Bernard Rosselli Movies
A young French sailor falls in love with a Russian tourist during a passion-filled three-day furlough, but is whisked away for a months worth of submarine duty before he can learn her last name and Moscow address. When he is finally freed again, he embarks upon a search for his lost love. Unfortunately, while his aim is true, his timing is off. His first stop is the broadcast headquarters of a major television network. He arrives shortly before the place blasted apart by a bomb. Later, he goes to the apartment of a noted talk-show host in hopes of receiving air-time during which he will plead for information concerning his lost love. But things don't come out as planned for somehow, the sailor ends up considered the prime suspect in the bombing while the real-life terrorist and his cohort, who happen to be in the same apartment building in hopes of knocking off a crooked judge. A hostage situation quickly develops in which the sailor and the talk-show host are trapped in the apartment with a daffy lady neighbor and her child. Meanwhile the leader of a SWAT team tries to concentrate on his work and ignore the increasing pressure placed upon him by his mistress to leave his wife. Up until the story's bloody finale, the film contains plenty of humor mixed with the action. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Russo, Sagamore Stévenin, (more)
- 1994
This gentle French comedy, set in Paris around 1960, follows the tribulations of an upper-crust Catholic family who finds itself suddenly living in a humble working-class apartment. After the Baron Guidon de Repeygnac loses his money from a stock swindle, he is force to move himself, his wife the baroness, their eight children, and the maid from their tiny Parisian apartment and into a humble, efficiency apartment in a government-subsidized low-income housing project. The baron tries to become a traveling salesman. The baroness, unable to adapt, begins to have regular nervous breakdowns while her children become street-wise urchins. Their new life is hard, but they quickly discover that there are benefits from it. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Delphine Rich, Samuel Labarthe, (more)
- 1988
In this reportedly autobiographical piece, Michel Legrand makes his directorial debut. He is much better known for his orchestral scores for other movies. In this story, he is fourteen and living in Paris under the German occupation. It is June of 1944, and he and his mother, along with a young woman (who despite her youth is nearly twice his age), steal some bicycles at the train station and cycle their way to a town on the seaside at Normandy just as the invasion is getting underway. Curiously, the woman finds time to initiate the boy into sexual life in an unlikely location: under a bush in a field littered with corpses of the newly dead. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Annie Girardot, Sabine Azéma, (more)
- 1985
- PG
The French Lesson was released in some markets as The Frog Prince. Studying at the Sorbonne, young British lass Jenny (Jane Snowden) lives with a rural, respectable French family. Her head full of curious romantic notions, Jenny would like to surrender her virginity, but only when the "right" boy comes along. Her choices boil down to two: Norwegian "hunk" Niels (Oystein Wiik) and arrogant local boy Jean-Philippe (Alexandre Sterling). To make certain that her ultimate decision is the correct one, Jenny establishes a series of offbeat conditions for her two Romeos. The film switches emotional and stylistic gears so often that, by the time the heroine has made her choice, some viewers may have forgotten how the whole thing started. The appeal of The French Lesson is almost completely dependant upon one's feelings towards mercurial leading lady Jane Snowden. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jane Snowden, Alexandre Sterling, (more)
