Carmen Chaplin Movies
- Starring:
- John Rhys-Davies, David Charvet, (more)
Five people cross paths in New York City over the course of a day marked by violence in this independent drama from writer and director Jay Anania. Judy (Judy Kuhn) is a singer who is busy in a recording studio working on an album of British folk songs with jazz keyboardist John Medeski. Shira (Alyssa Sutherland) is a successful fashion model doing a photo shoot. Najia (Carmen Chaplin) is a journalist from Palestine who is in the United States working on a piece on treating victims of wartime violence, and she's arranged an interview with a well-respected doctor, Dr. Mary Wade (Olympia Dukakis). And Walter (Martin Donovan) is a quiet man who enjoys spending time in the park observing others. When a Palestinian suicide bomber sets off an explosive charge on a busy Manhattan street corner, all five characters are forced to deal with the physical and emotional wreckage of its aftermath. Day on Fire was screened as part of the "Visions" series, devoted to challenging works from new filmmakers, at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Olympia Dukakis, Martin Donovan, (more)
Rap star and actor Ice Cube produces, co-writes, and stars in this comic crime thriller that reunites him with his Next Friday (1999) co-star Mike Epps in the 48 Hrs. (1982) mold. Cube plays Bucum Jackson, a Miami bounty hunter for Martinez Bail Bonds who's tired of his dangerous, unprofitable profession and wants to start his own private investigation firm. Lacking stake money, Bucum is forced to hunt down a small-time grafter named Reggie Wright (Epps), a fast-talking confidence man who's crossed his path before. Except that this time, Wright tries to avoid his pursuer by hiding in a van being driven by a pair of murderous diamond thieves who've just made off with 20 million dollars worth of stones. They're in the employ of lethal crime lord and yacht broker Williamson (Tommy Flanagan), someone that neither Reggie nor Bucum is anxious to cross, but it seems that Reggie left his wallet in the van, a wallet containing a winning lottery ticket worth 60 million dollars. The hunt is on for big money as the mismatched duo tries to outfox a wily syndicate for both the ticket and the precious gems. The directorial debut of music video director Kevin Bray, All About the Benjamins (2002) co-stars Eva Mendes, Carmen Chaplin, Valarie Rae Miller, Jeff Chase, Roger Guenveur Smith, Anthony Michael Hall, and Lil' Bow Wow. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Larry (Burt Reynolds) is a middle-aged, ex-hippie, second-hand bookstore owner who has settled into a reclusive existence following his arrival in Amsterdam 30-years-ago. The appearance of a girl who resembles a lost-love from long ago sparks a vitality that slowly brings the intelligent but curmudgeonly hermit out of his shell. His memory and youth reinvigorated as he enters into a fond friendship with the likeable Aisha (Carmen Chaplin), Larry is flooded with memories as he begins to recapture the carefree optimism of his youth. Quickly invited to attend a party in which Aisha celebrates her coming of age, an elated Larry is transported back to his happier days in Morocco and soon finds that love may not be as elusive as he had previously thought. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Reynolds, Carmen Chaplin, (more)
The story of this gay comedy reminds one of the fashionable boulevard theatre of 1950's Paris whose major theme was bourgeois adultery. A couple would invite another couple to dinner, and half way through the second course it would be revealed that the husband was having an affair with his best friend's wife. Pourquoi pas Moi? also starts off with a dinner party, but today revelations come with a difference -- and it is no big deal. Nico, Eva and Ariane are gay and just about to confess it to their parents. Camille, who lives with Ariane, has already told her mother. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Amira Casar, Julie Gayet, (more)
Haughty and vain British industrialist Thomas Smithers (Pete Postlethwaite) dearly loves his wife Juliana (Greta Sacchi). Since they only have a daughter (Carmen Chaplin), and a strange one at that, Smithers decides that rather than leaving his fortune to his wife and child, he will build a fabulous garden to honor Julianna, who unfortunately, cares little for such things. Hearing of Smithers's plans, Julianna's conniving cousin Fitzmaurice (Richard E. Grant), who has secretly wanted her for himself, suggests that Smithers hire hot young Dutch garden architect Meneer Chrome (Ewan McGregor) to do the work. Chrome's work does not come cheap, but that is fine with Fitzmaurice who is hoping that the project will bankrupt Smithers and cause Julianna to return to him. Unfortunately for Fitzmaurice, Julianna finds herself falling in love with Chrome. Unfortunately for Julianna, Chrome has fallen in love with her daughter Thea. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ewan McGregor, Greta Scacchi, (more)
A middle-aged woman temporarily abandons her role as wife and mother to embark upon a mad love affair with a man 20 years her junior. Up until the time she meets handsome young Emilio, Diane Clovier had a relatively happy life with her husband, kids and career. Emilio, with his amoral charm, is the antithesis of her life and Diane throws herself into a heated frenzy of lovemaking and romance with him. She shows little regard for the destruction she causes within her family. Her husband Phillipe, a lawyer, finds out about the affair, but does nothing to stop it in the hope that she will come to her senses. But as her relationship with Emilio grows hotter, it looks as if Diane may be lost forever. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brigitte Roüan, Patrick Chesnais, (more)
A remake of a 1954 Billy Wilder romance, this updated version of the play Sabrina Fair was directed by Sydney Pollack. Julia Ormond stars as Sabrina Fairchild, the daughter of a kindly chauffeur (John Wood) at the Long Island estate of the upper-crust Larrabee family. Sabrina has grown up enchanted from afar with the Larrabees' sparkling world of privilege and wealth, but she's especially enamored of younger Larrabee brother David (Greg Kinnear), a charming womanizer. After the once-plain Sabrina returns from a sojourn in Paris transformed into a remarkably poised and attractive young woman, she at long last catches David's eye. In a calculated effort to manipulate David away from her and into a more financially advantageous marriage, older brother Linus (Harrison Ford) pretends to woo Sabrina himself, but finds himself unintentionally falling in love. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harrison Ford, Julia Ormond, (more)
- Starring:
- Jean-Hugues Anglade, Julia Maraval, (more)
French critic and filmmaker André Téchiné directs the intense family drama Ma Saison Préférée (My Favorite Season), which he co-wrote with screenwriter Pascal Bonitzer. Family matriarch Berthe (Marthe Villalonga) is advancing in years and developing health problems, so she goes to live with her daughter Emilie (Catherine Deneuve). Emilie is a cold, fiftysomething professional who lives in a large upper-class home in Toulouse. She also lives with her husband Bruno (Jean-Pierre Bouvier), her daughter Anne (Deneuve's real-life daughter Chiara Mastroianni), and her adopted son Lucien (Anthony Prada). When Christmas arrives, Emilie's troubled brother Antoine (Daniel Auteuil) arrives at the house for a visit. He and Emilie have not spoken since their father's funeral three years ago. Despite his attempts to maintain control, Antoine quickly comes into conflict with Bruno. Painful emotional realities from the past return and cause violent conclusions. My Favorite Season was shown in competition at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Catherine Deneuve, Daniel Auteuil, (more)
Wim Wenders' sprawling cyberpunk noir epic -- shot in no less than nine different countries -- is set in 1999 and stars Solveig Dommartin as Claire, a young Frenchwoman who comes into contact with a large sum of money stolen during a bank heist; in her travels she picks up a mysterious American hitchhiker (William Hurt), who himself steals some of the money before parting from her company. Upon discovering the theft, Claire sets out on his trail, with both a Hammett-styled German private eye (Rudiger Vogler) as well as her former lover, a novelist portrayed by Sam Neill, in tow. The hitchhiker is really Sam Farber, the son of an underground scientist (Max Von Sydow), and his mission is to travel the globe in order to acquire the funding necessary to develop the technology which will allow his blind mother (Jeanne Moreau) to "see" visual recordings of her family members; the second half of the film takes place largely in the Farbers' compound in the Australian Outback, where Sam, Claire and the others take refuge while attempting to bring the sight project to its fruition, in the meantime pondering earth's future in the wake of a nuclear disaster in outer space. Wenders' most ambitious film to date, budgeted at $23 million, Until the End Of the World is also among his most seriously flawed efforts -- despite a keen sense of cultural perception, a fascinating sci-fi take on life in the near-future and stunning Robby Muller cinematography, the picture never quite gels. Much of the blame seems to fall upon its distributors -- upon its wide release in 1991, the movie was drastically cut to a running time of 2 1/2 hours, resulting in a disjointed narrative that doesn't shift gears so much as grind them as the action moves from country to country. Still, while a three-hour version, issued on laserdisc in Japan, comes closer to realizing the full scope of Wenders' epic vision, rumors of a five-hour director's cut -- said to have been screened to thunderous applause at a handful of film festivals -- continue to persist, suggesting that a masterpiece may well exist here after all. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Hurt, Solveig Dommartin, (more)

















