Ariel Zeitoun Movies

Latina heartthrobs Salma Hayek and Penélope Cruz co-headline the rousing indie Western Bandidas. The brainchild of producer/screenwriter Luc Besson (La Femme Nikita, The Big Blue), Bandidas marks one of only a handful of films in its genre (along with Bad Girls, Cattle Annie and Little Britches, and Johnny Guitar) to use women as its principals, and distinguishes itself further by adding hefty doses of comic relief to the Western formula. Hayek and Cruz play Sara and Maria, respectively -- two women whose fathers (one a banker, the other a peasant farmer) are each wiped out by a nasty, vile, gun-wielding swindler named Tyler Jackson (Sling Blade co-star and country music singer Dwight Yoakam). Jackson cuts a bloody swath across the Southwest as he reduces one bank after another to an impoverished trash heap. In revenge, these women (who sit at opposite ends of the personality spectrum) vow to beat Tyler at his own game by hitting and robbing each of the banks before their father's killer can reach them. Steve Zahn co-stars as the "criminal science" officer who aids the girls in their mission; Espen Sandberg and Joachim Roenning co-direct. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

In this broadly comic variation on the old saw of the female scientist who is beautiful when she takes her glasses off, anthropologist Cecile (Judith Godreche) has spent some time tracking what she believes to be a lost tribe only to find out that they're really just the employees of a firm with a lousy record on environmental issues. Stuck for a new project, Cecile gets the brainstorm of a scientific study of the contemporary "bimbo" tribe, and soon starts dressing herself up like a sleaze in short skirts and midriff-baring blouses in order to study the habits of these women. However, Cecile's bimbo disguise is so effective that Laurent (Gerard Depardieu), the head of her department, doesn't recognize her -- and finds himself infatuated with the newly flashy-looking Cecile. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide

Celine (Sophie Marceau) must choose between Tarquin (Lambert Wilson) and Aurele (Stephane Fries) in this historical drama set during the French Civil War of 1793. The Republican Army decimated Western France when an insurgence of peasants, clergy, and aristocrats loyal to the Royalists staged a counterrevolution. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In this routine psychological thriller, a husband and wife try to jump start their failing marriage by taking a vacation in Haiti, only to find more problems waiting for them after they arrive. Alan (Claude Brasseur) is an older and experienced writer who is suffering from serious writer's block because his aloof, younger wife Lola (Sophie Marceau) is pointedly ignoring him. Once in Haiti, Alan goes on a bender, convinced that Lola is not going to change, and she, in turn, decides to have some fun with another man. While in a drunken stupor one evening, Alan accidentally kills a mugger who attacks him and is seen by a devious couple who opt for making some money on what they know. As a blackmail scheme takes shape, it has an interesting effect on Alan and Lola's relationship. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Gangsters is the directorial debut of veteran writer and actor Olivier Marchal, who spent ten years as a police detective in France. Frank (Richard Anconina) is captured and interrogated by the police, who want him to reveal the location of a vaulable briefcase. Flashbacks tell the story of the missing briefcase, in which Frank and Little Claude (Jean-Louis Tribes) are present during a violent burglary in a nightclub. Anne Parillaud (from La Femme Nikita) plays the fearless prostitute Nina. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

This drama attempts to be a film within a film. In the outer story, Andre Dussolier stars as a film director working with drama students at the Paris Conservatory, making a film (the inner story) about a woman's obsession with a foreign desert. Wallowing in maudlin sentimentality, this feature fails to live up to the promise of its probable inspiration, Fame (1980), and was not well-received at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival. However, as a medium for instructing director Francis Girod's actual students at the Paris Conservatory about the art and perils of filmmaking, it was undoubtedly a good deal more successful. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Director Jean-Pierre Denis scored a Camera d'Or at Cannes in 1980 for his first film set in the Dordogne region (southwest France); the dialogue in that film was in Provençal -- unintelligible to French speakers but accurate for the Dordogne area. In La Palombière, Denis returns to Dordogne for a story, with a dialogue in French this time, about a visiting schoolteacher (Christiane Millet) and her eventual and temporary liaison with Paul (Jean-Claude Bourbault) a local worker -- the two end up trysting in the "bird blind," a tree house used to attract pigeons so Paul can shoot them. Along with the loss of authenticity in the language comes a certain distance in the relationship between the urbane woman and the provincial worker. That distance might have a larger meaning, but for some critics, it damages the believability of their sexual attraction. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Set against the Allied invasion of North Africa in 1942, this overly-ambitious, comedy-drama focuses on the relationship between its two central characters, Leon Castelli (Roger Hanin) a half-Algerian, half-French bartender, talkative, but with a generous soul, and Etienne Labrouche (Philippe Noiret) the French colonial mayor of the town. Leon gets propositioned on a business deal by an American soldier and joins him in setting up an "underground" night spot in an abandoned airplane hangar that soon catches on and thrives like weeds in a garden. Etienne, in the meantime, starts an affair with the governess of his children and is caught out by his wife, who sends the woman packing. Since the ex-governess needs to support herself somehow, she accepts a waitress job working in the underground nightclub. The word gets out, and before much time has gone by, the nightclub is trashed by a hired gang. Furious at Etienne because he feels this is the mayor's way of paying him back for hiring the governess, Leon picks up a shotgun and goes to Etienne's estate seeking revenge. But fate has other ideas, and when he arrives, Leon discovers that Etienne's father has just died and left a bombshell of a revelation about his parentage that changes everything. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Bajou (Michel Boujenah) is an enterprising, talented man. He has risen from poor, humble beginnings, and thanks to a gift for mathematics, a willingness to work hard and occasionally cut corners, he is now a wealthy, successful man. He is a careful man in most respects, and does not generally throw his considerable weight around as a Jew in the Muslim country of Tunisia. However, he wants to start a family, and has determined that the beautiful Habiba (Delphine Forest) would make the perfect wife. It doesn't matter to him much that she is not interested in him, or in starting a family. Unfortunately for him, although he can win legal access to her person through buying her marriage contract from her father and driving off her lover, he cannot win her heart. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

From Jan Kounen, the French director of the violent cult actioner Dobermann, comes this loose adaptation of Jean "Mobius" Giraud's comic series Blueberry. Vincent Cassel stars as Mike Blueberry, a lawman whose past comes back to haunt him when his town is invaded by the nefarious Blount (Michael Madsen), the man responsible for his first love's murder. Led by a German con man by the name of Prosit (an unrecognizable Eddie Izzard), Blount and his crew search for an ancient treasure buried deep within Indian tribal grounds, while Blueberry and his Indian friend Runi (Temuera Morrison) race to keep the land sacred and stop the thieves by any means possible. Featuring Juliette Lewis and her father, Geoffrey Lewis, in supporting roles, the film sports a solid American cast that boasts an additional performance by Colm Meaney and a rare appearance by none other than Ernest Borgnine. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

Based on a novel by Gilbert Tanugi, who co-wrote the screenplay, this noirish French drama is set within the Paris music scene and centers on the attempts of a dangerously indebted record producer to scrounge up a fortune to pay back the vengeful loan shark who is trying to destroy him. Producer Sam Friedman thinks his salvation is finally at hand when he hears Joe and Puppet Bennet, two African American jazz musicians, singing and playing the blues in local night club. Desperate to have them, he pays their manager with money borrowed from his American jazz-addicted stepfather. Unfortunately, the deeply religious Puppet only wants God as her producer and refuses to sign. Friedman finally persuades her to sign, but only after he swears to watch over the flighty sax playing Joe. Unfortunately for poor Friedman, Joe turns out to be a psychopathic killer and has killed a prostitute. Knowing that he will be dead if he does not produce the couple's record and make some quick money, Friedman decides to shoulder the blame for the death himself. Though he is sent to jail, Friedman is at peace because he plans on telling the truth as soon as the Bennets cut their record. Things take a darker turn when the Bennets suddenly vanish, leaving poor Friedman stranded in prison. Desperate once again, Friedman escapes from jail and violent tragedy follows as he tries to save himself and clear his name. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide