Christophe Kourotchkine Movies

One man's wealth, privilege, and power lead him into a world of danger and humiliation in this drama from director Lucas Belvaux. Stanislas Graff (Yvan Attal) is one of Belgium's richest men, a business magnate and trusted confidante of the nation's president. One morning, en route to his office, Graff's limousine is set upon by a handful of kidnappers; they capture the tycoon, throw him in a get-away car, and take him to a cave on the edge of town. The kidnappers, led by a man calling himself Marseillais (Gérard Meylan), contact Graff's wife (Anne Consigny), his lawyer (Alex Descas), and the second-in-command at his firm (André Marcon) and demand a ransom of 50 million Euros for his return -- and to show they mean business, the kidnappers include Graff's severed finger with the ransom note. As Graff's family and associates ponder what to do next, many close to him question if his life or anyone's is worth that much money; meanwhile, as the press rushes the abduction into the headlines, they reveal a number of Graff's personal peccadillos, including affairs with other women and a powerful appetite for gambling, and public opinion about the businessman takes an ugly turn. Inspired by the 1978 abduction of French multi-millionaire Édouard-Jean Empain, Rapt was an official selection at the 2010 Rotterdam International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Writer/director Olivier Dahan (Crimson Rivers II) helmed La Vie en Rose, the screen biopic of tragic French songstress Edith Piaf. Marion Cotillard portrays Piaf, the superstar once raised as a young girl by her grandmother in a Normandy bordello, then discovered on a French street corner -- as a complete unknown -- by cabaret proprietor Louis Leplée (Gérard Depardieu). The film segues breezily between various episodes from Piaf's life -- such as her lover, French boxer Marcel Cerdan's (Jean-Pierre Martins) championship bout in mid-'40s New York; her period in Hollywood during the '50s; Piaf's abandonment as a young girl by her contortionist father (and earlier by her mother, a street singer); her brushes with the law as an adult; and her 1951 car accident and subsequent morphine addiction that caused her to age well beyond her years and left her barely mobile; and, through it all, her ability (like Billie Holiday) to funnel personal tragedy and emotional struggles into her vocalizations -- dazzling audiences in the process. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Lots of people wish they could be someone else, but a French businessman decides to do something about it in this satirical comedy. Francis Bergeade (Michel Serrault) runs a factory in a small town that makes toilet seats. With his employees on strike and his wife plundering his bank account as she plans their daughter's wedding, Francis's life isn't much fun; his one real pleasure is eating and drinking well, in the company of his friend Gerard (Eddy Mitchell). One evening, Francis is watching a television show about people who've gone missing, and he sees the sad story of Dolores (Carmen Maura), a woman living on a beautiful farm in the South of France who has no idea where her husband has gone. When a picture of Dolores's husband is shown, Francis is amazed to discover that it looks just like him. He soon steps forward and poses as Dolores's husband, leaving his wife to wonder where he is. However, she doesn't seem all that worried, since before long she's having an affair with Gerard. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi