Gilles Sandoz Movies

Free-spirited Carmen (Camille Rutherford) finds herself drifting away from her current boyfriend, a young French intellectual, and increasing attracted to an Afghani student with a passion for poetry while running with a group of inner-city squatters. When her new lover's visa runs up and police begin cracking down on illegal immigrants, the two are forced ever further underground in order to remain together. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A death in the family reveals secret shame and a deep rift between father and son in this drama from the writing and directing team of Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau. Frédérick Muller (Guy Marchand) is nearing 80 years of age and has spent most of his adult life building the family business, a successful tree nursery. For years, Frédérick has been running his tree farm with the help of his sons, Charles (Pierre-Loup Rajot) and Guillaume (François Négret), and when Charles unexpectedly dies, it comes as a severe blow to the family. Most around Frédérick are shocked when he chooses not to attend Charles' funeral; Guillaume is outraged, as is Charles' widow, Françoise (Catherine Mouchet), and her daughter, Rémi (Yannick Renier), makes no secret of her disappointment. Only Frédérick's wife, Marianne (Françoise Fabian), seems willing to keep her feelings about the matter to herself. When the family gathers at Frédérick's estate to honor Charles, the patriarch decides to reveal a long-held secret that only Charles and Marianne have known, a story from Frédérick's youth that put him at odds with his son for decades. L'Arbre et la Forêt (aka Family Tree) was an official selection at the 2010 Berlin International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A self-absorbed adolescent girl forms an unhealthy fixation on a handsome volunteer fireman in director Claire Simon's emotional teen drama. Livia (Camille Varene) is a fifteen year-old girl who lives in the south of France with her divorced mother. As the summer heat begins to radiate Livia spends most of her days trotting around the small Provençal town atop a horse from her father's farm. A frequent target of ridicule amongst her peers, Livia's horse emboldens her with a sense of superiority that she just can't seem to achieve in the classroom. When her father comes to claim the horse and Livia is forced to face her tormentors eye to eye, she begins to turn her attentions increasingly towards happily married husband and father Jean. A kind volunteer fireman who treats Livia with a respect rarely afforded to the girl by her peers, Jean may be old enough to be Livia's father though a strange attraction begins to develop between the pair. Later, as the young girl's infatuation with the firefighter begins to grow and she casts aside her inhibitions to pursue him romantically at any cost, the relationship shared between Livia and Jean threatens to take a tragic turn. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

The kidnapping and assassination of Moroccan political activist Mehdi Ben Barka, fictionalized in Yves Boisset's L'Attentat in 1972, gets a more historically accurate treatment in Serge Le Péron's noirish docudrama, the tabloid-headline-titled I Saw Ben Barka Get Killed. The film is narrated by cynical ex-con Georges Figon (Charles Berling), whose dead body is shown at the film's opening. Figon talks about the heady times, as newsreel footage of the civil rights movement and the anti-colonial uprisings of the 1960s is shown. In flashbacks, Figon wants to be a film producer, and has connections to screenwriter Marguerite Duras (Josiane Balasko) who puts him in touch with director Georges Franju (Jean-Pierre Léaud). Figon keeps promising to make his actress girlfriend, Anne-Marie Coffinet (Fabienne Babe), a star. But he still has ties to the underworld, and through them he meets the shady Chtouki (Azize Kabouche), a Moroccan operative who offers him a lot of money to scrap his current filmmaking plans to make a documentary about the worldwide anti-colonial movement. Chtouki's main interest is that the exiled Barka (Simon Abkarian) be hired as a consultant on the doc, so that he'll come to Paris to meet with Figon, Franju, and Philippe Bernier (Mathieu Amalric). On the day of the meeting, Figon watches from the café window as the French police intercept Barka and take him away. After witnessing what becomes of Barka, Figon grows increasingly concerned for his own safety, and goes to the press with a sensationalized version of the events. I Saw Ben Barka Get Killed was shown by the Film Society of Lincoln Center in 2006 as part of their annual Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

A middle-aged Frenchwoman is either experiencing delusions of grandeur or the full force of destiny in director Tonie Marshall's 2002 romantic drama Nearest to Heaven (Au Plus Pres Du Paradis). When single non-fiction book author Fanette (Catherine Deneuve) accidentally bumps into former schoolmate Bernard (Bernard Le Coq) -- who was smitten with Fanette in school but whose affection remained unrequited -- she is reminded of another man whom she loved intensely. This other man, Philippe, left a huge impression on Fanette as she begins to lose herself in reminiscences over the brief, intense relationship the two experienced. After catching a number of screenings for the 1957 film An Affair to Remember -- which was also Fanette and Philippe's favorite film during their fling -- Fanette gets the notion from what may or may not be a figment of her imagination to go to New York and visit the observation deck of the Empire State Building. Setting out under the pretense of putting the finishing touches on her latest book, she arrives in the States and discovers her usual photographer has been replaced by the single and somewhat attractive male photographer Matt (William Hurt) -- which further confuses Fanette when she eventually develops feelings for him. ~ Ryan Shriver, Rovi

Japanese Yan Dedet's Land of the Singing Dog concerns a musicologist, Toyo Mahiru (Gen Shimaoka), and his wife, Yoshiko (Katsuo Nakamura), who travel to a remote French village because Toyo has heard there is a citizen of the village that owns a singing dog. As the childless pair humorously adjust to their new surroundings, they soon spend more time concentrating on conceiving than in searching for the talented canine. The subdued, reflective Land of the Singing Dog was screened as part of the Director's Fortnight at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Infidelity makes for strange bedfellows in this spicy comedy from France. Fanfan (Maryse Cupaiolo) and Joss (Marie Matheron) are two close friends who are unhappy in their marriages; Fanfan decides to leave her husband, and having become attracted to Joss, decides to stop by and give her the news, only to discover that Joss has also given her spouse his walking papers. Neither of them knows what her next move will be, so they end up moving in together at the home of Fanfan's sister Manu (Marilyne Canto). With their new freedom at their disposal, Joss and Fanfan spend their days looking for a good time wherever and however they might find it, while Manu and her husband Mytch (Michel Bompoli) lend a sense of order to the house. But things aren't quite as orderly with Manu as others might think, since it turns out she's having an affair behind Mytch's back. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Racism, violence, and drug abuse run rampant in this ensemble drama set in the southern French city of Marseilles. Michele (Ariane Ascaride) spends her days working in a fish factory, where she earns a living to support her unemployed husband and her teenage daughter Fiona (Christine Brucher). In addition to being the mother of a three-month-old, Fiona is also a heroin addict and a prostitute. Thanks to her habit, Fiona is increasingly unable to work, and Michele helps her daughter by exchanging sexual favors for money with Paul (Jean-Pierre Darroussin), an ex-dock worker with more than a few problems of his own. Michele gets drugs for Fiona from Gerard (Gerard Meylan), the sullen proprietor of a small bar who engages in such shady pastimes as political assassination. Meanwhile, Abderramane (Alexandre Ogou), a young African man recently out of prison, finds himself attracted to Vivienne (Julie-Marie Parmentier), a social worker married to a womanizing high-society snob whom she detests. Her spite towards her husband leads Vivienne to claim that she respects poor people who vote for the Far Right more than moneyed individuals who talk a lot about helping the poor but do almost nothing. Vivienne's frustration, coupled with that of the other characters, illustrates the overriding tension that threatens to build to society's collapse. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi

A comic meditation on romance and multiple identities that illustrates its latter theme by using five actresses and six actors to portray its female and male protagonists, That's Just Like You centers on Cleo, an audio-visual assistant in the European Parliament who is being pursued by her ex-boyfriend Antoine. Antoine and Cleo's relationship is held up against the goings-on of the Parliament, and both the location and the sexual warfare are used to make various points about sexual, local, and national identities. That's Just Like You was the fourth in a series of films featuring student actors from Theatre National de Strasbourg. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi

French filmmaker Claire Devers directs this powerful drama about poverty and injustice. Francoise Barnier (Dominique Blanc), a single mother who works as a cleaner at a slaughterhouse, can barely put food on the table for her two young daughters, but her fierce pride prevents her from seeking out welfare. One day, overcome with the prospects of a promotion, she splurges on food she cannot afford, and she pockets a package of meat. She is caught in the act and sent to jail. Though she is acquitted after making an impassioned plea for clemency, a journalist decries the court's lenient treatment, and she is eventually dragged back into court for a retrial. La Voleuse de Saint Lubin was screened at the 1999 Venice Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

A brooding Arab-French youth (Yasmine Belmadi) is told by his now dead mother that his long-lost father was actually a well-to-do businessman in Grenoble. He promptly dumps his girlfriend in Paris and tries to pursue the old man. He manages to both get a job at his dad's factory and to bed the company's sexy cashier (Valerie Donzelli). After he gets the brush-off when he finally does confront his father, he plots revenge. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi