Christine Murillo Movies

The idea for this film about a generation and its lost ideals came to Romain Goupil after attending several funerals of friends in the fall of 1996, where the '68 generation, now in influential positions in media or politics, kept meeting each other. It seemed as if the revolution that they had tried to make was being buried with each coffin. A mort la mort is in some ways an homage to this generation, now in their fifties. They were a privileged generation that thought that they could change the world, doing everything that their parents failed to do. There were no actual deaths in France as there were in Germany or Italy, but the system was not ideal for personal issues or for love. There was always a scapegoat for the injustices of the world, be it capitalism or imperialism. That way the blame could be placed somewhere else. Some of the '68 generation are still faithful to the principles of their youth and still continue to fight for the illusions of the past. But with the war going on in Kosovo, the only way is to take direct action against Fascism. While narrating the story of a generation, the director uses humor, making fun of the thousand ways of fidelity to ideas, to passion and to women and how the ideal of fidelity fares when confronted with reality. The protagonist, Thomas (played by Goupil himself) tries to face life that has passed with a theory of offense. That is why he has to say "'Death to Death'' to put an end to all deaths, but this is an illusion, it is fiction which only cinema can make real. The film tries to face all issues by taking a contrary approach. 52nd Cannes Film Festival, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide

A young teenaged girl tries to get affection from her cold-hearted mother in this gentle French drama. 14-year old Rosine lives somewhere in northern France where the cold rain continually falls. It is a metaphor for her life. Her mother Marie had her when she was only 16 and now wants little to do with her. She spends most of her nights out on the town. Rosine hungers for her mother's love. She is almost obsessed with getting it. She is frustrated because she never does. One day Pierre, her father shows up from the blue and Mare gladly takes him in. Rosine is a good sport and likes that he takes an interest in her. The brief respite from gloom doesn't last as Pierre soon begins to beat Marie and eventually rapes Rosine. The traumatized girl tries to get her mother to admit the incident, to pay attention to the hurting child, but Marie just doesn't care. Marie has no choice but to run away from home and make her own way. Marie is a spirited young woman and though not shown in the film, stands a good chance of making it in life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This is a well-regarded contemporary dramatic retelling of the story most familiar to audiences from Puccini's great opera La Bohème and was made by the noted Finnish film director Aki Kaurismaki. Like the opera, it is based on the novel Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger. Despite their ever-present poverty, which poses a constant threat to their continued existence, the artists and their friends in this movie speak in only the most polite, elegant, and genteel manner, which only serves to underscore their desperate situation. In the story, the poet Marcel has been unable to come up with the rent for his barely tolerable room and has been evicted from it. While wandering in his neighborhood, he catches the eye of Rodolfo, an Albanian immigrant eating in a small cafe, who waves him over and invites him to share his dinner. Though they have never met, they are soon deeply involved in a discussion about art. They leave the restaurant together and, for want of a better idea, wander back to Marcel's former room. There the poet and his new friend, the painter Rodolfo, discover an equally congenial companion in the man who just rented his room, Schaumard, an Irish composer. Just one step away from starvation most of the time, these loyal friends share resources to help one another out. On one occasion, Marcel needs a suit for a job interview and is able to borrow one from one of Rodolfo's portrait sitters long enough to be interviewed and get a paid job. With his earnings from his new editing job, Marcel buys Schaumard a car he needs. On the job, Marcel meets poor provincial girl Musette, whom he falls for, and at the same time Rodolfo finds another poor provincial girl, Mimi, on his doorstep. He quickly comes to love Mimi, but circumstances constantly thwart their being together, until he at last succeeds in making a place for them and she dies in his arms. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This zany satire of the stereotypical spy thriller is directed by Gerard Oury, known for his ability to wring laughter out of a script. Pierre Richard stars as Gregorie, a down-and-out actor anxious to find a job. He wanders into the office of a talent agent and signs a contract to work in a mega-buck action thriller, or so he thinks. In fact, he has actually signed a contract as a hitman with a mafioso that he mistook for a talent agent. The misunderstandings and close calls start flying right and left as Gregorie and the gangsters head for a wild finale at a St. Tropez hotel. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Using a variety of formats ranging from fictional segments to documentary interviews, the present-day situation of working women is explored. Among the vocations of the women whose lives are highlighted are judo-instructors, truck drivers, and this film's film editor. The fictional story depicts the apparently happy and apparently ordinary marriage of a young couple who share housekeeping and shopping duties. When the film finally shows what they are saying however, their conversation consists almost totally of quotations from Fredrich Engels' book Family, Private Property and the State, and they suffer from fairly traditional gender stereotypes. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Pierre (Nicholas Silberg) is a garage mechanic in his mid-30s with a considerable yen for the ladies. It comes as something of a surprise even to him, though, when he falls passionately in love/lust with Jeanne (Helen Surgere), a much older woman in her 50s. She is unmoved by his advances, but despite her sharp rebuffs, he moons over her and hangs on every phone call, expecting it to be from her. Her heart thaws when she learns she is suffering from an incurable and fatal disease, and she is not sorry. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide