Aurore Clément Movies

After her gynecologist tells her that her current involuntary celibacy could result in her being unable to enjoy sex in the future, Eva (Evelyne Dress) begins to consider ways that she could take active steps to get some action going in that area. Unfortunately, none of the men she currently knows are interested in going to bed with her, including her business partner, who just might be sexually attracted to trees but certainly isn't to her. That being the case, it is particularly galling that he gets jealous at the very notion of her having sex with business clients. Eva discusses these issues (and a great deal more) with her similarly forty-ish gal-pals. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Those whose impressions of the Netherlands are dominated by the very hip modern city of Amsterdam may be unaware that for centuries the country was noted for a pervasive bourgeois stodginess that exceeded anything that Henrik Ibsen ever said about the Norwegian middle class of his time. In 1889, Dutch society was set on its ears by the quite long poem Eline Vere by Louis Couperus, published in installments in the newspapers, which minutely described the mores, manners and hypocrisies of the time. To this day, Dutch schoolchildren learn about their past by studying that poem, which boasts a Dickensian richness of description and vivid characterizations. This melodramatic film follows Eline Vere (Marianne Basler), the heroine of the poem, as she attempts to break free from the confines of her narrow existence in Den Haag (the Hague) through three tumultuous and ultimately disastrous courtships. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Claude Berri, who usually participates in films by directing them, here returns to the screen as an over-the-hill lothario, much given to quoting Shakespeare, who occasionally goes around naked under his raincoat and exposes himself to strangers, who are usually not interested in his primitive display of genitalia. It also appears that he is unable to sexually satisfy his much younger lover, and he suspects her of having another boyfriend. He earns his living tutoring students (mostly young girls) in English literature. When, in his frustration, he gropes one of the girls in her home during a tutoring session, she protests, her father (who is at home) beats him up, and he is sentenced to a jail term. There, he is teamed up with a slightly loopy murderer. When he gets out of jail, he finds his girlfriend has left for good, and ends his life. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

On the run in Switzerland from a drug bust, Matthew finds an unexpected (but very welcome) patron in the wayward wife of a U.S. senator, who cavorts rather insistently with the handsome young man while her husband remains in Washington. Before long, the young man is eager to escape from his new protector, and he hides out again, this time with a Swiss farming family. There, he meets the family's grown-up son Thomas, who shows him the delights of the mountains. Eventually, Matthew gets into girl-trouble again, and he goes off to look up his still favorably inclined female sponsor. This time, he takes his new friend Thomas along, and even more difficulties arise while they are staying on the Greek island of Mykenos. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Liv Ullmann plays real-life Jewish dissident and astronomer Ida Nudel in this historical biography. Ida is denied papers to emigrate after her lover Yuli (Daniel Olbrychski) is release from a labor camp. When Yuli and Ida's sister Elena (Aurore Clement) receive their papers, Ida rides with them on a train bound for Vienna and jumps off before she crosses the border. Arrested for protesting in Moscow in 1980, Ida is sent to an all-male prison where she is in constant danger of assault. After being transferred to a woman's camp, Ida returns to Moscow to find that her apartment is occupied, Yuli has married, and she is banished from the city she loves. Ida wanders from village to village until she recalls her story to an American reporter. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

The endearing efforts of a divorced, simple baker to capture the attentions of a bourgeois society woman fuel the action in this comedy by Pupi Avati. It is 1950 and the coastal town of Rimini is about to experience another influx of the monied elite who come to wile away their time in elegant beach houses. Among them is the wealthy Gaia (Aurore Clement), her philandering husband, and her daughter Sandra (Lidia Broccolino). Vanni the baker (Carlo Delle Piane) is excited because he has been infatuated with the beautiful Gaia for 10 years now. When Gaia asks him to prepare a graduation party for her daughter Sandra, Vanni pulls out all the stops and sinks into debt to do a good job. Meanwhile, his son Nicola (Nik Novecento) is chasing after Sandra. Without any way of knowing beforehand, Vanni is heading toward total disaster -- and an education on the morals of the worst of the Italian bourgeoisie. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

All of the time and effort put forth to stage a musical is chronicled here in this bright and funny French outing. The story is set at a shopping mall where people audition for an upcoming show. Afterward, they are seen going through the grueling routines of learning the music and rehearsing. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Travis (Harry Dean Stanton) is wandering through the Texas desert, a bit shaky and in desperate need of water, when he stumbles into a bar and collapses. A German doctor of dubious credentials finds a phone number in Travis' wallet, which belongs to his brother, Walt (Dean Stockwell). Walt is shocked to hear about his brother's condition, since no one in the family has seen or heard from Travis in four years; Walt flies to Texas to bring him home, only to find Travis wandering by the side of the road, and they begin the long drive back to Los Angeles, where Walt lives with his wife, Anne (Aurore Clement), and Hunter (Hunter Carson), Travis' seven-year-old son. At first, Travis refuses to speak and is oddly distant, but in time he begins to talk again, and when he arrives in California, he begins the painful process of reacquainting himself with his son and trying to reconcile with his wife, Jane (Nastassia Kinski). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The English-language title of Toute Une Nuit is All Night Long, but don't confuse this film with the like-titled 1981 Gene Hackman-Barbra Streisand comedy. Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman uses a fragmentary approach to explore a series of personal relationships among a largely nonprofessional cast. It all takes place during one long, hot, stormy summer night. Dialogue is at a premium: Akerman tells her "stories" with objects, background noises, shadows, and subtle, seemingly unrehearsed shifts of facial expression. As in many of her earlier films, Akerman benefits from the extensive creative input of cinematographer Babette Mangolte. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Although there are women in the lives of the three main protagonists -- a middle-aged architect, his construction designer, and a journalist -- the women are not as crucial to the men's search for an identity as the title might suggest. When the three men run into a former professor of the architect and designer, they are inspired by his fanfare and expansive nature. Still in search of solutions to their particular problems, the men head out to visit the professor and get to the bottom of their own issues. Unfortunately, the professor turns out to be more "loco" than otherwise, and the three men watch their hopes burst like a popped balloon -- it seems like their ability to assess human character should now be added to their list of problem spots. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide