Dora Doll Movies

Michel Blanc stars as Aymé, a grumpy recently widowed farmer, in writer/actress Isabelle Mergault's directorial debut, the romantic comedy You Are So Handsome. When Aymé's work partner and wife dies suddenly in an unfortunate accident, he quickly realizes that he needs someone around to help him with the womanly half of the chores. An unsentimental sort, within days he's contacted a service to find him a new wife. This brings him to Romania, where he's introduced to a lot of much younger women, most of whom take the wrong tack, dressing skimpily and telling Aymé how handsome he is. Elena (Medeea Marinescu), a single mother, is as eager to move to France and make some money as the next girl, but she takes the time to assess the situation, puts on a sweater, and tells Aymé, in her charmingly broken French, how much she's always wanted to live on a farm and work with animals. Her strategy works, and Aymé decides to bring her back to France, but, embarrassed about what he's done, he comes up with a lame cover story to fool his best friend, Roland (Wladimir Yordanoff), and the rest of his neighbors. He tells them she's a distant relative who's visiting the farm as an "intern," and has Elena pretend that she speaks no French at all. Elena expects them to have a real marriage, and is disappointed when she realizes that Aymé just wants her to work. Eventually, Aymé realizes his feelings for Elena go deeper than expected, but by then, her frustration and homesickness are becoming too much to bear. You Are So Handsome was shown as part of The Film Society of Lincoln Center's Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in 2006. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

The bitter legacy of the French/Algerian War set the stage of this drama from director Alexandre Arcady, himself a Frenchman of Algerian birth. Pierre Nivel (Antoine DeCaunes) is a noted French television journalist and network anchorman. One day, he receives an unexpected visitor, an Algerian man with a message from someone named Leila. Pierre was born in Algeria, and he lived there until he was 17, when the French were forced to leave after Algeria won its independence in 1962. He's kept his Algerian past a secret from most of his friends and colleagues, but the note from Leila, his teenage sweetheart, leads him back to the land of his birth. It turns out that Leila now has a grown daughter, Amina (Nozha Khouadra), and Leila needs Pierre's help to smuggle her and her daughter out of the country. A defiant woman, Amina's refusal to go through with an arranged marriage to a fundamentalist and removal of her veil in public has put both herself and her family in great danger. La Bas ... Mon Pays/Return to Algiers was the first French production to be shot on location in Algeria since the nation won its independence. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In this disturbing drama, based on a novel by "San Antonio" (Frédéric Dard), Léon (Serge Riaboukine) has a wife who is as near to being dead as she can be and still be among the living, and she has been in this state for some time. He is also the worshipful secretary for an overbearing actor/director, Boris (Jean-Pierre Mocky), a man for whom he will do just about anything. However, his need to care for his wife interferes with performing unlimited services for his adored boss, and it is for that reason that he kills her. For a while, his blissful servitude knows no bounds, but his wife's sister smells a rat, and soon his cozy, masochistic relationship with Boris is endangered. Boris, meanwhile, has a quite lovely wife whom he ignores in favor of humiliating her by openly seducing other women. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Rene (Jean-Pierre Marielle) is a small-time crook who tries to shake down storekeeper Emile (Jean Carmet) in this uneven and humorless comedy. Things change when Rene starts to fall for the terminally boring and provincial Emile. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Naive but devout villagers find themselves victimized by two conniving grifters in this French crime drama. The con artists are a former priest and his lover, respectively, who have come to town proclaiming themselves "Holy Father' and "Holy Mother." Soon, the awe-struck villagers are handing their land and savings over to the wicked duo. One farmer's daughter sees through the scam and accuses the townsfolk of worshiping Satan. They in turn accuse her and try to exorcise the demons from her by beating her severely. She dies, and the con artists try to frame her father for the death. Fortunately, Angelique, a beautiful nun with a gift for prophecy, saves him and the rest of the town. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Not a French revolution epic as might be assumed, Bastille is a modern social drama filmed in Holland. Derek de Lint plays the grown-up child of Dutch Holocaust victims. Throughout the first half of the film, he denies his past even while seeking out the facts behind his parents' demise. His indecision gives way to obsession: before the film has drawn to a close, he has convinced himself that he is capable of going back in time and changing history. Director Rudolph Van den Berg sometimes seems as confused as his Bastille protagonist. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The film traces the lifelong relationship between playwright Lillian Hellman and Julia, a wealthy girl who turns her back on her upbringing to follow her ideals. In the 1930s, while the adult Hellman (Jane Fonda) struggles to establish herself as a playwright with the help of her lover, Dashiell Hammett (Jason Robards), Julia (Vanessa Redgrave) battles the exigencies of the Nazi regime. Visiting Julia in Germany, Lillian realizes how much her friend's idealism has cost her, both physically and financially. Lillian is asked by Julia's friend Johann (Maximilian Schell) to smuggle a large sum of money from Paris to Germany, the better to combat the Nazis from within. Nominated for 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and four acting awards, Julia won for Alvin Sargent's screenplay and Robards' and Redgrave's performances, leading to Redgrave's infamous "Zionist hoodlums" acceptance speech. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Alain Delon stars in this French/Italian prison-break film. When his son is falsely imprisoned, Delon contrives to bust the boy out. As the title indicates, what comes around goes around in this tense programmer. Delon also cowrote and co-produced. The film was released in Europe as Comme Un Boomerang. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Right after his release from prison, Victor (Jean-Paul Belmondo) resumes his con-man activities. He rents apartments he doesn't own, sells nonexistent fighter planes to African countries, and by turns pretends to be a gardener, lawyer, private detective, governmental official, and even a transvestite in order to fool his unsuspecting victims. He does it all under the nose of his charming but naive parole officer Marie-Charlotte (Genevieve Bujold). When Victor finds out that Marie-Charlotte's father curates the museum that has an extremely valuable painting, he and his friends decide to steal it. ~ Yuri German, Rovi

Hélène (Lea Massari) has a lovely family, and lovely children. She is not discontented with things just as they are: her young lover is attentive, her husband is pleasant -- all is just as it should be. In this French suspense film, Hélène's cozy life begins to unravel when she finds her lover is dead. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi