Patrick Mille Movies
- 2009
Simultaneously recalling Richard Curtis's Love Actually (2003), and - on a more culturally proximate note - Cedric Klapisch's seriocomedy Paris (2008), this outing from writer-director Amanda Sthers observes the intersection of six French lonely hearts against a uniform backdrop. As the tale opens, three single men sit waiting in a French airport: psychiatrist Max (Michel Lonsdale), writer Marcel Henri (Pierre Arditi), and editor Olivier (Patrick Mille). As fate would have it, their paths just happen to intersect with three lonely, needy women of varying temperaments and backgrounds: distinguished widow Fanny (Monique Chaumette), man-hungry teacher Lila (Anne Marivin), and the desperately unhappy, suicide-prone cancer patient Julia (Carole Bouquet). As various couplings occur and various substories unfold within the confines of the airport, each of the characters finds his or her life changed in an irrevocable and unforeseeable way. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carole Bouquet, Pierre Arditi, (more)
Sex, blood and rock 'n' roll are on the menu at one frantic bash in this over-the-top comedy from France. Alice (Frederique Bel), Prune (Julie Fournier) and Sam (Patrick Mille) are three close friends who are excited to learn they've been invited to La Nuit Medicis, a notoriously wild party held every year in a castle that's said to be haunted. The friends are expecting a big night of debauchery, but things turns out to be a great deal different when they meet their host, the mysterious Le Duc de Journiac (Tcheky Karyo). Journiac is actually a vampire, and the big to-do is held each year so he and his minions can feast on the blood of unsuspecting locals like Alice, Prune and Sam. Teaming up with several fellow party-goers, the three friends quickly organize an attack on the undead revelers, and when they run short on traditional weapons such as garlic, crosses and stakes, they're forced to improvise and vanquish the ghouls with MP3 players and exercise gear. Les Dents de la nuit (aka Vampire Party) also features Sam Karmann and Helene de Fougerolles. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
French farce master Francis Veber (The Dinner Game) combines slapstick laughs with rapid-fire dialogue as he tells the tale of a Parisian valet unwittingly drawn into the affairs of a wealthy industrialist. François Pignon (Gad Elmaleh) is a simple valet employed by a posh Paris restaurant. Blissfully unaware of the paparazzi stalking powerful businessman Pierre Levasseur (Daniel Auteuil) and his stunning mistress, Elena (Alice Taglioni), the innocent passerby François wanders haphazardly into the frame. Realizing that the common man in the photograph may be Levasseur's only hope of avoiding a nasty divorce from his wife, Christine (Kristin Scott Thomas), Pierre's quick-thinking lawyer (Richard Berry) arranges for François to live with Elena in order to mislead the tabloids. Having just been dumped by childhood sweetheart Emilie (Virginie Ledoyen), François accepts the proposal, in the hopes he can win her back through jealousy. But Pierre's jealousy flares, Elena grows frustrated with her new digs, and Christine might know more than she's letting on. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gad Elmaleh, Alice Taglioni, (more)
Jet Set writer/director Fabien Onteniente returns to craft this sequel set against the backdrop of hedonistic Ibiza, and starring Rupert Everett as a Parisian party planner whose career has been sabotaged by a jealous rival. If you want your party to pop, you call on Charles (Everett). Charles has a knack for throwing the wildest parties in around, and his reputation is legendary. But Charles also has his fair share of enemies, and when a dastardly competitor schemes to turn Europe's hottest party planner into a hopeless has been he makes way for Ibiza in search of local club king John John (Jose Garcia). Perhaps with a little help from the flamboyant entertainer who helped put Ibiza on the map, Charles can restore his reputation and finally get back to doing what he does best - keep the crowds dancing till the break of dawn! ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rupert Everett, José Garcia, (more)
- 2000
Taking its title from a popular 1960s dance craze, this digital video comedy concerns the exploits of a particularly odd fictional talk-show host, portrayed by real-life French talk-show sensation Edouard Baer. Baer -- who also directed and co-wrote the film -- plays a sarcastic TV personality who decides to gather together the panel members from his live show before they shoot the program so that they have a chance to rehearse. To this end, the absurd group -- including a lawyer, a transvestite, and a grown woman who acts like a child -- rents a villa for a month. It doesn't take long for resentment to fester among the motley crew. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edouard Baer, Gilles Gaston-Dreyfus, (more)
- 1994
This fluffy French romantic comedy chronicles the love lives of several lovers and relatives. Margeau has just arrived in Paris from New York. Twenty years before, she left her husband, a painter and many years her senior and her daughter Jess, who now sells classic cars with her partner the clumsy Mario. Jess is recovering from an accidental overdose on sleeping pills. Her hospitalization brought Margeau home. Jess has a young boyfriend, a musician not terribly interested in sex, and a 17 year old son from her ex- husband Pierre. A restaurateur Pierre now lives with a very young African student. The hospital shrink helping Jess ends up having an affair with her son. Before the film ends and Margeau returns home, Jess comes close to death three more times. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claudia Cardinale, Carole Laure, (more)
- 1991
In this comedy, Andre is anxious to please his fourteen-year old daughter when he picks her up from her mother (whom he's divorced from) for a vacation on Maritius. She is full of romantic notions, and when she spies a cute windsurfer at the resort, she concocts a story to win him to her side. First of all, she claims to be eighteen, not fourteen. Secondly, she claims that she is the mistress of a dangerous gangster who is dying (her father). Not only that, but everyone believes her. Her father is understandably surprised by these revelations when she is forced to take him into her confidence, but he is a romantic too. He gamely plays the role assigned to him while maintaining a fatherly eye on the proceedings. Gérard Depardieu plays the father in this movie and also in its 1994 American remake. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gérard Depardieu, Marie Gillain, (more)
- 1991
The story of this film was allegedly based on a true story witnessed by the director Nico Papatakis during his filmmaking collaboration with the controversial and much-lionized monstre sacrée Jean Genet. In the story, Marcel Spadice (Michel Piccoli) is a famous writer with a criminal background and a penchant for handsome men. From time to time, he induces an attractive female admirer to arrange for him to be introduced to nice, talented young men who happen to be sufficiently handsome to interest him. At other times, the endless effort to woo these men (who are most often heterosexual) grows wearying, and he goes to the train station to pick up soldiers looking for some easy money and a night's lodging. In this film, the writer has grown enamored with a young circus laborer (Lilah Dadi) who wants to move up in the world, literally, by becoming a tightrope walker. Marcel cadges an introduction, and for a time sponsors the young man's training. However, when the boy suffers an accident which renders him unfit for his chosen vocation, Marcel loses interest in him and takes up with another young man. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Piccoli, Lilah Dadi, (more)
