Maurice Tinchant Movies

This freewheeling surrealist outing from France attempts to dispense almost completely with conventional narrative structure; instead, it offers a series of absurdist sketches with scarcely any discernible connection between them. The film opens on a character played by director Leos Carax known only as "Le Dormeur." After waking up one morning, he somehow locates and opens a secret door in his apartment, and wanders into a packed movie house where an audience watches King Vidor's classic The Crowd and a giant dog wanders up and down the aisles. Meanwhile, Oscar (Denis Lavant) rides to work in a white limousine driven by his close friend and associate Céline (Edith Scob); Oscar's job, it seems, involves using makeup, elaborate costumes, and props to carry out a number of complex and unusual scenarios. Of these, one has the actor performing an action sequence and simulated sex with an actress on a soundstage while he's filmed by an off-camera director. The second sequence puts him in a sewer with Monsieur Merde, a character who first appeared in Carax's segment in the omnibus picture Tokyo!; here, Merde falls in love with a beautiful model (Eva Mendes) who accompanies him on a jaunt through a cemetery. Subsequent episodes cast Oscar in a deathbed melodrama, a gangster film, a musical alongside pop star Kylie Minogue, and much more. At one point in the picture, Carax implies that Oscar may be acting these scenes out for hidden cameras, which are webcasting the episodes for Internet surfers. An intriguing footnote: Movie buffs may experience some déjà vu while watching Scob in this film, as she's deliberately used to invoke her characterization from Georges Franju's 1960 horror classic Eyes without a Face, and at one point, even wears a facial mask similar to the one she donned in that picture. Holy Motors marked Carax's first feature since the 1999 Pola X. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

A French government minister named Vincent (Severin Blanchet) resigns from his official duties to experience a loose life of drink, women and good times in this satirical comedy from writer/director Otar Losseliani. His provincial mother (Michel Piccoli) watching bemused from the sidelines as her once-respectable son experiences the heretofore unexplored pleasures and pitfalls of the everyman, Vincent soon finds himself mixed up in a curious carnival of guns, exotic wild animals, and, of course, the Luxembourg Gardens. There once was a time when Vincent was defined by his government job and the creature comforts that seemed to go hand-in-hand witch such a powerful position. His hoity-toity status, trophy wife, and luxury apartment may be a thing of the past these days, but thankfully Vincent isn't the type to sit around obsessing about the way things were. Thanks to his rich mother he can even rest easy in the modest Paris apartment complex she has so generously bestowed him. Now, despite the fact that a community of undesirable immigrant squatters has overrun the tenement, the former minister casually settles into his comfortable new existence of visiting with eccentric friends and filling his evenings with wine, women, and good friends. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

"Fontaine Leglou" (Emmanuelle Devos) is a silly name, and so, perhaps, that is why many silly things keep happening. As Gentille opens, Fountaine is walking down a Paris street, and stops to confront a man whom she suspects is following her. She tells him he looks normal, but she's sorry, she doesn't have time to have coffee with him. When he convincingly protests that he was not following her, she apologizes and asks him to have coffee. Fontaine would seem to have a relatively good life. She works as an anesthetist at a fancy mental hospital, and she's got a live-in Nobel Prize-winning arctic scientist boyfriend, Michel (Bruno Todeschini), who seems to love her. But there's clearly something nagging at her. She walks around in a perpetually distracted state, and frequently mistakes other peoples' identities and their intentions. When Michel proposes to her, she needs some time to digest it before she responds. There's a suave patient -- a doctor himself -- at her job, Philippe (Lambert Wilson), who seems attracted to her, and she clearly feels something in return. Meanwhile, Michel is growing impatient with her indecisiveness. Perhaps a visit from destiny will help her make a choice? Writer/director Sophie Fillières's offbeat romantic comedy, which also features Michael Lonsdale, Bulle Ogier, and Julie-Anne Roth, was shown by the Film Society of Lincoln Center in 2006 as part of their annual Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

Vincent (Jacques Bidou, producer of Raoul Peck's Lumumba and several other films, making his acting debut) lives in a little French town, filled with eccentrics, and he follows the same routine, day in and day out. Up at five a.m. every morning, he takes the car to the bus to work, where he and his co-workers enjoy smoking a cigarette during the ten-second walk from the bus to the chemical plant gate. There the dreariness continues. He gets no satisfaction from his work, and none from his home life, where his wife (Anne Kravz-Tarnavsky) nags him, his older son, Nicolas (Dato Tarielashvili), ignores him and his younger son, Gaston (Adrien Paschod), gets into mischief. All Vincent wants to do is relax and paint, but he rarely gets the time. One day, instead of putting his cigarette out and going to work, he walks away from the plant and enjoys his smoke. He then goes to visit his father (Radslav Kinski), who encourages him to take a trip to Venice and visit an old friend of the family. In Venice, Vincent is robbed. He meets his father's old friend, Enzo di Martino (played by the writer-director of the film, Otar Iosseliani), a vainglorious fallen nobleman who goes to great lengths to impress his guest. Vincent also meets and befriends Carlo (Arrigo Mozzo), who turns out to lead a remarkably similar life. Iosseliani won the Silver Bear at the 2002 Berlin Film Festival for his direction of Monday Morning; the film was also shown at the 2002 New York Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

A romantic comedy from acclaimed French director Jacques Rivette (La Belle Noiseuse), this film centers on three men and three women whose lives converge during the run of a play in Paris. The star of the play, Camille (Jeanne Balibar), is returning to Paris after leaving her stuffy boyfriend Pierre (Jacques Bonaffe) and residing in Italy. Her Italian theater company has brought her to France, where the show is run by her lover, director, and co-star Ugo (Sergio Castellitto). Ugo is concerned with the show's poor attendance, but also busy searching for a long-lost play by an Italian playwright. While on his quest, he discovers the beautiful young Do (Helene De Fougerolles), a student who offers to help him. Do's mother has a library that may contain the lost play, and Ugo runs into her possessive half-sibling Arthur (Bruno Todeschini), a shady man pursuing an affair with Pierre's wife Sonia (Mariane Basler), who also has a questionable past. After a brooding dinner at Pierre and Sonia's home, tensions mount in everybody's relationships and their romantic journeys are similarly tested. A lighter work from the usually dramatic filmmaker Rivette, the film was made by the director at the amazing age of 73.
~ Jason Clark, Rovi

A rich young man decides to find out how the other half lives in the comedy Adieu, Plancher Des Vaches!. Nicolas (Niko Tarielashvili) is the oldest son in a wealthy family headed by his mother (Lily Lavina), a successful businesswoman with a busy schedule, and his father (Otar Iosseliani), an eccentric alcoholic with a weakness for wine and model trains. Nicolas seems to have mixed feelings about his family's privileged lifestyle; his best friend is a beggar and Nic works in a cafe, where he washes dishes and tries to impress the owner's daughter, who prefers the company of a surly sailor with a motorcycle. One night, Nic sneaks a group of his lower-class buddies into the family wine cellar for an informal fete; Dad soon joins them, striking up a sudden friendship with a wino who tags along. But Nic's flirtation with the less comfortable side of life also leads to friendships with petty criminals, leading him to wonder if the life of the upper classes might not be so bad after all. Adieu, Plancher Des Vaches! was written and directed by Otar Iosseliani, who also gave himself a plum supporting role as Father. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Three modern Parisian women form the basis of this epic musical comedy from famed director Jacques Rivette. The story is set in summer and follows the predestined path of each woman. Louise has just awoken from a five year coma and has been released from the hospital. She moves to a hotel where she learns from talking to her father on the phone that her late aunt has bequeathed her a large chateau in Paris. Ninon works as a courier. She has recently run away from her creepy boyfriend, a criminal, and though she is trying to go straight, she can't help but rob the company cashbox and use the money to go out dancing. The third woman, Ida, is a librarian in a decorative-arts reading room. As a child, she was adopted and now wants to find her real parents. Her only clue to finding her mother is an old song that she vaguely remembers. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Jacques Rivette directed this richly detailed six-hour drama based on the story of Joan of Arc. In Part one, "Les Batailles," Jeanne the Maid (Sandrine Bonnaire) leaves her childhood home in Domremy after hearing what she is sure was the voice of God. She believes that she can help lead France to victory on the battlefield, and she persuades Charles, dauphin of France (Andre Marcon) to allow her to guide his troops. Part two, "Les Prisons," concerns the sad aftermath of Jeanne's defeat at Orleans. Jeanne is sent to prison, where in two separate trials she is tried for heresy and impersonating a man, with both her life and the sanctity of her mortal body at stake. A four-hour version, with each of the two parts trimmed down to two hours, is also available. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Aimless young lovers Julie and Jack leave their provincial home and head for Paris to spend a year doing little more than wandering about and making frequent love. To support them, Jack gets a night job driving taxi. Julie does not work and while he works, she strolls the boulevards. Trouble comes when Julie falls for Joseph, a day-shift cabbie and begins a nighttime affair with him. At first Julie feels no guilt nor sense of betrayal, but as the intensity of the affair with Joseph, who has fallen deeply in love with her, increases, things get more difficult until Julie is forced to face up to her actions in the film's realistic finale. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this fascinating and unconventional examination of the creative process, an artist near the end of his career finds new inspiration in a young model. Edouard Frenhofer (Michel Piccoli) is a famous and well-respected artist who lives in a comfortable estate in the French countryside. At the age of 60, Frenhofer considers his career as a painter to be over; he says he no longer feels any inspiration to create, and his last attempt at a major work, a nude study of his wife Liz (Jane Birkin) called "La Belle Noiseuse" (The Beautiful Nuisance), has sat unfinished for ten years. Just as Frenhofer has lost his enthusiasm for his art, he has also lost his passion for Liz; their relationship is polite and friendly, but without enthusiasm. When Frenhofer tells Nicolas (David Bursztein), his young protégé, that he no longer feels the desire to paint, Nicolas suggests that he needs a more inspiring subject, and he offers his girlfriend Marianne (Emmanuelle Béart) as a model. Frenhofer is taken with Marianne's beauty, and, with Liz's cool approval, he and Marianne spend several arduous sessions together, exchanging ideas and opinions as Frenhofer methodically attempts to create a final masterpiece. While La Belle Noiseuse runs 240 minutes, director Jacques Rivette also prepared an alternate version, La Belle Noiseuse - Divertimento, which runs 120 minutes, features a different framing sequence, and incorporates takes unused in the original cut. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi