Jean-François Balmer

Jean-François Balmer

Birth : 1946-04-18, Neuchâtel, Switzerland

Profile

Jean-François Balmer

Movies

Mise au vert
To strengthen family ties, to free his teenagers from their digital addiction, to reconnect with his roots in the region of his childhood; this is why Régis decides to take his wife and children on a surprise vacation in the Vercors. An old ruined house lost in the forest. No water, no electricity, even less network or wifi. Nothing is going to happen as planned
Juliette dans son bain
Amato
Ronny Kandiotis, a billionaire and art lover, is the guest of a major museum, on the occasion of a donation to France of two paintings, one by Gauguin and the other by Munch. The same evening, his daughter Lara, is kidnapped by a mysterious organization, which demands as ransom the publication of texts casting opprobrium on this supposedly virtuous man, while the media is already actively seizing the case.
Waiting for Anya
Narrator
During the harrows of WWII, Jo, a young shepherd along with the help of the widow Horcada, helps to smuggle Jewish children across the border from southern France into Spain.
Murder on Omaha Beach
Jacques Marechal
Captain Eloïse Gentil, of Caen police, hasn't been on speaking terms with her father Robert, an expert on WWII, for twenty years. But the two are brought together to investigate the death of James Crawley, a 91 year-old former GI, found tied to a pole and in his uniform, apparently executed "as an example".
Dieumerci !
Monsieur Ventura
A 44 year old guy gets out of jail and wants to become an actor.
Cosmos
Leon
Two young men seek the solitude of the country; their peace is disturbed when a set of random occurrences suggest to their susceptible minds a pattern with sinister meanings.
Dead Europe
Gerry
In Greece to scatter his father's ashes, Isaac hears of a curse that hangs over the head of his family. Dismissing the idea, his trip begins to unveil dark truths that forced his father to flee years ago.
In the House
Le proviseur
A sixteen-year-old boy insinuates himself into the house of a fellow student from his literature class and writes about it in essays for his French teacher. Faced with this gifted and unusual pupil, the teacher rediscovers his enthusiasm for his work, but the boy’s intrusion will unleash a series of uncontrollable events.
Celles qui aimaient Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
La Joie de vivre
M. Chanteau
L'Infiltré
Le directeur de la DST
A notorious French ex-felon becomes an informant and infiltrates a Mexican drug cartel.
Mort d'un président
Georges Pompidou
Mumu
Monsieur le curé
The story a rescue, the rescue of a bad brat's life in the post-WWII period. In 1947, Roger reaches 11 years old. He's a kid badly loved, mischievous and specializes in silly things to do. He is sent to a small boarding school in a small village. Mumu reigns over here. She's not the bitchest school teacher of the area. Roger has already been expelled from several schools and this is his last chance to avoid the reformatory his father has been promising him for a long time. But this is will change with the vigilance of Mumu, who, despite her strict aspects, proves herself to have a big heart.
Lucky Luke
Le gouverneur
Fearless gunslinger, Lucky Luke, is ordered by the President to bring peace to Daisy Town.
La valle delle ombre
Don Rinaldo
Matteo, a boy from the city, goes to visit his grandfather in a secluded mountain village, where preparations for a local ancient festival are under way. Matteo spends the eve of the festival with Lidia and three other boys from the village. The group of kids begins a dangerous game, bringing up obscure mysteries that are rooted in the past of that mountain valley. Matteo thus goes through a sort of initiation, at the end of which he is able to exorcise his fears, but only after becoming uncomfortably conscious of the existence of evil.
Lucifer et moi
Lucifer
Tokyo!
Maître Voland (segment "Merde")
Three distinct tales unfold in the bustling city of Tokyo. Merde, a bizarre sewer-dweller, emerges from a manhole and begins terrorizing pedestrians. After his arrest, he stands trial and lashes out at a hostile courtroom. A man who has resigned himself to a life of solitude reconsiders after meeting a charming pizza delivery woman. And finally, a happy young couple find themselves undergoing a series of frightening metamorphoses.
The Sacha Guitry Affair
Sacha Guitry
On the morning of 23 August 1944 Sacha Guitry was arrested at his Paris appartment, as the French capital was being liberated. Accused of collaboration with the enemy, the author of successful plays ("My Father was Right," "Let's Make a Dream," "Quadrille") and director of the theatre of the Madeleine was to remain captive for sixty days. His detention took from from the depot, to the Vel' d'hiv', then Drancy, and finally Fresnes Prison.
A Winter in Paris
Gaspacho
After being released from prison, a burglar is convinced by a former accomplice to participate in the theft of a precious jewel belonging to a rich heiress.
Comedy of Power
Boldi
Magistrate Jeanne Charmant-Killman doggedly investigates CEO Michel Humeau, who is accused of participating in massive corporate malfeasance. As her investigation leads her into the upper echelons of government, Jeanne becomes intoxicated by the power she is amassing.
Pierre et Jean
In the 1930s, on the eve of the Popular Front, Pierre and Jean harmoniously combine their brotherhood. Pierre has just finished his medical studies, Jean his law studies. A rivalry is born between the brothers when Jean, the youngest, inherits the fortune of Dr. Maréchal, his godfather, who has just died in the colonies.
Totally Nuts
Diane, a young woman in search of a child, is looking for money to go to the sperm bank. She crosses paths with Arthur, a bank robber.
My New Partner III
Albert
Voilà dix ans que les chemins de René et de François se sont séparés. De l'époque glorieuse où, flics, ils écumaient le quartier Montmartre, il ne leur reste qu'une poignée de souvenirs, l'argent de leurs ripouseries s'étant évaporé avec le temps. Tout à une fin. Jusqu'à ce que ça recommence. René, à la limite de la clochardisation, survit avec pour domicile un bateau déglingué...
That Day
Treffle
A father is scheming to have his slightly mental daughter from an earlier marriage killed by allowing a murderous psychopath to be released from the asylum and led to his house. However, the psychopath and the daughter fall for each other.
Belphegor, Phantom of the Louvre
Bertrand Faussier
A collection of artifacts from an archeological dig in Egypt are brought to the famous Louvre museum in Paris, and while experts are using a laser scanning device to determine the age of a sarcophagus, a ghostly spirit escapes and makes its way into the museum's electrical system.
Charming Fellow
Hector
Octave and his friends, Achille and Hector, wander around at night in the grocery stores, the regulars' restaurants and the creepy bars. Octave meets Esther by chance. These two people have diametrically opposed characters. She is beautiful, cultured, free, creative, while he is rude, violent and whiny. The latter falls in love with her. The game is going to be difficult.
The King's Daughters
Racine
Late 17th Century: Anne de Grandcamp and Lucie de Fontenelle, two little girls from Normandy, arrive at the Saint-Cyr school founded by Madame de Maintenon for educating the daughters of impoverished nobles ruined in wars and making them into free women. Madame de Maintenon is the secret wife of Louis XIV, and empowered by his support, she offers "her" two hundred fifty girls a playful and avant-garde education. Anne and Lucie, two inseparable friends, allow themselves to be carried away by the promise of a bright future. But Maintenon has arrived at the pinnacle of power through scheming and debasing herself and she now fears the fires of hell. She is counting on her model school to atone for her past sins.
T'aime
Paul Gontier
Zef, twenty years old, is a simple-minded man who can only say one word: "love you". Always happy, loving everyone, he lives with his sister Sophie on a farm in the Lot. Attracted by the sad smile of Marie, he rapes her one evening without realizing the gravity of his act. Commited in a psychiatric asylum, Zef falls into a deep silence. Hugues, a doctor with avant-garde methods, is in charge of caring for Marie. He decides to confront her with Zef, convinced that her healing goes through a long reappropriation of life and love.
La dilettante
Le président du tribunal
Pierrette is a woman who describes herself as having "opted for the temporary on a permanent basis." After 15 years of living the good life in Switzerland, Pierrette one day packs her bags full of fashionable outfits and returns to her native Paris with no idea of what she'll do. Pierette, however, leads a charmed life; while her son is forced to work the graveyard shift at a factory due to poor job prospects, she's able to find a job right away at a high school. Pierrette soon reintroduces herself to her 23-year-old daughter and one-time best friend, trying to use her charm to skate over years of neglect. She just as suddenly finds a new beau, Ackerman, and starts helping him out with his antique business. However, what would seem like a simple matter -- buying a clock from an elderly woman -- soon turns out to be very complicated and fraught with consequence.
Time Regained
Marcel Proust (1871-1922) is on his deathbed. Looking at photographs brings memories of his childhood, his youth, his lovers, and the way the Great War put an end to a stratum of society. His memories are in no particular order, they move back and forth in time. Marcel at various ages interacts with Odette, with the beautiful Gilberte and her doomed husband, with the pleasure-seeking Baron de Charlus, with Marcel's lover Albertine, and with others; present also in memory are Marcel's beloved mother and grandmother. It seems as if to live is to remember and to capture memories is to create a work of great art. The memories parallel the final volume of Proust's novel.
The Swindle
Monsieur K
Betty and Victor are a pair of scam artists. One day Betty brings in Maurice, a treasurer of a multinational company. Maurice is due to transfer 5 millions francs out of Switzerland, and Betty is convinced he plans to steal that money.
An Unlikely Adventurer
Reynaud
Carole is ready to do anything to save the Guyanese forest and the Wayanas Indians from the pollution of the Gerson laboratories! Fearless and determined, our adventuress will face the unscrupulous men sent by the laboratories to make her give in. In the jungle where she grew up, she is the strongest. But she is accompanied by Bruno, a clumsy young French policeman.
La vérité est un vilain défaut
Bruckmann
The trials and tribulations of a good guy who feels obliged to confess the truth to his wife or his boss every time he makes a mistake.
Sidecar
Jean Denamur
The gloomy life of a high school censor is turned upside down the day he meets an old classmate.
Beaumarchais the Scoundrel
Sartine
Beaumarchais the Scoundrel is a biopic film based on the life of the French playwright, financier and spy Pierre Beaumarchais depicting his activities during the American War of Independence and his authorship of the Figaro trilogy of plays.
Lou Didn't Say No
(voice)
The turbulent relationship between a filmmaker and a volatile actor.
Crystal Book
John Billeter, aka JB
This European thriller, set in Sri Lanka, attempts to expound upon the philosophical implications of life, death, and memory. JB, an academic famed for his studies of oriental culture and alcoholic who has never recovered from his wife's suicide, returns to Sri Lanka to translate a book written on glass. It is supposed to contain Buddha's discourse upon memory. While he is there, an attractive nurse, Julia asks him to assist a young boy who wants to locate his father who is now living in a Tamil-occupied area. The Tamil terrorists will kill any trespassers. Compounding JB's conflict in deciding to go is that his former home where he lived with his wife is in that area. Unbeknownst to him, the boy is really a Tamil spy.
My Chinese Sister
Paul Bricou
In 1977, one year after Mao died, a French man ( played by Alain Bashung) comes back to China to work as a school teacher with his daughter. He quickly ignores the interdiction of getting in touch with Chinese people and finds himself drawn into mysterious meetings at the Red Pavilion. MY CHINESE SISTER is a movie about pretense and the mystification of reality.
La lumière des étoiles mortes
Pierre
June 1940. The Wechrmacht appropriates the houses in which are living Pierre, his wife Magdeleine, their son Charles, their two servants Louise and Lea, and Mademoiselle, the beautiful jewish governess.
Rocking Poponguine
M. Benoit
A tale of growing up in 1960s Senegal. Bacc narrates his early years of living in Popenguine, a town divided by culture and musical tastes.
Spender : The French Collection
Inspector Calliere
Spender Christmas Special: Spender is sent to France to escort Tommy Thornton who has been extradited to the UK.
East Wind
Père Siegler
The true story of General Smyslovsky and the anti-Communist 1st Russian National Army receiving shelter in Liechtenstein in 1945 and successfully resisting Soviet pressure to be returned for execution in the USSR.
Sam's Enough
Albert
After trying a job as a stripper in a Barcelona carnival, Eva (Aure Attika) is ready for something new, so she heads over to France and becomes the roommate of a gay American artist (Phillip Bartlett) and works as the housewife for two wealthy older homosexuals (Claude Chabrol and Jean-François Balmer. After she gets settled, she takes a job at a government office for a while but then decides to have a child, which her obliging roommate makes with her the old fashioned way. He then returns to his usual preference, while Eva explores becoming an artist herself. From time to time in this easygoing comedy, Eva's similarly independent and quirky mother (Bernadette Lafont) shows up.
Diên Biên Phu
AFP Employee
Vietnam, 1954. An American reporter finds himself in the middle of the battle of Điện Biên Phủ, between the French army and the Vietminh.
Madame Bovary
Charles Bovary
Bored with the limited and tedious nature of provincial life in 19th-century France, the fierce and sensual Emma Bovary finds herself in calamitous debt and pursues scandalous sexual liaisons with absolute abandon. However, when her volatile lifestyle catches up to her, the lives of everyone around her are endangered.
En attendant Godot
Estragon
The French Revolution
Luís XVI
A history of the French Revolution from the decision of the king to convene the Etats-Generaux in 1789 in order to deal with France's debt problem. The first part of the movie tells the story from 1789 until August 10, 1792 (when the King Louis XVI lost all his authority and was put in prison). The second part carries the story through the end of the terror in 1794, including the deaths by guillotine of Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, Danton, and Desmoulins.
Mer de Chine: Le pays pour mémoire
Marc
Golden Eighties
M. Jean
Three young women at a hair salon all like the son of the clothing store proprietors across the mall. Although Robby is selfish and shallow, he's appealing to Lili, the salon's manager, who's trendy and also the salon-owner's moll; to Mado, who's innocent and sweet; and to Pascale, who's intelligent but passive and downcast. Robby's dad tells him to grow up and see beyond the mercurial Lili, so he proposes suddenly to Mado. She's delighted, but the day before the wedding, Lili returns to give Robby another look. In the background, a Yank who was a soldier in France in World War II returns to Paris and tries to recapture the love of his wartime sweetheart, Robby's mom.
Last Image
Miller
Seen through the filtered lens of boyhood memories, award-winning director Mohamed Lakhdar-Hamina crafted this half-fictional, half-autobiographical account of a brief period in the history of an Algerian village. It is 1940, and the quiet town is ruled by French colonialists appointed by the Vichy government. Algerians are being called up for service in the Vichy military, and Jews in the village are in danger of deportation. A beautiful young schoolteacher named Claire Boyer (Veronique Jannot) arrives in town and turns every male head within miles, including 14-year-old Mouloud (Merwan Lakhdar-Hamina, the director's son). Simon Attal (Michel Boujenah), a fellow teacher and a Jew, is also attracted to Claire, and so is Mouloud's older brother. Suddenly two murders occur in the village, Simon is in danger of being deported, and the tone shifts from the dreams of boyhood to the realities of manhood.
L'amour ou presque
Albert
Without warning, Mélie disembarks on the cargo ship where her father has the sailor's blues. He remembers his drifts and his friend Max who used to get him into some crazy situations. He remembers Alice and Luc whom he decided to avenge. He has his grenade ready. But Melie has just arrived.
Le Transfuge
Captain Pierre Clément
Urgence
Paul Murneau
When a neo-Nazi group of terrorists is set to blow a pop concert off the face of the earth because it is an anti-racist benefit, they are faced with the intrepid Jean-Pierre Mougin (Richard Berry), a macho sports reporter with zero tolerance for Nazi hate crimes. Going along with Mougin to stop the bombing is Lyza (Fanny Bastien), whose brother was killed by this group of fascists, and so she is ardently seeking revenge. After Mougin gets his hands on a videotape that reveals the plot to blow up the concert and its audience, he and Lyza join forces. As the fuse gets shorter and shorter, Mougin is also joined by sympathetic street gangs. Thus reinforced, he faces his opposition (including crooked cops) in increasingly more desperate attempts to stop Murmeau (Jean Francoise Balmer), the leader of the Nazi gang, from carrying out his terrorist objective.
Folie suisse
Carl
Le Sang des autres
Arnaud
In the German-occupied Paris, Helene is torn between the love for her boyfriend Jean, working for the resistance and the German administrator Bergmann, who will do anything to gain her affection.
Wild Animals
Jeff Garcia
Berg and Bela are married stunt drivers, but one night Bela dies in an accident. Jaded and reclusive, Berg becomes a nighttime security guard where he befriends a young woman, Mimi, who works nights too. Soon a shadowy figure from Bela's past comes into Berg and Mimi's lives. Berg is forced to protect Mimi and seems responsible for a murder, but the man from Bela's past who caused her so much pain won't stop until he sees Berg suffer as much as Bela did.
Polar
Eugène Tarpon
This film noir tends to stay within very conventional plot lines, as the narration by the main protagonist, private detective Eugene Tarpon Jean-François Balmer, recites a dreary litany of how he wanted to chuck his profession until an attractive woman shows up asking him to investigate the murder of her roommate, a porno star. Soon Tarpon is up to his neck in trouble: the police, gangsters, and the victim's lover are all out to get him.
Swann in Love
Dr. Cottard
The beginning of the 20th century. Charles Swann, a young and wealthy dandy, spends most of his time hanging out with the old nobility, notably the Duke and Duchess of Guermantes. He is madly in love with a pretty demi-mondaine, Odette de Crécy. Idle, Swann surrendered complacently to the torments of jealousy. After hours of suffering, he manages to spend a night with Odette. In the morning, he believes that ultimately, this one is "not his type". However, we find him, many years later, alongside Odette who, now his wife, gave him a daughter. In the company of Baron de Charlus, brother of the Duchess of Guermantes, he wonders about the failure of his sentimental life, so far removed from this absolute he dreamed of...
The African
Paul Planchet
Charlotte (Catherine Deneuve) flies to East-Africa in order to build a touristic center near the Lake Williams where the pygmys live. Here she meets her husband Victor (Philippe Noiret), a devoted conservationist who left her three years ago to live in the jungle. Can you imagine his enthusiasm when she arrives at the conclusion that the ideal place to built this holiday resort is his kitchen garden?
Ladies' Choice
François-Albert
As a result of an automobile accident, a sophisticated TV producer meets her car mechanic/blue collar nemesis. They start a comic affair, but can they reconcile their totally different worlds?
Bluff
A César award winning short film about a group of men playing poker until, at precisely 6pm, a bright light suddenly invades their room...
Strange Affair
Paul Belais
A young Parisian advertising executive becomes so captivated by the unsettling charm of his mysterious new employer that he eventually abandons his family and friends, viewing it a privilege to let the ubiquitous employer take over his home, his life, his desire. Only his wife remains suspicious, recognizing both the pathos and the evil in the man’s soul-stealing power.
Une Page d'amour
L'abbé Jouve
In Passy, ​​Paris, 1895. The young widow Hélène calls the doctor Henri Deberle during the night, when her daughter Jeanne suddenly gets breathless. Together they spend the night at the bedside, and it develops from a trusting encounter a love relationship. When the doctor Hélène one day confesses his love, the daughter comes from jealousy in another, life-threatening crisis. A film adaptation of the eponymous novel by Émile Zola, which addresses the social milieu of the bourgeois family in the "Second Empire".
Cop or Hood
Inspector Georges Massard
When the local police inspector was found dead in a prostitute's house, police division commissioner Stan Borowitz is sent to investigate the situation. Posing as the prostitute's long-lost brother "Antonio Cerruti," he discovers a mare's nest of police corruption. In fact, in this comedy thriller the whole town is corrupt. If they were closely examined, Stan's methods for pursuing this investigation might embarrass the police. For instance, he drives into a criminal's house in a fancy, expensive race car. In another incident, he callously blows up a casino owned by Musard , one of the town's crime bosses. On that occasion, he first forces Musard to remove his clothes, and the poor criminal watches his casino explode from across the square while standing naked in a phone booth. Meanwhile, Stan seduces the lovely Edmonde.
Ils sont grands, ces petits
Monestier
When a real-estate promoter attempts to take over the homes of two electronics whizzes and boot them out, they contrive ingenious ways to inconvenience and harass him. By pooling their knowledge, they are able to pull off a crucial robbery using a very special box of chocolates.
The Sewers of Paradise
68
In July of 1976, the Societé Générale of France was robbed of well over $10 million dollars by a group burrowing through the sewers of Paris. This movie is based on a book by the thieves' mastermind, Albert Spaggiari. The famous theft won the nickname, "the great drain robbery," and this romanticized cinematic retelling of the true story stars Francis Huster as Spaggiari.
The Adolescent
André, le menuisier
In the summer of 1939, 13-year-old Marie goes with her parents to visit her grandparents in a small town near Avignon. Marie discovers her femininity and falls for a young Jewish doctor, but he prefers Eva, Marie's mother.
Le chandelier
Clavaroche
Jacqueline is married to Maître André, but is in love with her lover Clavaroche, a fiery officer stationed in the city. In order to avert Master André's suspicions about his wife's fidelity, Clavaroche suggests that Jacqueline take a "Chandelier".
La Menace
l'inspecteur Waldeck
Henri Savin has managed a trucking company for his lover, Dominique Montlaur, for many years. Now he is planning to leave her for Julie Manet, the woman he has made pregnant, and Dominique is hysterical. She first threatens suicide, then shows up at a meeting of Savin and Julie. Dominique tries everything she can think of to break Savin and Julie apart, to no avail. Frustrated in her efforts, she jumps off a cliff and dies. Savin insists that he and Julie lie to the police about the encounter, although Dominique's death was a suicide and therefore they had no direct hand in it. Detective Waldeck investigates Dominique's death.
The Castaways of Turtle Island
Big Boss
Jean-Arthur has been working as a clerk in a travel agency. One day, he, along with his colleague comes to a brilliant idea: what if I offer tourists real extreme recreation? So the group of tourists land on a deserted island with no food, no shelter, nothing.
Little Marcel
Pottier
A homeless young man, living in his delivery truck, is simultaneously adopted by a pranksome group of youngsters and made into a police informer. Believing that he is doing something good both for the other kids and for himself, he has no qualms.
Fear Over the City
Julien Dallas, l'étudiant
A serial-killer frightens Paris by phoning young ladies at night, telling them insults about their lives. Minos, as he calls himself, wants to prevent the world from free women and he targets at first these ones. Commissaire Letellier is given the investigation and he has hard work with the maniac.
Love at the Top
Vischenko
Nicolas Mallet, an inconspicuous and shy bank employee, one day successfully invites Marie-Paul, a young woman he hadn’t known before, in the streets of Paris to a café and sleeps with her the next day. When he tells his surprised friend Claude about the incident, the disillusioned and handicapped writer starts to guide him, leading Nicolas on a dazzling social ascent.
Nothing to Report
Raymond Dax
In 1956, the professional army of France lacks the manpower to keep the peace in Algeria, the colony which the country is determined to hold on to at any price. For this reason, reservists are called up and subject to an intense period of training before being sent to the front. Rémy March, Alain Charpentier and Raymond Dax are three such young men who have no interest in the military escapade and are reluctant conscripts. What they witness in Algeria will appall and transform them. Rape, torture, executions... there is no end to the atrocities in which they become unwilling participants. No wonder the French military are so willing to proclaim that there is nothing to report...