Laurent Terzieff Movies

This English-language film was made in Sweden by American essayist Susan Sontag and includes a French and Swedish cast. There is a similar confusion in the storyline. Four artistic adults (two men and two women) have gone to an island at the same time. They are people who have caused one another considerable pain in the past, and they appear to be prepared to do so again here. One woman, an actress, commits suicide when she is not able to seduce a (male) ballet dancer whom she had traumatized before. The dancer and the (male) theater director may or may not be having an affair. The dancer tries to have sex with an under-age autistic girl. The mother of the girl copes with all this, and more. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

During his lifetime, the noted Italian author Gabriele D'Annunzio was considered to be a genius, a daring adventurer, and a major Italian nationalist. During the Mussolini era, he was still considered to be a major figure in Italian literature, and many schoolchildren were required to study his tamer books. Several movies based on his life were made prior to this one, and they focused on his association with the Mussolini regime. Since then, his reputation has declined considerably, and this biographical drama certainly reflects his new status as a historically important but repugnant and artistically insignificant figure. In this story, the journalist-turned-author is a foolish-looking dandy who is just beginning to make his mark as a central figure in Italy's art-world. His little group would win the descriptive title of "the decadents." Here, he is shown as being the sort of man who would exploit the women he has affairs with to further his career. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Mario Gas directed this music-themed Spanish drama set in Barcelona of the mid-'80s. When famed composer Lluis Doria (Laurent Terzieff) visits a transvestite club, he learns his lifelong friend Albert Rossell (Serge Reggiani) is the house pianist. A flashback takes the tale four decades into the past where the younger Rossell (Pere Ponce) rejoins Teresa (Paulina Galvez) after having spent years in prison for helping anti-Franco anarchists. The story continues into Paris of the '30s, the period when Doria and Rossell first met, sharing a mutual interest in music and Teresa, before civil war sent them in different directions. Shown at the 1998 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

Soledad Emmanuelle Riva is a revolutionary in an mythical Latin American country who is captured by government police agents. When she is released, she discovers it is because her sister is having an affair with one of the police chiefs. Soledad is suspected of being a government informant and shoots her accuser in order to escape with her sad but wiser sister. Poor editing, dubbing, and other technical deficiencies plague this plodding drama that suffers from undeveloped characterizations of the principle performers. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Postwar France was slow to recover from the after-effects of the World War Two. The economy was doing poorly, and many people were poor and homeless, sleeping under bridges, etc. The winter of 1953-54 proved particularly difficult for these people, as it was one of the coldest on record. Father Pierre (Lambert Wilson), a parish priest, on seeing the suffering of these people (and their frequent death from the cold), was moved to write the French government seeking help for them. When his letter, which was published in the newspapers, succeeded in rousing overwhelming popular support for helping the homeless, he was able to form a charitable group (still active today) titled "Les Chiffoniers d'Emmaus," or "The Ragpickers of Emmaus" to channel help to them. This biographical film tells the true story of Abbe Pierre's successful efforts in those years. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Roberto Ando directs this biopic about Sicilian aristocrat Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa -- who gained posthumous fame with his novel The Leopard later made into a film by Luchino Visconti -- and his relationship with two young proteges. Set in Palermo during the 1950s, the film centers on Marco Pace (Paolo Briguglia), a brilliant, taciturn university student and fledgling writer who gets himself introduced to Prince Tomasi di Lampedusa (Michel Bouquet). The youth unfortunately mistakes the Prince's preachy self-absorption for paternal interest and is thus crestfallen when his erstwhile mentor adopts rich relative Guido Lanza (Giorgio Lupano) as his heir. As the film progresses, a quiet rivalry builds between the youths. Cinema legend Jeanne Moreau also appears. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

La Guerre Dans le Haut Pays is a period piece set in the winter of 1797-98, during the six days leading up to the fall of Bern and the victory of Napoleon's army, when the Bern government is faced with mixed loyalties from its subjects. The population of the lower valley is divided, but the upper region remains loyal, since they have been given special autonomy and a favorable system of taxation. David, a postman, works between the two regions. His father, who is a hard-line conservative, does not approve of his relationship with Julie, who is from the lower part of the valley. Julie's father, on the other hand, is more open to the new ideas of liberation. As a result of his work, David is exposed to new ideas and becomes a believer in equality and justice. When he meets Ansermoz, who is forced by his poverty to work as a mercenary for the French government, David distances himself more and more from his father. The last straw is when his father wants him to fight with those who support Bern. David refuses and plans to run away with Julie, while his father is determined to carry the combat. Tragedy strikes when the father and the son face each other on opposite sides of the battlefield. For lovers of historical drama, the film offers plenty of escapist action and excitement, with interspersed ideological clashes and fanaticism. All these are enhanced by celebrated French screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere's contribution to the script. The romantic love story spices up the generally male-dominated nature of the story. For audiences who prefer films dealing with not-so-grandiose subjects, La Guerre Dans le Haut Pays, which competed at the 49th International Berlin Film Festival in 1999, has very little to offer. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi

A young female film editor specializes in discovering why other women degrade themselves in pornography and prostitution. She has a relationship with a boring artist, and her life is uneventful until she encounters an older, more worldly art dealer. The man shows her his photographs and she is mesmerized by a picture of a naked woman in chains. The man tries to hide the photo, but she is insistent on seeing it. The man admits this is how he gets aroused, by taking pictures of the bound beauties. The woman asks to come to a photo session where she is repulsed and intrigued at the same time. She leaves, but later returns to the man at his office and becomes hooked on his sadomasochistic voyeurism and begs to become the next model for his camera in the upcoming photo session. He brings in another woman and the session degenerates into a lesbian love fest that the man eagerly captures on film. Shamed, debased and degraded, she pulls her car onto a train track and contemplates her demise. Injured but not dead, she is straddled in her hospital bed when the man comes to visit. She goes into a psychedelic hallucination dream sequence in which her sexual escapades flash before her eyes as the man and her artist boyfriend engage in fisticuffs. Yikes! ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

While arch surrealist Luis Bunuel never made a secret of his skepticism about the existence of God, he was also raised as a strict Spanish Catholic and remained fascinated with the church's teaching throughout his life, and his obsessions with both faith and the contradictions of dogma provided the basis for this episodic satiric comedy. Jean (Laurent Terzieff) and Pierre (Paul Frankeur) are two threadbare vagabonds who are making their way from Paris to Spain on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, where the remains of Saint James are believed to be kept. While Jean and Pierre's journey begins in the 20th Century, as they travel they seemingly develop the ability to move through time and space as they pass through a variety of historical scenes taken from a broad range of theological texts -- and all involving heresy in one form or another. As they walk the long road to Santiago de Compostela (when they can't catch a ride), Jean and Pierre encounter Jesus (Bernard Verley), who decides not to shave his beard to keep his mother happy; a young boy with stigmata and unusual powers; the Marquis de Sade (Michel Piccoli), who patently struggles to teach atheism to a young girl he's captured; an eccentric priest who has an irreversible belief in transubstantiation until he changes his mind; two men who put their debate over Catholic dogma to the test in a duel with swords; and Satan (Pierre Clementi), who shows up just in time for a car wreck. La Voie Lactee (aka The Milky Way) was scripted by Bunuel and his frequent screenwriting collaborator Jean-Claude Carriere; each of the film's historic episodes was adapted faithfully from an actual biblical text or historical account. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Murky and rather uninspired, this wartime drama by director Claude Autant-Lara is set in France during World War II. At the crux of the story is a German woman, Herta (Erika Remberg) who longs to be with her husband for awhile. He is in the German occupying forces in France and in order to even get to that country, Herta forges a border pass. She manages to succeed in reaching a remote lodging in France, but when she tries to make contact with her husband the realities of war take over. He and the military are busy looking for a resistance fighter smuggled into the country by the British -- a task which does not augur well for a few stolen, romantic moments. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi