Aurélien Recoing Movies

Gerard Depardieu, Oliver Marchal, and Asia Argento star in this thriller about a Paris police officer who puts his own career on the line to help his lifelong friend, a crooked narcotics cop who does some drug trafficking on the side. Mat works the night beat in the city, and his best friend Franck works in the drug squad. But after busting the local drug dealers, Franck turns a tidy profit by selling their product at cut-rate prices. When Franck gets in over his head, it's up to Mat to help and old friend by taking matters into his own hands. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

When the depressed wife of a provincial industrialist becomes convinced that her young Romanian maid is swiping valuable objects from around the villa, she fires the servant without proof and against her husband's wishes. Later, after wandering the city streets dejected, the former servant finds comfort with her former boyfriend, an ex-convict who now lives with his teenage brother. Before long, passions between the two former lovers are heating up once again. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

With the controversial 2007 docudrama Operation Turquoise, French director Alain Tasma (October 17, 1961) travels back in time by thirteen years to revisit the fateful events wrought by his country in April 1994. That month, France undertook the U.N.-backed "Operation Turquoise" - ostensibly a noble mission designed to insert a neutral force that would protect all groups (regardless of ethnicity or background) from annihilation. Severe and violent complications erupted, however, when the rebel Tutsi regime automatically expressed mistrust of French given France's past support of the genocidal Hutus. With a stark resistance to sentimentality, Tasma intercuts several semi-fictionalized substories at the core of the fray. These include: an innocent French photographer and journalist who automatically draw contempt and threats given their Gallic identities; a seriously confused and troubled school instructor who massacres his students and then lyrically quotes a French poet; a group of Kigali veterans frustrated at their inability to make a difference; and many others. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Veteran screenwriter Franck Mancuso (36 Quai des Orfevres) helmed and penned the script for the French-language detective thriller Counter-Investigation (AKA Contre-enquête), loosely adapting for the screen American writer Lawrence Block's short story "Like a Bone in the Throat." The chilly tale unfolds in the Parisian suburbs, where happily married police captain Richard (Jean Dujardin) makes the fatal decision to pass up an opportunity for a bike ride with his nine-year-old daughter Emilie (Alexandra Goncalvez), in favor of department business. During Richard's absence, Emilie slips out for a rendez-vous with a young boy of like age - and not long after, joggers discover her body in the woods, raped and beaten to death, the victim of an apparent maniac. Richard's partners arrest the most likely suspect, pedophile Daniel Eckmann (Laurent Lucas) who first denies, then confirms his involvement. In time, however, Daniel writes long letters to Richard from prison, pleading his innocence and pointing to another culprit - the serial killer Salinas (Jean-Francois Garreaud). As an initially reluctant Richard investigates, his astonishment builds upon coming face-to-face with the conclusion that all of the evidence does indeed point to Salinas; to his wife's (Agnes Blanchot) chagrin, the detective thus works toward exonerating Daniel and arraigning Salinas for the death of his young daughter. Contre-enquête represents Mancuso's first directorial assignment; as a screenwriter, he takes a number of liberties with the story, making the necessary cultural adjustments for a French setting. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

French director Dominique Lienhard's gentle, understated chamber drama Muetter observes with great intimacy and delicacy several characters' varied reactions to the impending death of a loved one. Stanislas Merhard portrays Stephane, a young urbanite. Though he originally hails from a rural environment, he much prefers his current metropolitan surroundings to the thought of returning to his family home. Fate comes knocking, however, when Stephane receives the news of his grandmother, Muetter's, impending death - and travels out to the country to be with her at her bedside. Once there, he encounters a sweet, pretty young lady named Marguerite (Sophie Quinton), who is expecting a child but devotes the majority of her time to caring altruistically for Muetter. Upon discovering that the elderly woman's doctor has simply prescribed and administered morphine for her, Stephane is visibly upset, and devotes himself to doing as much as he can - everything from preparing a feast in celebration of Muetter to summoning another physician. Meanwhile, Stephane's cousin, Mathieu (Aurelian Recoing) arrives and struggles with various feelings about Stephane's presence. Lienhard authored the original script; the film co-stars Andree Meyer-Benjamin and Agathe de la Boulaye. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

A trio of French teens experiences a love that will change their lives forever in this erotic coming-of-age tale from director Anthony Cordier. Mickael's (Johan Libereau) obsession with Judo often helps him to focus his frustrations in life, but when he's alone with longtime girlfriend, Vanessa (Salomée Stevenin), his guard fades, leaving a loving and easygoing boyfriend where the aggressive martial artist used to be. Clément (Pierre Perrier) is the new kid in town with a similar obsession with Judo and a pair of nouveau riche parents who stand in stark contrast to Mickael's working class mother and father. When the pair bond over an upcoming tournament and Clément helps Mickael to lose some weight for the meet, Vanessa is hesitant to accept the outspoken newcomer. As the bond between Mickael and Clément strengthens, Vanessa's increasingly complex role in the pair's friendship leads the trio through a series of sacrifices and emotional revelations that will result in a profoundly affecting sexual encounter for all three conflicted teens. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

An aimless 20-year-old with a penchant for following the rules receives a mysterious set of instructions that lead him down a path from which he may never return in director Géla Babluani's tense tale of death and chance. Sébastien has come into possession of a train ticket and a mysterious set of instructions. Though he is unsure of exactly what fate awaits him when he arrives at his destination, one thing is certain: these items were most certainly not meant for him. Bored by his uneventful existence and hungering for something new, Sébastien boards the outbound train and takes his first bold steps into an unknown future. But the world can be a cruel and unforgiving place filled with unfeeling men to whom human life means little more than a lost wager, and if Sébastien is to make it through his harrowing journey alive he must keep his wits about him and pray that luck is on his side. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

French director Laurent Cantet's sophomore effort is a somber and complex meditation on work -- specifically, how work has become the defining feature of the contemporary individual as well as the quintessential symbol of quotidian despair. The movie tells the story of Vincent (Aurelien Recoing), a middle-class family man recently fired from his drab, middle-management job. Unable to tell his family about his firing, Vincent spends his workdays driving around the French countryside --"business trips" he tells his wife -- keeping intact the reassuring routine of going to work and coming home to his wife and kids. As his family grows suspicious of his evasive behavior, Vincent is forced to spin a new tale, pretending to get a job working for the U.N. In a bid to keep the money coming in, he recruits old friends to invest in an imaginary emerging-markets investment scheme. Vincent also falls in with Jean-Michel (Serge Livrozet), a black market dealer whose ignominious past serves as an ominous warning for Vincent's present course. Despite his efforts to maintain an undisturbed surface, Vincent's wife begins to suspect something amiss. As the lies pile up and the questions from his family mount, Vincent loses control of his fragile double life, leading to a poignant conclusion. Cantet's film premiered at the 2001 Venice Film Festival. ~ Elbert Ventura, All Movie Guide

Noted French filmmaker Laurence Ferreira Barbosa directs this loosely-structured triptych about a trio of unconnected people who struggle through the loneliness of their lives. Impetuous 17-year-old Marguerite (Lolita Chammah), who feels cut off from both her family and classmates, passes the time by talking to God. Eventually, she decides to enter a convent. Meanwhile, housewife Claire (Isabelle Hubbert) is frustrated after ten years of childless marriage. While going to visit a fertility expert in Paris, she happens upon an old lover, gets picked up by some guy at a bar and has a bizarre encounter with an America singer (Robert Kramer). Meantime, Jacques (Frederic Pierrot) is divorced, unemployed, and loathed by his daughter. Just as his life looks one long exercise in desperate futility, he meets comely Eva (Juliette Andrea). Suddenly, he transforms himself into a private dick, trying to track down a missing associate. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide