Didier de Neck Movies
The sale of a family home causes some ugly truths to be uncovered in this drama from writer and director Joachim Lafosse. Pascale (Isabelle Huppert) is a middle-aged divorcée living in a restored farmhouse in the countryside with her twin sons, twentysomethings Francois and Thierry. After years of bickering with her ex-husband about the estate, Pascale has decided to sell the farmhouse with an eye toward opening a guest house in a resort community, but the twins are vehemently opposed to the idea. Pascale persuades her boyfriend to talk with Francois and Thierry in hopes of changing their mind, but the meeting does not go well and the twins inadvertently discover a long-held family secret that causes them to turn against Pascale, as well as one another. Also starring Jérémie Rénier and Yannick Renier as the twins, Nue-Propriété received its world premier at the 2006 Venice Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Isabelle Huppert, Jérémie Renier, (more)
- 2001
Three families trace their fortunes, for good and ill, over the course of ten summers in this drama from French filmmaker Yves Hanchar. The Bertini, Delperee, and Foucher families first meet by the seaside in 1990, and as the various members become fast friends, they find themselves vacationing together each summer over the next decade. Daniel Delperee (Jeremy Lippmann) finds himself falling in love with Carole (Jessica Pare), a friend of one of the Foucher girls, and over the next several summers he has to come to terms with his feelings for her. He must also face new responsibilities, as his mother Marianne (Catherine Hosmalin), who had been unhappy since parting with her husband Paul (Luc Picard), dies in an auto accident. Daniel then is unsure how to react after Paul becomes involved with a much younger woman, Maddelena (Floriane Devigne). En Vacances received its North American premiere at the 2001 Santa Barbara Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Luc Picard, Luigi Diberti, (more)
- 1996
- NR
Two men with seemingly nothing in common become unlikely friends in this drama from France. Harry (Daniel Auteuil) is a salesman working for a large but faceless corporation, where he's become a success at the expense of his personal life. His wife Julie (Miou-Miou), frustrated by his lack of concern for his family, has divorced him, and while he still has visitation rights to his children, he manages to forget when it's his weekend with his daughters, and he neglects to pick them up at the train station. Harry is depressed and nearly suicidal; while driving late one rainy night, he accidentally hits a dog who is walking with Georges (Pascal Duquenne), a personable young man with Down's Syndrome. Georges lives in a mental institution, where he's happy and well cared for, but when several of the other patients leave for a weekend visit, Georges decides that he should leave too, and he sets out to visit his mother. Harry can't bring himself to leave Georges behind, so after burying the dog, he offers to drive him to his mother's home, which becomes the start of a complicated odyssey for the two of them, especially after Harry finds out that Georges' mother is no longer alive. Actor Pascal Duquenne actually does have Down's Syndrome; he and co-star Daniel Auteuil shared the Best Actor award at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Auteuil, Pascal Duquenne, (more)
- 1991
- PG
Former circus performer Jaco Van Dormael made his feature-film directing bow with the Belgian/French/German coproduction Toto Le Héros. The title character is an fictional supersecret agent, idolized by a young boy named Thomas. The lad aspires to become Toto when he grows up; but thanks to a kaleidoscope of flashbacks and flashforwards, we know that he'll end up ordinary and unfulfilled. The film hopscotches between the Three Ages of Thomas: wide-eyed youngster, mediocrity-mired adult, bitter old man. The elder Thomas has never gotten over his childhood traumas and hatreds. He was always jealous of his wealthy boyhood friend Alfred, fantasizing that he and his chum were switched at birth. At the end, the aged Thomas escapes from a senior citizens' home -- an act which leads to Fate dealing its final ironic blow. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michel Bouquet, Jo de Backer, (more)
