Robert Liensol Movies
The animated movie Kirikou and the Wild Beasts contains four different stories that feature the popular character. The intro story involves stopping a witch from denying local farms the water necessary to raise crops. The second tale features the character finding food for the village. In the third he defeats a group of robots sent by the witch. The last story involves finding a cure for an illness that threatens all the women of the village. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
- Starring:
- Pierre-Ndoffe Sarr, Awa Sene Sarr, (more)
- 1989
- R
In this off-beat wartime drama, a young Italian soldier stationed in Ethiopia gets into deep trouble after a toothache compels him to set off in search of a dentist. He pauses at a desert oasis and sees a beautiful young woman bathing there. He loses control and rapes her. Afterward he feels bad and spends the entire evening with her. Unfortunately, during that time he hears a wild animal and fires a shot which ricochets off of a rock and mortally wounds the hapless girl. Unable to help her, the soldier shoots her in the head and then buries her body. As the soldier resumes his journey, a little time passes and he and his buddies see two natives wearing strange white garments, just like the poor girl he ravaged and killed. They are obviously pariahs and suddenly he realizes why--they are lepers and so was the girl! Soon the soldier discovers an open sore on his hand that will not heal. Believing that he too has the dread degenerative disease he suddenly remembers his family and fiancee in Italy and wants to see them desperately. Unfortunately, he cannot get home and so ends up seeking solace and forgiveness in the dead girl's native village. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Nicolas Cage, Ricky Tognazzi, (more)
- 1988
The recolonization of Africa, this time by the very blacks who had to flee it as exiles during the time of the original French occupation, is the theme of this political comedy. Adiza, who has been living well in France, has decided that she will return and buy the plantation she and her compatriots were expelled from, and enlists some unlikely helpers to bring them back into the country and enact their plot. Meanwhile, these "local" blacks are unwittingly accepted by the other landowners as more cheap labor. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Roland Giraud, Jean Carmet, (more)
Arthur Penn takes a crack at subverting the espionage film genre in Target. Walter Lloyd (Gene Hackman) is a quiet and unassuming lumberyard owner in Dallas, Texas. Chris (Matt Dillon) has dropped out of college to pursue a career as a race car driver. But all mundane tasks come to an end when Walter's wife Donna (Gayle Hunnicutt) is kidnapped while on a European trip. Walter flies to Paris with Chris to see what can be done. Once in Europe, Chris is shocked to discover that his dad was once a top CIA agent. Together, the two visit all of Walter's old CIA contacts in an effort to locate Donna. Finally, Walter discovers that Donna has been kidnapped by a rogue spy seeking revenge for an incident that happened eighteen years earlier. Now Walter must apply his old and vicious CIA tricks to save his wife from an old and vicious CIA operative. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gene Hackman, Matt Dillon, (more)
- 1983
Although this is a good dramatic film about a northern Zulu who goes to Johannesburg and experiences the raw edges of apartheid, for some viewers the drama will be undermined by too much talking. This film won the grand prize at the 1983 Moscow Film Festival. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Robert Liensol, Miriam Makeba, (more)
- 1981
This drama about a barmaid caught up in events beyond her control is the first film directed by Juliet Berto, and was also based on her own concept for the story. The barmaid, played by Berto, has been trying to take care of Bobby, a teenage drug pusher who is in over his head. Before she can put him back on track and get him out of the drug underworld, the young man is killed while being chased by a narcotics agent. Depressed by his death but not derailed, she finds herself trying to help out a gay user who depended on Bobby for his supply of drugs. She decides to procure some drugs for the desperate addict, and is trapped in the bathroom of a bar - with the drugs - when narcotics agents burst upon the scene. Her boyfriend rushes to help her but is killed by an agent who shoots first and thinks later. The barmaid does not face a very optimistic future as the narc arrests her - but releases a parish minister who had been helping her find a source for the drugs. Snow shared the prize for Contemporary Cinema at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Juliet Berto, Jean-François Stévenin, (more)
- 1979
On the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, which was a French territory at the time of this movie, Coco, a simple islander, is tricked into running for political office in the sure expectation that he will not rock the boat when he loses, after having divided the vote among the poor. Though the charming Coco is popular among his fellow poor folks, he is unlikely to suddenly grow political and start agitating for rights. Unfortunately for the Monbin family, which has arranged all this, Coco is too good a student of his new role. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Robert Liensol, Jennifer, (more)
- 1967
A native of Mauritania is delighted when he is chosen to work in Paris. Hoping to parlay the experience into a better life for himself, he eagerly prepares for his departure from his native land. Although an educated man, he has extreme difficulty finding work and an apartment. He sees racial inequity as blacks are relegated to manual labor while less skilled whites are given preferential treatment. A dinner with a liberal white friend even reveals a continuing attitude of colonization towards third world countries. The disappointed man runs off to the woods where he hears the far off cry of the jungle drums calling him home from a cold and indifferent land. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Robert Liensol, Theo Legitimus, (more)
