Laurent Grévill Movies

Actress-cum-director Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi's sophomore feature, the comedy-drama Les Actrices (Le reve de la nuit d'avant), follows the trials and travails of Marcelline (Tedeschi), a tense and jittery stage thesp whose personal and professional life threaten to fall into pieces simultaneously. On a personal level, Marcelline hits the midpoint of her life, hears her biological clock ticking, and longs desperately for a child. At work, Marcelline's inability to find the core of her character, Natalia Petrovna, in a production of Turgenev's A Month in the Country only causes her emotional tension to double. In time, she regresses into such a basket case that she can barely respond to the stage director's query about whether she is right or left-handed. Marcelline's natty and overanxious mother (Marisa Borini, Tedeschi's mother in real life) weighs heavily on her as well, pressuring her constantly about the need to find an appropriate suitor before time runs out; instead, Marcelline finds herself drawn helplessly to Eric (Louis Garrel) a sexy young actor in the production - who, without her knowledge, nurtures reciprocal affections. This parallels the events that befall Petrovna in Turgenev's play, and indeed, at one point the spirit of Petrovna (Valeria Golino) appears to Marcelline for much-needed counsel. Meanwhile, as Marcelline weathers her own personal crises, one of her friends, Nathalie (Noemie Lvovsky) - the assistant to the play's director - struggles with her offstage lack of fulfillment as a wife and mother. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

A talented woman struggles to get out from under the shadow of her father in this comedy. Lolita (Marilou Berry) is the 20-year-old daughter of Étienne Cassard (Jean-Pierre Bacri), a wealthy and well-known editor and writer, and most of the people she meets seem to be more interested in her dad than in her; her zaftig figure doesn't help her self-esteem much, either. Lolita is a gifted singer and has been studying with a voice coach, Sylvia (Agnès Jaoui); however, as it turns out, Sylvia has a husband, Pierre (Laurent Grévill), who is a novelist and hopes that Cassard might be willing to help him get his new book into print and onto bookstore shelves. The great writer seems to take a cavalier attitude toward nearly everyone around him, though, including his wife, Karine (Virginie Desarnauts). Lolita strikes up a friendship with a young man named Sebastien (Keine Bouhiza) which seems to be leading to romance, but when Lolita learns that Sebastien wants to become a writer, she finds herself wondering if he really wants her, or just an introduction to her dad. Jaoui, who plays Sylvia, also directed Comme une Image (aka Look at Me) and co-wrote the screenplay. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A wealthy but dysfunctional family teeters on the brink of collapse in this emotional drama leavened with a strong dose of dark comedy. Federica (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi) is the daughter of a wealthy Italian business magnate (Roberto Herlitzka) who relocated himself and his family to France in the 1970s, after a wave of kidnappings among the rich and prominent led him to fear for their safety. Years later, Federica and her siblings -- brother Aurelio (Lambert Wilson) and sister Bianca (Chiara Mastroianni) -- still feel lost and disconnected, and with their father on his death bed, they each confront their feelings in their own way. Emotionally distant Aurelio plans a long and expensive vacation, while Bianca is in a sour mood that refuses to lift. Federica, who is attempting to establish herself as a playwright, tries to focus on her work, but she finds herself romantically torn between her current beau, down to earth Pierre (Jean-Hugues Anglade) and her former lover Philippe (Denis Podalydes), who despite his infatuation with her can't tear himself away from his wife and child. Il Est Plus Facile Pour un Chameau... was the first feature film from Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, who wrote and directed the film as well as playing Federica. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A throwback detective attempts to unravel the mystery behind the disappearance of a young Parisian student named Rachel in this noirish mystery from director Guillaume Nicloux. His life a smoky and meaningless haze of women and seedy investigations, private eye François Maneri (Thierry Lhermitte) agrees to take the case of a missing student in an investigation that grows increasingly complex. First speaking to Rachel's family and friends, François soon discovers a dark and complicated past that few of those who were close to Rachel knew about. As François moves ever closer to discovering the truth behind Rachel's disappearance, facts become blurred and the truth a complex maze of sordid details that threatens to envelop the detective in the same darkness that swallowed Rachel. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A temperamental London lawyer adapts to the challenges of fatherhood when he is left with sole responsibility for his infant daughter in this well-performed British comedy-drama. Richard E. Grant stars as Jack, a high-pressure attorney who believes his life is on the right track: a successful career, a beautiful wife (Imogen Stubbs), and a baby on the way. Tragedy strikes, however, when his wife dies during labor, leaving Jack to raise his daughter Sarah, named in his wife's honor. Shocked and depressed, Jack is forced to deal with his grief for the sake of the new child. At first reluctant to turn to others, he receives help from a local derelict (Ian McKellen) who begins to act as Jack's butler, and a charming young American woman, Amy (Samantha Mathis), who becomes Sarah's nanny. The new challenges of fatherhood provide Jack with his solace and eventually lead him reevaluate his life and behavior. The debut film of writer-director Tim Sullivan, Jack and Sarah follows a well-worn path, but Grant's nuanced central performance and a strong supporting cast elevate the material above its predictable outline. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi

This French drama uses two plots that occasionally come together. The stories are set within the multiethnic neighborhoods of Paris. In the first, Daiga (Yekaterina Golubeva), a spunky Lithuanian actress, drives into to town to collect on the promise of a director she slept with. He lied to her and now she, who speaks no French, must accept help from friends and relatives who set her up in a small hotel. She gets a job as a chambermaid. The second examines the lives of a large expatriate Caribbean family. Theo ( Alex Descas), a musician, takes small carpentry jobs for wealthy Parisians to support his young daughter. He really wants to go home to Martinique, but his daughter's mother doesn't want to. Theo's brother Camille (Richard Courcet) has real problems. He is the wild one. Dressed in his fishnet stockings and garish makeup, Camille sings at the local gay club. He sleeps with his lover (also his doctor) in the same hotel as Daiga. Camille seems nice enough until it is discovered that he is not only a drug addict and HIV-positive, he also strangles old women to death while a partner robs their homes. Camille seems oddly distant from his actions, which he calmly describes. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this drama, filmed in a series of vignettes, a diverse cast of characters tries to pick up the pieces of their lives after Paul's ladyfriend commits suicide. Not only that, but Paul (Michel Piccoli) must cope with having four house guests, including an infant baby, the infant's recently separated mother, another child of hers, and an immature young woman who is the girlfriend of a rock band's lead singer. Their complex and demanding lives add to the distressed man's difficulty in coping with his bereavement and at the same time help pull him through it. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In this coming-of-age drama, based on a novel by Charles Juliet, François is a sensitive and thoughtful student at a military boarding school in 1948. He is fourteen and an orphan, and the French are still fighting in Indochina, as they will continue to do for many years. He believes he will be sent to fight there when he graduates, and he is sure he will die in that far-away place. While he sees himself as stubbornly principled, others, including the school's bullies, simply see him as stubborn and a nuisance besides. In fact, his humiliation by the school's bullies is so constant that one of his persistent fantasies is to become a skilled boxer and trounce them all. That is one reason why he has become fixated on one of the school's military instructors, a handsome sergeant who was a championship boxer. While there may be an unformed erotic component to his fixation, it does not manifest overtly but adds fuel to his sexual initiation with the sergeant's wife. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

The troubled life of French sculptor Camille Claudel and her long relationship with legendary sculptor Auguste Rodin are portrayed in this passionate biographical drama, featuring an acclaimed performance by Isabelle Adjani. Beginning in the 1880s with a young Claudel's first meeting with Rodin, the film traces the development of their intense romantic bond. The growth of this relationship coincides with the rise of Claudel's career, helping her overcome prejudices against female artists. However, their romance soon sours, due to the increasing pressures of Rodin's fame and his love for another woman. These difficulties combine with her increasing doubts about the value of her work to drive Claudel into an emotional tumult that threatens to become insanity. First-time director Bruno Nuytten had previously served as a cinematographer, and he brings this experience to bear in his loving presentation of Claudel's sculpture and the lavish period setting. The dramatic approach is in tune with the impressive visuals, which present Claudel's life as a grandiose melodrama, a transformation that irritated some critics. However, few questioned the film's value as a dramatic showcase for Adjani, whose fervent portrayal was rewarded with an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. The American release version was cut to 159 minutes. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi