Bertrand van Effenterre Movies

Claire (Lola Naymark of Monsieur Ibrahim) is a teenager who works as a supermarket cashier. She has moved out of her family's home and into a small apartment, partly because she doesn't get along with her parents, and partly because she doesn't want them to find out that she's pregnant. When co-workers begin to comment on her weight gain, Claire tells them she has cancer, and asks for medical leave. While staying with her girlfriend's family, Claire learns that her girlfriend's scarred brother, Guillaume (Thomas Laroppe), was in a motorbike accident, in which his best friend was killed. Guillaume is despondent and has decided to go abroad. Since Claire is looking for work, and has an interest in embroidery, she goes to visit the mother of Guillaume's dead friend. After some hesitation, Madame Mélikian (Ariane Ascaride of The Town Is Quiet) hires Claire to replace her late son as her assistant. Madame Mélikian has a successful business and a wealth of knowledge to pass on to the young woman, but she's nearly paralyzed by her grief. Still, the two eventually form a unique bond. Brodeuses, or Sequins, is the first feature film directed by Éléonore Faucher, who co-wrote the screenplay with Gaëlle Macé. It was shown at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and was selected by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art for inclusion in the 2005 edition of New Directors/New Films. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

A married American actor (Peter Coyote) falls in love with his on-screen flame (Greta Scacchi) while filming an Italian biography of author Cesare Pavese. France's 1987 entry to the Cannes Film Festival, this was the first English-language film for director Diane Kurys. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

Based on Erskine Caldwell's novel, Le Batard could also refer to this French film born from an American novel, with the American South transformed into the south of France. An unemotive Gerard Klein is Patrice, the Paris automobile mechanic who travels to Marseille to identify the body of his loose-living and long-lost mother, who has been found murdered. After proceeding to kill off her barroom boss, he meanders around the south of France looking for sexual relationships. He comes across a teenage musician and is attracted enough to her obvious appeal to establish a more permanent liaison, taking her with him to Paris to set up housekeeping -- for she is pregnant. Soon she is driven to the limits of depression and boredom caring for their home and a new baby, and he has reached his limits of confinement and responsibility -- so he takes off again. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The relationships between men and women are examined in this drama. The story begins as two young women set out to find their own identities independent of men. One begins directing a video production unit for sociological research while the other becomes a successful garage mechanic. As she heads her garage, she finds she has little time for her husband and child. Both women discover a communication gap amongst the people they work with, leading the sociologist to become disillusioned. Meanwhile the mechanic finds a void in her life that is only filled by her family. Without them she is miserable. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide