Acting
Bourvil
André Robert Raimbourg (27 July 1917 – 23 September 1970), better known as André Bourvil, and mononymously as Bourvil, was a French actor and singer best known for his roles in comedy films, most notably in his collaboration with Louis de Funès in the films Le Corniaud (1965) and La Grande Vadrouille (1966). For his performance in Le Corniaud, he won a Special Diploma at the 4th Moscow International Film Festival.
Bourvil's father was killed in the First World War before he was born. As a result, he spent his entire childhood in the village of Bourville, from which he took his stage name. He married Jeanne Lefrique on 23 January 1943. After a battle with Kahler's syndrome, which attacks the bone marrow, he died at the age of 53. He is buried in Montainville, Yvelines.
In his comic performances Bourvil principally played roles of gentle and well-meaning characters who were often a bit obtuse or naïve, such as his roles opposite the hyperactive, dishonest and bossy ones played by Louis de Funès. Bourvil's characters not only managed to make viewers laugh, but also to save themselves, often unwittingly, from the Machiavellian designs of his adversaries.
Bourvil was, however, also capable of more dramatic roles such as the handyman in L'Arbre de Noël (1969). In this role he observes the relationship between a man he works for and the young son who has fallen ill. The audience can identify with the character played by Bourvil, just as they can in his comic roles, so often as a simple man. One can also note his role of Monsieur Thénardier in the film adaptation of Les Misérables (1958), and his penultimate role as the policeman Mattei in Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Cercle rouge (1970).
In March 1948, Bourvil took part in the complete recording of Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann with artists of the Paris Opéra-Comique conducted by André Cluytens, playing the four 'servant' roles.
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Filmography
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Spécial cinéma
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Midi trente
Cinépanorama
The Longest Day
The retelling of June 6, 1944, from the perspectives of the Germans, US, British, Canadians, and the Free Frenc...
Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At!
During World War II, two French civilians and a downed British Bomber Crew set out from Paris to cross the dema...
Les Misérables
In 19th century France, Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a relentless policeman nam...
The Brain
Arthur and Anatole are two little robbers. They want to rob money, money that will travel in a special train fr...
The Sucker
In this Franco-Italian gangster parody, a shopkeeper on his way to an Italian holiday suffers a crash that tota...
Le Cercle Rouge
When French criminal Corey gets released from prison, he resolves to never return. He is quickly pulled back in...
The Hunchback of Paris
Duke Philippe de Nevers is an influential and popular man who is married to a beautiful wife called Aurore. His...
The Green Mare
A green mare makes the fortune of her owner, the horse dealer Haudouin. Shortly after his death, war broke out...
The Three Musketeers
The umpteenth adaptation of Dumas' novel finds d'Artagnan and his friends promoting the love affairs of Anne of...
La Traversée de Paris
Two unlikely companions must smuggle four suitcases filled with contraband pork across Nazi-occupied Paris.
The Christmas Tree
A French-American millionaire, his girlfriend and his war buddy try to grant his dying son's every wish.
Atlantic Wall
1944. Léon Duchemin owns a restaurant with his sister. His clients are Germans, Résistance et black marketeers....
Monte Carlo or Bust!
Sequel to "Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines". This time an international car rally from England t...
Royal Affairs in Versailles
Witty narration follows the history of Versailles Palace; founded by Louis XIII, enlarged by autocratic Louis X...
Captain Blood
Le capitan is a 1960 French-Italian swashbuckler film directed by André Hunebelle and starring Jean Marais, Bou...
The Dirty Game
A U.S. intelligence general recalls three Cold War cases of Soviet, French and Italian spies.
The Wise Guys
Hector Valentin returns to France from Canada when he inherits a small sawmill. He has difficulties restarting...
Way of Youth
This movie is a Marcel Aymé adaptation and it deals with the not-so-glorious side of the Occupation: black mark...
The Big Wash
Sickened to see his students always sleeping in class, a teacher with a colleague and an anarchist start a war...
The Hussars
Brigadier Le Gouce and Private Flicot lose their horses during a campaign in Italy. To avoid looking ridiculous...
April Fools' Day
Emile is a good mechanic whose clientele is very loyal. A bit naive, he is bamboozled by a seller who manages t...
My Wife's Husband
After thirteen years in Germany, Fernand is coming back to his wife and his restaurant. But since his dispariti...
A Star to the Sun
Martine, who has become a major star of the song in Paris, wants to return to visit her hometown. Confronted wi...
Don't Tempt the Devil
A lovely young nurse finds herself framed for the murder of a hospital patient who died after she administered...
The Busybody
André Loriot works for Dr Clairac in a laboratory producing euphoric pills. He searches in vain for an apartmen...
Miquette
A provincial ingenue leaves her mother’s tobacco shop with dreams of a life in the Parisian theater, only to be...
Cadet Rousselle
The Adventures of Cadet Rousselle that on the French Revolution left his hometown in search of fortune. He thin...
All the Gold in the World
Businessman Victor Hardy wants to buy the entire area around the small village of Cabosse. He claims that he wa...
Fortunate
During WW2, a posh bourgeois woman (Morgan)is compelled to live under the same room as a crude simple-minded ye...
Belmondo: The Incorrigible
Charismatic and resourceful, seducer and daredevil, Jean-Paul Belmondo has always played his roles as he lived,...
The Mirror Has Two Faces
A teacher runs an ad in the newspaper to find a wife. Afraid of beautiful ladies, he weds an ugly woman. After...
Les Culottes rouges
Antoine Rossi, a recidivist prisoner of war in Germany, manages to escape with the cowardly Fendard. Fendard do...