Isabelle Renauld Movies
Catherine Breillat's adaptation of An Old Mistress stars Fu'ad Ait Aatou as Ryno de Marigny, and Asia Argento as Vellini, two lovers in 19th century Paris. The two have been passionately involved for nearly a decade, but de Marigny attempts to end their relationship now that he is engaged to Hermangarde (Roxane Mesquida), a respectable young woman. As the bride-to-be's grandmother forces de Marigny to confront his past as a notorious womanizer, the film flashes back to reveal the intense decade the lovers shared. Although de Marigny appears to want to shut Vellini out forever, her passions may be far too much for him to deny. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Asia Argento, Fu'ad Ait Aatou, (more)
- 2006
The unexpected disappearance of her troubled brother causes a nineteen year-old girl intense emotional distress as French filmmaker Philippe Lioret collaborates with author Oliver Adam to adapt Adam's popular novel for the screen. Upon returning from Barcelona after spending the summer with new friends Lea (Aissa Maiga) and Thomas (Julien Boisselier), Lily (Melanie Laurent) discovers that her twin brother Loic (Mickael Trodoux) has fled the family home following a particularly intense confrontation with family patriarch Paul (Kad Merad). When Loic fails to return Lily's increasingly desperate calls and her parents continually fail to explain the reasoning behind her brother's flight, the troubled girl lapses into an alarming emotional malaise in which she is unable to eat or sleep. Her health rapidly failing, Lily is admitted into a local hospital where she languishes until a letter arrives from her brother condemning the pair's father for ruining their lives. Upon recovering from her malady Lily sets out to locate her brother. It is a quest that will not only provide Lily with a better understanding of her faltering family dynamics, but set her down the path to womanhood as well. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mélanie Laurent, Kad Merad, (more)
A boy from a broken home finds a friend in an insular, spiritual shopkeeper in this period drama from writer/director François Dupeyron. Set in 1960s Paris, Monsieur Ibrahim et les Fleurs du Coran revolves around Momo (Pierre Boulanger), a young man who lives alone with his father in the bustling Rue Bleu district. Still smarting over the separation from his wife and other son, Momo's dad neglects his son in ways both minor and major, to the point where the teen spends most of his time out of school alone and isolated. He finds an unlikely ally in Monsieur Ibrahim (Omar Sharif), a Muslim shopkeeper who spends most of his days behind the counter of his store reading the Koran. As time passes, Momo and Ibrahim begin to bring each other out of his respective shell, sharing a series of everyday adventures, culminating in Momo's indoctrination into Ibrahim's faith. Monsieur Ibrahim et les Fleurs du Coran played the Toronto and Venice film festivals; at the latter, Sharif was given a lifetime achievement award for this and the rest of his career's work. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Omar Sharif, Pierre Boulanger, (more)
- 2001
A man who thinks he's found an easy ride through the Army during World War I has his world turned upside down when facial injuries render him unrecognizable in this wartime drama. In the summer of 1914, Adrien Fournier (Eric Caravaca) is an engineer conscripted into the French Army, where he is made a lieutenant and assigned to join a group of soldiers helping to design and build a bridge to move troops near the front lines. While scouting a suitable location for the bridge, Fournier and his fellows are caught in the middle of an attack, and a shell explodes in his face. Fournier survives the attack, but while his limbs and his body suffer only minimal damage, his face is torn to shreds -- only landing in the mud prevents him from bleeding to death (the dried muck seals off a number of key blood vessels severed by the blast). It is some time before Fournier can be moved to an Army hospital, and he cannot talk through his ruined mouth, communicating with notes scratched onto a small chalkboard. Fournier finds himself in a special hospital wing for officers who've suffered severe injuries (a relatively comfortable area a good bit different from the crowded and spartan wards for common foot soldiers), and as a dedicated surgeon (Andre Dussollier) struggles to rebuild Fournier's face with the primitive means available to him, the once-handsome engineer ponders an uncertain future. Commiserating with Fournier are Alain (Jean-Michel Portal), his best friend from college; Pierre (Gregori Derangere) and Henri (Denis Podalydes), a pair of fellow officers also suffering facial injuries; and Anais (Sabine Azema), a patient and warm-hearted nurse who brings hope to the hospital's most severely injured men. La Chambre Des Officiers was screened in competition at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Caravaca, Denis Podalydès, (more)
- 2001
- R
- Add Dark Portals: The Chronicles of Vidocq to QueueAdd Dark Portals: The Chronicles of Vidocq to top of Queue
Vidocq (1775-1857) was a noted French detective who was one of the great trailblazers of modern criminal investigation; he's been credited with establishing the first private investigation firm, and pioneered a number of scientific techniques that are still being used today. Vidocq was also a master of disguise and a former thief with no small sense of adventure, and his exploits have been fodder for a number of novels, plays, and motion pictures in France; Vidocq is a high-tech retooling of his legend that employs cutting-edge digital technology to bring a new visual dazzle to his story. Vidocq (Gerard Depardieu) dies an unexpected death while battling his arch-nemesis the Alchemist, and Boisset (Guillaume Canet), an opportunistic journalist, sets out to write his life story, convincing Nimier (Moussa Maaskri), Vidocq's partner, that he had made arrangements with the great man himself to collaborate on such a book before his death. Boisset begins interviewing Vidocq's cohorts, but it seems someone is following the reporter, as his interview subjects have a habit of dying sudden and violent deaths shortly after sharing their stories. As it turns out, the deaths are tied into a case Vidocq investigated, in which a number of people were killed by lightning -- lightning that was conjured up by none other than the Alchemist. Shot on high-definition digital video equipment to allow special effects artists greater latitude to manipulate the images, Vidocq also features Ines Sastre, Andre Dussollier, and Edith Scob. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gérard Depardieu, Guillaume Canet, (more)
Based on the same infamous murders that inspired Jean Genet's play The Maids, and the earlier film Sister My Sister, this French drama explores the difficult family life, professional pressures, and forbidden bond that in 1933 led sisters Christine and Lea Papin to murder the mother and daughter who employed them as maids. Based on Paulette Houdyer's novel L'affaire Papin, Les Blessures Assassines traces the childhood of Christine Papin (Sylvie Testud), a high-strung child who follows older sister Emilia to a convent school after their parents' bitter divorce. Emilia, who claims to have been molested by their father, eventually becomes a nun, while Christine goes into service to support her libertine mother (Isabelle Renauld), whom she heartily resents. Coddled youngest sister Lea (Julie-Marie Parmentier), who is allowed to grow up at home, feels torn between her love for her mother and her close bond with Christine. A talented but moody servant who is prompt to demand her rights under France's labor laws, Christine moves from position to position, but eventually finds a series of households where she and the now teenaged Lea can serve together. Living and working together, the sisters develop an uncanny affection that crosses over into lesbian incest. Eventually jealousy, class resentment, and family drama drive Christine over the edge -- and she is not above taking the mostly innocent Lea with her. Released the same year as the Papin documentary En Quete Des Soeurs Papin, Les Blessures Assassines marked the first film in more than a decade from writer/director Jean-Pierre Denis. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sylvie Testud, Julie-Marie Parmentier, (more)
- 1999
In this drama, three generations of the same family work together on a farm in rural France. Elderly Noel (Jacques Dufilho) takes pride in having worked this land nearly all his life. His son Marc (Jean-Pierre Darroussin) now carries most of the responsibilities of the farm (as well as the debts), and he's starting to buckle under the strain. And Marc's son Nicolas (Eric Caravaca) hasn't decided what to do with his life; he has little interest in farming, but he isn't sure where his real talents lie. One day, after helping his cows give birth to new calves, Marc gets word that he must destroy all his cattle to prevent the spread of Mad Cow Disease. This proves the last straw for Marc, and he commits suicide. Noel doesn't handle his son's death well and ends up in a retirement home, while Marc's wife gets a job as a cashier and Nicolas looks for work (with little success) while searching for a beautiful and mysterious woman to whom he gave a ride. Eventually, Nicolas gets an idea -- with the help of Noel and the rest of his family, he'll reopen a small house on the hillside and support themselves by working the land that adjoins the property. C'est Quoi La Vie? won the Grand Prize at the 1999 San Sebastian Film Festival, while Jacques Dufiho was given the award for Best Actor. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Caravaca, Jacques Dufilho, (more)
- 1999
Love blooms amidst the backdrop of czarist Russia in Nikita Mikhalkov's The Barber of Siberia. The story opens in 1905 Springfield, MA, when a woman writes a letter to a young man in a military summer-training camp. He is currently being punished by one of his superiors, who forces him to wear a gas mask until he acknowledges that Mozart was a worthless composer. The woman has an important story to tell her addressee, and our story flashes back 20 years to Russia, where American Jane Callahan (Julia Ormond) is traveling to Moscow. A man who may or may not be Jane's father, Douglas McCracken (Richard Harris), is trying to perfect a machine, christened "The Barber of Siberia," that will harvest trees from the vast Siberian forests. Douglas hopes Jane can charm Gen. Radlov (Alexei Petrenko), the head of a Russian military academy, into arranging the financing that will enable him to complete his work on the harvester. En route, Jane meets a friendly Russian soldier, Andrei Tolstoy (Oleg Menshikov), and the two soon fall in love. Jane then meets and flirts with Radlov, who grows reciprocally fond of her -- enough so that he asks her to marry him. When it becomes evident she'd rather be with Tolstoy, he finds himself shipped off to Siberia after allegedly attacking a grand duke. Merging romance, costume drama, and slapstick comedy, The Barber of Siberia was screened at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Oleg Menshikov, Julia Ormond, (more)
Theo Angelopoulos (Reconstruction) directed this 1998 Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or winner about a famed author nearing the end of his life. Alexander (Bruno Ganz) lives in his old seaside family home near Thessaloniki, but his daughter and son-in-law plan to sell the house, slightly damaged by an earthquake. Seriously ill, Alexander thinks if he checks himself into the hospital, he'll never check out. Awash in nostalgia, he recalls his late wife, Anna (Isabelle Renauld), seen in flashback, and he lets his daughter read a letter her mother had written to him right after her birth. Alexander's current project involves completing the last unfinished work of a 19th-century poet, but he puts that aside in order to spend time finding a home for his dog. Since his son-in-law won't take the dog, Alexander gives it to his servant. After rescuing an Albanian boy (Achileas Skevis) from a gang that sells children to wealthy Greeks who can't adopt legally, Alexander intends to return the youth to his grandmother in Albania. However, the child lied, and Alexander is unaware the boy has no grandmother. The old man and the boy set forth on a journey, and the other bus passengers include several musicians and the 19th-century poet (Fabrizio Bentivoglio). Bruno Ganz was dubbed into Greek for this Greek-French-Italian co-production. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruno Ganz, Isabelle Renauld, (more)
- 1996
This realistic and disturbingly grim French drama centers on a May/December romance that goes tragically awry resulting in a brutal murder. The dark tale begins in Dunkirk where police inspectors attempt to reconstruct the murder of Frederique who is found sodomized by a broomstick and stabbed to death on a kitchen table. The killer is Christophe who stands around in total, numb shock. It is Frederique's teenage daughter who tells of the terrible romance in a statement to police. Christophe was 28 when he met the ten-years-older Frederique at a wedding. Both successful professionals, sparks fly and soon begin courting. Eventually they become lovers, but are only briefly happy before large fissures appear in their relationship. Christophe loves her, but does not want an exclusive relationship. Frederique, who has already been twice divorced wants more and becomes bitter when it doesn't happen. They fight and it is during their break up that the tragedy ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Isabelle Renauld, Francois Renaud, (more)
- 1990
In this farcical spoof of spy thrillers, set in France, few obvious or old jokes are left untold, especially if they are at the expense of overweight women, the handicapped, or dogs who don't know where to defecate. The story itself concerns the unsanctioned efforts of a covert unit to gather evidence about illegal arms shipments with the unwitting help of an embassy employee. When it appears that she is about to ruin everything by getting married on a weekend which is important to their operation, project director La Squale (the Shark) (Jean Reno) directs that someone must seduce the woman's fiance so that she'll call off the weekend. Little does he know that the woman chosen is his own girlfriend -- the only one of his agents who is sufficiently thin to be alluring. One thing after another leads to the near failure of the operation -- including the efforts of the repentant fiance (Christian Clavier) to win his girlfriend back. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christian Clavier, Jean Reno, (more)
- 1987
Noted stage director Patrice Chereau adds his stylistic flair to this drama loosely taken from a story by Anton Chekhov. A French family is shown as they go through the daily routines of life. Arguing, feasting, crying, and yearning for love are just some of the human emotions encountered. The mood wavers between excessive noise to silence while those not participating in the conversations listen in. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laurent Grévill, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, (more)
