Hugues Quester Movies

Caroline Ducey, who previously gained fame by bearing it all in the 1999 dour erotic drama Romance, stars in this drama set in the 14th century. Alienor (Ducey) is provincial lass who puts her skill with herbal cures to use by healing the festering boil on the king's leg. He rewards her with offering her a husband of her choice. Unfortunately, the betrothed Court Bertrand de Roussillon (Melvil Poupaud) refuses to consummate the marriage. Not a woman to let such a setback keep her down, she resolves to use her healing powers to loose her hymen by any means necessary. This film was screened at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Two women who were best friends since childhood come to realize the toll that adulthood has taken on their understanding of each other in this acclaimed French drama. Mina Tannenbaum (Romane Bohringer) and Ethel Benegui (Elsa Zylberstein) first met when they were ten years old. As young Jewish girls growing up in Paris, both felt like outcasts among their schoolmates, and they began to bond as fellow outsiders. That's about all they have in common. As a child, Ethel was a pudgy extrovert from an upper-middle class family who was eager to make friends, while slender and serious-minded Mina preferred to follow her own path and keep her own counsel, and she was raised under less privileged circumstances. Mina and Ethel have remained close friends as adults, but they are still as different as night and day. Mina, still an intelligent iconoclast, has made a name for herself as an artist, while Ethel happened into a career as a pop culture journalist. Ethel has had a number of unsatisfying relationships with men, while Mina is usually too afraid to approach the men she's attracted to. And while both Ethel and Mina value each other's friendship, in time they begin to realize how little they have in common -- and they provide each other with as much aggravation as comfort. Mina Tannenbaum was the debut feature for writer and director Martine Dugowson; it earned her a Cesar Award nomination (the French Oscar) for "Best First Film." ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The first chapter in Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski's "Three Colors" trilogy, Blue stars Juliette Binoche as Julie, the lone survivor of an automobile crash that killed her husband, a famed composer, and their only child. Despondent, Julie attempts suicide, but she cannot bring herself to take her own life. Instead, she sets about starting over, purging all remnants of her former existence in an attempt to sever her ties to the past. A piece in the trio of films loosely inspired by the colors of the French flag and their corresponding symbolic qualities, the basic focus of Blue is liberty. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

French filmmaker Eric Rohmer begins his Tales of the Four Seasons series with A Tale of Springtime. Parisian philosophy teacher Jeanne (Anne Teyssedre) is temporarily without a place to stay as her cousin occupies her own home and she refuses to stay in her boyfriend's messy apartment while he is away. A young pianist, Natasha (Florence Darel), offers the use of her house and she accepts. After the two become friends, it is apparent there is a rivalry between Natasha and her father Igor's girlfriend, Eve. As Natasha's father drifts away from Eve, Natasha unwittingly finds herself embroiled in the mess. A Winter's Tale is the following installment. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi

Financed in West Germany and filmed in the Soviet Union, Hard to Be a God (Es Ist Nicht Leicht Ein Gott Zu Sein) is set some thousand years or so in the future, when all forms of hostility and aggression have been purged from the earth. A group of space travellers stumble upon an alien civilization that seems mired in the Middle Ages. Astronaut Edward Zentara is sent out to explore this primitive land, and in so doing he becomes involved in war and bloodshed for the first time in his life. Eventually, he leads the downtrodden local citizens into battle against his fellow Earthlings. Produced on an epic scale over a six-year period, Hard to Be a God is stronger in its action sequences than in its ponderous dialogue exchanges. Watch for German director Werner Herzog in a brief opening-scene bit. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A diverse group of guests gather in a small hotel in Paris to contemplate the state of their lives in this pretentious drama. Joseph Goldman (Fernando Rey) is a washed-up Hollywood actor making a living in the dinner-theater circuit. Accompanied by his wife Sarah (Carola Regnier), Goldman meets Frederique (Berangere Bonvoisin), who is hiding from her former lover. French financier Arthur (Fabrice Luchini) hopes to get into the film industry and bends the ear of a British director (Michael Medwin). The talkative film has little action, and none of the characters evoke much interest or resolve their dilemma. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Albane Guilhe stars in this French-Canadian film as Anne Trister, a brilliant but emotionally unstable painter/ sculptor. After the death of her father, Anne returns from Switzerland to her home town in Quebec. Setting up a studio, she becomes obsessed with her work, to the extent that she grows farther and farther from her Swiss lover. Anne enters into an affair with her childhood friend Louise Marleau, which also takes second place to her art. While hospitalized due to a fall from her scaffold, Anna discovers that her studio has been condemned and demolished--and with it her life's work. Somehow this disaster, coupled with her ongoing relationship with Marleau, enables Anne to find inner peace at last. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A disparate, small group of smugglers try to expand their income by carrying illegal cargo across the French-Swiss border in this routine tale of life on the shady side. Paul (Hugues Quester) works as a mechanic in his father's car repair shop, but he makes extra cash by smuggling goods and people across the border. He dreams of getting his pilot's license and going to Canada to work. Mali (Berry Berr) works in a factory and smuggles narcotics across the border for extra lucre. Finally, Jean (Jean-Philippe Ecoffey) works on his father's farm and is not at all interested in smuggling until he meets Mali. After he agrees to help Paul smuggle some gold into Switzerland, he has no idea that Paul realizes the police are hot on his trail. The results are disastrous. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Based on the prize-winning novel by Elvire Mural, the French Escalier C (Staircase C) stars Robin Renucci as a cynical, spiteful art critic. The critic learns the error of his ways through the catharsis of disturbing life experiences. Though many of his friends and neighbors try to crack the shell he has built around himself, his eyes are opened to the importance of human compassion only after the suicide of his neighbor. In the original novel, the critic finds fulfillment through homosexuality; this element is removed from the film version, though the gay subtext is still very much in evidence. Escalier C was directed by Jean Tacchella, best known internationally for his earlier Cousin Cousine. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This story about a wounded American gangster seeking refuge in the country villa of a blind, sophisticated, and aging actor has an uneven script that alternates sharp dialogue with slow segments. The plot thickens when the actor's nephew arrives with his new love interest, and she is quite taken with the gangster. Jealous of his brutish rival, the young nephew plans to get back at the American in any way he can. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

The heiress Claire (Charlotte Rampling) in this movie is the daughter of the Miss Blandish of the film No Orchids for Miss Blandish. She has been raised under the unsympathetic eye of her aunt (Edwige Feuillere), who has no intention of seeing her receive her large inheritance. A somewhat violent girl (her father was a mentally retarded killer), she has been confined in a mental asylum. All the men who help her meet tragedy and death in the course of the film, but Claire gets help from other quarters, and her prospects look good. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi