French Movies

A move to a new neighborhood prompts an 11 year old to engage in an elaborate charade in order to fit in with his new classmates. The year is 1981. Young Ricardo's family is struggling financially, while the kids at his new school come from more prominent backgrounds. When Ricardo starts pretending he's something that he's not, he discovers that living a lie has its fair share of pitfalls. When his façade begins to crumble, he must weigh the consequences of telling the truth against the effort it takes to maintain his carefully crafted ruse. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

The devastating reverberations of a profound tragedy echo through generations of a long-suffering French family in this emotional family drama from director Arnaud Desplechin. When Abel and his wife, Junon, started a family, it seemed like the seeds of true happiness had been planted. But while their daughter, Elizabeth, was healthy from the day she was born, things quickly turned dark when her brother Joseph was diagnosed with a rare and deadly genetic condition. Joseph's only hope for survival was a bone marrow transplant, but Abel, Junon, and Elizabeth were all incompatible. In one last, desperate chance to save their son's life, Abel and Junon conceived a third child. But not even little Henri could save his ailing brother's life. Joseph died at the age of seven, and neither his siblings nor his parents have ever found the strength to recover. Years later, family relations have deteriorated beyond the point of repair; the tensions between family matriarch Elizabeth and her cynical brother Henri finally culminating in a violent confrontation in which Elizabeth banishes her alcoholic brother and refuses him further contact with his troubled adolescent nephew, Paul. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A carefree young couple gives birth to their first child, and realizes that parenthood has its fair share of unexpected challenges in this warmhearted comedy drama from acclaimed director Rémi Bezançon (The First Day of the Rest of Your Life). ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

This unusual feature (a French-Belgian-Luxembourgian co-production) stylistically recalls the work of Art Clokey (Gumby, Davey and Goliath), with its lead cast consisting entirely of stop motion-animated children's toys. The premise concerns two such toys -- Cowboy (Stéphane Aubier) and Indian (Bruce Ellison) -- who plan to buy a birthday gift for their friend Horse (the voice of Vincent Patar) but accidentally destroy his house. A series of wacky, often hallucinatory adventures ensues that finds the trio journeying to the center of the earth, wandering across icy tundra and discovering a strange aquatic world inhabited by oddball beings with pointed heads. Benoît Poelvoorde (Man Bites Dog) provides one of the voices. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

In this artful film by 85-year old director Manoel de Oliveira, the heroine, instead of being powerless in the face of a world ruled by men, finds herself to be far too powerful. Beginning when she was a child, Ema (Leonor Silveira as an adult) had the kind of looks and manner that could stop cars when she came up to a street -- or cause accidents. As time goes by, she explores her power over men and, as a mature woman, chooses to marry a man who has virtually no machismo so that she can continue having affairs and exploring this mysterious ability of hers. Eventually she seeks to transcend her unusual limitation and accomplishes her death with astonishing serenity. This haunting story is based on a novel by Agustina Bessa-Luis. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Director Atom Egoyan explores the concept of cyberspace as a place for redemption in this drama about an adolescent boy named Simon (Devon Bostick) who reinvents his life on the Internet. Before long, Simon's deeply personal journey provokes strong reactions from around the globe. Rachel Blanchard and Scott Speedman co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Pedro Almodóvar directed this story of a woman and her circle of friends who find themselves suffering a variety of emotional crises. Manuela (Cecilia Roth) is a single mother who has raised her son, Esteban (Eloy Azorín), to adulthood on her own and has come to emotionally depend on him. One night, Manuela and Esteban take in a production of A Streetcar Named Desire; after the show, Esteban is struck and killed by a passing motorist as he dashes into the street to get an autograph from Huma Rojo (Marisa Paredes), who played Blanche. Emotionally devastated, Manuela relocates to Barcelona in hopes of finding her ex-husband (and Esteban's father), who is now working as a female impersonator. Manuela becomes reacquainted with old friend La Agrado (Antonia San Juan), a transsexual, and is introduced to Sister Rosa (Penélope Cruz), a good-hearted nun who has to contend with her considerably more cynical mother (Rosa María Sardà). While looking for work, Manuela becomes acquainted with Huma Rojo. Huma, on the other hand, has troubles of her own, most involving her drug-addicted significant other, Nina (Candela Peña). Displaying Almodóvar's trademark visual style and a unusually strong sense of character-driven drama, Todo Sobre Mi Madre/All About My Mother received a highly anticipated theatrical run in Spain before winning the Best Director award at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival; in 2000, Almodóvar would receive the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A man struggles to come to terms with his past as well as his family relationships in this drama. Martin (Mathieu Demy) was born in Los Angeles and spent much of his childhood there, but his parents were from France, and when his mother (Sabine Mamou) went through a nervous breakdown, his father relocated to Europe and took the boy with him. Martin rarely saw his mother again, and her absence left a void in his life that has impacted his relationships with women ever since, most recently his on and off romance with Claire (Chiara Mastroianni). When Martin receives word that his mother has died, he travels to California to take care of the arrangements with the help of Linda (Geraldine Chaplin), one of his mother's best friends. Martin intends to clear everything away as quickly as possible and return home, but talking with Linda and going through his mother's effects causes him to question his feelings about her, and when he sees an old snapshot of himself with his mom and a woman named Lola, he suddenly becomes obsessed with finding her. Martin's obsession leads him to Tijuana, where he falls for a stripper named Lola (Salma Hayek) who embodies the strength and joie de vivre that Martin has lost. Americano was the first feature film from writer, director and actor Mathieu Demy, the son of filmmakers Jacques Demy and Agnes Varda; clips from Varda's 1981 film Documenteur are used in the film's flashback sequences. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The feature-film debut of famed director Louis Malle is an interesting, modern film noir with the classic theme of lovers plotting to kill the husband and make it look like suicide (reminiscent of The Postman Always Rings Twice). Jeanne Moreau, as Florence Carala, gives an astonishing performance, perverse but naive as she leads her young lover down a path that can only lead to doom for both of them. Malle and his cinematographer Henri Decae make extensive use of Paris at night, giving the film the feel of claustrophobia and desperation reminiscent of the classic noir films. The excellent score by Miles Davis adds to the entire effect of this mystery thriller. ~ Linda Rasmussen, Rovi

Love, death, obsession, and family ties motivate the characters in this offbeat drama from writer and director Athina Rachel Tsangari. Marina (Ariane Labed) is an eccentric woman in her early 20s who has few friends and is physically repulsed by men, though she isn't satisfied by sex with women. One of the few things that bring Marina happiness is a high-rise block of flats in the industrial town where she was born; while the building is plain and unexceptional, there's something about the place (built to house the workers at an aluminum-processing facility) that fascinates her. The building was designed in part by Marina's father (Vangelis Mourikis), who is similarly obsessed with his own handiwork. As their love of the building brings them together, Marina becomes her father's companion and helper as he struggles through therapy for advanced cancer, with his coming death lurking on the horizon. Attenberg received its North American premiere at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A loyal man is tempted both in real life and in cyberspace in this thriller from director Gilles Marchand. Gaspard (Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet) and his girlfriend Marion (Pauline Etienne) head out to Marseilles for a few weeks of sunshine and relaxation, but after spending a few hours by the pool one day, he finds a lost cell phone in the locker room. Gaspard isn't sure what he should do with the phone, and he's all the more puzzled when the phone rings and he finds himself having to help Audrey (Louise Bourgoin), an attractive but disturbed woman threatening to kill herself. Gaspard and Marion help Audrey before she can take her own life, but while Gaspard is deeply in love with Marion, he's powerfully intrigued by Audrey. Gaspard discovers Audrey is a serious fan of an on-line role playing game called Black Hole, and he begins playing too, creating a character that bears little resemblance to his own personality. The fictive Gaspard becomes all the more attracted to Audrey in the virtual environment, until he realizes she's not as benign as he first thought. L'Autre Monde (aka Black Heaven) was an official selection at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Controversial filmmaker Catherine Breillat puts a new spin on an ancient story in this multileveled drama. In France in the mid-'50s, Catherine (Marilou Lopes-Benites) enjoys toying with her older sister, Marie-Anne (Lola Giovannetti), by reading her the story of the murderous and oft-married Bluebeard, embellishing the story with plenty of gore and scaring the girl out of her wits. As Catherine rereads the story, we're taken back to the year 1697, as Lord Bluebeard (Dominique Thomas) prepares to make Marie-Catherine (Lola Créton) his seventh wife. Marie-Catherine's youth and innocence make her an especially attractive quarry to Bluebeard, and rather than murder her right away, he decides to wait a while in order to savor the terrible joy of claiming her life. However, as Bluebeard becomes caught in a cycle of events that keep him from following through on his wife's murder, the two slowly become something like a normal couple and Marie-Catherine begins to turn the tables on her spouse. Barbe Bleue (aka Bluebeard) received its world premiere at the 2009 Berlin International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Angela Bassett and Danny Glover star in this gripping film adaptation of Athol Fugard's renowned play. Though written during the apex of apartheid and first staged in 1970, director John Berry downplays the work's historical background and strips the play of its poetic symbolism, lending the film a raw, universal quality. The film opens with stock footage of shantytowns being flattened by bulldozers followed by the two titular characters carrying what they can on their backs and heads. Recalling the tortured human bonds seen in such productions as Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf? and Waiting for Godot, Boesman (Glover) and Lena (Bassett) are a couple united by pain and grief. Stopping at some god-forsaken roadside wasteland for the night, Lena spends much of the first half of the film heaping verbal abuse on her husband, while Boesman doggedly tries to jerry-rig some shelter to protect against the cold of the night. This dynamic changes went an elderly African tribesman shows up. Boesman scorns the old man, while Lena invites him to sit at their campfire. This film, which was screened at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, was the last film that noted director John Berry made before his death on November 29, 1999. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi