Daniel Roy Movies
- 2008
After offering an up-close look at life in a farming community in the French hillsides in Profils paysans: L'approche and Le Quotidien, filmmaker Raymond Depardon returns to the village of Le Villaret in this documentary. Marcel Privat and his brother Raymond Privat have spent nearly their whole lives as dairy farmers in Le Villaret, but it's clear they can only continue for so long; Marcel is eighty-eight years old while his brother is only a few years younger, and unfavorable weather and poor soil conditions have devastated their grazing lands, reducing their flocks to a handful of cows and goats. Their nephew Alain Rouviere has moved from Calais to Le Villaret to help look after Marcel and Raymond as well as their farm, but it's clear Alain's wife Cecile doesn't care for the old men and isn't afraid to tell them what she thinks. Down the road, Marcel Challaye and his wife Germaine are also growing old and fighting a losing battle with the elements as their spread of cattle gradually shrinks to nothingness, and Daniel Roy, who has inherited his family's farm, sees no future in working the increasingly flinty soil of Le Villaret. La Vie Moderne (aka Modern Life) was an official entry at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Director Kari Skogland takes the reins for a Buffalo Gals Pictures production starring Academy Award winner Ellen Burstyn as author Margaret Laurence's much-lauded heroine Hagar Shipley. Hagar may by 90, but she not ready to lie down and die just yet. Her decisions stem straight from her heart, and that often alienates her family and friends. When Hagar's son, Marvin (Dylan Baker), takes his mother to look at a nursing home, she takes it as her cue to leave her family behind and set out on one great last journey. Her mission is to locate the seaside home she remembers from her youth, but Hagar's memory is quickly fading, making it difficult for her to distinguish the past from the present. As a young girl, Hagar was set to inherit her father's mercantile empire until she was disowned for marrying a bold young man named Bram Shipley (Cole Hauser). Later, when Hagar's romantic illusions fade and she begins to view her husband with contempt, her decision to deny her children the kind of parental approval that she so badly longed for from her own father provokes a deep hereditary flaw. As she makes her way toward the seashore, Hagar realizes her time is running far too short to make up for a lifetime of unacknowledged mistakes. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ellen Burstyn, Christine Horne, (more)
