Y a-t-il un Français dans la salle? (1982) Directed by Jean-Pierre Mocky
Comedy / Crime
aka: Is There a Frenchman in the House?
Film Synopsis
Horace Tumelat is the leader of a powerful political party, the
R.A.S. At the zenith of his political career, Tumelat learns of
the suicide of his old uncle Eusèbe, who brought him up.
It transpires that for many years Eusèbe had been holding a man
prisoner in his house, a blackmailer who threatened to expose Tumelat
as a Nazi collaborator. Tumelat discovers that, before he died, his
uncle left him a letter, which has mysteriously disappeared. As
the politician sets out to find the missing letter, he attracts the
attention of the policemen who are investigating his uncle's death -
they are far from convinced that he killed himself...
Franz Kafka's letters to his fiancée Felice Bauer not only reveal a soul in torment; they also give us a harrowing self-portrait of a man appalled by his own existence.
A wave of fresh talent in the late 1950s, early 1960s brought about a dramatic renaissance in French cinema, placing the auteur at the core of France's 7th art.