Xavier Depraz
Also Known As: Xavier Marcel Delaruelle
Biography: Xavier Depraz, né Xavier Marcel Delaruelle (22 April 1926 – 18 October 1994) was a French opera singer and actor. Born in Albert (Somme), Depraz was a bass at the Paris Opéra until 1971. He took part in the premieres of operas by Marcel Landowski and Sergei Prokofiev. He also appeared as an actor, first on television, where he played the role of Ursus in The Man who laughs by Jean Kerchbron, then on the big screen. Depraz entered the Conservatoire de Paris in 1947 where he attended the classes of Fernand Francell for singing, Louis Musy for the stage and René Simon for theatre. He participated in the premieres of several operas: Marcel Landowski's Le Rire de Nils Halerius (1951) and Le Fou, Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites and, in concert version, Prokofiev's The Fiery Angel (1954). In the 1953 Paris premiere of The Rake's Progress at the Opéra-Comique Depraz was "a splendid Nick Shadow". He also sang in Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle, Verdi's Rigoletto, Mozart's Don Giovanni, Massenet's Don Quichotte and Thaïs among others. For his appearance as Méphistophélès in Monte Carlo in 1959 one reviewer commented "Xavier Depraz, immensely tall, and surprisingly thin and angular for an operatic bass, produced a suitably resonant and cavernous voice, and histrionically was satisfyingly demonic". He also appeared at the French provincial opera houses, Glyndebourne and Venice, and was appointed a professor of opera at the Conservatoire de Paris in 1973. In 1971, he began a career as an actor in film and television. His recordings include Une éducation manquée (Pausanias), Les Pêcheurs de perles (Nourabad), Romeo et Juliette (Frère Laurence), Carmen (Zuniga for Beecham and Haitink), Renard, Dialogues des Carmélites (Le Marquis de la Force) and the Duruflé Requiem. Depraz died in Saint-Étienne-de-Saint-Geoirs (Isère) on 18 October 1994. Source: Article "Xavier Depraz" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Albert, Somme, France
Birthday: April 22, 1926
Deathday: October 18, 1994
Adult: No
Gender: Male
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Lucky Luke: The Ballad of the Daltons
Overview: The story opens in a Western saloon, where a young musician with a banjo begins to tell a tale of Lucky Luke and his sworn enemies the Dalton brothers: Joe, William, Jack and Averell. Luke has, once again, as he has done many times before, thrown the four outlaws into jail. The prison is also the abode of a guard dog named Rin Tin Can (Rantanplan in the original French language version).
Genres: Family Animation Comedy Western
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1978-03-10
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The Bronte Sisters
Overview: In a small presbytery in Yorkshire, England, living under the watchful eyes of their aunt and father, a strict Anglican pastor, the Bronte sisters write their first works and quickly become literary sensations.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1979-05-09
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Butterfly on the Shoulder
Overview: On a stopover in Barcelona, Fériaud Roland discovers a corpse in the hotel room next door. He wakes up in a strange clinic without remembering who brought him there. The doctor insists he hallucinated, but it's not long before he obtains evidence that it wasn't a dream.
Genres: Thriller Mystery
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1978-05-03
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The Gang
Overview: In 1945, as World War Two comes to a close, five small time crooks unite to form a gang. After several bold robberies they become notorious as "the front-wheel drive gang". The police attempt to stop their crime spree with little success, but how long will their luck last?
Genres: Crime
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1977-01-19
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Paris la belle
Overview: A look at Paris in 1928 in black and white and then color sequences filmed in the same places in 1959.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1960-04-30
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The Right to Love
Overview: The tragedy of Helene and her husband Pierre, whose life is shattered when Pierre is kept as a political prisoner, while Helene is denied the right to visit him. A growing fear of losing her husband to tuberculosis takes over Helene, who does all she can to meet him, even for one last time.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1972-08-15
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Carmen - Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Overview: Don José is a guard who begins an affair with the tempestuous Carmen. He is imprisoned and loses his job, then flees with her to the mountains. When the relationship starts to break down José refuses to acknowledge it and will not leave, even when he gets news that his mother is dying. Carmen, meanwhile, has taken up with the bullfighter Escamillo. Bizet's most famous opera is brought to the Glyndebourne Festival Opera by Sir Peter Hall, with Maria Ewing and Barry McCauley heading an international cast.
Genres: Music
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1985-01-01
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A Pain in the Ass
Overview: Ralf Milan, a hitman, arrives in Montpellier to kill an important witness. He checks in a hotel without knowing that his neighbour has become neurotic after his wife left him.
Genres: Comedy Crime
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1973-09-20
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Death of a Corrupt Man
Overview: In the middle of the night, deputy Philippe Dubaye wakes up his old friend Xavier Maréchal with disturbing news: he has just killed Serrano, a racketeer with extant political connections. Serrano kept proofs of Dubaye's involvement in corrupt dealings and was poised to use them against the deputy. Xavier readily agrees to cover up for his old pal Philippe, but he soon runs into difficulties. Nobody believes Dubaye's alibi. And everybody -- influential personalities, powerful businessmen, dubious go-betweens and the police -- wants to get hold of the documents that served to blackmail Dubaye; by all possible means...
Genres: Crime Thriller
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1977-12-07
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The Man Who Laughs
Overview: A three part film, based on the novel of the same title by Victor Hugo, telling of the adventures of two children, a blind girl and a badly scared boy, who are rescued and looked after by a vagabond.
Genres: Drama History Thriller
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1971-11-08
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L'Atlantide
Overview: Two young French officers get lost in the Sahara desert and find themselves prisoners of Antinéa, who rules over the lost city of Atlantis. Under her evil influence, one of them, blinded by his love for her, loses his mind and goes so far as to murder his comrade... Jean Kerchbron adapts Pierre Benoît's book for this film, which is more concerned with social reflection than fantasy.
Genres: Fantasy
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1972-02-24
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Would-Be Gentleman
Overview: Le Bourgeois gentilhomme satirizes attempts at social climbing and the bourgeois personality, poking fun both at the vulgar, pretentious middle-class and the vain, snobbish aristocracy. The title is meant as an oxymoron: in Molière's France, a "gentleman" was by definition nobly born, and thus there could be no such thing as a bourgeois gentleman.
Genres: Comedy TV Movie
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1968-12-28
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For a Cop's Hide
Overview: Victim of manipulation, Cop Choucas is wanted for two murders and searched for by every cop in town.
Genres: Thriller Action Romance Crime
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1981-09-09
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Cher Victor
Overview: A pair of elderly men, friends for 40 years, find their relationship stressed when they set up housekeeping together in order to save money. Exploring similar ground to that covered in Neil Simon's play The Odd Couple, which spawned a movie and a television series, Ce Cher Victor explores the tragic and dramatic aspects of the story. The two friends, meek, sensitive Anselme (Bernard Blier) and blustering Victor (Jacques Dufilho) are swiftly driven apart by circumstances.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1975-06-06
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