Nathalie Cerda Movies
- 1995
- R
Not a strict adaptation of the oft-filmed Victor Hugo classic, director Claude Lelouch's ambitious epic instead focuses on the story of two men, a father and a son, whose life stories bear striking similarities to Hugo's character Jean Valjean. The father is Henri Fortin (Jean-Paul Belmondo), a chauffeur (in 1900) wrongly accused of his employer's murder. Like Valjean, he is subjected to a harsh and unfair prison sentence. While Henri vainly attempts to escape his unjust fate, his family suffers, with his wife forced to raise their young son alone. The film jumps ahead several decades to show the adult life of this son (also Belmondo), a former boxer turned furniture mover who agrees to help smuggle a Jewish lawyer (Michel Boujenah) out of France during the Nazi occupation. Along the way, the lawyer reads to the younger Fortin from Les Misérables, and Fortin begins to imagine himself in the role of Jean Valjean, on the run from the obsessive Inspector Javert. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Paul Belmondo, Michel Boujenah, (more)
- 1994
In this French romance, an escaped convict on the lam falls in love with a movie costumer. Paul Salomon is on the lam after he broke out of prison. He goes a winterbound resort town near the English Channel to retrieve a satchel full of loot. He is headed for Blighty. In the town, he stops in a clothing shop where he encounters Suzanne, another customer. Later he sees her in a restaurant and sits down at her table. He immediately tells her who he is and what he is doing. Suzanne disbelieves him and begins making up outrageous lies about her own life. She bases her "lifestory" on that of Helena the Russian violinist who is the protagonist of the film she is working on. Paul keeps telling the truth and she keeps embellishing until she finally realizes that he isn't lying. She falls for him and they passionately consummate their budding affair. Meanwhile a police chief is hot on Paul's trail. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mathilda May, Gérard Darmon, (more)
- 1993
After being driven over the edge by a collective series of romantic reverses, three working-class friends abandoned their ordinary jobs as a waiter, taxi-driver and hairdresser to milk money from tourists in a series of clever scams. They have been apprehended by the authorities and are awaiting trial before a judge who has been having an affair with their lawyer. Before this comedy is over, the judge, who previously had entertained a rather exalted view of his own good sense, will have a more sympathetic understanding of how ordinarily good men can go a little crazy and do some bad things - especially in response to crazy romantic situations. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marie-Sophie L., Fabrice Luchini, (more)
