Josiane Stoleru Movies

The freewheeling sexuality of three men (one of whom lives as a woman) leads them into a relationship that stretches the traditional bounds of love and friendship in this drama. Stéphanie (Stéphanie Michelini) is a pre-operative transsexual who supports herself as a prostitute and shares a flat with two roommates -- Mikhail (Edouard Nikitine), a Russian soldier who has fled the army and is hiding out in Paris, and Jamel (Yasmine Belmadi), a hustler from Algeria who services stray men in the city's railway stations. When Stéphanie's mother (who is still in deep denial about her son's new life) falls seriously ill, she travels to the small town where she was born to help care for her. Mikhail opts to tag along, and when business starts to dry up in Paris, Jamel follows them to the country. As Stéphanie struggles with her mother, both Mikhail and Jamel find themselves falling in love with her, and when she is forced to pick between them, Stéphanie chooses not to choose, opting to pursue an open relationship with both men. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The harsh realities of prison life are parallelled with the day-to-day drone of factory work in director Bénédicte Liénard's dramatic study in compromise. Serving time in prison for an unspecified violent crime related to her employment at the factory, Joanna (Séverine Caneele) experiences the dehumanization of the penal system while her old friends on the assembly line suffer the exploitations of the working class. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Edmond Rostand's classic drama of inner and outer beauty is given a lavish treatment in this acclaimed French production. Gérard Depardieu portrays the title character, a brilliant, charismatic swordsman with a generous spirit and a genius for poetry. It would seem that such a man would have no trouble attracting women, but Cyrano considers himself doomed to loneliness by an unattractive face featuring an oversized nose. His feelings of inadequacy are emphasized when Roxane, the beautiful woman he adores, attracts the attention of Christian, a young cadet in Cyrano's service. Christian lacks the poetic gift, however, and he ironically turns to Cyrano for help in winning Roxane's love. What follows is a tale of deception, with Roxane falling in love with the ineloquent Christian thanks to Cyrano's words of love. The underlying narrative has become quite familiar to modern audiences through retellings and variations from the 1950 adaptation starring José Ferrer to Steve Martin's Roxanne. Director Jean-Paul Rappeneau's interpretation stresses the tragic majesty of the original, setting a vigorous performance by Depardieu against a beautifully designed reproduction of the period and an emphasis on the sound and poetry of Rostand's original language; the subtitles for the film's English release were penned by renowned British author Anthony Burgess. This attention to detail creates a particularly faithful cinematic rendering of the original work that met with positive critical responses. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide