner in crime, who is also his girl friend. These two are not even glimpsed until late in the film, where they reveal themselves to be casual about the killing, past the point of indifference. Pop is not a figure of considerable passion either, and The Clockmaker concerns the tentative...
...Noiret also shows up in MY FRIENDS, a film begun by the witty, raucous Pietro Germi (Divorce-Italian Style), who collaborated on the script but died after hardly a week of filming in 1974, at the age of 60. Mario Monicelli (Big Deal on Madonna Street) completed the movie, which, unfortunately, does little credit to anyone. My Friends concerns the infrequently amusing forays of a group of five stalwarts (Noiret, Ugo Tognazzi, Gastone Moshin, Duilio Del Prete, Adolfo Celi) who break out of their conventional, half-failing lives to have a little fun. This usually involves playing practical jokes-such...
...countryside. Loaded down with tins of canned goods and an automatic pistol, he starts to make his way to a small mountain cabin which, it turns out, has already been destroyed by a natural disaster. This piece of information is relayed by an ursine eccentric named Thomas (Philippe Noiret) who encounters David in the middle of his trek. Thomas offers David shelter, food and his wife, a pert sculptress named Julia (Marlene Jobert)- although he reserves the right to act wounded when his guest takes him up on all three. Thomas and Julia are enchanted with David's brooding...