Harry Cleven Movies

The power and danger of eros plays a key role for three women of different ages who may or may not be the same person in this enigmatic picture. The film was chalked up by many as an homage to the gory European giallos of the 1960s and 1970s, but it's also influenced heavily by the narratively cryptic surrealism of directors such as David Lynch. Directors Bruno Forzani and Hélène Cattet undertake an episodic approach by dividing the material into three thematically linked segments. In the first, a young girl is at home as her grandfather dies and her grandmother begins performing a series of bizarre rituals designed to either bring him back to life or ease his passage to the next world; as this is happening, the girl becomes aware that her parents are making love elsewhere in the house. Years later, a teenage girl goes into town with her mother to run some errands, comes face to face with the power of her sexuality, and learns how she can use her allure to change the behavior of men. In the final segment, an adult woman returns to the house where she grew up, which has fallen into disrepair -- and discovers that she may not be alone. Amer was the first feature-length project from directors Cattet and Forzani. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In this Belgian comedy, two brothers are brought together by the death of their mother. In debt to gangsters, crude and aggressive Roger (Dirk Roofthooft) anticipates an inheritance but goes to Plan B after the mother's will indicates she sold her assets. To escape his creditors, he hits the road with his brother Bruno (José de Pauw). The two find curious encounters and surreal misadventures await at each curve in the highway. Shown at the AFI/Los Angeles Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

Two women who were best friends since childhood come to realize the toll that adulthood has taken on their understanding of each other in this acclaimed French drama. Mina Tannenbaum (Romane Bohringer) and Ethel Benegui (Elsa Zylberstein) first met when they were ten years old. As young Jewish girls growing up in Paris, both felt like outcasts among their schoolmates, and they began to bond as fellow outsiders. That's about all they have in common. As a child, Ethel was a pudgy extrovert from an upper-middle class family who was eager to make friends, while slender and serious-minded Mina preferred to follow her own path and keep her own counsel, and she was raised under less privileged circumstances. Mina and Ethel have remained close friends as adults, but they are still as different as night and day. Mina, still an intelligent iconoclast, has made a name for herself as an artist, while Ethel happened into a career as a pop culture journalist. Ethel has had a number of unsatisfying relationships with men, while Mina is usually too afraid to approach the men she's attracted to. And while both Ethel and Mina value each other's friendship, in time they begin to realize how little they have in common -- and they provide each other with as much aggravation as comfort. Mina Tannenbaum was the debut feature for writer and director Martine Dugowson; it earned her a Cesar Award nomination (the French Oscar) for "Best First Film." ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

As an amateur magician, Phil is probably okay, but as a small-time criminal, he is definitely not destined for the big-time. When he is granted a twenty-four-hour furlough from prison in order to attend his mother's funeral, he is aware of this and intends to keep out of trouble. Furthermore, he has the same intention for when he finishes his prison term. Thus, his brothers' attempts to get him involved in a really neat theft they have dreamed up do not at first meet with much favor in his eyes. Eventually, their enthusiasm and the almost overwhelming assortment of pleasures they have arranged for him to enjoy soften him up enough for him to cooperate with them. Predictably, things don't go well, but an unsought chance to renew lost love also comes to him at this time, and good fortune finally intervenes on his behalf. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

A police officer investigating the death of a transvestite masks feelings of love for his widowed sister (Charlotte Rampling) while raging against her lover (Derek DeLint) in this Belgian film directed by Patrick Conrad. ~ John Bush, Rovi

In this action thriller, Richard Anconina is Willie, a young and lonesome cop who loves lonesome cowboy music. While on a drug case Willie comes across a mulatta named Jo (model Ambre of Senegalese extraction), who is trapped in a dismal life of prostitution by two abusive Lebanese brothers, who also work in the illegal weapons business. Risking his own life, Willie frees Jo from their fierce imprisonment, but the battered woman runs right back again. Understanding her dilemma, Willie keeps at it until she comes around and stays with him -- but by now the two arms dealers have long decided to use their merchandise to wipe Willie off the Parisian streets. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

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, Rovi