
Directing
Philippe de Broca
Born 1933-03-15 · Paris, France
Philippe Claude Alex de Broca de Ferrussac (15 March 1933 – 26 November 2004) was a French film director. He directed 30 full-length feature films, including the highly successful That Man from Rio (L'Homme de Rio), The Man from Acapulco (Le Magnifique) and On Guard (Le Bossu). His works include historical, romantic epics such as Chouans! and King of Hearts (Le Roi de cœur), as well as comedies with a charismatic, breezy hero ready to embark upon any adventure which comes his way, so long as it means escaping everyday modern life: Practice Makes Perfect (Le Cavaleur), The Devil by the Tail (Le Diable par la queue), The African (L'Africain). He had links with the actor Jean-Paul Belmondo, with whom he made six films, as well as with Jean-Pierre Cassel, Philippe Noiret and Jean Rochefort. Philippe de Broca was born on 15 March 1933 in Paris. He was the son of a cinema set designer and the grandson of a well-known painter, Alexis de Broca. He studied at the Paris Photography and Cinematography School (école Vaugirard), graduating in 1953. He carried out his military service with the French Army's service cinématographique des armées (army film service) in Germany and then in Algeria, directing or acting as head cameraman on short films. Greatly affected by the war he witnessed in Algeria, he vowed to show life in its best light in his future films "because laughter is the best defence against upsets in life". After his discharge from the military, he set off on a journey taking in the length of Africa in Berliet trucks before returning to Paris. He began working as an intern with Henri Decoin, before finding assistant positions with Claude Chabrol: Bitter Reunion (Le Beau Serge), The Cousins (Les Cousins), Web of Passion (À Double Tour), François Truffaut: The 400 Blows (Les 400 Coups) and Pierre Schoendoerffer: Ramuntcho. In 1959, Claude Chabrol produced de Broca's first film for him, The Love Game (Les jeux de l'amour) with Jean-Pierre Cassel. De Broca went on to work with Cassel again in The Joker (Le Farceur, 1960), Five Day Lover (L'Amant de cinq jours, 1961), and Male Companion (Un Monsieur de Compagnie, 1964). De Broca's first commercial success came with Swords of Blood (Cartouche), filmed in 1962. This film also saw two more names become associated with de Broca: the actor Jean-Paul Belmondo and the producer Alexandre Mnouchkine. International acclaim came with That Man from Rio (L'Homme de Rio) in 1964, Up to His Ears (Les tribulations d'un Chinois en Chine) in 1965, The Man from Acapulco (Le Magnifique) in 1973 and Incorrigible (L'Incorrigible) in 1975. In 1966, he co-wrote, directed and produced King of Hearts (Le Roi de Cœur). This parody of the Great War, which some cinema-lovers consider his masterpiece, was a commercial and personal failure, to de Broca's dismay. Yet it eventually achieved genuine cult-film status during the mid 1970s when it was presented in repertory movie theaters as well as non-theatrical college and university film series across the United States, eventually running for five years at the now defunct film house, the Central Square Cinemas [2] in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ... Source: Article "Philippe de Broca" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.
Acting credits
8.0For young Parisian boy Antoine Doinel, life is one difficult situation after another. Surrounded by inconsiderate adults, including his neglectful parents, Antoine spends his days with his best friend, Rene, trying to plan for a better life. When one of their schemes goes awry, Antoine ends up in trouble with the law, leading to even more conflicts with unsympathetic authority figures.
The 400 Blows
1959
7.5A small-time thief steals a car and impulsively murders a motorcycle policeman. Wanted by the authorities, he attempts to persuade a girl to run away to Italy with him.
Breathless
1960
7.0A writer of pulpy book series in which he's the hero and his beautiful English roommate is the love interest attempts to finish his new book in time at the publisher's demand.
The Magnificent One
1973
6.3In the 18th century, Louis de Bourguignon is working with the Malichot's gang, but their ways are too 'unethical' for him. He creates his own band, acting under the name of Cartouche, making audacious robberies of the rich people, and even distributing the takings with the poor. Thus, cartouche attracts the people's sympathies, Venus's love, and hate from the Police and Malichot... Cartouche can escape all the traps they set at him - except the entrapments of love. Eventually, he will be saved by a woman, at her own cost.
Cartouche
1962
6.1Fantasies and clichés about Brazil and Brazilians as reinforced by international films, even those actually shot in Brazil. This documentary features interviews with non-Brazilian directors, writers and stars who have been involved in some of those films.
The Foreign Eye
2006
6.9After long absence, a man returns to his hometown only to find his best friend has become an alcoholic.
Le Beau Serge
1959
8.2Charismatic 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
6.1In this comedy, a run-down hotel drums up customers by sabotaging passing cars. The stuck motorists are then obliged to stay. Unfortunately, one of the sabotaged cars belongs to a bank robber. The hotel staff wants the robber out, but they also want to keep his ill-gotten money.
The Devil by the Tail
1969
7.0An ornithologist mistaken for an explosives expert is sent alone into a small French town during WWI to investigate a garbled report from the resistance about a bomb which the departing Germans have set to blow up a weapons cache.
King of Hearts
1966
8.3"Droit de Réponse" (Right of Reply) is a French debate program broadcast between December 12, 1981 and September 19, 1987 on the TF1 channel, presented by Michel Polac and produced by Maurice Dugowson. Broadcast live on a weekly basis, on Saturdays from 8.30 p.m., the right of reply has been the source of many controversies, due to the various speakers who have come to present their point of view on the show (which leads to famous scandals , remained in the memory of viewers), but also for the variety and relevance of the topics covered, which ensured the success of the program on the air for several years. On French television, this program is considered by some observers as a “pioneer program in terms of controversy-show or clash, in modern language”.
Droit de Réponse
1981
5.5A light French comedy of 5 segments.
People in Luck
1963
7.7A documentary about writer Michel Audiard (1920-1985). Contemporary interviews are interwoven with archival footage and clips from his films. It offers a deeper understanding of the career of the man whom Jean Gabin swore by from the mid-1950s onward, and whom films such as "Les Tontons Flingueurs" immortalized.
Michel Audiard et le mystère du triangle des Bermudes
2002
6.5Claude Berri plays himself as he relates his own experiences through youth and adolescence. His father owns a profitable fur shop. Initially, Claude's father hopes his son will take over the fur shop, but he later gives in to Claude's desire to become involved in filmmaking.
Le Cinema de Papa
1971
9.0Françoise Dorléac et Catherine Deneuve were nearly twins. Only 18 months separated these sisters who liked to say “Both of us could make the ideal woman”. Françoise Dorléac created her own style, unique even in France : a rare mix of elegance, humor, glamour. This is a touching portrait of an actress whose glory was cut short, seen through the eyes of her sister Catherine.
Elle s'appelait Françoise
1996
6.0A profile of Jean-Paul Belmondo by his peers. Besides appearing in over eighty films, the actor also delighted audiences with his dangerous stunts, his laughter, his jokes, and his refreshing ease and impertinence. Cultivating the art of the counterpunch, he spanned half a century of French cinema.
Belmondo, il était une fois le beau monde
2011
6.3This year, Michel Audiard would have turned 100. To celebrate the life and work of the French screenwriter and director, Gaumont opens their vault and reveals some unknown information on the legendary witty dialogues writer.
Le Terminus des prétentieux
2020
6.2Three tramps in search of adventure and fortune decide to try their luck at swindling. After an initial failure at shoplifting, they take over a bateau-mouche and exploit tourists in their own way.
Les Pieds nickelés
1964
6.8Two men are in love with the same woman. One of them, feeling rejected, attempts suicide. The young woman finally decides to choose a third man. When they recount their affair, none of them gives the same version of events...
Three Dates
1953
10.0July 13, 1389. On the initiative of the Mayor, warned by a famous astrologer, the town of La Rochelle is getting ready - 400 years in advance! to celebrate the Fête Nationale with dignity! But the English, who already held almost every square in the Kingdom of France, set their sights on La Rochelle. The enemy fleet cruised off the coast, and while preparations for the festivities continued, orders were given to stretch the enormous chain that was to block access to the port between the two towers. However, this complicated maneuver and responsibility fear to provoke countless avatars.... The fatuity of the captain of the guards, Thimoléon, the reckless coquetry of the governor's daughter, Hiildegarde, the thick stupidity of the adjutant, the deceitfulness of the traitor and the scheming of a mysterious Scotsman lead the city to the brink of the abyss, while the people, excited, stage a fleeting riot in which the daughters of La Rochelle will have the last word.
The Girls of La Rochelle
1962
6.3Victor and Suzanne are a couple at odds about commitment. Suzanne needs more reassurance from Victor about the future of their relationship. He is a painter with an inspired creative side who finds it difficult to understand Suzanne's point of view. They are happy together; what is the problem? So when a friend comes into the picture and proposes to Suzanne, Victor suddenly realizes that Suzanne was right. Without a formal commitment, the suddenly insecure man does not like the view from the opposite shore.
The Love Game
1960
NRFour young girls' love of boys put their newly opened all-services company in peril.
The Little Misses
1964
Behind the camera
5.8When Lise's car bumps Antoine's bike, they recognize each other from a brief fling 20 years before while at the Sorbonne. He's now a professor of Greek; she's loathe to tell him she's a police inspector. A call interrupts their first dinner date: a Deputy of the National Assembly has been murdered. She has a suspect, another Deputy, and must track him while deflecting Antoine's eye from her vocation. All roads in the inquiry lead to Christine Vallier, the dead Deputy's mistress, a beguiling 22-year-old whose mother ran the Assembly's snack bar. When more deputies die and Antoine learns Lise's identity, she must act quickly solve the crime and save her future.
Dear Inspector
1978
4.3On an observatory set high on a mountain, astronomers make a stunning discovery somewhere out in the galaxy. A flying object in the depths of the cosmos is showing signs of life, emitting an intelligent signal. The UFO has just landed on Earth somewhere in the midst of a rainforest. Margot, the enthusiastic young woman heading up the research team, decides to go to the spot and check out this phenomenon. Meanwhile Edouard, our hero, studies the flora and fauna of the tree tops in the rainforest. He perches on an enormous net that stretches over the still pure, unadulterated forest that spreads out beneath him. He discovers a naked little twelve-year old girl seated on the net. He covers her with a broad banana leaf and asks where she comes from. She quickly replies, in perfect French 'from another world'.
Amazon
2000
4.3On an observatory set high on a mountain, astronomers make a stunning discovery somewhere out in the galaxy. A flying object in the depths of the cosmos is showing signs of life, emitting an intelligent signal. The UFO has just landed on Earth somewhere in the midst of a rainforest. Margot, the enthusiastic young woman heading up the research team, decides to go to the spot and check out this phenomenon. Meanwhile Edouard, our hero, studies the flora and fauna of the tree tops in the rainforest. He perches on an enormous net that stretches over the still pure, unadulterated forest that spreads out beneath him. He discovers a naked little twelve-year old girl seated on the net. He covers her with a broad banana leaf and asks where she comes from. She quickly replies, in perfect French 'from another world'.
Amazon
2000
7.3French military man Adrien Dufourquet gets an eight-day furlough to visit his fiancée, Agnès. But when he arrives in Paris, he learns that her late father's partner, museum curator Professor Catalan, has just been kidnapped by a group of Amazon tribesmen who have also stolen a priceless statue from the museum. Adrien and Agnès pursue the kidnappers to Brazil, where they learn that the statue is the key to a hidden Amazon treasure.
That Man from Rio
1964
7.3French military man Adrien Dufourquet gets an eight-day furlough to visit his fiancée, Agnès. But when he arrives in Paris, he learns that her late father's partner, museum curator Professor Catalan, has just been kidnapped by a group of Amazon tribesmen who have also stolen a priceless statue from the museum. Adrien and Agnès pursue the kidnappers to Brazil, where they learn that the statue is the key to a hidden Amazon treasure.
That Man from Rio
1964
5.2Sheherazade has been married to a ruler who wants many wives, but only one at a time. Consequently, as soon as he has bedded them, he has them put to death. In most retellings, the girl staves off this unfortunate conclusion by putting off the connubial event for a thousand and one nights, telling irresistible stories instead. In this one, she gets hold of a magic lamp.
1001 Nights
1990
5.2Sheherazade has been married to a ruler who wants many wives, but only one at a time. Consequently, as soon as he has bedded them, he has them put to death. In most retellings, the girl staves off this unfortunate conclusion by putting off the connubial event for a thousand and one nights, telling irresistible stories instead. In this one, she gets hold of a magic lamp.
1001 Nights
1990
5.0A collection of sketches that tells the story of prostitution through the ages.
The Oldest Profession
1967
4.7Virginia Tregan returns to her home in the U.S. Deep South from a sojourn in Paris only to discover that her family plantation and its holdings have been lost. She determines to recoup her family's fortune.
Louisiana
1984
7.0A writer of pulpy book series in which he's the hero and his beautiful English roommate is the love interest attempts to finish his new book in time at the publisher's demand.
The Magnificent One
1973
7.0A writer of pulpy book series in which he's the hero and his beautiful English roommate is the love interest attempts to finish his new book in time at the publisher's demand.
The Magnificent One
1973
4.4Hubert Durieux is a banker in a small French town who is struggling to keep up with the demands of all the women in his life. Just when things couldn’t get any worse, his precious white Citroën is stolen under his eyes by a beautiful gypsy girl, Mona.
The Gypsy
1986
4.4Hubert Durieux is a banker in a small French town who is struggling to keep up with the demands of all the women in his life. Just when things couldn’t get any worse, his precious white Citroën is stolen under his eyes by a beautiful gypsy girl, Mona.
The Gypsy
1986
5.8Directed by Philippe de Broca, the film recounts a bloody episode of the French Revolution. 1793, the Terror . In Vendée and in Bretagne, the chouans are revolting against the young Republic and fight for the monarchy restauration. The civil war divides also the family of the Count Savinien de Kerfadec, a liberal and generous noble and a flying machines inventor.
Chouans !
1988
5.6A discontented concert pianist causes all sorts of heartbreak with his egotistical and womanizing antics, and all the people in his life attempt to force him to grow up in this French comedy/drama.
The Skirt Chaser
1979
5.6A discontented concert pianist causes all sorts of heartbreak with his egotistical and womanizing antics, and all the people in his life attempt to force him to grow up in this French comedy/drama.
The Skirt Chaser
1979
5.9Seven directors each dramatize one of the seven deadly sins in a short film. In "Anger," a domestic argument over a fly in the Sunday soup escalates into nuclear war. In "Sloth," a movie star would rather pay someone to tie his shoe than bend over to do it himself, and he can't be bothered to accept a starlet's sexual favors. In "Gluttony," a peasant family on its way to the funeral of a relative who died from indigestion stops regularly to eat and drink en route, arriving in time to eat some more. In "Greed," a high-class prostitute refunds the price of a cadet's lottery ticket. In "Pride," an unfaithful wife finds reason to reform. And so on through lust and envy.
The Seven Deadly Sins
1962
6.3In the 18th century, Louis de Bourguignon is working with the Malichot's gang, but their ways are too 'unethical' for him. He creates his own band, acting under the name of Cartouche, making audacious robberies of the rich people, and even distributing the takings with the poor. Thus, cartouche attracts the people's sympathies, Venus's love, and hate from the Police and Malichot... Cartouche can escape all the traps they set at him - except the entrapments of love. Eventually, he will be saved by a woman, at her own cost.
Cartouche
1962
6.3In the 18th century, Louis de Bourguignon is working with the Malichot's gang, but their ways are too 'unethical' for him. He creates his own band, acting under the name of Cartouche, making audacious robberies of the rich people, and even distributing the takings with the poor. Thus, cartouche attracts the people's sympathies, Venus's love, and hate from the Police and Malichot... Cartouche can escape all the traps they set at him - except the entrapments of love. Eventually, he will be saved by a woman, at her own cost.
Cartouche
1962
7.0A millionaire realizes he really wants to live after he has hired an assassin to kill him.
Up to His Ears
1965
6.2Victor Vautier is incorrigible: he's in constant motion, working several cons at once, using different names and changing disguises. He's charming and outrageous, incapable of uttering a sentence that isn't embellished or an outright lie. His life goal is to make enough money to build a sea wall to protect Mont-Saint-Michel. Charlotte, a parole officer, shows up: she's young and seems taken in by Victor. He discovers she lives above the Senlus Museum, where her parents are the curators. With two pals he decides to steal a priceless El Greco triptych and then ransom it back to the cultural ministry. What will Charlotte do when she realizes he's used her to make a fortune?
Incorrigible
1975
6.2Victor Vautier is incorrigible: he's in constant motion, working several cons at once, using different names and changing disguises. He's charming and outrageous, incapable of uttering a sentence that isn't embellished or an outright lie. His life goal is to make enough money to build a sea wall to protect Mont-Saint-Michel. Charlotte, a parole officer, shows up: she's young and seems taken in by Victor. He discovers she lives above the Senlus Museum, where her parents are the curators. With two pals he decides to steal a priceless El Greco triptych and then ransom it back to the cultural ministry. What will Charlotte do when she realizes he's used her to make a fortune?
Incorrigible
1975
5.8Marie, a young provincial girl, is seduced by an American billionaire. She agrees to stay with him if he moves her village to New York.
Give Her the Moon
1970
5.8Marie, a young provincial girl, is seduced by an American billionaire. She agrees to stay with him if he moves her village to New York.
Give Her the Moon
1970