Jean-Hugues Anglade

A female detective on the trail of a psychotic killer discovers love in a dangerous time in this thriller, based on the novel by Michael Pye. Illeana Scott (Angelina Jolie) is a special agent with the FBI who has a reputation for using offbeat methods, but also boasts a strong record as a criminal profiler. Scott is called in by a former Quantico colleague (Tcheky Karyo) to assist two Canadian police detectives, Paquette (Olivier Martinez) and Duval (Jean-Hugues Anglade), who are on the trail of a serial killer who has been doing business in and around Montreal for close to two decades. The murderer has a history of assimilating many aspects of the lives of his victims after he kills them, but there's been a witness to his most recent crime. Art gallery owner James Costa (Ethan Hawke) saw the killer during an assault, and now finds himself working as an only marginally willing decoy for Scott. As Scott and Costa follow the killer's trail, they find themselves becoming attracted to one another, which is not necessarily a comfort to Scott as she finds her quarry moving closer and closer. Taking Lives also stars Kiefer Sutherland and Gena Rowlands. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A woman on her own finds herself taking a second chance at love, with hilarious results, in the comedy from France. Odile Rousselet (Chantal Lauby) is a well-regarded if not exactly famous actress whose ongoing midlife crisis kicks into high gear when her teenage daughter, Marie (Armelle Deutsch), tells her she's moving out of the house, and in with her boyfriend, Guillaume (Christophe Debonneuil). Understandably upset, Odile finds herself troubled not only by her anxieties about her daughter, but by her own loneliness. However, Odile's attitudes begin to change when she meets Kader (Jean-Pierre Martins). A handsome younger man who runs a ride at a local fair, Kader catches Odile's eye, and she finds herself feeling as giddy as a schoolgirl when he's around -- and has even more trouble controlling her feelings when Kader responds in kind. Laisse Tes Mains sur Mes Hanches was written and directed by leading lady Chantal Lauby; it was her first feature film. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Mathias Ledoux directs this atmospheric erotic thriller. Author Jean Dorset (Jean-Hugues Anglade) has suffered from a bad case of writer's block since his first novel became a bestseller. He lives in a small apartment in Paris with his wife Michelle (Clotilde Courau) and, in spite of their ostensible success, the couple are having trouble making ends meet. One day they receive the utterly unexpected news that they are the sole inheritors of a wealthy neighbor, M. Guillemet, whom they have never met. Guillemet has left them his old townhouse along with all of his belongings, but with two conditions -- the first is that the dead man's papers be left untouched, and the second is that his live-in maid Clemence Richbourg (Christine Boisson) remain employed at the estate. The Dorsets soon learn why they were the recipients of such strange generosity. Guillemet had set up a camera with a massive zoom lens pointing to their bedroom window. The couple is shocked and disgusted, but not enough to give up their new tony digs. Clemence proves to be a more unnerving presence. Her steely, impassive demeanor coupled with her penchant for wearing Mao jackets (and, it turns out, naughty underwear) gives her an air of menace. Soon the Dorsets speculate that Clemence poisoned her former employer's food in an ill-fated attempt at inheriting his property. Later, Jean decides to write his next novel on his curious benefactor. When he starts digging around the old man's files, he begins to suspect that his wife not only did know Guillemet, but frequented his place. This film was screened at the 2000 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Whilst traveling about the Midwestern region of the United States, cellist Gerard Huxley (Jean-Hugues Anglade) meets two young women, sisters Megan (Connie Nielsen) and Dominique (Mia Kirshner). The women learn that their father has passed on and decide to go to Seattle to inform their mother (Anne Archer) of her newly attained widow status, dragging the naïve Gerard with them. The sisters turn out to have a bad streak a mile wide -- violence and death are left in the trio's tracks, including the killing of a judge (Robert Culp). Even though Gerard is guilty of little more than being in the wrong place at the wrong time, he is in a precarious situation now that he is traveling with killers and, eventually, everyone involved must answer for their deeds. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide

Alain Moreau (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is a French cop whose colleagues make a startling discovery -- a man named Mikhail, who was killed in a high-speed chase with police, looks exactly like him. Curious about the stranger with his face, Alain is told by his mother Chantal (Stephane Audran) that Mikhail was in fact his twin brother, whom her poor family was forced to give up at birth. Alain wants to know more about the brother he never knew, but the more he learns the more troubling the news becomes; it seems that Mikhail was involved with gangsters, corrupt FBI agents, and a gang of drug dealers. In order to avenge his brother's death and get to the bottom of his sad story, Alain assumes Mikhail's identity and travels to New York City, where to maintain his cover he takes up with Alex Minetti (Natasha Henstridge), Mikhail's tough-as-nails girlfriend, before finding himself hip-deep in danger with Mikhail's associates. Maximum Risk was the first American film from noted Hong Kong action director Ringo Lam, whose City on Fire has often been cited as a key inspiration for Reservoir Dogs. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Elie Wiesel has survived the Holocaust and won a Nobel Peace Prize. This Hungarian-French documentary chronicles Wiesel's triumphant return to his home village in Transylvania until the 15-year-old and his family were forced into Auschweitz in 1944. Wiesel fully supported this film, which also contains important footage of life for Jewish villagers before WW II. Also included is Wiesel's moving return to Auschwitz. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Almost a follow-up to director Claude Sautet's Un Coeur en Hiver (1992), Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud further explores repressed emotions and failed relationships. Nelly (Emmanuelle Béart), an attractive young woman, is six months behind in her rent and struggling with odd jobs, while her husband (Charles Berling) lies in bed reading newspapers and watching TV. Her friend Jacqueline introduces her to Pierre Arnaud (Michel Serrault), a retired judge and wealthy ex-businessman, who offers to settle Nelly's debt. She agrees and is later so disappointed by her husband's indifferent reaction that she leaves him. Arnaud asks her to be his secretary because he needs help in typing his memoirs. Though obviously attracted to her, he rarely expresses his emotions, and he suddenly erupts only when he finds out about Nelly's affair with his young publisher Vincent (Jean-Hugues Anglade). The film won Césars from the French Academy of Cinema for Best Director and Best Actor, although it lost Best Film to Mathieu Kassovitz's more innovative La haine. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide

An American ex-con gets caught up in a Parisian bank heist that goes wrong in this ultra-violent thriller. Zed (Eric Stoltz), a safe-cracking expert fresh out of prison, travels to France to participate in a robbery planned by his friend Eric (Jean-Hughes Anglade). But first, Zed decides to indulge in some relaxation with a gorgeous, kind-hearted prostitute by the name of Zoe (Julie Delpy). This idyll, however, is interrupted by Eric, who leads Zed and the other criminals on a long night of drinking, drugging, and debauchery. The next day, the thieves find themselves hung over and exhausted, and the plan soon goes disastrously wrong, turning into a hostage situation. Even worse for Zed, he discovers that the lovely Zoe also works as a teller at the bank, forcing him into a tricky moral dilemma. Writer and director Roger Avary, best known as the co-screenwriter of Pulp Fiction, creates a similar combination of black comedy, extreme violence, and hip attitude. Critics of Quentin Tarantino's films raised similar objections to Avary's reliance on bloody violence and a detached sensibility, while the film's fans acclaimed its fast-paced action. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

As visually stylish as it is graphically violent, this thriller directed by Luc Besson concerns Mathilda (Natalie Portman), a 12-year-old girl living in New York City who has been exposed to the sordid side of life from an early age: her family lives in a slum and her abusive father works for drug dealers, cutting and storing dope. Mathilda doesn't much care for her parents, but she has a close bond with her four-year-old brother. One day, she returns from running an errand to discover that most of her family, including her brother, have been killed in a raid by corrupt DEA agents, led by the psychotic Stansfield (Gary Oldman). Mathilda takes refuge in the apartment of her secretive neighbor, Leon (Jean Reno), who takes her in with a certain reluctance. She discovers that Leon is a professional assassin, working for Tony (Danny Aiello), a mob kingpin based in Little Italy. Wanting to avenge the death of her brother, Mathilda makes a deal with Leon to become his protégée in exchange for work as a domestic servant, hoping to learn the hitman's trade and take out the men who took her brother's life. However, an affection develops between Leon and Mathilda that changes his outlook on his life and career. Besson's first American film boasted a strong performance from Jean Reno, a striking debut by Natalie Portman, and a love-it-or-hate-it, over-the-top turn by Gary Oldman. Léon was originally released in the U.S. in 1994 as The Professional, with 26 minutes cut in response to audience preview tests. Those 26 minutes were restored in the director's preferred cut, released in 1996 in France as Léon: Version Intégrale and in the U.S. on DVD as Léon: The Professional in 2000. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

According to reviewers, an expert cast of character actors make this bedroom farce eminently watchable, despite glitches in the storytelling. In the story, a group of old friends and relations gather each year to celebrate Christmas together on the ski resort of Chamonix. They don't do much skiing, however, but mostly explore their own and their friends' and relations' romantic quandries. In the story, the widower family patriarch Leo (Daniel Gelin) announces his engagement to Francoise (Anouk Aimee), which provokes all sorts of reactions in his sons Max and Simon (Gerard Lanvin and Andre Dussollier) and their families, because their own marriages are really rocky. Among the complications: Simon's son is infatuated with Max's daughter, Max is trying to make time with a woman who works locally, Simon has brought along his mistress, family friend Stephane is having trouble with his girlfriend, who threatens suicide if he won't marry her, and a difficult time is had by all during this merrymaking season. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Three very odd relationships provide the basis for this thought-provoking Italian anthology that is overseen by director Bernardo Bertolucci. The first tale, "The Blue Dog" centers on a barber who becomes the fixation of a mysteriously devoted dog with an unusual blue spot upon his head. In "Especially on Sunday," a traveler encounters a woman and a man beside a river and offers them a ride. The woman is quite the coquette and she chattily explains that she is visiting her companion, who suffers from a debilitating breakdown. They all stop for lunch and her friend begins telling them a disturbing, surreal tale. The third tale "Snow on the Fire," features a repentant woman who confesses a dark secret to the town priest. It seems the old woman has grown addicted to watching her son make passionate love to his new bride, who knows that she is watching and seems to enjoy it all the more. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide