Alexandre Von Sivers Movies

When the Sea Rises... is the first film written and directed by actress Yolande Moreau (who also stars in the film) and cinematographer Gilles Porte (who also shot the film). Moreau stars as Irène, who is traveling the north of France performing her one-woman show. In the stage show, Irène plays a loud, obese, ugly (she wears a clownish mask) woman who comically confesses murder to the audience. At each performance, she pulls a random man out of the crowd and makes him her accomplice/lover in a mock robbery. One day on the road, Irène's car breaks down, and Dries (Wim Willaert) happens by on his scooter and rescues her. She gratefully gives him tickets to that night's performance. Spotting him with his friends in the audience, she pulls him up on stage, making him her "chicken" for that show. After the show, Dries and his friends invite her out for a drink. The next night, Dries shows up in the audience again, but gets thrown out when he gets into an argument with some rude latecomers. Irène catches him in her dressing room after the show, and gives him hell. But outside, she sees he's been in a fight and had his tires slashed, so she gives him a ride home. Dries is also a performer of sorts, building and operating giant costumes for parades throughout the region. Irène has a husband and child waiting for her back home, but she's caught off guard by Dries' attentions. When she leaves town, he impulsively follows, and the two fall into an unlikely romance. When the Sea Rises... was shown by the Film Society of Lincoln Center as part of their 2005 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Two men with seemingly nothing in common become unlikely friends in this drama from France. Harry (Daniel Auteuil) is a salesman working for a large but faceless corporation, where he's become a success at the expense of his personal life. His wife Julie (Miou-Miou), frustrated by his lack of concern for his family, has divorced him, and while he still has visitation rights to his children, he manages to forget when it's his weekend with his daughters, and he neglects to pick them up at the train station. Harry is depressed and nearly suicidal; while driving late one rainy night, he accidentally hits a dog who is walking with Georges (Pascal Duquenne), a personable young man with Down's Syndrome. Georges lives in a mental institution, where he's happy and well cared for, but when several of the other patients leave for a weekend visit, Georges decides that he should leave too, and he sets out to visit his mother. Harry can't bring himself to leave Georges behind, so after burying the dog, he offers to drive him to his mother's home, which becomes the start of a complicated odyssey for the two of them, especially after Harry finds out that Georges' mother is no longer alive. Actor Pascal Duquenne actually does have Down's Syndrome; he and co-star Daniel Auteuil shared the Best Actor award at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this surreal psychological thriller, Yvi (Margit Carstensen) is experiencing a selective amnesia after she suffers a bullet wound to the head and is now in the care of doctors in the very same Institute where she was working as a doctor. After a new friend named Adrian (Christopher Donnay) decides to take Yvi to his spacious villa so she will recuperate faster, her presence antagonizes Adrian's butler, a heavy who has an S&M relationship with Adrian. Meanwhile, back at the Institute, the doctors -- especially the head doctor -- are more loco than the patients. After several explosions of violence, killings, and some shocking glimpses at the life of prostitutes, Adrian manages to solve the riddle of Yvi's amnesia, even though he himself is persecuted by the docs at the clinic. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide