La soupe aux choux (1981)

 

2 buddy farmers are visited by aliens who like their domestic cabbage soup.

From memory: This Louis de Funès' comedy is clearly one of the weakest with its crude and juvenile humor - and maybe silliest by introducing aliens to the plot.

 

 

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Mélodie en sous-sol (1963)

A sixtyish career criminal fresh out of jail, rejects his wife's plan for a quiet life of bourgeois respectability and enlists a former cellmate to assist him in pulling off one final score, a carefully planned assault on the vault of a Cannes casino.

Highly entertaining heist thriller is both suspenseful and full of dry humour; Jean Gabin is, as always, a joy to watch.

Maltin**1/2: "Some tense climactic moments."

Violette Nozière (1978)

In an interwar France struggling with profound social and political change, 18-year-old Violette Noziere rebels against the constraints of her claustrophobic, working-class (and possibly incestuous) family, with troubling consequences.

Excellent true-case period murder drama is a bit unusual work by this director, but it manages to recreate the enigma of the crime, and Isabelle Huppert is extraordinary in the title role.

Halliwell*: "Oddly erratic but interesting recapitulation of a famous French murder case, not quite typical of its director."

Maltin**: "Slow-moving...Huppert sleepwalks through the role, and Chabrol lacks his usual directorial flair."