Michel Simon

Acting

Michel Simon

Born 1895-04-09 · Geneva, Switzerland

Michel Simon (9 April 1895 – 30 May 1975) was a Swiss actor. He appeared in the notable films La Chienne (1931), Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932), L'Atalante (1934), Port of Shadows (1938), The Head (1959), and The Train (1964).

Acting credits

The Passion of Joan of Arc poster
8.0

A classic of the silent age, this film tells the story of the doomed but ultimately canonized 15th-century teenage warrior. On trial for claiming she'd spoken to God, Jeanne d'Arc is subjected to inhumane treatment and scare tactics at the hands of church court officials. Initially bullied into changing her story, Jeanne eventually opts for what she sees as the truth. Her punishment, a famously brutal execution, earns her perpetual martyrdom.

The Passion of Joan of Arc

1928

The Train poster
7.6

As the Allied forces approach Paris in August 1944, German Colonel Von Waldheim is desperate to take all of France's greatest paintings to Germany. He manages to secure a train to transport the valuable art works even as the chaos of retreat descends upon them. The French resistance however wants to stop them from stealing their national treasures but have received orders from London that they are not to be destroyed. The station master, Labiche, is tasked with scheduling the train and making it all happen smoothly but he is also part of a dwindling group of resistance fighters tasked with preventing the theft. He and others stage an elaborate ruse to keep the train from ever leaving French territory.

The Train

1964

Austerlitz poster
6.6

Napoleon Bonaparte crowns himself emperor and fights the English, Austrians and Russians in 1802.

Austerlitz

1960

Morceaux de Cannes poster
2.0

We thought we'd seen, read, and heard everything there was to see about the Cannes Film Festival, from the glitz and gossip to the scandals and censorship. And yet, Emmanuel Barnault's "Morceaux de Cannes" (Pieces of Cannes), by this leading expert on Italian and French cinema, convinces us otherwise. The third largest event in the world (after the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup) reveals its secrets only sparingly, as this film attests. The result of passionate research in the INA archives, these 52 minutes, without interviews or voice-over narration, string together rare and sometimes previously unseen footage. Taken together, they tell a surprising, original, and heartwarming story of the Festival. On the beach, on a street corner, in a restaurant, or in the privacy of a hotel room, these forgotten archives summon the greatest filmmakers, actors, and actresses of the last seventy years, from Jean Cocteau to David Lynch, for an anthology of the Festival's history.

Morceaux de Cannes

2021

The Crowned Fish Tavern poster
6.0

Captain Palmer's daughter, Maria, is neglected by her husband, the cynical Leo, who lives with the beautiful Sylvia. To defeat his son-in-law, Palmer has the idea of ​​putting Sylvia back in the presence of Pierre, her first love. Leo takes revenge by creating many difficulties for Palmer who retaliates by starting a violent fight where Leo is killed. Everything seems to point to Pierre, but...

The Crowned Fish Tavern

1947

Beautiful Star poster
8.3

Meg decides to commit suicide to escape the marriage to which her father intends her. She is saved by Jean-Pierre, another candidate for suicide, and Léon, a tramp who was just trying to reason with him. The trio then becomes inseparable and organizes a new life based on friendship and freedom.

Beautiful Star

1938

Deputy Eusèbe poster
10.0

Eusèbe Bonbonneau, a solicitor's clerk, learns one day that a candidate bearing his name runs for election as a member of parliament. In fact Frazier, a crooked businessman, has urged an accomplice to impersonate Eusèbe, in order to obtain, through this straw man, authorizations for the creation of a casino in Sanceau-les-Nains and to make big money out of it. Eusébe decides to go to Paris to investigate. In the capital he meets Mariska, an exuberant actress who encourages him to try to get elected. As a result, thanks to her the true Bonbonneau becomes a member of parliament and the crook's accomplice is arrested. But Frazier is not impressed and, changing tactics, he starts manipulating Eusèbe.

Deputy Eusèbe

1939

Extenuating Circumstances poster
6.7

Harsh Parisian judge Gaetan (known as Monsieur Maximum), chafing in the idleness of retirement, leaves for a seaside holiday. But Gabriel the chauffeur has his mind on his girl, not the car; Gaetan and wife Nathalie are stranded in the country, where they find shelter in a low class bistro patronized by cheerful jail birds. Once the ice is broken, they have a wonderful time, but as the judge tries to trick his new friends into reforming, inevitable exposure approaches...

Extenuating Circumstances

1939

Hungarian Rhapsody poster
10.0

1847. Franz Liszt meets the beautiful princess Caroline von Sayn-Wittgenstein in Kiev. The two fall in love, but the princess is forced to marry an elderly general. When the revolution breaks out in Hungary, she flees with Franz Liszt to Weimar. They also ask the Pope to annul Caroline's unhappy marriage, a question that remains unanswered for the time being. Can Liszt and his princess stay together for long?

Hungarian Rhapsody

1954

Vautrin the Thief poster
7.9

A famous convict Jacques Collin, alias Trompe la mort, or abbot Carlos Herrera, also called Vautrin, escapes from prison. Chance makes him meet Lucien de Rubempré, an impetuous and eternal lover who, when he is dismissed, collapses. Moved by this fragility, he takes him under his wing, and will do everything possible to ensure that his creature reaches happiness, even if it means imagining the worst shenanigans and other scams, with the help of a band of clever villains.

Vautrin the Thief

1943

Poison poster
7.2

Paul Braconnier and his wife Blandine only have one thing in mind: to find a way to kill each other without risk. After listening to a radio show, Paul decides to go to Paris to meet a famous lawyer in the acquittal of the murderers. He tells the lawyer that he killed his wife. The lawyer asks Paul to reconstruct the circumstances of the drama. Without knowing it, he explains, in spite of himself, the way for Paul to murder his wife by putting the odds on his side to avoid death penalty or even be released...

Poison

1951

Port of Shadows poster
7.4

Down a foggy, desolate road to the port city of Le Havre travels Jean, an army deserter looking for another chance to make good on life. Fate, however, has a different plan for him, as acts of both revenge and kindness render him front-page news.

Port of Shadows

1938

The Stream poster
6.8

When Paul, an officer, discovers Denise, a young orphan escaped from her orphanage, he takes advantage of his naivete to seduce her before changing her mind and sending her to live with her mother while sailing.

The Stream

1938

L'Atalante poster
7.5

Newly married couple Juliette and ship captain Jean struggle through marriage as they travel on the L'Atalante along with the captain's first mate and a cabin boy.

L'Atalante

1934

Mirages poster
7.0

A star of Les Folies Bergères has to choose between her career and her love for an engineer.

Mirages

1938

Belmondo: The Incorrigible poster
8.2

Charismatic and resourceful, seducer and daredevil, Jean-Paul Belmondo has always played his roles as he lived, at a thousand miles an hour. He had only one passion: to entertain the public with his smile, his naturalness, his energy, his stunts. But contrary to appearances, his destiny was full of pitfalls. This film lifts the veil on a founding childhood that allowed him to overcome many obstacles throughout his life thanks to the tutelary figures of his father and mother. Told from the inside with the help of his autobiography, interviews and unpublished archives, this epic story traces the career of this turbulent young actor who launched the New Wave in Breathless before becoming the popular Bebel, an indestructible and provocative vigilante. From film to film, this documentary paints an intimate portrait of a man who built himself up to reach the top: his triumphs but also his trials, his doubts, his secrets, his angers, his clowning, his disappointments or his personal dramas.

Belmondo: The Incorrigible

2022

The Two of Us poster
7.6

A story of the caring friendship formed between a crusty, old anti-Semite and an eight-year-old Jewish boy who goes to live with him during World War II.

The Two of Us

1967

It Happened in Broad Daylight poster
7.4

The search for a child murderer drags a once-respected detective into an all-consuming obsession.

It Happened in Broad Daylight

1958

The Devil and the Ten Commandments poster
5.6

The film consists of seven roughly 15 minute episodes, each showing what will happen if one or more of the Ten Commandments will be broken: Jérome Chambard is warned that he will lose his job if he continues to swear; Françoise Beaufort enamored of a stripper calls on her only to find her married to a janitor who doesn't know what kind of dancing his wife performs; Denis, a Jesuit novice, leaves the order to avenge his sister's suicide, which was provoked by Garigny, who seduced her into prostitution and drug addiction; Philip buys a necklace for Micheline though he is bored with her; a young man find out that his real mother is not Madeleine, but actress Clarisse Ardant; Didier Marin, cashier of a bank, was fired by his boss; the Devil appears as a serpent for Jérome Chambard and the bishop are eating.

The Devil and the Ten Commandments

1962

The End of the Day poster
6.7

Aged penniless actors are living in a old people's home. They always talk about their past glory or failures. One day Raphael Saint-Clair comes; he has been a famous actor and had a lot of love affairs. Passions come back, and jealousies... A bitter film about aging, failure and the entertainment.

The End of the Day

1939

Fric-Frac poster
6.1

An employee at a jewelry store falls in love with a woman who secretly plans to rob the store.

Fric-Frac

1939

Jean Vigo : le son retrouvé poster
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

Jean Vigo : le son retrouvé

2001

Boudu Saved from Drowning poster
6.9

Michel Simon gives one of the most memorable performances in screen history as Boudu, a Parisian tramp who takes a suicidal plunge into the Seine and is rescued by a well-to-do bookseller, Edouard Lestingois. The Lestingois family decides to take in the irrepressible bum, and he shows his gratitude by shaking the household to its foundations. With Boudu Saved from Drowning, legendary director Jean Renoir takes advantage of a host of Parisian locations and the anarchic charms of his lead actor to create an effervescent satire of the bourgeoisie.

Boudu Saved from Drowning

1932

Two Hours to Kill poster
6.5

In the waiting room of the Auvernaux station, the atmosphere is very lively. Several passengers, who have missed their train, are discussing the killer of young girls who is rampant in the region. While the criminal might be in the vicinity, pursued by the police, a journalist leads the investigation inside the station.

Two Hours to Kill

1966

Behind the camera