Lola Doillon Movies

Lola Doillon's French-language comedy-drama Et toi, t'es sur qui? (AKA Just About Love?, 2007) unfolds at that critical juncture for a group of tightly-knit teenage friends - the moment when each individual considers giving to another the part of himself or herself that can never be retracted. Thus, Julie (Christa Theret), Vincent (Gaël Tavares), Elodie (Lucie Desclozeau) and Nicolas (Nicolas Schweri) each face the prospect of not only crossing the one-way bridge from adolescence into adulthood, but making the irreversible leap from "friends" to "lovers" with one another, as the last summer after high school lingers before them. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Raja (Najat Benssallem) is a 19-year-old Moroccan girl. An orphan, she's led a difficult life, but has gotten off the streets and lives with her cousin Nadira (Ilham Abdelwahad) and her family. Raja and Nadira are happy to get low-paying jobs working in the garden of a wealthy middle-aged Frenchman, Fred (Pascal Greggory). Fred is immediately attracted to the new girl and the other girls tease Raja about his interest, encouraging her to go after his money. Fred discusses his growing infatuation with his two elderly cooks, Oum El Aid (Oum El Aid Ait Youss) and Zineb (Zineb Ouchita), who try to discourage his interest. Because they don't speak the same language, Fred and Raja often have to rely on others to translate as they dance around each other. Fred hires Raja to be his maid, and flirts shamelessly with her. She's intrigued, and desperate to change her life, but she keeps him at a distance, uncertain of the seriousness of his interest. Raja has a boyfriend, Youssef (Hassan Khissal), who resents her relationship with the Frenchman; in addition, her brother (Abdelilah Lamrani), who pimped her out as a girl, still tries to control her life, taking a share of the money she earns. He plans for her to marry a policeman he knows. Fred struggles with his emotions. They obviously feel something for each other, but the cultural and economic differences between them may be too immense to overcome. Raja, written and directed by Jacques Doillon (Ponette), was shown at the 2003 New York Film Festival. Benssallem won the Marcello Mastroianni Award (for best first performance) at the 2003 Venice Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

The ways of love are often difficult to fathom, but the love of a woman for the man who kicked her boyfriend's butt over unpaid debts is a new avenue of romance explored in this French comedy-drama. Fred (Lou Doillon) is a woman in her early twenties who is dating Francois (Camille Clavel), a young man who has made the serious mistake of getting behind in his payments to his drug dealer, Alex (Guillaume Saurrel). One day, Alex decides things have gone too far, and he arrives at Francois and Fred's place to beat him up. For some reason, Fred enjoys watching Alex slap her boyfriend around, and she quickly finds herself infatuated with Alex. Seeing that Fred is already involved with Francois, she feels it might seem unseemly to approach him directly, so instead she fixes Alex up with her close friend Sylvia (Caroline Ducey), and the two couples spend the evening together as Fred puts her matchmaking skills to the test. Lou Doillon, who plays Fred, is the daughter of Carrement a L'ouest's director Jacques Doillon; her mother is noted singer and actress Jane Birkin. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

This unique French offering is a compilation of 30 short films focused on AIDS. The mini-films were based on over 3,000 ideas put in by French school children and were made by filmmakers on a voluntary basis. Most of the vignettes deal with heterosexuality and AIDS, but one deals with drug-usage, and one with homosexuality. It took four production houses three years to create this inspirational and informative film. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi