The best Xavier Deluc’s movies

Mario Gas directed this music-themed Spanish drama set in Barcelona of the mid-'80s. When famed composer Lluis Doria (Laurent Terzieff) visits a transvestite club, he learns his lifelong friend Albert Rossell (Serge Reggiani) is the house pianist. A flashback takes the tale four decades into the past where the younger Rossell (Pere Ponce) rejoins Teresa (Paulina Galvez) after having spent years in prison for helping anti-Franco anarchists. The story continues into Paris of the '30s, the period when Doria and Rossell first met, sharing a mutual interest in music and Teresa, before civil war sent them in different directions.

Jeanne Kern is a pretty, somewhat repressed schoolteacher who suffers a smear campaign at work. Someone has been sending her director letters accusing her of lewd and immoral conduct. Matters take a turn for the worse when a photograph of an orgy is sent to all the faculty with one face cut out; presumably, the face is hers.

This movie tells the story of a group of right-wing cops have begun carrying out vigilante justice on drug dealers and other crime figures who might otherwise avoid punishment for their misdeeds. Police inspector Grindel (Delon) understands the feelings which motivate these deeds, but does not approve. However, he is not highly motivated to put an end to the group's activities until it begins to appear that they are now attacking fellow cops for reasons which are unclear.

On Ne Meurt Que Deux Fois, a French murder mystery based upon a novel of the same name, is an unusual, involving film with excellent performances by its entire cast. Police Inspector Staniland (Michel Serrault) is investigating the death of a pianist. While conducting his investigation and looking through the victim's apartment, he meets Barbara (Charlotte Rampling), the mistress of the murder victim. Barbara confesses to the crime, but Staniland, based on his observations and experience, does not believe her. He then sets out to find the truth, with surprising results. Both Serrault and Rampling are outstanding in this well-directed, well-paced film. On Ne Meurt Que Deux Fois was also released as He Died With His Eyes Open and won the Jury Prize at the 1985 Montreal World Film Festival.

In the docks of Bordeaux a well-known homosexual was murdered. Police Inspector Michel Verta starts investigating, when he falls in love with Bernard, a handsome young musician. This not only threatens his family life but also his integrity, for he is married with a child and Bernard is one of the murder suspects.

Bruno devises a mean to test the love of his girlfriend Isabelle. Since Isabelle had been in love with Alain in the past, Bruno invites Alain to a surprise birthday party for her at a hotel -- what better way to judge her feelings than to get them together? Alain arrives with his current girlfriend Lio. Soon after the two couples start the evening off, their polite exteriors deteriorate.

In this political drama, five left-leaning friends gradually lose heart in the Socialist government elected in 1981 in France. One of the five men is a television broadcaster; the others are a teacher about to become an academic inspector, a tax man, the director of a cultural center, and a sociologist who is about to step into a ministerial position. Their interlocking lives are told in alternating vignettes over a four-year period, and the professions director Jacques Fansten has chosen for his main characters seem to be a comment on the media, education, budget or finance, the arts, and government bureaucracy under Socialist rule.

Four friends discover the pleasures of Saint-Tropez.

After the accidental death of her husband, Dominique Vallorie agrees to take over the construction of an important dam on the Orinoco River. She does not know that by accepting to go to Venezuela, her life as a woman and engineer will change. Through a great love story she will assert herself despite all the pitfalls on the way.

This slice-of-life drama about an elderly couple and their estranged son covers twenty-four fateful hours that begin with the usual daily routine for the retired pair of former teachers (Micheline Presle and Claude Pieplu). Then their son telephones to say he will be coming over with his girlfriend and the normal pattern is changed, as he visits them rarely. While the mother is obsequious to her son when he arrives, past hurts and resentments bubble up during lunch, making it difficult for the son to tell them he is getting married. This is news enough, but the effect that announcement has on the son and his fiancée is unexpected and events later on in the day take a turn for the worse.