Jean-Marie Besset Movies

In 2004, a grotesque and unseemly incident took the European press by storm: a young French woman came forward and claimed to have been attacked by black and Arab thugs who mistook her for a Jew. But after her story broke, no witnesses came forward to support her, and security cameras at the train station revealed no such attack; the woman later admitted that she had ripped her own clothes, drawn swastikas on her own stomach, and fabricated the entire story. With the drama Fille du RER, acclaimed French writer-director André Téchiné presents a thinly veiled fictionalization of the same events. Émilie Dequenne stars as Jeanne, an unemployed girl who lives with her mother (Catherine Deneuve) in a Parisian suburb and spends the majority of her free time rollerblading. She has little knowledge of -- or interest in -- history or politics, and remains withdrawn, insular, and sullen, keeping the majority of her thoughts and observations to herself. Circumstances change just a bit when Jeanne enters a live-in relationship with a beefy, thuggish wrestler boyfriend, Franck (Nicolas Duvauchelle), living in a dingy warehouse, but violence soon erupts between the two. Jeanne also becomes acquainted with an attorney-cum-ex-boyfriend of her mother's (Michel Blanc), whose involvement in Judaic causes and his politically committed family prompt even greater feelings of alienation and isolation in Jeanne. When Franck's involvement in criminal activities comes to light and the police intervene, Jeanne perversely reasons that she can only become tied to history by inventing a role for herself, and decides to fabricate said story about the train -- little realizing the calamitous consequences that it will engender. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Sex, class, and race collide at a French private school in Robert Salis' Grande École. The privileged upper-class Paul (Gregori Baquet) is a student at the school who, although already involved with a girlfriend, becomes attracted to both a new roommate and a lower-class Arab school employee. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Noted producer Ismail Merchant stepped up to the director's chair for this drama. Adrienne Mark (Jeanne Moreau) is the most acclaimed French novelist of her generation, whose best known work, Je M'Appelle France, was an international best-seller made into an award-winning French film (and a disastrous Americanized remake). Adrienne is living in New York City when she learns that the flat in Paris where she grew up (as Adrienne Markowsky) is up for sale. Looking for a key to her past, she buys the apartment and discovers a cache of letters written by her late mother. Adrienne's mother died in a Nazi concentration camp during WWII, but while she's been led to believe that her mother was betrayed while working with the resistance, the letters suggest that the truth was far more troubling. Along the way, Adrienne is romantically pursued by a young fan, William O'Hara (Josh Hamilton), though he instead finds love with Virginia Kelly (Sean Young), an American film producer eager to work with the great writer. The Proprietor also features Sam Waterston, Nell Carter, and Austin Pendleton. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi