Pierre Kalfon Movies

Cult favorite Abel Ferrara directed and co-wrote this story set in New York City in 1993, before Mayor Rudy Giuliani's much-publicized crusade against street crime put a dent in semi-public drug dealing in the city. It's a few days before Christmas, and a Latin American couple living on the city's Upper East Side (Lillo Brancato Jr. and Drea de Matteo) are watching their daughter (Lisa Valens) perform in her school's holiday pageant. Afterward, the couple drop the child off with a babysitter and set out to run some errands. They have two items on their agenda: get their daughter the doll she's been asking for (a nearly impossible task, since the toy has become the must-have item of the season), then head to their work space uptown, where they prepare and package heroin for street distribution. While the wife has her qualms about the ethics of drug dealing, both she and her husband know there's plenty of money to be made in heroin -- more than most Hispanic immigrants could make working legitimate jobs in New York -- and the business has been highly lucrative for them. The couple discovers one of their lower-level dealers may be talking to the police, but they soon have a bigger problem to deal with when the husband is lured to the Bronx by a fence who can get him the toy he's been looking for. The husband finds he's been lured into a trap, and a kidnapper (Ice-T) gives the wife less than a half hour to collect and pay a huge ransom, or her husband will be killed. As in Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant, the audience never learns the names of most of the major characters in 'R Xmas; also like Bad Lieutenant (as well as King of New York and The New Rose Hotel), Ferrara invited pioneering gangster rapper Schooly-D to contribute to the film's score. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Latin-America guerrilla leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara (1928-67) is profiled in this French-Spanish film, which French documentarian Maurice Dugowson based on Pierre Kalfon's book, Che, Ernesto Guevara, une Legende du Siecle. The documentary begins with Che as a young man in Argentina when he traveled through the Andes, Patagonia, Peru, and the Chilean desert. After studying medicine, he left Argentina, joining Fidel Castro's revolutionary cadre, aiding in the revolution in Cuba and eventually holding a key post during the Castro regime. Archival footage, including newsreels and home movies, is combined with interviews to trace Che's rise before his capture and execution by Bolivian forces in 1967. Shown at the 1997 San Sebastian Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

The year is 1919 and it's forest rangers versus poachers in the Dolomite mountains in this Italian drama based on a morality tale by Dino Buzzati. The first scene, which contains no dialog, depicts the murder of a young ranger in the snowy peaks. Barnabo is a taciturn young ranger new to the mountains. He is a pacifist and is uncomfortable carrying his rifle. Upon his hand is a stigmata that periodically bleeds. The poachers murder another ranger. This time it is the commanding officer. The rangers organize a patrol to find them, but they are unsuccessful. It is Barnabo who locates them. They escape because he is unable, or afraid to shoot them. He is dishonorably discharged and now finds it hard to escape the label of coward. He leaves the mountains and becomes a farm-hand. While he labors, he reflects upon the experience and those of his life. A internal moral struggle ensues as he tries to make sense of it all and find some inner peace. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The unfortunate boy in this French movie hasn't got a reliable friend, and he needs one. His father, perhaps unhinged by the death of his wife, beats and torments him almost constantly. His older brother, instead of protecting him, keeps watch over him for the father. His best friend, a homosexual, is in love with him, but the boy is in love with the best friend's sister. When the best friend catches the two in bed together, all hell breaks loose. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A love triangle is the basis of this chilly romantic drama. The story centers on an engineer who marries a recently widowed woman. The trouble begins when the new groom begins an affair with his bride's comely daughter. Though the wife knows about it, she holds her peace. Time passes and she finds that the triangle has become tiresome and so asks her husband to get rid of the girl. The somewhat dutiful husband obeys and begins looking for a suitable suitor for the girl. Unfortunately, no sooner does he succeed than he gets terribly jealous and picks a fight with the girl's new love. It is a terribly battle and the husband ends up seriously injured and bedridden. Ironically, both women lovingly tend to his recovery. At the story's end, a group of officials enter the engineer's mansion to give him a special award for his good work. Unfortunately, as they enter, three gunshots ring out from the bedroom. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A recently widowed woman in her early 40s receives a visit from a younger engineer. After the funeral of her husband, the two fall in love and marry. The woman's teenage daughter has eyes for her new stepfather and lets him know her attraction in no uncertain terms. Soon the man is sleeping with mother and daughter while mom keeps silent to keep peace on the home front. The daughter is soon courted by a young man with marriage on his mind, but he shoots the stepfather in a hunting accident. Mother and daughter care for him as he recovers from his wounds. When officials come to the house to give the engineer a coveted award, they leave when they see the house appears to be deserted. Sealed off from the outside world, the trio continues their unusual menage-a-trois, as mother and daughter vie for the man's affections. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

While visiting a vegetarian restaurant, a young writer finds a corpse in the restroom. When he returns with the police, the body is gone. The writer is left with the unlucky fellow's hat -- which leads a certain beautiful woman to believe that his identity is the same as the dead man's. Not only is his life now at risk, but things get increasingly bizarre as he meets up with a mysterious sect of cannibals and with a group of opium-smuggling gangsters. What's more, the woman herself seems to have a diabolical doppleganger. Aimez-Vous Les Femmes? was adapted by Roman Polanski and Gerard Brach from a book by Georges Bardawil. The distinguished Sacha Vierny contributed his cinematographic talent to this black comedy shortly after his successful collaboration (among many) with director Alain Resnais on Muriel, ou le Temps d'un Retour/Muriel, or the Time of Return (1963). ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide