Daniel Ceccaldi Movies

Christine Blanc (Sasha Andres) is a single woman working as a temp. She lies to co-workers, and her parents, telling them she lives with her boyfriend. She's socially awkward, and spends hours wandering the misty outskirts of town or sitting at the mall alone, observing people. She tries to talk to people, but she tries too hard, and they are put off. Uncertain of what to say to people, she uses snatches from conversations she's overheard. She's drawn to her boss at the employment agency, Patricia (Catherine Mouchet), and when Patricia has a fight with her boyfriend, Christine seizes the opportunity and invites her to dinner. Despite a few awkward moments, mostly caused by Christine's desperation to please, the dinner goes reasonably well. A surprising turn of events soon changes the course of Christine's life. Before long, she's gotten her driver's license, co-workers are inviting her out for drinks, she starts dating Eric (Eric Caravaca), and she is offered a permanent position at her job. But life isn't perfect. There are a couple of co-workers who pester her, and the police are soon questioning her about the death of an acquaintance. Degas (Carlo Brandt), an inspector, seems particularly interested in the case. Or is he interested in her? Elle Est des Nôtres marks the feature debut of director Siegrid Alnoy, who co-wrote the script with Jérôme Beaujour (A Single Girl) and François Favrat (Seaside). The film won a FIPRESCI Prize at the 2003 Stockholm Film Festival and a Special Mention at the 2003 Thessaloniki Film Festival. It was also shown at the Walter Reade Theater in New York as part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Rendez-Vous With French Cinema in 2004. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

In this 122-minute sequel to the 47-minute Versilles -- Rive Gauche (1991), the brothers Bruno and Denis Podalydes provide the central installment of their trilogy of films named after different Versailles train stations. Awkward Albert (Denis Podlydes), a balding nerdy sort, is a soundman working on a political campaign spot in Toulouse where Albert and his buddy Otto (Jean-Noel Broute) donate blood in order to connect with attractive nurse Sophie (Isabelle Candelier). Attending a nature-film premiere in Paris, Albert becomes so shaken by his desire for journalist-filmmaker Anna (Jeanne Balibar) that he begins vomiting, interpreted by Anna as a compliment. Cop Corinne (Cecile Gouillot) is also attracted to Albert. Shown at the 1998 Locarno Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

In this saga of the love affair between an actor (Richard Berry) and an actress (Josiane Balasko, also the director) the two have gone from being lovers and working together, to being separated, and now are faced with an additional challenge to their relationship: they are both working in the same play. Berry and Balasko acted their roles in the stage production of Grand Cri D'Amour, which may not have helped here because some critics feel the play is not as effective in its movie incarnation. The story is relatively light-hearted, as these two lovers/actors who know each other so well communicate on several levels. But the danger is that Berry and Balasko also know these two actors so well that some of the excitement in portraying them is gone, and the stimulus of a live audience is naturally missing during the shooting of a film. For these reasons or for the fact that the script is not exceptionally innovative or the storyline unexpected, Grand Cri D'Amour is not a surprise, but it remains good light entertainment. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This gentle, mildly satiric French comedy follows the romantic adventures of a group of men who have gone with their children to spend the summer in their vacation homes on the Atlantic coast. Some of the men are divorced, some still married, but all are open to meeting new women while their wives and girlfriends are back in Paris. Much of the humor derives from the reversal of the usual situation - - the men are off with the children while the women are back home tied to work and career. The film is loosely structured and episodic as it simultaneously follows the stories of a number of characters. Particularly engaging in the large cast are Michel Robin as an eccentric publisher with a avidly jealous wife and Helene Vincent as a frumpy divorcee constantly on the prowl for a new mate. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this standard romantic drama, a tangled web of relationships may not be that easy to straighten out for the people involved. Marc (Daniel Auteuil) is a lawyer married to Jeanne (Sophie Barjac), but his roving eye leads him into sexual encounters with other women on a regular basis -- and although his wife loves him deeply, she throws him out one day when she can no longer stand his philandering. After their split, she begins a romantic fling with Antoine (Jean-Pierre Marielle), who moves in with her after awhile. At the same time, Marc meets and falls in love with Samantha (Emmanuelle Beart), a prostitute who reciprocates his feelings. Circumstances place all four -- Marc, Samantha, Jeanne, and Antoine under the same roof -- a combination of cross-references that soon threatens to disintegrate, at least in part. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The Plouffe Family, aka Les Plouffe, is a Canadian assault to the kidneys directed by Quebec's "critic's darling" Gilles Carle. The film covers seven years (1938 through 1945) in the lives of the French/Canadian Plouffe clan. Emile Genest is the one "name" player in this phlegmatic character study. Like to try this one on for size? Be warned: it runs (or crawls) 180 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Students of the Paris music conservatory work at putting on an evening's entertainment in this musical comedy which has less of a lift than the dancers in some of the performances. While the students, of varying talent and origins, get their respective acts together, the mother (Leslie Caron) of one of them dallies with her daughter's boyfriend. Svelte and fit as the dancer she once was, the mother turns out to be the most talented of the lot -- though that is not a part of the storyline, just an observation. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The independently-minded daughter of lower-middle class French shopkeepers, Brigitte, one of three sisters, refused to marry the father of her child when she became pregnant. In this film, she reminisces about her family life beginning when she was about five years old, up to the present when she is in her early 20s. Of her two sisters, one has a nervous breakdown and the other one becomes something of a baby factory. Colorful anecdotes of her eventful life lend additional depth to her insights. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this sex comedy, the summer vacationers staying at a beach hotel have only one thing on their minds: sex. Whether they are pre-adolescent boys, mature housewives, young shopkeepers or bemused old-timers, they are all either thinking about it, doing something about having it, or watching with great interest the shenanigans of others. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Bachs, a clerk in a music store, has written a musical comedy. He is overjoyed to find someone who believes that it can be produced. In this comedy, the scheme concocted by the producer, who has no money of his own, is to cast rich people in leading roles with the hope that they will then sponsor the production. However, while they can be seduced, these spoiled scions of the moneyed classes are not so easily fooled. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide