Aurélien Recoing Movies

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

Directed by Guillaume Nicloux, Cette Femme-La (That Woman) follows divorced police captain Michele Varin (Josiane Balasko), whose grief comes to a head with the swiftly approaching anniversary of her young son's death. Alone except for her late son's sick rabbit, Michele is dealing with crippling insomnia, and what little sleep she does get is marred by nightmares. Meanwhile, along with her co-worker Sylvain (Eric Caravaca), Michele tries to solve a strange suicide case, and meets several mysterious people along the way: a private investigator (Thierry Lhermitte), a strange young boy who lives near the suicide location, and Daniel (Frederic Pierrot), a lumber yard worker. ~ Tracie Cooper, 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

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

A psychiatrist who probes the mind of traumatized soldiers attempts to unlock the secret that drove a gentle but deeply-disturbed World War I veteran to the edge of insanity in the feature debut from writer/director Gabriel Le Bomin. While most physicians casually dismiss the visibly disquieting ailments of the afflicted veterans who occupy the hospital beds in his institution as "malingering," Dr. Labrousse (Aurelien Recoing) tends to look a bit deeper before making his diagnosis. Antonin (Gregori Derangere) is a patient of Dr. Labrousse's who, despite being assigned the decidedly non-violent duty of tending to carrier pigeons, has now become locked in a catatonic state. Confounded as to how Antonin fell victim to such severe battle fatigue, Dr. Labrousse turns a camera on his patient and gradually begins to introduce a variety of different stimuli that will help him to better gauge the true impact of the damaged man's trauma. It is precisely this stimuli that unlocks Antonin's deeply suppressed memories about the war, and begins to reveal that his malady is not the result of the things that happened to him, but the horrifying sights be bore witness to as the war dragged on and ravaged the bodies of his fellow soldiers. ~ 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

On a summer day of 1846, George Sand hosts a large party at her country house in Nohant. Among the celebrities present are the painter Eugene Delacroix, the opera singer Pauline Viardot, and Viardot's lover, the Russian writer Ivan Turgenev. As Sand's longtime affair with composer Frederick Chopin is close to an end, Sand's daughter Solange tries to use the situation to win the heart of the ailing musical genius. Filmmaker Andrzej Zulawski irreverently depicted his famous characters as shallow, petty, selfish opportunists, while Chopin is portrayed as a tragic, misunderstood genius. Ultimately a story about destiny, the film seems a personal reflection of Zulawski's experiences, for both he and Chopin were Polish expatriates in France. The film is highly theatrical and occasionally hilarious, but despite its ups and downs, the movie's highlight is Chopin's music, brilliantly performed by Polish pianist Janusz Olejniczak. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide

Pierre Lacenaire is among the most notorious killers in French history. This well-wrought drama, tells his story. It begins in 1836 as the icy but somehow charming and intellectual Lacenaire awaits his execution and through a series of flashbacks chronicles the events and reasons why he has ended up on Death Row. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Immigrants from Quebec travel to the Eastern United States to work for French industrialists in this historical drama. Gratien Gelinas plays a venerable Quebecois who recalls in 1988 the era from 1907 to 1920 in a series of flashbacks. He compares the modern computer age with the steadily growing industrial era of the early 20th century. An all-star cast of French and Canadian thespians participate in this miniseries as the Quebecois deal with love, life, politics, and war. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Parisian authorities clash with the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) in director Alain Tasma's recounting of one of the darkest moments of the Algerian War of Independence. As the war wound to a close and violence persisted in the streets of Paris, the FLN and its supporters adopted the tactic of murdering French policemen in hopes of forcing a withdrawal. When French law enforcement retaliated by brutalizing Algerians and imposing a strict curfew, the FLN organizes a peaceful demonstration that drew over 11,000 supporters, resulting in an order from the Paris police chief to take brutal countermeasures. Told through the eyes of both French policemen as well as Algerian protestors, Tasma's film attempts to get to the root of the tragedy by presenting both sides of the story. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide