The best Maurice Barrier’s drama movies

Philippe Jordan is a policeman prone to advancing the cause of justice by any means necessary. On his agenda is a powerful drug cartel working out of Paris and Marseilles, with a drug lord who is essentially inaccessible -- but not immortal.

The film story depicts Emile Buisson, following the death of his wife and child, escaping from a psychiatric institution in 1947 and returning to Paris. Buisson, who three years later would become France's public enemy number one, begins a murderous rampage through the French capital.

Village of Artigat, southern France, summer 1542, during the reign of Francis I. Martin Guerre and Bertrande de Rols marry. A few years later, accused of having committed a robbery, Martin suddenly disappears. When, almost a decade later, a man arrives in Artigat claiming to be Martin, the Guerre family recognizes him as such; but doubts soon arise about his true identity.

Hugo Sennart is a French Gypsy, wanted by the police for theft. The same inspector who's searching for him is also looking for a jewel thief, Yan Kuq, whose wife has died under suspicious circumstance just after a major burglary. The Gypsy needs to settle a few scores and make one more heist before going to ground, and, by coincidence, his path takes him close to Yan, who's hiding in the hotel of a close friend and former lover, Ninie. The Gypsy lives by a code of honor, which puts him at risk on occasion; and he despises those who treat his people as worse than dogs. The police close in. Is there honor among thieves?

In 1914, a cruise ship sets sail from Naples to spread the ashes of beloved opera singer Edmea Tetua near Erimo, the isle of her birth. During the voyage, the eclectic array of passengers discovers a group of Serbian refugees aboard the vessel. Peace and camaraderie abound until the ship is descended upon by an Austrian flagship. The Serbians are forced to board it, but naturally they resist, igniting a skirmish that ends in destruction.

A former bank robber is released after 10 years in prison. He gets help from a social-worker, but gets harassed by an old cop from his past.

January, 1920. 350,000 French soldiers remain missing in action. Major Dellaplane tirelessly matches the dead and the wounded with families' descriptions. Honor and ethics drive him; he hates the idea of "the unknown soldier." Into his sector, looking for her husband, comes a haughty, politically connected Parisian, Madame Irène de Courtil. Brusquely, Dellaplane offers her 1/350,000th of his time, but as their paths cross and she sees his courage and resolve, feelings change. After he finds a surprising connection between her missing husband and a local teacher, Irène makes Dellaplane an offer. This man of action hesitates: has he missed his only chance?

Cardinal Mazarin dies, leaving a power vacuum in which the young Louis asserts his intention to govern as well as rule. Mazarin's fiscal advisor, Colbert, warns against Fouquet, the Superintendant who has been systematically looting the treasury and wants to be prime minister. Fouquet believes Louis will soon tire of exercizing power and overplays his hand by offering a bribe to Louis' mistress to be his ally. She reports this to the king who arrests Fouquet. Louis and Colbert design a brilliant strategy to keep merchants making money, nobles in debt, the urban poor working and fed, and peasants untaxed. Years later, in a coda, we see Louis exercizing the power of the sun.

French colonists in Africa, several months behind in the news, find themselves at war with their German neighbors. Deciding that they must do their proper duty and fight the Germans, they promptly conscript the local native population. Issuing them boots and rifles, the French attempt to make "proper" soldiers out of the Africans. A young, idealistic French geographer seems to be the only rational person in the town, and he takes over control of the "war" after several bungles on the part of the others.

1830, somewhere in France. Aurore is a young, beautiful and virtuous widow. She meets Raphael, a man of leisure, a debauchee. Raphael is obsessed by the death, and wait for it by chasing women and drinking. He first tries to seduce her, but is impressed by her and gives up. But Aurore felt in love with him, and tries not to look as inacessible. A romantic drama, with dispair, cynism, disgust for life and love.

History buffs will glory in the riches of Louis, Enfant Roi, others will perhaps find this complex story of intrigues and betrayals in the court of the young king tough sledding. When Louis the Fourteenth (1638-1715) was born, the power of government was shared between the monarchy, the church, the nobility, and the Parlement. His predecessor had greatly centralized the powers of government following the advice of Cardinal Richelieu. Louis XIV (often called "The Sun King" for the brilliance of his rule) followed the advice of Richelieu's successor, Cardinal Mazarin (Paolo Graziosi), and brought the powers of government under the sole sway of the monarch. He expanded the territory and influence of France in a series of wars throughout his reign. How he came to be so autocratic and ruthless both personally and politically is the subject of this biographical drama.