Bérénice Bejo Movies

Michel Hazanavicius' stylistically daring, dialogue-free comedy-drama The Artist stars Jean Dujardin as George Valentin, a matinee idol in Hollywood before the dawn of talkies. His marriage is far from perfect, and one day he meets ambitious chorus girl Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo) and is smitten. Very quickly thereafter, sound comes to movies, and George sinks all his money into one last epic silent film, while Peppy becomes a star in the new era. John Goodman co-stars as the head of the film studio working with Valentin. The Artist played at both the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

La curva de la felicidad director Manuel Poirier helms this introspective drama concerning a soon-to-be divorced father of three who falls deeply in love with a woman desperate to prevent her childhood home from being auctioned off. Malo was going through one of the roughest periods of his life when he decided to take a road trip with a group of his closest friends. One day, while driving past a quaint country home that appears to be up for sale, Malo decides to have a look inside and discovers a letter written by a young girl to her father many years ago. The emotional content of the letter soon sparks something deep within Malo, who subsequently makes it his mission to locate the owners of the secluded home: two thirty-something sisters who long to hold onto their childhood home but can't afford to keep up payments. As Malo gradually gets to know the sisters, he falls deeply in love with Chloe, the sibling whose emotional attachment to the house remains the strongest. Upon discovering that the home will soon be sold to the highest bidder, Malo makes the bold decision to keep the dreams of his newfound love alive by purchasing it before it goes up for auction. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

OSS 117: Cairo -- Nest of Spies constitutes the eighth installment in a long-running series of movies about OSS 117 (the government code name for Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath) -- a French super-spy and European equivalent of James Bond. The creation of author Jean Bruce, OSS eventually starred in over 265 novels and seven cinematizations through 1970. The first seven film outings were sober and straight-faced; the eighth go-round (the first after a 38-year lapse) does a 180 to shamelessly poke fun of the rules established by the genre. A glib yet intelligent spoof, it joins the ranks of Our Man Flint (1965), Aghaye Hallou (1970), Mad Mission 3: Our Man from Bond Street (1984), and other international pictures that glibly satirize the subgenre made infamous to Americans by Bond; like Mad Mission 3, it even packs in an OSS 117 (Jean Dujardin) with a startling resemblance to Sean Connery. The film's comic conceit involves making OSS 117 arrogant, conceited, culturally insensitive, chauvinistic, and thoroughly moronic (he pretends that various cultural institutions and religious practices, for instance, are nonexistent if he is unfamiliar with them); yet the character somehow manages to slide through outrageously dangerous situations unscathed, time and again. The teaser prologue finds OSS 117 in Berlin, where he outwits the Nazis by stealing vital documents from them, hijacks an Axis plane in mid-nosedive, and saves himself and the craft at the last yawning moment. Ten years later, he journeys from Rome to Cairo, where he investigates the death of a fellow agent, posing as the proprietor of a chicken farm. His "side" activities during this jaunt involve hammering out a peace arrangement for the Middle East, keeping tabs on the Suez Canal, and monitoring the Russians. Jean-François Halin scripted the film, maintaining an utterly deadpan tone throughout; Michel Hazanavicius directed. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Jérôme Cornuau's Dissonances, an adaptation of Stephen Dixon's novel Interstate, relates the story of how a child's death has affected a circle of people, and spans 15 years in those people's lives. Nat (Jacques Gamblin) is sentenced to jail after attacking the people he believes are responsible for the shooting death of his six-year-old daughter Julie. Julie's sister Margo (Berenice Bejo), who was nine at the time of Julie's death, has grown up and must accept her own sense of loss. Henry (Didier Flamand), the policeman who investigated Nat, also has his life changed by his interaction with this crime. Dissonances was screened in competition at the Avignon Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Camille Claudel director Bruno Nuytten brings us a tale of the kind of l'amour fou that only the French can do so persistently. A moody, intense drama that opens with a present day car crash, Passionnement is told partially as an extended flashback centering on events that took place around Bastille Day ten years earlier. On the island of Porquerolles, Alice (Charlotte Gainsbourg) spies on Bernard (Gerard Lanvin), a man who has returned to France after living in Brazil for some years. The two had once been lovers, and Alice's obsession with Bernard -- which apparently didn't wane during their time apart -- sets in motion a string of events culminating with the aforementioned car crash. Dysfunction abounds. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi