Sylvie Herbert Movies
- 2007
An outwardly confident but unmarried woman on the verge of her fortieth birthday reflects on her past suitors and the choices she once made while attempting to help her marriage minded niece choose between a number of potential suitors in this tale inspired by the life and letters of Jane Austen. Jane Austen (Olivia Williams) is about to turn forty, but she still hasn't found her ideal man. When Jane is approached by her niece Fanny (Imogen Poots) and asked to help select the perfect husband for the young girl, the ageing spinster begins to wonder why it is that she never found a man to share her own life with. Perhaps if Jane had accepted the proposal of a wealthy landowner she could have saved her family from financial ruin, and what of the handsome young physician who once warmed to Jane after tending to her ailing family members? In this speculative tale, director Jeremy Lovering and screenwriter Gwyneth Hughes ponder the potential reasons why the real Jane Austen never found her own Mr. Darcy. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Olivia Williams, Imogen Poots, (more)
After a series of short films, writer/director Laurent Firode made his feature-length debut with this tale of coincidence, chance, and fate inspired by a variation of the chaos theory, which supposes that if a butterfly beats its wings in one part of the world, it could theoretically cause a full-fledged storm thousands of miles away. Firode applies this theory to a disparate group of Parisians, opening with a young retail worker, Irene (Audrey Tautou), reading her horoscope on the train to work one morning. At the store, Irene has to deal with an elderly woman (Francoise Bertin) who wants to return a broken coffeemaker; as if that weren't enough, the dissatisfied octogenarian consumer has to put up with her impudent grandson, Luc (Eric Feldman). Amidst all the seemingly unrelated human activities in the film, cockroaches, bird droppings, and changes in the weather all conspire to bring the characters together -- or drive them apart, as the case may be. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Audrey Tautou, Faudel, (more)
Amandine Aurore Lucie Dupin, better known in the literary world as George Sand, not only took a man's name, but trotted around wearing pants and smoking cigars in public. No great shakes today, but in the 1800s she was perhaps the most famous (or infamous) woman in the world. One of the first original celebrities, aside from her garb and literary output, she was known to inspire many duels and broken hearts among other famous hedonist artists. One character describes her in Impromptu, as "that graveyard." The film engages in a sexual roundelay among Sand's (Judy Davis) many friends -- Eugene Delacroix (Ralph Brown), Alfred DeMusset (Mandy Patinkin), Franz Liszt (Julian Sands), and Frederick Chopin (Hugh Grant). The entire crew heads off to the summer estate of the Duke and Duchess d'Antan (Anton Rodgers and Emma Thompson), invited there by the culture-vulture hosts. Sand takes a bead on the sickly Chopin and spends her time throwing herself at him. Also on hand is Liszt's mistress Marie d'Agoult (Bernadette Peters) and Felicien Mallefille (Georges Corraface), Sand's recently jilted lover. Mallefille is jealous of any of the other guests who glance in Sand's direction and continually challenges them to duels. Marie, on the other hand, is enlisted by Sand to deliver a note to Chopin. But Marie, jealous of Sand, delivers the note substituting her name for Sand's. And as the weekend continues, the sexual merry-go-round continues at full tilt. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Judy Davis, Hugh Grant, (more)
- 1989
- Add My Nights Are More Beautiful Than Your Days to QueueAdd My Nights Are More Beautiful Than Your Days to top of Queue
Lucas, a computer genius facing an unnamed terminal illness that causes him to lose his memory, meets Blanche, a young woman who seems unable to break free of her vicious environment. The two plunge into a brief but intense affair, understanding that their days together are numbered. This a strangely poetic and powerful film that celebrates love's victory over death and suggests that sentiment has some currency even in a pragmatic world. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sophie Marceau, Jacques Dutronc, (more)
- 1988
This French historical drama is a retelling of the story of St. Bernadette, the young 19th-century girl who was ostracized and persecuted after she saw a vision of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes. Though she became a popular folk figure, the local politicians attempt to commit her to an asylum. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sydney Penny, Jean-Marc Bory, (more)
- 1987
A fading television personality and radio quiz-show host is shielded by his right-hand man from learning his show has been cancelled in this situation comedy. Rivetot (Gerard Jugnot) is the loyal longtime assistant to Mortez (Jean Rochefort) who believes the news of the show's demise will be fatal to his boss. He tries to keep the news from Mortez as long as possible as the show travels from town to town. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Rochefort, Gérard Jugnot, (more)
- 1984
A notorious, internationally known sex symbol (Phoebe Cates) attempts to track down her birth mother in this glitzy, deliciously trashy melodrama. The mother could be one of three women, all of whom have vowed to never reveal the secret truth behind the child's illegitimate birth. Based on the novel by Shirley Conran. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bess Armstrong, Brooke Adams, (more)
