Marie Matheron Movies
The recently dead return to life in They Came Back, but they are surprisingly uninterested in feasting on the living. Many of them are, naturally enough, elderly, and they seem content merely to go back to their former lives, but their return causes a myriad of complications. Robin Campillo, making his feature directorial debut, co-wrote the script to Laurent Cantet's Time Out, and his "zombie" movie quietly examines the individual and societal impact the dead have on the small French city -- just one of many similarly afflicted throughout the world -- to which they return. Isham (Djemel Barek) and Véronique (Marie Matheron) have their trepidations, but they're generally happy, at first, to see their little boy Sylvain (Saady Delas), and the town's elderly mayor (Victor Garrivier) welcomes home his wife, Martha (Catherine Samie). But Rachel (Géraldine Pailhas of 5x2), a government health official, cannot bring herself to visit her newly returned husband, Mathieu (Jonathan Zaccaï of Seaside), at the ad-hoc shelter where the government houses the "zombies" like refugees. Eventually, she relents, and Mathieu returns home, but the living find that their loved ones are not exactly as they remember them. Studies soon reveal that the dead suffer from a form of aphasia. They cannot create new memories, and they cannot be trusted to perform any but the most menial tasks. Perhaps sensing the discomfort they cause the living, the dead gather together at night, and seem to be formulating some kind of secret plan. They Came Back was selected by the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center for inclusion in the 2005 edition of New Directors/New Films. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi
- Starring:
- Géraldine Pailhas, Jonathan Zaccaï, (more)
- 2001
Infidelity makes for strange bedfellows in this spicy comedy from France. Fanfan (Maryse Cupaiolo) and Joss (Marie Matheron) are two close friends who are unhappy in their marriages; Fanfan decides to leave her husband, and having become attracted to Joss, decides to stop by and give her the news, only to discover that Joss has also given her spouse his walking papers. Neither of them knows what her next move will be, so they end up moving in together at the home of Fanfan's sister Manu (Marilyne Canto). With their new freedom at their disposal, Joss and Fanfan spend their days looking for a good time wherever and however they might find it, while Manu and her husband Mytch (Michel Bompoli) lend a sense of order to the house. But things aren't quite as orderly with Manu as others might think, since it turns out she's having an affair behind Mytch's back. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Marilyne Canto, Marie Matheron, (more)
A poor little rich girl gets some unexpected help from the wrong side of the tracks after her boyfriend breaks her heart in this comedy-drama. Ann-Sophie (Audrey Tautou) is a young woman from a wealthy family who is madly in love with her boyfriend Bernard (Serge Hazanavicius). Bernard, however, isn't quite so enchanted with her, and when she decides to visit him at work one day, he flies off the handle and tells her that they're finished. Despondent, Ann-Sophie wanders into a low-rent neighborhood looking for a good place to commit suicide when she meets Lea (Olivia Bonamy) and Aurelie (Axelle Ade-Pasdeloup), two sisters who support themselves as pickpockets. Ann-Sophie tells the sisters her tale of woe. Sympathetic, they take her into their humble home (though they do make her pay rent) and formulate a plan to get even with her newly-former boyfriend. Both Axelle Ade-Pasdeloup and Olivia Bonamy made their screen debuts in Voyous Voyelles. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Olivia Bonamy, Audrey Tautou, (more)
The third collaboration between screenwriter Stephane Bouquet and writer/director Sebastien Lifshitz, Presque Rien is the story of a young French man coming to terms with his mother's depression, and his own homosexuality, during a summer holiday in France. Delicately handsome Mathieu (Jeremie Elkaim) has come to a seaside resort town with his sisters Annick (Marie Matheron) and Sarah (Laetitia Legrix) and his mother (Dominique Reymond), who has suffered from a crippling depression ever since her newborn baby died of cancer. One day while sunning himself on the beach with Sarah, Mathieu notices the attentions of Cedric (Stephane Rideau), a sturdy, handsome, slightly older youth. The two quickly develop an illicit romance, spending their days combing the beach and their evenings slipping off for passionate sex. Cedric, it turns out, has dropped out of school and, after a brief stint as a rent boy and a failed relationship with a boy named Pierre (Nils Ohlund), moved over one town and settled into a comfortable routine of blue-collar work. The sturdy, good-natured Cedric charms Mathieu's family, but the true nature of the youths' relationship soon becomes apparent, leading to conflict, especially with oldest sibling Annick. Mathieu's biggest problem, however, is his sense of powerlessness over his mother's illness and the death in the family. The scenes of his romance with Cedric are interspersed with scenes from two later time periods. In one setting, we witness Mathieu's recovery from a suicide attempt and subsequent refusal to accept Cedric's visits; in another, we see Mathieu return, alone, to the site of his sexual coming of age. Presque Rien received its American release under the title Come Undone; after premiering at the 2001 L.A. Outfest, a gay and lesbian film series, it received a limited art-house release. Rejane Kerdaffrec, who previously appeared in the Lifschitz/Bouquet film Les Corps Ouverts, appears in a small role as Mathieu's psychiatrist. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jérémie Elkaïm, Stephane Rideau, (more)
- 1998
Iranian Iradj Azimi directed this French historical drama re-creating events depicted in the famous 1819 painting The Raft of the Medusa by Jean Louis Andre Theodore Gericault (1791-1824). The ill-fated voyage of the frigate Medusa begins when it departs Rochefort for Senegal in 1816. After striking a sandbar off the African coast, 150 civilians row safely to shore, but Captain Chaumareys (Jean Yanne) orders 140 soldiers and sailors onto a raft (minus supplies) and has it cut loose. Only 14 survive from the 140, creating a scandal back in France. Gericault (Laurent Terzieff) later talks to three of the survivors while researching his painting. Work on this film began in 1987, but sets destroyed by Hurricane Hugo caused delays, so the film was not completed until 1990. However, it then remained undistributed until an incident in which writer-director Azimi slashed his wrists in front of French Ministry of Culture officials. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jean Yanne, Daniel Mesguich, (more)
- 1998
After short films, videos, commercials, and work as an assistant director, Marco Turco made his directorial debut with this Italian drama set during the '80s in a community of former Italian terrorists in the Paris section of Belleville. After journalist Jacopo (Massimo Bellinzoni) attends the wedding of his exiled older brother Dario (Ennio Fantastichini), he stays on, taping video interviews with Dario's past associates. This is material Jacopo intends to use in an article he's writing, but group members become suspicious. The hostility heightens after Jacopo grows close to Eugenia (Isabella Ferrari), who once teamed with Dario for a hit on an Italian industrialist. Meanwhile, Dario is overcome by the realization that his young daughter is beginning to learn the truth about his past. The screenplay is based on Turco's 1996 documentary about political refugees in Paris. Shot with a 16mm blow-up to 35mm, the music track combines the percussive jazz of Riccardo Fassi with moody Steve Lacy sax solos. Shown at the 1998 Venice Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ennio Fantastichini, Isabella Ferrari, (more)
A French road movie with an unlikely and mystifying title, Western is actually a romantic comedy-drama from writer-director Manuel Poirier. A charming Spanish shoe salesman, Paco (Sergi Lopez), picks up a Russian hitchhiker, Nino (Sacha Bourdo). Nino steals Paco's flashy car because Nino thinks that it will help him find a woman. Paco is befriended by Marinette (Elisabeth Vitali), and they fall in love, but he loses his job. Paco attacks Nino, but the two later become friends. Marinette tells Paco that she wants to have a trial separation before making a commitment, so Paco and Nino take a trip across the French countryside. At a hotel, two women reject the awkward Nino and sleep with Paco. Paco tries to help Nino by canvassing the town's women in a fake poll on their ideal man, but this scheme also backfires. As they continue their romantic misadventures, luck begins to shift from Nino to Paco. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sergi López, Sacha Bourdo, (more)
- 1990
Europeans (and Americans) have a horror of their citizens "going native" in non-Western counties. It is considered to be a form of insanity, demonstrating a lack of character in those who do it. In this story, Anton (Tim Roth), an English writer, visits Ethiopia with his girlfriend Julie (Marie Matheron), and chances upon a house once inhabited by the French decadent poet Rimbaud. Soon enough, he has abandoned her and taken up with the daughter of the impressive old wise-woman who owns the house. He is growing ever more interested in local customs and ways. Despite urgent pleas from Julia, Anton progressively divests himself of his western lifestyle and manners, and eventually heads out into the desert. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tim Roth, Marie Matheron, (more)
- 1989
In this French romantic drama, Stephane (Michel Feller) wants to form a romantic bond with Sabine (Clotilde de Bayser), and to do this has left his pregnant girlfriend behind. Sabine would rather be with Bruno (Jean-Philippe Ecoffey) her former boyfriend, a stage actor. Bruno in turn is much more interested in his current girlfriend. Each person is, in his or her own way, attempting to deal with issues of maturity and responsibility and repeatedly fails to find happiness or even a decently tranquil compromise between their desires and the realities of their situations. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Clotilde de Bayser, Marie Matheron, (more)
- 1987
- R
Directed by French filmmaker Jean-Loup Hubert, Grand Chemin stars the director's young son Antoine Hubert. The lad plays a sickly eight-year-old who is shipped off to visit his country relatives while his mother has her baby. The boy's subsequent adventures run the gamut from delightful to terrifying, with a little "coming of age" (via a few glimpses of nudity) thrown in. Veteran French character actor Richard Bohringer, best known for his star turn in The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, plays a pivotal role. Grand Chemin was released in the U.S. as Grand Highway. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Anémone, Richard Bohringer, (more)
