Jean-Michel Martial Movies
- 2001
Corruption threatens to move into a heretofore idyllic village in this comedy-drama. Hector St. Rose (Med Hondo) is the mayor of a seaside community in the Antilles Islands, a French-controlled territory in the West Indies. Hector has long been determined not to sacrifice the well-being of his constituents in order to make the village more attractive to tourists, which has made him popular with his citizens, but not so much so with outside developers. Some unscrupulous businessmen who want to locate in Hector's community decide to sway his opinion by kidnapping his wife, but the scoundrels don't count on the high regard in which Hector is held, both by the island's current residents and those who have moved away. Antilles-Sur-Seine was written and directed by Pascal Legitimus, with Med Hondo setting aside his usual directorial duties to appear as leading man. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Med Hondo, Chantal Lauby, (more)
- 1998
Raoul Peck directed this French-German-Haitian drama set in Manhattan where medical examiner Chase Dellal (Geno Lechner) isn't happy with the diminishing aspects of her life: Not only does she face political pressures to soft-pedal her testimony, her marriage to a judge (Bob Meyer) is collapsing. Suddenly, new options appear after deposed Haitian politician Dimitri (Jean-Michel Martial) re-enters her life. Playwright Israel Horowitz has a role in this film as morgue cop Timothy. Shown in competition at the 1998 Montreal World Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Geno Lechner, Jean-Michel Martial, (more)
- 1998
Musical theater stalwart Bernadette Peters performs over two-dozen songs on this concert film. Included during the performance are renditions of "We're In the Money," "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight," "The Way You Look Tonight," and "I'll Be Seeing You." The DVD release of the concert contains a full biography for the performer. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bernadette Peters
- 1993
Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck, who later went on to become the nation's Minister of Culture, directed this drama that examines the violence and instability of his country's darkest days. In the early 1960s, the corrupt Francois "Baby Doc" Duvalier rose to power in Haiti, and his private army, the Tontons Macoutes, enforced his bidding with an iron fist. Sarah (Jennifer Zubar) is an eight-year-old girl whose father gains the enmity of Janvier (Jean-Michel Martial), a despotic local official who has long responded with torture and violence to those who oppose his tyranny. Now that Duvalier rules Haiti, Janvier has become an associate of the Tontons Macoutes, giving him the power to inflict punishment with impunity. Sarah's parents flee the country in fear of their lives, leaving Sarah and her two sisters behind; the children are left in the care of their grandmother (Toto Bissainthe), a brave woman who refuses to bend to Janvier's will. L'Homme Sur Les Quais received a nomination for the Golden Palm award at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Toto Bissainthe, Patrick Rameau, (more)
- 1992
Euzhan Palcy (best known for Sugar Cane Alley and A Dry White Season) directed and co-wrote this fable about music, myth and the power of dreams. Jean-Claude Duverger plays Siméon, a music teacher who guides students in a small village in the West Indies. His star pupil is Isidore (Jacob Desavarieux), a gifted guitarist who works by day as a mechanic. Siméon and Isidore share the same ambition: they want to form a band to play their own brand of West Indian Créole music, bringing their native island's sound to the outside world just as Bob Marley brought the muscular but sensuous rhythms of reggae to music fans beyond Jamaica. Siméon's dreams are cut short when he's killed in an accident, but Isidore's daughter Orélie (Lucinda Messager), who always liked Siméon, snips off a lock of his long hair to keep as a memento. According to Créole legend, as long as someone in this world has any part of a person, that person cannot be truly dead, and this turns out to be true -- while Siméon's body is gone, his soul lives on and speaks through Orélie. Siméon (in Orélie's guise) inspires Isidore to not let his dreams of music die. The guitarist assembles a handful of gifted musicians to form a group called Jacaranda, who achieve the success Siméon and Isidore always wanted. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Claude Duverger, Jacob Desavarieux, (more)
- 1990
The 1926 commercial and social structure of French Guiana, the French former penal colony in South America, differed little from that of Haiti a century before. White settlers owned or exploited everything and everyone. No one else was permitted to benefit greatly, and even the modest success of members of the mulatto, black, and Indian majority population were only permitted at the whim of the colony's rulers. Into this recipe for disaster appears a liberty-loving Frenchman named Jean Galmont. Not only is he helped by Guinean locals to get his feet on the ground, but he returns the favor by being almost mulishly color-blind. When he gains great success as the boss of a gold mine, he freely shares his wealth with his black and mulatto partners and the miners themselves. For a while he is riding high, but even his great wealth cannot win acceptance by the white rulers for schemes which would put blacks at the forefront of business or cultural dealings, and he is systematically hounded by them until he is destroyed. However, the stirrings of liberty which he spawned would prove to be more difficult to squash. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christophe Malavoy, Roger Hanin, (more)
- 1989
This very brief (76 minute) melodrama devotes much of its time to Sandra's (Christine Boisson) affairs d'amour. One of her lovers is diplomat Christophe Odin. The other is photographer Jean-Michael Martial. Something is bound to snap -- and it does, in a most violent fashion. Sandra was originally released as Un Amor de Trop ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christine Boisson, Christophe Odent, (more)
