Stephane Marsil Movies
- 2001
Two people looking for an answer to their problems with memory loss find love along the way in this comedy-drama from France. Claire (Isabelle Carre) is a woman in her early '30s whose mother recently passed on due to Alzheimer's Syndrome; in a bitterly ironic twist of fate, Claire was struck by lightning, and ever since her memory has begun to fade away. Needing help for her condition, Claire enters a special clinic for people with memory-loss problems. Located in a large house in the country, the clinic is supervised by Dr. Christian (Bernard Le Coq), a quirky physician who thinks none of his patients can tell he's having an affair with one of his assistants, Marie (Zabou Breitman). While at the clinic, Claire meets Philippe (Bernard Campan), a noted wine expert whose memory has begun to fail him. Claire and Philippe become infatuated with one another while at the clinic, and when the two are released, they decide to move in together. As they try to set up housekeeping, it becomes obvious that while Claire and Philippe have refused to give in to their condition, it is still having an unavoidable impact on their lives. Se Souvenir Des Belles Choses was the first feature film directed by noted actress Zabou Breitman, who also appears as Marie. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Isabelle Carré, Bernard Campan, (more)
Gilles Paquet-Brenner's psychologically-tinged, French-language action thriller Les Jolies Choses (AKA Pretty Things, 2001) stars Marion Cotillard in a rare double role as identical twins Lucie and Marie. Lucie, who works as a white-hot fashion model, exhibits a dominant, often controlling, "Type A" personality, whereas Marie consistently projects a backward, reserved, laconic and unassuming attitude. When Lucie receives a covetable French recording contract, a significant problem stands in her way: the inability to sing. Marie possesses the voice of an angel, however, and quickly jets off to Paris to stand in for her sister, unannounced - little realizing the dangerous and even violent string of consequences that she is igniting. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marion Cotillard, Stomy Bugsy, (more)
- 1998
Martin Lamotte made his directorial debut with this French comedy. Building contractor Patrick (Sam Karmann) is unaware that Helene (Catherine Frot), his wife for 15 years, intends to celebrate their wedding anniversary with a surprise party. She's invited friends and relatives to spend the weekend at their blue house. Elsewhere down the road, at an identical blue house, Patrick and his other love, Elizabeth (co-scripter Carol Brenner), the mother of his two-year-old daughter, are planning an engagement party for the son of their neighbor. Neither woman knows about the other, and this sticky situation requires Patrick to rush back and forth from one blue house to another throughout the evening. The story is told in flashback by Patrick -- from his hospital bed. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Catherine Frot, Sam Karmann, (more)
- 1994
- PG
Rival groups of boys from two neighboring Irish villages engage in a running battle in this remake of the 1962 French movie of the same name, based on a novel by Louis Pergaud. The boys from Ballydowse, who dress as they please, exchange insults with boys from nearby Carricksdowse -- who wear school uniforms. One day, the Bally gang cuts the buttons off the clothes of a bully in the Carricks gang. The Carricks retaliate by swiping the buttons from the clothes of the leader of the Bally boys, Fergus (Gregg Fitzgerald). The Ballys deface the Carricksdowse church, though both groups are Catholics. They rout the Carricks by charging at them naked. Marie (Eveanna Ryan), who heads the Ballys' girls auxiliary, tries to calm down the boys by raining new buttons on them to replace those lost in warfare. When Fergus' abusive stepfather (Jim Bartley) finds out about the war, he beats Fergus and sends him away. Fergus goes to the cliffs along the valley between the two villages, chased by the Carricks' leader, Geronimo (John Coffey). Geronimo, who has come to help, slips, and Fergus rescues him from a fall. In the end, Fergus, riding a horse, leads his troops, dressed in motley medieval suits, into a final battle. The allegorical anti-war film is primarily aimed at children. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Liam Cunningham, Gregg Fitzgerald, (more)
In this soft-porn drama, the oversexed hunk Benito Javier Bardem) spends a good portion of his military service in north Africa dreaming of sex, money and power - but mostly sex. He can barely keep himself in control, and is constantly grabbing his crotch. Somehow, when he is released from the service, he marries the daughter (Maria de Medeiros) of a real moneybags, and he uses some of those resources to build a gigantic skyscraper in the form of a phallus. After a car crash leaves him partially paralyzed and very despondent, his ill-used wife kicks him out and he moves to Miami, where he picks up a woman who (in a reversal of roles) loves 'em and leaves 'em. For some reason, this circumstance cuts our previously almost irrepressibly priapic hero to the heart, and he sobbingly realizes the extent of his losses. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Javier Bardem, Maribel Verdú, (more)
