Françoise Fabian Movies

This Franco-German co-production stars two cinematic giants: Gérard Depardieu and Alexandra Maria Lara. Konrad Lang (Depardieu) has spent years maintaining ties with the Senns, a wealthy European clan. Though this association began unassumingly, via his childhood friendship with the family's heir apparent Thomas Senn, later Konrad became the Senn's handyman, much to his delight. Now, as aging Konrad's health and mental state begin to deteriorate; he confides long-buried family secrets in Simone (Lara), a young woman who has married into the dynasty . Konrad's early childhood recollections of family developments that fail to gel with the Senns' official story about what happened, which infuriates and scandalizes the family matriarch, Elvira; as a friendship develops and deepens between Simone and Konrad, Elvira becomes convinced that the cunning handyman is out to destroy the Senn name and legacy. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

One man's wealth, privilege, and power lead him into a world of danger and humiliation in this drama from director Lucas Belvaux. Stanislas Graff (Yvan Attal) is one of Belgium's richest men, a business magnate and trusted confidante of the nation's president. One morning, en route to his office, Graff's limousine is set upon by a handful of kidnappers; they capture the tycoon, throw him in a get-away car, and take him to a cave on the edge of town. The kidnappers, led by a man calling himself Marseillais (Gérard Meylan), contact Graff's wife (Anne Consigny), his lawyer (Alex Descas), and the second-in-command at his firm (André Marcon) and demand a ransom of 50 million Euros for his return -- and to show they mean business, the kidnappers include Graff's severed finger with the ransom note. As Graff's family and associates ponder what to do next, many close to him question if his life or anyone's is worth that much money; meanwhile, as the press rushes the abduction into the headlines, they reveal a number of Graff's personal peccadillos, including affairs with other women and a powerful appetite for gambling, and public opinion about the businessman takes an ugly turn. Inspired by the 1978 abduction of French multi-millionaire Édouard-Jean Empain, Rapt was an official selection at the 2010 Rotterdam International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Jacques Rivette's epic-scale meditation on art, politics and relationships is an eight-part, 740 minute drama that begins as an examination of two Parisian theater companies. Lili (Michele Moretti) is a member of an experimental troupe preparing a radical new interpretation of Aeschylus's Seven Against Thebes, while Thomas (Michel Lonsdale) is in charge of a state-funded group who are rehearsing another work by the same ancient Greek playwright, Prometheus Unbound. Drifting in and out of the orbit of these two groups are Sarah (Bernadette Lafont), an author and longtime friend of Thomas; Colin (Jean-Pierre Léaud), a deaf street musician; Frederique (Juliet Berto), a sexy confidence woman, and the bohemian owner of a knick-knack shop who often changes her name (Bulle Ogier), among many others. Colin tries to search out the meaning of a strange note handed to him by a mysterious stranger, while Frederique becomes party to a similar message. As it happens, both learn of the possible existence of a secret society of thirteen powerful individuals who are the true rulers of Paris, but neither is sure if the group exists in history or the present day, and they have very different notions of what to do with this information. Jacques Rivette originally screened Out 1 as a work in progress (titled Out 1: Noli Me Tangere) at a pair of screenings in Paris in the fall of 1971; it was originally conceived as a project for television, but became a theatrical film after it was rejected by French broadcasters. While a four-hour version, Out 1: Spectre, began making the rounds of film festivals in 1974, the film didn't appear in its full twelve-hours-plus version until 1989, when a new cut of Out 1 appeared at the Rotterdam Film Festival. The final cut of Out 1 appeared with English subtitles in London in 2006, and has subsequently been screened in Vancouver, New York City and Chicago. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The rise and fall of one couple's marriage goes under the microscope in this drama from French filmmaker François Ozon. Gilles (Stephane Freis) and Marion (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi) have filed for divorce following several years of marriage, and after the judge declares their union is over, the film follows the couple through five lengthy flashbacks, presented in reverse chronological order, in which glimpses of their lives together are shown, ending with the couple meeting for the first time. As the film follows the peaks and valleys of Gilles and Marion's relationship, viewers witness a few of the many small events that make up a marriage. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Veteran Portuguese director Manoel Oliveira brings the events and characters of a famous 17th-century French novel, La princesse de Cleves by Madame de Lafayette, to the modern day in this film about passion and matrimonial virtues. Mademoiselle de Chartres (Chiara Mastroianni) has her first experience of heartbreak when a youth who believes in free love abandons her. One night, her mother's friend Mrs. Silva introduces her to Jacques de Cleves, a doctor of good reputation. The doctor fell in love with the young girl the day he saw her in a jewelry store in the Place Vendome, choosing a necklace in the company of her mother. Mademoiselle de Chartres agrees to marry the doctor to cure her broken heart but subsequently falls in love with a young and fashionable singer, Pedro Abrunhosa. Realizing the dangers of following one's passions, her mother warns her before she dies, reminding her of her reputation and her duties to her husband. But she is too much in love to care. Besides, she is a rebellious woman at heart. Using a story written almost three centuries ago, Oliveira makes light of the social order which is affecting humanity even today. Remarkably, he does this with a good dose of humor. Chiara Mastroianni combines beauty with dignity as the woman who has no choice but to follow her passions no matter where they lead her. In competition at the 52nd Cannes Film Festival, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi

Noted French filmmaker Demy's wife Agnes Varda helmed this intensely personal tribute to her late husband. It is her third such tribute and is the only one to look deeply into Demy's vision as a director and his filmmaking techniques. To do so, she uses perfectly preserved film clips from each of the director's works and interviews with those who knew and loved him. Those interviewed include actress Catherine Deneuve, actress Anouk Aimee, actor Michel Piccoli, composer Michel Legrand, his own children and others, including female fans whose lives where influenced by his work. Also included are intimate home movies of him during a visit by Francois Truffaut and the late Jim Morrison. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Valeria (Francoise Fabian) is a doctor, but she's also an alcoholic. Unable to do her regular work effectively, she gives that (and her family) up, so as to better devote herself to drink. However, she has an errant benevolent impulse and invites Chim (Anna Kanakis), a sluttish drug addict, to share her quarters. Thereupon she proceeds to dry the woman out, curing her of her addition almost solely through the force of her will. That done, her victim/patient decides that it's time to return the favor, and after a lot of hootin' and hollerin', demon rum is no longer part of her life. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Jason Robards plays an older Jewish man who returns to Stuttgart, Germany which he left in 1933 during the onslaught of the Third Reich. He reunites with a German man who, as a boy, was his childhood friend. ~ Rovi

A hooker tries to overcome her fate by marrying out of her profession in this conventional drama by Jean-Claude Guiguet. Marie (Marie Christine Rousseau) and another prostitute with a young son live in a hotel near the Saint-Martin canal. Marie has fallen in love with Paul (Stephane Jobert), and the two carry on with their plans to marry even though Marie's pimp is brutal and not about to approve of Marie's departure. To make his opinion known, he has her beaten and knocked around. The older woman who runs the hotel has taken Marie and the other hooker under her wing, yet she is certainly no match for the pimp and his henchmen. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

This complex French tale eschews a single linear narrative in favor of two parallel storylines that move freely between past and present, reality and fantasy, to chronicle a scandalous love affair between a female author and a certain man who may or may not be a fabrication and the attempts of a screenwriter, wanting to use the story for a film, to learn the truth. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Director Claude D'Anna has tried for epic proportions in this less-than-epic film about incest, murder, suicide, and insanity in an aristocratic Sicilian family living in the 1950s. Count Villafratti (Max Von Sydow) has sex one night with his nymphomaniac daughter because he thinks she is his wife, and his wife, who is an operatic diva, hears of this just before she goes on stage. Later on, she commits suicide over the heinous act. In the meantime, their plantation workers are on strike, the communists and Mafiosos are fighting -- and the family's whole inner story (seen through the eyes of a visiting Sicilian-American who has come to bury his father here) is reflected in this outer turmoil. Segments of Verdi and Puccini at the opera house cannot do much to keep the entire scenario from seeming like a parody of itself. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

The setting for this story is Rahatlcoum, a Roman colony in North Africa, but the "colonists" watch television, have gay bars, trade unions, and traffic problems -- something like the "Flintstones" in an Afro-French incarnation, slipping around on Monty Pythonesque dialogue. A gay Jules César's (Michel Sarrault) expensive vacation causes the population to grumble and gripe, they would rather have mechanic Ben Hur Marcel (Coluche) take Jules' place as their exalted leader. Once she gets out of jail, Cleopatra (Mimi Coutellier) declares that old Ben is actually her long-lost half-brother, and lo and behold, Marcel of the chariot taxis is named the new pharaoh, Aminemphet. French critics loved this film and American critics hated it, leading one to suspect that being French helps considerably in responding to its humor. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

The title character in The French Woman is essayed by Francoise Fabian. Officially, Fabian is Madame Claude, the owner of a Parisian modelling agency. It is an open secret, however, that her operation actually traffics in expensive call girls. Director Just Jaeckin treats the material with the same erotic aplomb he brought to his earlier Emmanuelle films. The French Woman is liberally based on the memoirs of one Madame Claude. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi