David Jalil Movies

The Italians have bocce ball, and the French have a similar game, boules. This is played (generally in the southern part of the country) with steel balls on a packed-earth court. While these games have a bucolic, countrified and even genteel air about them, competition and betting are fierce. In this sports/crime thriller, a young man whose father was killed for violating the unspoken roles of the game in professional competition trains with his grandfather to become a champion boules player just like his father. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Fatal Image stars Michele Lee as a recent divorcee and Justine Bateman as her daughter. Forgetting their domestic travails, mother and daughter take a trip to Paris. Here things get pretty tense when the two accidentally witness a murder. Worse still, the daughter took a video of the crime. Fatal Image originally aired December 2, 1990. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This uneven science fiction road race combines European motorcross with football. Gus (Karen Allen) is the driver of a behemoth vehicle named Monster. The computer-controlled car runs off course, with Gus being captured and tortured. Before she dies, she turns the driving gloves over to fellow cellmate and former trucker Stump Manchot (Johnny Halladay). Stump agrees to take her place and stops the illegal plans of a fetus-smuggling doctor (Jurgen Pronchow). ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Exposed is the film in which concert violinist Rudolf Nureyev grabs his bow and "plays" the lissome body of Nastassja Kinski. This may well stand as the silliest bit of erotica in screen history, but in the context of the film it's a model of restraint. We're asked to believe that Kinski is Elizabeth Carlson, a Wisconsin girl who has come to the big city to make it as a pianist or model. We're also supposed to be convinced that Nureyev is part-time espionage agent Daniel Jelline, who is determined to bring terrorist Rivas (Harvey Keitel) to justice. Much of the film takes place in Paris, where at least the scenery is lovely. The various plotlines and characters never quite congeal. Despite the fact that director James Toback is given sole screenplay credit, the film seems more like a "committee" project. To its credit, Exposed is never dull; with that cast, how could anyone fall asleep? ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In the original story of Camille by Alexandre Dumas, Jr. La Dame aux Camelias, a beautiful Parisian courtesan, Marguerite Gautier, (called "Camille" because of her love for camelias) is supported by a series of aristocratic lovers, but does not fall in love until she meets Armand Duval. Armand's father lets it be known that Camille would ruin Armand because of her "low" past, and she leaves to save his reputation, saying she does not love him anymore. She soon contracts tuberculosis, and Armand hears that she is dying. He rushes to her side, finds out she has loved him all along, and she dies knowing he has always loved her. The True Story of Camille uses the ploy of Alexandre Dumas, Jr. doing his version of "Camille" at the turn of the 20th century, as a means of introducing a flashback to the "real" story behind the "real" Camille, Alphonsine Plessis. In the film, Alphonsine (Isabelle Huppert) - a country girl - was sold by her father to a wealthy neighbor, which starts her off on a round of living in expansive palaces and keeping company with wealthy aristocrats and eventually, Alexandre Dumas, Jr. himself. But that trajectory did not happen all at once. Alphonsine first survives, barely, as a seamstress in Paris. Then she becomes a prostitute, after which a Count Peregaunts (Bruno Ganz) marries her, then more or less disappears, leaving her to become a high-class courtesan. As she makes her way from one handsome, aristocratic client to the next, a noble protector, Count Stechelberg (Fernando Rey) keeps her out of harm's way. By the time she and Dumas meet, she has become infected with tuberculosis - and she has created the inspiration for Dumas' story of Camille. Her father comes along at this point, however, ready to trounce Dumas for romanticizing his daughter's wretched life - the same father that sold her off in the first place. If the viewer can remember that the characters of Marguerite Gautier (Carla Fracci) and Armand Duval from Dumas' story of Camille have been given their "real" personas as Alphonsine Plessis and Dumas in this film, then the story within a story make more sense. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Fush (Claude Brasseur) and Ballestrat (Claude Rich) are the rival police detectives who head different departments trying to capture a notorious gangster in this crime thriller. Both are not above using underhanded and illegal means to attain their goals. Marie (Marlene Jobert) a the female cop in Ballestrat's department who adds to the tension by having an affair with Fush. When an ambush attempt goes wrong, Fush puts his life in danger by confronting the gangster whose criminal activities sparked the intense manhunt. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi