Marilu Marini Movies

Anouk Aimée portrays a holocaust survivor in Marcelline Loridan-Ivens' debut film, The Birch-Tree Meadow. Myriam (Aimée) attends a reunion of survivors where she wins a ticket to Krakow, Poland. After some debate, she decides to journey back to the place of the worst horror she has ever known. After learning about the different kinds of Jewish eateries in Krakow, Myriam gathers the courage to see Auschwitz, were she confronts her own guilt over the death of a friend and meets a sympathetic man who has his own connection to their shared history. This film was screened at the Berlin Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Friendship turns to love, and unrequited love leads to a dangerous obsession in this moody drama. Nathalie (Emmanuelle Beart) and Louise (Pascale Bussieres) grew up together and had been close friends since childhood, but while both were studying drama in their early twenties, their friendship went through an abrupt shift -- while beautiful Nathalie enjoyed flirting with the men in her classes, Louise's interest in her best friend turned into infatuation, and when Nathalie indulged herself in a brief fling with a young actor, Louise was overcome with anger and jealousy and tried to kill herself. Nathalie was told by Louise's family that she didn't want to see her any more, and a decade passed before their paths would cross again. Louise is now married to a man named Nicolas (Sami Bouajila), and one night they go to the theater to see a touring production of a new play. To her surprise, Louise discovers the female lead is played by Nathalie; after the show, she slips backstage to say hello, and soon finds that she's as strongly attracted to Nathalie as ever -- and that Nathalie is involved with Matthias (Dani Levy), the gifted but difficult playwright who wrote and directed the production. Leaving Nicolas behind, Louise follows Nathalie to Denmark, and is able to pull a few strings to get Nathalie an audition with Walter Amar (Jean-Pierre Kalfon), a well-known and well-respected theatrical director. Nathalie soon leaves Matthias' show to star in Amar's new production of Lulu, and Louise volunteers to help Nathalie as she prepares for the role. Nathalie appreciates Louise's support and friendship, but she soon begins to chafe under Louise's obsessive attention, and she wonders if history might be repeating itself. La Repetition was shown in competition at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, with writer and director Catherine Corsini earning a nomination for the coveted Golden Palm award. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Rien sur Robert is a smart comedy about a man haunted by his experiences. Didier Temple (Fabrice Luchini) is a journalist who writes an article about a Bosnian film he had never seen, calling it "pure fascist propaganda." (The director, Pascal Bonitzer, was once the editor of the celebrated film magazine Cahiers du Cinema. However, this episode is not based on his own experiences, but on an incident some years ago regarding Underground by Emir Kusturica, which was declared a fascist movie by the French daily, Le Monde.) Following an argument with his girlfriend, Juliette (Sandrine Kiberlain), Didier's life falls apart. He is convinced he is being followed by a dark haired man. He thinks everyone is looking at him, just waiting to insult him. He fights with his family. Juliette is fed up and leaves him for another man, a TV director she meets in a park. At a dinner party, Didier is introduced to his shadow, Jerome Sauveur (Laurent Lucas), who could be his double except that he's more handsome and writes better. Didier also encounters a strange young girl, Aurelie (Valentina Cervi), but Juliette soon comes back. All these ghosts of his life keep haunting him, and he finally winds up at the foot of Mont Blanc in rather unpleasant circumstances. Rien sur Robert was screened as part of the Panorama section of the 49th Berlin International Film Festival, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide

This suavely-fashioned film with an all-female cast focuses primarily on three women and the man who goes in and out of their lives. One member of this trio is a saleswoman (Marie-France Pisier) with an open relationship that suddenly closes when she learns that her lover has been unfaithful. It seems that he has dallied with a book-dealer (her nemesis) who ultimately does not propose as much of a threat to the disillusioned saleswoman as a certain actress (Clementine Celarie). Along with these three are several other females who interact with the main protagonists. Set up more in the manner of a stage play with changing scenes and acts, this drama is still unusual for its all-distaff cast. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this eerie, atmospheric tale, a young woman is on a train when she sees some people she thinks she knows from her childhood. On arriving home, her husband tells her that a certain countess has died. At that point, the film cuts to a scene of the countess singing in a mausoleum while the visual image of the graveyard's many tombstones passes before one's eyes. Back home, the husband -- also a "father-figure" -- is looking over his collection of wooden angels. Some time elapses, and he surreptitiously sees a thief come down through the chimney, steal some things, and then leave. To combat any recurrence, he builds an iron, escape-proof cage around the fireplace, and then goes away on a trip. When he comes back, he finds the thief dead in the cage. Thus far, the camera has only shown the husband in profile or from the back. Then there is another story about a young girl, with a spiteful, nasty mother, who is trying to cope with her own attraction to a man. When she grows up, she either commits suicide or manages to leave the past behind her. Is this little girl the same married woman on the train at the beginning of the film? In the final, dramatic scenes, the viewers see the husband full-face for the first time, as he confronts his wife. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide