Arnaud Giovaninetti Movies

When the gay roommate and best friend of a commitment-phobic radio show hosts learns that his womanizing roommate is planning to settle down, he does everything in his power to sabotage the wedding plans and win the unassuming roommate for himself in this comedy that proves love can come from the most unexpected of places. While Dan spends his days hosting a sex-oriented radio show and bedding as many females as possible, his lovelorn roommate Laurent campaigns for gay marriage with the singular goal of ultimately winning Dan's hand in marriage. When Laurent discovers that Dan has finally found the woman of his dreams and is finally willing to take the plunge, he sets into motion a complex plan aimed at scaring Dan out of his plans and eventually converting him to homosexuality. As the wedding plans continue and Dan asks Laurent to be his best man, the heartbroken Laurent must summon the courage to let Dan know how he really feels or face the prospect of losing not only his best friend, but the man of his dreams as well. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

French filmmaker Stephane Clavier directs the comedy Lovely Rita: Patron Saint of Lost Causes, based on the novel by Benjamin Legrand. The director's brother, French TV star Christian Clavier, is the comedic star. He plays accountant Edgar Lamarck, who gets unwittingly involved in criminal situations. After getting messed up in a financial scam with Thierry (Eddy Mitchell), he ends up disposing of a body with prostitute Rita (Julie Gayet). She also happens to be an art thief who has just stolen a priceless Botticelli from an art dealer (Jean-Claude Dreyfus). ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

French producer Joel Farges got together with Czech producer/director Artemio Benki and four other young Czech filmmakers to contribute to a series of 20-minute episodes about love in the magical city of Prague at the end of the millennium. Praha ocima was inspired by episode films about cities, such as New York Stories by Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and Woody Allen; but most of all by Six in Paris made by Claude Chabrol, Eric Rohmer, Jean-Luc Godard, and others. Not all of the five directors of the film come from Prague and their styles are certainly diverse. But they all have an affinity with the city, which is a meeting place of many cultures. Artemio Benki's Riziko (Dive), about a French couple whose relationship ends because, in Prague, she falls in love with a Czech, is narrated in a poetic style. Martin Sulik's Obrazky z vyletu (Pictures from a Trip) narrates the tribulations of a Slovak mother, an aging music teacher who has to accept her daughter's way of life in Prague. Petr Vaclav's bitter but nonetheless romantic Vikend V Praze (Weekend in Prague) is about a Chinese student visiting the city who realizes that her relationship with her French lover is over. Michaela Pavlatova's Absolutni Laska (Absolute Love) re-enacts the affair of two ex-lovers. Vladimir Michalek's Karty jsou Rozdany (The Cards are Dealt) is the bizarre story of a reporter who gets depressed every time he goes to a bar but cannot stop going. The common themes of the stories are the complications of love affairs, tragi-comic barriers to communication, the ingenious ways lovers bridge distances and generally the strange behavior of couples in love. Through the theme of love, Praha ocima also reflects the general welfare of the city's inhabitants. The film was screened at the 1999 Rotterdam International Film Festival. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide

In this French gangster drama, a young hoodlum, new to his famed father's dubious profession, successfully completes his first hit but then finds himself trapped in between a brutal vendetta between rival gangs. To save himself, Francois joins forces with a motley gang of crooks, led by the emotionally unstable Rufin, and tries to wait the situation out while amusing himself with the affections of a nightclub chanteuse. Meanwhile, his colleagues are being killed off, one by one, leaving him to wonder whether or not his father will use his clout to save him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Lover is director Jean-Jacques Annaud's adaptation of Marguerite Duras' minimalist 1984 novel. Set in French Indochina in 1929, the film explores the erotic charge of forbidden love. Jane March plays a French teenager sent to a Saigon boarding school, while Tony Leung is a 32-year Chinese aristocrat. They look at each and they both see a blinding white flash; it's kismet. He offers her a ride in his limousine and soon they meet in his "bachelor room" where they revel in a wide variety of creative sexual encounters. However, they both realize their love is doomed. She comes from a troubled family that includes a mentally-disturbed mother (Frederique Meininger) and drug-addicted brother (Arnaud Giovaninetti). It also appears that her family would not approve of an interracial tryst. But then neither would his family, since in order to inherit his father's wealth, he must not break from a traditional Chinese arranged marriage. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide