Oswald d'Andréa Movies

Bertrand Tavernier directed this hard-hitting anti-war drama. In November of 1918, just as World War I had come to a close, Capt. Conan (Phillippe Torreton) and his men await new assignments in Bucharest. Conan regards himself as a warrior, not a soldier: while a soldier will fight in a war, it takes a warrior -- unafraid to take risks, confront death, and spill blood -- to win one. Conan is convinced that it was the bloodthirsty valor of himself and those under his command that won the war against Germany. However, while Conan's dark nature was a boon to the Army during the war, it's a distinct disadvantage in peacetime, as Conan and his friends Norbert (Samuel LeBihan) and De Sceve (Bernard LeCoq) are instructed to patrol the now peaceful border. Conan and his compatriots have become too acclimated to battle to leave it behind and begin staging raids in the mountains of the Balkans. The situation comes to a head when two women are killed in a combination robbery and attack on a nightclub; Conan and his men are to be court martialed for their actions, driving a wedge between him and his close friend Norbert, who respects Conan but lacks his reckless enthusiasm for battle. Capitaine Conan earned Cesar awards for Torreton's performance and Tavernier's direction. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Without undue melodrama or moral judgment, this evocative French drama paints a painfully realistic portrait of a woman who inexorably destroys her life with her constant fixation on her own needs. She is Camille Valmont, a woman whose lust for fame eclipses every other aspect of her life. By the time she succeeds, she has lost her good husband and two young children. The courts grant her visitation rights with the children every other weekend. Even then, she is so consumed by her career that she rarely avails herself of the rights. Then her career begins to go into a slump. Camille becomes so desperate for money that she must take any job available to get by. One day she gets a short stint working as a Rotary Club hostess in Vichy. Unfortunately, it is on a visitation weekend. To do both, she takes the children with her, something the courts have forbidden her to do. Just before she is to go on stage, her ex-husband calls to tell her that he is coming for the children. She panics, steals a rental car and takes off with the children, neither of whom care much for her, in a desperate, if misguided bid to get closer to them. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi