Pierre-Olivier Mornas
- 2001
Corruption threatens to move into a heretofore idyllic village in this comedy-drama. Hector St. Rose (Med Hondo) is the mayor of a seaside community in the Antilles Islands, a French-controlled territory in the West Indies. Hector has long been determined not to sacrifice the well-being of his constituents in order to make the village more attractive to tourists, which has made him popular with his citizens, but not so much so with outside developers. Some unscrupulous businessmen who want to locate in Hector's community decide to sway his opinion by kidnapping his wife, but the scoundrels don't count on the high regard in which Hector is held, both by the island's current residents and those who have moved away. Antilles-Sur-Seine was written and directed by Pascal Legitimus, with Med Hondo setting aside his usual directorial duties to appear as leading man. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Med Hondo, Chantal Lauby, (more)
- 1996
In this film, director/screenwriter Jean Teule adapts his novel Rainbow pour Rimbaud. Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891) was a leading light in the symbolist movement of French literature, which rejected the use of realism in the depiction of emotions and ideas. In this film, Robert (Robert MacLeod) is an eccentric, oversized young man who puzzles and infuriates his parents by locking himself into a closet for long periods of time; at the same time, he loudly recites poetry by Arthur Rimbaud. Kicked out of the house by his exasperated parents, he decides to make a pilgrimage of the exotic African sites Rimbaud haunted in his final years. He meets and then travels with Isabelle (Laure Marsac), who is attempting to escape from a rejected suitor's unwanted attentions. In addition to that problem, she has another, more curious problem. It seems she is turning into a hawthorn bush. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laure Marsac, Bernadette Lafont, (more)
- 1993
If this engaging costume adventure is perhaps just one notch shy of being a full-fledged swashbuckler, it is only because it so lovingly recreates the era in which its story takes place. In the film, it is 1685 and a baby is being left on the steps of a monastery, but not before the mysterious cloaked horseman who brings it bites off the infant's nose and leaves a coin in its swaddling clothes. The baby, a boy, is fortunate to be placed with a loving woman and her able husband, a former pirate who still retains a lively spirit. The cheerful and charming boy learns to fence, to read, and to joust, all the while sporting a wooden nose. Eventually a local nobleman deigns to notice his existence, and sends him to attend a seminary which is grim beyond all imagining. Rather than suffer endlessly in the study of material he already knows with no prospect of being ordained (he is, after all, mutilated), Justinian (Pierre-Oliviar Mornas) runs away, and thereafter has one dashing, hair-raising adventure after another, eventually discovering his parentage. The story is based on the novel Dieu et nous seuls pouvons by Michel Folco. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierre-Olivier Mornas, Ticky Holgado, (more)
