Alix de Konopka Movies
A man tries to hold on to his bachelor lifestyle by getting engaged in this romantic comedy. Luis (Alain Chabat) is a man in his mid-fourties who has been happily unmarried all his life. Luis nearly wed his sweetheart when he was 21, but the meddling of his mother (Bernadette Lafont) and five sisters drove the young lady away, and since then he's devoted his romantic attentions to short-term relationships while earning a good living working in the perfume industry. However, his family remains determined to fix him up with eligible women, and Luis has grown tired of it. With the help of a colleague, Luis concocts a plan -- his friend's daughter Emma (Charlotte Gainsbourg) agrees to pose as his fiancée and then abandon him at the altar, which should silence his mother and sisters on the subject of matrimony once and for all. While Luis and Emma's relationship is all business, she does a flawless job of convincing his family that she loves him and is determined to be his wife -- so much so that Luis wonders if she might be serious about him after all. Directed by Eric Lartigau, Prête-Moi Ta Main (aka I Do) was a major box-office success in France, attracting nearly three million viewers in its first month of release. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alain Chabat, Charlotte Gainsbourg, (more)
Writer/director Yves Lavandier presents the story of Eglantine (Émilie Dequenne), a troubled 17-year old whose family situation is as confusing as her romantic entanglements. Raised by a coddling mother and an absent father, Eglantine navigates life with a warped perspective that ends up affecting her relationship with Sébastien (Cyrille Thouvenin), an older boyfriend that's become frustrated with Eglantine's unwillingness to take things to the next level. Only her therapist has the chance to help her break down the walls that are interfering in this critical step into adulthood. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Émilie Dequenne, Gérard Jugnot, (more)
- 1998
Christophe Smith made his directorial debut with this media satire, set on December 14, 1999, about a TV news network in cahoots with Washington on Operation Crazy Guru -- a plan to get a U.S. president re-elected for a third term. Griffith (Mickey Rooney), head of the Miami-based international World News Company, decides inept Paris correspondent Michael Kael (Benoit Delapine) is gullible enough to report the staged events, so Kael is sent off to Africa to cover a two-day fest in Katango. International nets air nuke threats by a Japanese nutcase, made on tapes sent from Katango. Kael, of course, has been unwittingly set up as WNC's key reporter, but everything goes haywire once Kael deduces that it's all being faked. The screenplay, by Delapine, is an expansion of comedy sketches that originated on two popular French cable TV shows. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Benoit Delepine, Marine Delterme, (more)
- 1992
As a way of getting on in the world, working for wages and constantly being in danger of being fired or laid off is a pretty poor system. In this movie, pretty, young Aimee decides that marriage to the right man is a much better bargain. Though she is very fond of an impoverished bookstore owner, the man who meets her strict criteria is a famous and high-strung restaurant critic. After cohabiting with her new spouse for a while, she goes for the really big-time payoff that comes with divorce and stages everything entirely to her satisfaction. Of course, it takes an iron will and tremendous concentration for this passionate girl to play such a stern, money-grubbing role, but she's up to the task. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maria de Medeiros, Thierry Fortineau, (more)
- 1990
Despite being busy with his profession of soldiery, Brantome (Richard Bohringer) manages to find much more time for amorous dalliances with the ladies of the 16th-century French court than for battles. Unfortunately for him, his true love, Victoire (Isabella Rossellini), is beyond his reach most of the time. He more than compensates for this in the arms of others. Reviewers found little merit in this uninspired drama, except for the gorgeous period settings and costumes. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Bohringer, Isabella Rossellini, (more)
- 1987
Writer-director Jean-Charles Tacchella, who had a huge international hit with Cousin, Cousine in 1975, helmed this drama 12 years later. In post-WWII France, three friends are intent on starting a film club for different reasons. Nino (Thierry Fremont), a rich playboy, thinks that it would be amusing to become a director. He hooks up with Donald (Simon de la Brosse), a young man from the countryside who is a serious student of film and hopes to become more urbane by getting involved in cinema. They join forces with Barbara (Ann-Gisele Glass), a young woman who knows how to get into a film warehouse. Their plan is to steal old prints from the warehouse and start their own enterprise. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Thierry Frémont, Simon de la Brosse, (more)
- 1981
Therese, Catherine, and Alain (Carole Laure, Brigitte Fossey, and Bernard Giraudeau) are three friends who undergo several personal trials and tribulations over an eight-year period in which all three try to hang on to their original visions of who they are and what they want out of life. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carole Laure, Brigitte Fossey, (more)
