Henri Verneuil's Mayrig (1991)

Robert Guédigian's grandfather in Germany was immensely proud to learn that his grandson hadn't, unlike like the earlier Charles Aznavour and Henri Verneuil (both of Armenian descent), Gallicised his Armenian name. But this is a huge celebration not only of Henri Verneuil's ancestry, but of the dedication of his parents and close relatives and their friends to his success as a result of their efforts. By extension, it's an enormous love letter to surviving Armenian culture.

The film has as an introduction the trial of Soghomon Tehlirian for the murder in Berlin in 1921 of Talaat Pacha, one of the principle leaders of the Armenian genocide by the Turks, which as I write this is still only officially recognised by thirty-one countries. Although clearly guilty, Tehlirian was unanimously cleared of assassination, which many Armenians learned on having fled Turkey. Among those (in this first film version of Verneuil's life) are the parents of 'Azad', Hagop Zakarian (Omar Sharif) and Araxi (Claudia Cardinale), who arrive in Marseille with very little French: 'Mayrig' means 'mother' in Armenian.

Here we have the flight from Turkey of a group of Armenians, their initial life as outcasts in Marseille. Azad has to tolerate living in slums, racism in school, and finally being accepted into French society. It's a long haul, but this is a brilliant, unforgettable film which obviously serves as Verneuil's penultimate farewell.

Henri Verneuil's Le Grand chef | Gangster Boss (1959)

I know I have a thing about title translations (OK, translation in general) but 'Gangster Boss' is surely one of the most stupid. What's wrong with 'The Big Chief', which is not only more literal but far more appropriate? This is adapted from O. Henry's story 'The Ransom of Red Chief'. Anyway, Antoine (Fernandel) and Paolo (Gino Cervi) work in a car wash but want to run their own: and the best way they can think of getting money is by kidnapping young Éric (Joël Papouf), the son of wealthy Alain Jumelin (Jean-Jacques Delbo).

The first problem with their scheme is that they're not built in the gangster mode, they're just big softies. And the second is that Eric is a handful, causing Antoine and Paolo endless trouble with his Red Indian games, and giving them sleepless nights. In the end they give up on the ransom and just hand Eric back. The trouble is that the Jumelin household have the same problems with Eric, and as penance the would-be kidnappers have to look after Eric every Sunday, which is not a prospect they relish. This, of course, is the burlesque side of Henri Verneuil.

Henri Verneuil's L'Affaire d'une nuit | It Happened All Night (1960)

Michel (Roger Hanin) meets his old childhood friend Antoine (Pierre Mondy) – who could almost be one of Francis Veber's Pignons (or Perrins) – and they linger a while with Antoine's lovely wife Christine (Pascale Petit) at a café terrasse in central Paris until Antoine has to go to an old soldiers' reunion and Michel drops Christine off at a shop but then keeps driving around as he wants to see her again. With Christine's help he buys a new jacket, and eventually he takes her home and stays there for a time, in love, and knowing that Antoine won't be back until late. Even when it gets to the time for Antoine to return he persuades her to go for a drive with him which they spend loving. They get lost, the car gets stuck in the mud, and suddenly it's six in the morning and they have to find excuses. It's been easy making telephone calls to Michel's wife about delays with a customer, but how to explain things to Antoine?

Christine has taken a turn (?), she's been raped (??) and she's turned up on Michel's doorstep (???): now who would believe that apart from a candidate for Veber's Pignons? Of course, Antoine doesn't believe it, he believes that Christine has a lover, but never does it enter his head that the lover is Michel! No, Antoine's leaving: does the Légion Étrangière accept Pignons recruits at his age? Not one of Verneuil's best, but highly watchable all the same. 

Henri Verneuil's Mille milliards de dollars (1982)

Yes, that's a thousand billion dollars, a huge sum of money today and obviously considerably much more huge in 1982. But that's the value of a few multi-national companies, and although GTI is a fictional company it's easy to figure out that it could represent a particular American concern. The plot of this is far too complicated to go into here, but this is Henri Verneuil's attack on international capitalism and the power it has, with just one man – La Tribune journalist Paul Kerjean (Patrick Deweare in one of his final roles) as the hero trying to untangle the various nets of corruption involved, at great risk to his life. An important film from Verneuil.

Henri Verneuil's Un singe en hiver | A Monkey in Winter (1970)

Henri Vernueil's Un singe en hiver is of course a classic, full of highly memorable phrases, and largely set in Villerville, Calvados. Starring Jean Gabin (as Albert Quentin) and Jean-Paul Belmondo (as Gabriel Fouquet) it is highly amusing and the kind of film you can watch many times over, but then as it's based on Antoine Blondin's novel of the same name that's perhaps hardly surprising. I've watched a few video clips of Villerville, one being Belmondo's relatively recent return to the village, the other a collection of people watching a showing of the film, with many of them being able to repeat every line of it.

Un singe en hiver is a kind of buddy movie, but only in the second part. The first part shows France (OK, Tigreville (or Villerville, which now has both names)) under Nazi occupation, the village being bombed, and a drunken Albert in the cellar of their hotel/restaurant with his terrified wife. Albert vows that if they come out of the experience alive he'll never drink again.

And then the name of the street changes names from Pétain to De Gaulle and it's fifteen years later. Gabriel lands in a taxi one night in Tigreville and is put up at Hotel Stella (in reality L'Hôtel des Bains), but as there are no alcoholic drinks there he goes to the Cabaret Normand, gets drunk on Picon bière and when the locals start talking about the temperature in Normandy he gets up, does a flamenco and announces 'Ça, c'est le soleil !'. He staggers (or rather is thrown out) leaving the natives to their 'igloos' and 'banquises'. His ex-partner in Spain, he's mentally still in Spain (in spite of his daughter in Tigreville), and Albert mentally still in China, babbling about the length of the 'Yang-Tsé-Kiang' river. Gabriel later gives a daytime bullfight (à la Blondin) with the cars and is arrested for it (à la Blondin).

That Albert will briefly break his teetotal vow is inevitable when confronted by such a charismatic person as Gabriel, but after the fireworks Albert has to return to normality, to see his father's grave as he does every year, and Gabriel has to move on with his daughter. And the monkey? Well, in China in winter they leave the jungle for the town, where the people gather them to return on trains to their rightful place. True? It's truly a super movie.