Daniel Laloux Movies
- 1999
Acclaimed director Tony Gatlif spins this wildly anarchic tale about three young punks, a bevy of cinematic inside jokes, and a talking stork. Otto and Louna (Romain Duris and Rona Hartner), along with their brainy pal Ali (Ouassini Embarek), rescue a wounded stork who turns out to be an illegal immigrant and a deserter from the Algerian army. The car-thieving, gun-toting crew helps the bird to freedom while rubber-stamping new films with such epithets as "tripe" and shooting someone for insulting the good name of Jean Vigo. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Romain Duris, Rona Hartner, (more)
- 1993
Victor Meynard (Jean Rochefort) is an assassin for hire, and he's proud of it. It's part of his family's business. However, in this comedy, there are occasions when he simply cannot bring himself to pull the trigger and make a "hit." Instead, he adopts the boy (Guillaume Depardieu) who would have fallen to his gun, and trains him in the niceties of the assassin's game. He is assigned to kill an art forger (Marie Trintignant) who is much too cute for such a fate. When he adopts her as well, things really start to get out of hand. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Rochefort, Marie Trintignant, (more)
- 1991
In this somewhat unusual romance, the two lovers go to bed with one another first (almost before the films opening credits are done) and then spend the rest of the film getting to know one another, while they carry on with their passionate affair. Malo is married to a very pleasant man, an antique dealer who has provided her with an exquisitely appointed, if unusual, home in the form of a houseboat on the river Seine. They also have a teen-aged son. Yves, the other lover, is also married. While Malo isn't prepared to leave her husband, whom she still loves, she is certainly having a lot of fun with this new man in her life, and they have sex with the frequency and urgency of teenagers. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dominique Faysse, Thierry Fortineau, (more)
The third adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos' classic novel Les Liasons Dangereuses, Milos Forman's Valmont was released one year after Stephen Frears' more famous version of the de Laclos original, Dangerous Liaisons. The plot remains the same: two debauched, depraved 18th century French aristocrats, the Vicomte de Valmont (Colin Firth) and the Marquise de Merteuil (Annette Bening), conspire to destroy several innocent lives, just for the fun of it. But whereas Stephen Frears concentrated on the machinations of the marquise, Forman, per his film's title, devotes most of his screen space to Valmont (played in the Frears version by John Malkovich). In fact, Forman's film concludes with Valmont's conscience-stricken renunciation of his past sins, and his duel to the death, rather than de Meurteil's well-deserved comeuppance. Forman has chosen to set the story back some 50 years, de-emphasizing the opulence that was vital to Frears' vision; he has also utilized a younger cast. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Colin Firth, Annette Bening, (more)
- 1987
Simon Blount (Bernard Giraudeau) is a weary cop who takes solace in the bottle after his wife leaves him for another man. His spirit is lifted when he meets Violet (Fanny Bastien), the wispy, mysterious female he considers somewhat of an angel. Simon is unaware she has systematically murdered the police, attorneys, and officials who were linked to the death of her prostitute mother. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bernard Giraudeau, Fanny Bastien, (more)
- 1986
The protagonists in this drama are caught in the sleaze of the lower echelons of Paris life and are trying to get out. Clara (Ann-Gisel Glass) arrives in the underbelly of the city after escaping a dysfunctional middle-class family, and moves in with Mimi (Christine Boisson), a prostitute. Clara also meets Paul (Francois Cluzet) an escaped convict, and a romantic relationship starts to simmer. Only two major hurdles stand in their way of escaping to a better life in another city. Paul is determined to avenge the death of his father which might make it easier for the police to find him, and Mimi's pimp is equally determined to coerce Clara into a life of prostitution. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- François Cluzet, Christine Boisson, (more)
- 1983
Jean-Pierre Sentier and Daniel Laloux joined forces to write, direct, and act in this zany comedy about two men who were sent to an island by the Ministry of Toil to make Camembert cheese boxes. Unfortunately, the men's papers fell behind a filing cabinet and it is many years before the government realizes they exist. Meanwhile, the men have forged new identities and a good life for themselves as they loyally keep up their production. When the government decides to send a team of experts to handle the situation, the two men prepare to eject these unwanted arrivals at any cost. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Pierre Sentier, Daniel Laloux, (more)
- 1980
This is a surreal comedy is about a factory set in a barren landscape that dispenses a minute portion of water to stragglers carrying pans as receptacles. Inside, the workers seem to be doing nothing that makes any sense, and they are watched over by a periscope set up by twins who run the factory. An unexplained, plain woman living on the premises is sought after by the whimsical foreman (Maurice Benichou) -- also known as the "gardener" because he has planted flowers in the coal wagons that remain on a maze of train tracks -- the only "stock" owned by the company. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maurice Bénichou, Michele Marquais, (more)
- 1963
Director Jacques Baratier's Sweet and Sour is an independently produced project with a surprising amount of European movie-industry input. Guy Bedos, a Brando wannabe, plays one of several young French cineastes who take to the streets to make improvisational movies. The "cinema verite" quality of the film is somewhat undercut by the presence of major stars: Anna Karina, Simone Signoret, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Monica Vitti, Claude Brasseur, and many others. After several "spontaneous" vignettes -- a street tennis game, a striptease lesson, a West Side Story style gang rumble -- Guy Bedos announces he will go to Hollywood to film the life of Voltaire. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Guy Bedos, Sophie Daumier, (more)
