Juliet Berto Movies

Jacques Rivette's epic-scale meditation on art, politics and relationships is an eight-part, 740 minute drama that begins as an examination of two Parisian theater companies. Lili (Michele Moretti) is a member of an experimental troupe preparing a radical new interpretation of Aeschylus's Seven Against Thebes, while Thomas (Michel Lonsdale) is in charge of a state-funded group who are rehearsing another work by the same ancient Greek playwright, Prometheus Unbound. Drifting in and out of the orbit of these two groups are Sarah (Bernadette Lafont), an author and longtime friend of Thomas; Colin (Jean-Pierre Léaud), a deaf street musician; Frederique (Juliet Berto), a sexy confidence woman, and the bohemian owner of a knick-knack shop who often changes her name (Bulle Ogier), among many others. Colin tries to search out the meaning of a strange note handed to him by a mysterious stranger, while Frederique becomes party to a similar message. As it happens, both learn of the possible existence of a secret society of thirteen powerful individuals who are the true rulers of Paris, but neither is sure if the group exists in history or the present day, and they have very different notions of what to do with this information. Jacques Rivette originally screened Out 1 as a work in progress (titled Out 1: Noli Me Tangere) at a pair of screenings in Paris in the fall of 1971; it was originally conceived as a project for television, but became a theatrical film after it was rejected by French broadcasters. While a four-hour version, Out 1: Spectre, began making the rounds of film festivals in 1974, the film didn't appear in its full twelve-hours-plus version until 1989, when a new cut of Out 1 appeared at the Rotterdam Film Festival. The final cut of Out 1 appeared with English subtitles in London in 2006, and has subsequently been screened in Vancouver, New York City and Chicago. ~ Mark Deming, 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

Shot in war-ravaged Beirut and Lebanon, this slightly uneven, but still very engaging and visually evocative, film is about a hardened young teen Samar (Hala Bassam) and her adjustments to life and love in a blighted city. Samar has toughened her response to death and bullets and missiles because that is all she has ever known, unlike her older friends who constantly long for life as they once knew it -- peaceful, and with promise for the future. In her constant wanderings among the rubble of the city, Samar's coolness toward war is an obvious defense against despair. In contrast to her reaction, is the reaction of the artist Karim (Jacques Weber) whose own anguish is expressed on his canvases. Samar starts to fall for the handsome Karim -- and he appreciates her inner strength -- but given their situation and viewpoints, a relationship seems just about impossible.
~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Fernando Arrabal writes and directs this post-apocalyptic religious parable about a small group of punk rockers living in a junk yard on the periphery of a nuclear pothole. Desperate for food, the malnourished survivors face constant harassment from corrupt government officials. As the group awaits a performance by their prophet Emanou (Alain Bashung), who fronts a punk band and pledges to lead them out of the darkness, treachery threatens to fracture their unity and destroy their community. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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

This artfully contrived and engaging period drama is set during World War I and gradually reveals the human relationships in a small family. Catherine (Juliet Berto) is the temporary head of the family while her husband, whom she loathes, is away fighting in the war. Her widowed sister-in-law Suzanne (Anna Prucnal) lives with her, and after awhile it becomes apparent that Catherine loathes her as well. The children in the house are all boys -- Catherine has two sons, twelve and thirteen, and Suzanne also has a twelve-year old. While the relationship between Suzanne and Catherine is coming to a head, Catherine is having an affair with an army officer, and the boys in the family are planning a musical performance for everyone. The crescendo may be barely audible at the beginning, but it builds up to a tragedy at the end. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

The most powerful officers of a bank are implicated in a financial scandal, despite their efforts to disassociate themselves from it. When the top brass fire Henri Rainier (Jean-Louis Trintignant) because one of his clients has been accused of fraud, he doesn't take it lying down. He knows that the man who actually approved the client's loans was the bank's director. He must expose these and other shady financial transactions by his superiors in order to avoid being framed by them. This straightforward drama, which depicts the anxious situation of a man without allies, caught, despite his best efforts, in the throes of a vast land fraud, is based on a true story and was inexplicably very popular in France. It won Césars for "Best Screenplay" and "Best Director," and the Prix Louis Delluc, a venerable annual prize given by French journalists for the best French film of the year. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Alain Delon plays Mr. Klein, a French-Catholic art dealer during the Nazi occupation. Strapped for cash, Klein takes financial advantage of his Jewish neighbors, knowing that they have no legal recourse. Ironically, Klein is himself mistaken for a missing Jew, a man who has been using Mr. Klein's name as a cover for his secret operations. As he desperately seeks out that man, he learns a bitter lesson about life in the other man's shoes. Star Delon is one of the four producers of this French feature. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This film chronicles the strange battle among a pair of beings from the sphere of the sun or moon, who take the form of women and fight over a young man in bars, hotels, and mystical power-spots. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

A story about story-telling, Jacques Rivette's self-referential classic centers on the fanciful world of two women literally lost in the stories they tell each other. Celine (Juliet Berto) and Julie (Dominique Labourier) go from sharing a story about a haunted house to being part of a story about a haunted house -- or is it a real haunted house that has been called up by the story? The film blurs the line between the telling of the story and the story itself, as Celine and Julie, like Alice in Wonderland, become part of a surreal, drug-induced parallel universe; also like Alice, they ultimately become the heroines of the story that first imprisoned them. Rivette celebrates the magic of stories, and more broadly of imagination, adventure, and friendship, as essential elements of life; the themes are familiar from his other movies, but the tone is more playful. This enigmatic and fanciful film is not for all tastes, but, for its many devotees, it is one of the most distinctive and imaginative movies ever made. ~ Leo Charney, Rovi

When he gets out of prison, Sam (Georges Gerret) seeks to track down his little girl, now a grown woman (Juliet Berto). After a series of violent encounters, he discovers that she has been sold into prostitution -- and likes it. She marries one of her procurers, and that would seem to be that. However, when she is killed, the father has the opportunity to exact his revenge on at least some of the people responsible for the deplorable condition he found his daughter in. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In this French psychological drama, the tensions of show business parallel and increase the tensions on a married couple, both of whom are performers. The stage magician "Magico" (Claude Brasseur) is married to a singer (Bulle Ogler). Their lives are already somewhat complicated, but as they unravel, they become involved with the mob and drug-trafficking. Eventually, Magico is forced into being a stool-pigeon for the police. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi