Pierre Gérard Movies

After Life is the third film in Lucas Belvaux's ambitious Trilogy, following On the Run, a thriller, and An Amazing Couple, a romantic comedy. After Life features the same characters as the other two films and happens over the same time period, but it's a melodrama, and the focus is on Pascal (Gilbert Melki), a cop, and his wife, Agnes (Dominique Blanc), a teacher, who is also a morphine addict. Agnes depends on Pascal to supply her with morphine, and he in turn has an arrangement to procure the drug from a nefarious local businessman, Jaquillat (Patrick Descamps). When a violent radical leftist, Bruno (Belvaux), escapes from prison and kills an associate of Jaquillat's, Jaquillat threatens to withhold Pascal's morphine supply until Bruno is dead. As his wife's mental and physical health deteriorates, Pascal feels compelled to subvert his moral qualms about turning the criminal over. His investigation leads him to detain Jeanne (Catherine Frot), a co-worker of Agnes' with past ties to Bruno. Cécile (Ornella Muti), another of Agnes' co-workers, begins to suspect that her husband, Alain (François Morel), is having an affair, and asks Pascal to look into it. Pascal finds his interest in the case is more than professional when he begins to develop feelings for Cécile. Meanwhile, Agnes, feeling neglected and desperate, goes out into the street to try to find her fix. She ends up running into Bruno, and the two forge an unlikely alliance. Belvaux's Trilogy was shown at the 2003 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

This affectionate little drama captures the last summer before graduation, when these assorted film students and drama students must leave the protected world of college and venture out into the chaotic currents of everyday life. All of them are working together to prepare a revue which spoofs and celebrates their work together. Each student has his own style and character - often chosen for maximum dramatic impact. For instance, Paul (Pierre Berriau) is permanently gloomy, and mopes around, invariably wearing a long coat. The others make fun of him, because he is so serious. Charly (Nathalie Richard) loyally helps a male friend of hers rid himself of the insistent attentions of a former girlfriend. Caroline (Charlotte Leo) is the romantic one of the bunch, and her adventures along those lines keep her fully occupied. Several of them insist that they will not compromise the purity of their cinematic and theatrical aspirations for mere monetary comfort, but when Luc (Lucas Belvaux) and Nanou (Christine Vouilloz) find that Nanou is pregnant, they reconsider their absolutist stance. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Henry Miller's novels were almost entirely autobiographical, and concerned not only his environment and friends, but also recorded his many sexual exploits - which he apparently viewed with something like spiritual awe. Despite his sexual obsessions, his novels are respected worldwide for their brilliant depictions of time and place, and have occasionally been made into movies. This 1990 film by Claude Chabrol makes a reportedly poor effort to bring the novel Quiet Days In Clichy to the screen, and transforms the seedy exploits of a penniless expatriate in Paris to the boyish pleasures of a couple of sweet-faced middle class lads who hang out in expensive whorehouses and go to cocktail parties with fashionable people. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this farcical look at a female detective/mystery story writer, Cathy Palmer (JoBeth Williams) is an ordinary housewife living in Ohio with a condescending husband who is far from ideal. When Cathy wins a writing contest and has the chance to go to Paris and meet the author of the romance novels she loves, her husband tries to prevent the trip. In the end, Cathy's interests prevail, though her husband still refuses to go with her. After arriving in Paris, Cathy is knocked down by a car and wakes up in the hospital with all memory of her past life erased. In its place, she believes she is Rebecca Ryan, the heroine in the romance novels she has read. Carrying her unconscious role to the hilt, she dresses in elegant clothes and meets the comically rattled Alan McMann (Tom Conti) who becomes her partner, of sorts. Little does she know that Alan is not Rebecca's secretary, but the actual ghost writer of the Ryan novels. Cathy begins to suspect that villains are lurking everywhere, and her intuition in that regard is unerring -- she has doubts about the klutzy leader of the French opposition party (Giancarlo Giannini), and it turns out her doubts are well-founded. As the plot thickens, it becomes apparent that sooner or later Cathy-cum-Rebecca will have to realize the truth about her identity, but in the meantime, much skullduggery awaits. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide