Marine Delterme Movies
- 2002
Actor Vincent Perez makes his feature-film directorial debut with the romantic drama Once Upon an Angel, which he cowrote with his wife, Karine Silla, and Jerome Tonnerre. Young Angèle (Morgane Moré) sets out to find work in order to ease the burden for her poor, debt-ridden parents and finds a job as a maid. By chance, she meets Gregoire Berthelot (Guillaume Depardieu), who takes a carnal interest in the young woman and seemingly nothing more. Intensely attracted to Gregoire and against all reason, Angèle spends an evening with the fiery stranger who promptly leaves her the next morning -- but he comes away from the tryst with more feelings toward Angèle than he hoped. For her part, Angèle is also left with more than fond memories of her experience with Gregoire and she eventually tracks him down -- but discovers that a couple of major complications may prevent them from developing a meaningful relationship. Once Upon an Angel was chosen as a competing film in the 2002 Montreal World Film Festival. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Morgane More, Guillaume Depardieu, (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)
- 1997
In this zany French comedy, a writer chooses the day he and his family are to move out into the country to quit his publishing job and take a lucrative position writing for a television sitcom. On this day, everything possible goes haywire, beginning with the early arrival of the four Romanian illegal aliens Alain hired to do the moving. He is at his old job cleaning out his desk when his wife calls with the bad news that the movers have arrived four hours early. Shortly thereafter a fight breaks out amongst the Romanians and they leave Alain high and dry. Alain then beseeches his friends to help him pack and move furniture. Unfortunately, his good buddies don't provide as much assistance as he needs. Alain's day goes from bad to worse when he is called in for an emergency story meeting with his new boss at the network. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Danyboon, Emmanuelle Devos, (more)
- 1997
A quartet of Parisians embark upon a guided hike in Corsica and end up working through the sometimes comical chaos of their individual lives while becoming lost and contending with such obstacles as bad weather and aching bodies. Both of the female hikers are seeking love, though one of them is involved with their married guide and tries to push him into getting a divorce. The other, a former actress, simply wants the perfect mate. Neither of the two male hikers, one who is involved with an Australian and the other is in love with making money, qualify for her affections. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Philippe Harel, Benoît Poelvoorde, (more)
- 1996
- R
When the Cat's Away is a gentle French comedy that explores the problems and anxieties of contemporary urbanites. When Chloe (Garance Clavel), a young Parisian, decides to take a long-overdue vacation, she has to find someone to look after Gris-Gris, her beloved cat. Everyone, including her gay male roommate, refuses to help her, but she finally makes an arrangement with the elderly Madame Renée (Renée Le Calm), who often watches over other peoples' cats and dogs. However, when Chloe comes back, Madame Renée tells her that unfortunately the cat has been lost, and the unlucky owner goes on a search for her dear animal friend. While looking for the cat, she meets many colorful characters who populate the neighborhood. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Garance Clavel, Zinedine Soualem, (more)
- 1995
Three French women in their 20s wrestle with their feelings about the nature of romance in this drama that chronicles their love lives over a 6 month period. The film opens with scenes that not only introduce the women, they also tell the viewer what is to become of two of them. Marie, who likes having sex with different partners, is a stockbroker. She is first seen climbing a huge tree to tell a portly office messenger of her love for him. Jeanne is married and works as a waitress. She finds her estranged husband in a restaurant. Alice, an art history student, is frigid and has low self-esteem because her father was domineering. She is first seen lying nude on a canvas. An artist pours paint upon her body. The film jumps back six months. The three women are at a local pool engaging in some post work-out girl talk. It is frank, graphic and quite sexual. Sex scenes illustrate their stories. Marie keeps sleeping around while Jeanne becomes a part-time hooker. Alice considers giving herself to a painter who creates tableaux of ecstatic naked women covered in paint. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marine Delterme, Florence Thomassin, (more)
- 1995
In this French comedy, Camille, a Bordeaux hospital anesthetist, demonstrates his special knack for comforting people, both on the personal and professional planes and finds himself in all kinds of trouble. It begins when he goes to an out-of-town conference, and ends up spending one hot night with the lovely Stephanie. Later, while he is at the airport, he accidentally grabs the suitcase of Juliette Graveur, a concert flautist. Upon his return home, he finds himself smothered with the attentions of the obsessive Clementine. To put her off, Camille tells her that he is deeply involved with Juliette. To prove it, he scatters female clothing about his apartment. Later Stephanie appears at his doorstep, but Camille's problems are only just beginning as the police have just discovered the corpse of the missing Juliette. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fabrice Luchini, Valerie Stroh, (more)
- 1995
This remake of Luis Bunuel's El (1952), which in turn was based on Mercedes Pinto's book, puts a new spin on the tale by making the protagonist a mad woman married to an equally insane man. The original story focused mainly on the husband's jealousy of his unusually beautiful "trophy wife." The wife is Delia, who spends most of her time living alone in the midst of her husband's vast mansion which is filled with fantastic sculptures and rare architecture. Her husband values her more as a piece of living art than a real person and jealously guards her thusly. He is convinced that she is always philandering or thinking about it. Delia does not know what to do. He has crushed her spirit and she fears his mental instability and bears his insistence that they make love in the moonlight beside the pool with quiet dignity. Inside, she worries about their son. Her inability to interact with others and to escape the situation begins taking its toll and eventually, she too begins to lose her tenuous grip on sanity. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marine Delterme, Didier Flamand, (more)
- 1994
Is there such a thing as an amicable divorce? This French drama, explores the subject in depth as it examines the post marital relations between Jeanne, Romain, and their ten year old daughter Mado. Jeanne and Romain had been married ten years before they mutually agreed to call it quits. Mado lives with her mother and her father has ample visitation. She has adjusted well to the situation, in part because her parents appear to be cooperative and friendly toward each other. But as time passes, cracks begin appearing in their facade. Romain begins to resent Mado's happiness with her mother. Jeanne must balance between work and single-parenthood; she is doing a good job of it. Romain though very strict and controlling really wants the best for Mado, but his wife's success eats at him. To get revenge, Romain tries to instill doubts as to Jeanne's competence in those she loves and works with, eventually he tries to create self-doubt in Jeanne herself. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Berry, Anne Brochet, (more)
- 1993
Alexandre (Vincent Perez) has been through the cycle of seeing the initial passion in romantic encounters burn off and having the relationship become routine and boring. He thinks that this happens for two reasons: the courtship and wooing dance ends, and mere sex enters the picture. He is determined to prevent this cycle from happening with his latest love-interest, a sexy young woman named Fanfan (Sophie Marceau). However, despite the delightful, romantic and inventive ways he discovers for them to spend time together, Fanfan finds his refusal to go to bed with her increasingly irritating; their burgeoning relationship is seriously jeopardized by Alexandre's attachment to his plan. This film is based on the director's best-selling novel, which was translated into almost two dozen languages. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sophie Marceau, Vincent Perez, (more)
- 1992
- NR
This award-winning drama follows the romantic and sexual misadventures of a bisexual, HIV-positive Frenchman as he searches for meaning in his life. Jean (Cyril Collard, who also directed), a successful photographer, dates women but has furtive sex with men on the side. When he meets Samy (Carlos Lopez), an aimless, half-Spanish young rugby player, Jean easily steals him right from under his girlfriend's watchful eyes. Just months after learning that he's HIV-positive, Jean only practices safe sex with his male partners. The same isn't true of his relationship with Laura (Romane Bohringer), an intense 17 year old whose combination of youthful exuberance and world-weary cynicism captivates him. The first night they make love, Jean struggles to warn Laura of his HIV status, but her emotional nakedness and his own confusion prevent him. When he finally does tell her, she's more concerned about living life without him than she is about the danger into which he has put her. Laura's mother (Corine Blue) struggles to steer her daughter toward a more suitable match, especially after Jean stops hiding his liaison with Samy. Vacillating from one extreme and one lover to the other, Jean unwittingly wreaks emotional havoc in Laura's life. Meanwhile, Samy finds himself slowly drawn into Jean's orbit and seems to have no problem with the ambiguity involved. He also dabbles in violent sex and even racist nationalism -- all reactions to his complex, troubled family life. As Laura spins out of control and Samy drifts away, Jean tries to make some sense of his own destructiveness; all the while, his illness progresses. Adapted from director Collard's own novel, Les Nuits Fauves won the filmmaker a French Cesar for Best Debut Director just days after he died of AIDS-related illness. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cyril Collard, Romane Bohringer, (more)
- 1992
Sara is a medical student who has been experiencing a few problems, lately. She has been having blackouts and occasionally even some fits, but so far she has been able to keep up with her demanding curriculum. She has confided some of her troubles to her classmate, Nowak. However, one evening when, for no apparent reason she easily kills some customers in a sleazy bar, she can finally see that something is seriously wrong with her. Her friend tries to get her exorcised, because she certainly fits the description of the behavior of the possessed. When the exorcism fails, Sara must take drastic action to see to it that she doesn't kill again. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marine Delterme, Judith Henry, (more)
- 1991
Women and Men 2 is the second installment of HBO's short-story anthology series. In the first episode, Carson McCuller's "A Domestic Dilemma," Ray Liotta plays a husband who has to cut back on his work in order to care for his children, since his alcoholic wife (Andie MacDowell) cannot be trusted. In Irwin Shaw's "Return to Kansas City," a boxer (Matt Dillon) is unwilling to take risks in order to win love. In Henry Miller's "Mara," Scott Glenn plays Miller in a story about his love for a Parisian prostitute. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
