Pascal Elso Movies

A man seems poised to get away with murder even as he tries to clear an innocent man in this drama from director Edouard Niermans. Grégoire Duval (Jean-Pierre Darroussin) is a druggist who runs a successful shop in the early 1960's. Duval is a well-respected citizen, but he has a dark side, and one night, when he propositions a young woman who rejects him, he flies into a rage and kills her. There are no witnesses to the crime and Duval tells no one about what happened. When the woman's body is found, Duval is not suspected, and instead Khader (Lahcen Razogir), the woman's Algerian boyfriend, is arrested and charged with the crime. With the Algerian war a fresh and unpleasant memory in the minds of most French citizens, Khader seems like a likely culprit, and circumstantial evidence is quickly stacked against him. Duval's conscience begins to get the better of him, and he begins visiting the courtroom during the trial, pointing out the flaws in the prosecutors' case. However, Duval realizes that his neighbors are so eager to believe that Khader is a murderer that there may be no saving him. Le Septieme Jure (aka Jury Duty) received its North American premiere at the 2008 Montreal World Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The French film Tout Pour Plaire (Thirtyfive Something) concerns three Parisian women taking stock of their lives and relationships as they move into their late thirties. Juliette (Mathilde Seigner) is a struggling lawyer scheduled to move into a loft with her boyfriend, but his commitment jitters lead him to dump her during the walk-through. Recklessly resolved, she takes the place anyway, though she can't afford it. As her spending increases in an attempt to fill the void and find new love, she spirals into debt and must go before a friendly banker (Pascal Elbe) to get her credit extended. Marie (Judith Godrëche), a doctor in a public hospital, has fewer financial problems, but her issue is her layabout artist husband (Mathias Mlekuz), who hasn't sold a painting in years and never helps with the kids or housework. When a handsome filmmaker takes an interest in her, Marie contemplates infidelity. Ad agency executive Florence (Anne Parillaud) can't catch a break either at work or home. When she's finally entrusted with a big account, her boss continues to treat her like an underling and backtrack on his decision. Her husband (Thierry Neuvic), an exhausted and disinterested CEO, treats her with indifference, and appears to be having an affair. As the women meet for lunches and other social engagements, they help make sense of how things have changed since their carefree days as childhood friends. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide

The idea for this film about a generation and its lost ideals came to Romain Goupil after attending several funerals of friends in the fall of 1996, where the '68 generation, now in influential positions in media or politics, kept meeting each other. It seemed as if the revolution that they had tried to make was being buried with each coffin. A mort la mort is in some ways an homage to this generation, now in their fifties. They were a privileged generation that thought that they could change the world, doing everything that their parents failed to do. There were no actual deaths in France as there were in Germany or Italy, but the system was not ideal for personal issues or for love. There was always a scapegoat for the injustices of the world, be it capitalism or imperialism. That way the blame could be placed somewhere else. Some of the '68 generation are still faithful to the principles of their youth and still continue to fight for the illusions of the past. But with the war going on in Kosovo, the only way is to take direct action against Fascism. While narrating the story of a generation, the director uses humor, making fun of the thousand ways of fidelity to ideas, to passion and to women and how the ideal of fidelity fares when confronted with reality. The protagonist, Thomas (played by Goupil himself) tries to face life that has passed with a theory of offense. That is why he has to say "'Death to Death'' to put an end to all deaths, but this is an illusion, it is fiction which only cinema can make real. The film tries to face all issues by taking a contrary approach. 52nd Cannes Film Festival, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide

Inspired by Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Idiot and intended as "a homage to the great writer," this film is set in modern France rather than 19th century Russia. This is a story of Léon (Francis Huster), who has been recently released from a mental asylum and claims to be a descendant of a Hungarian prince. On his way from Hungary to France, he meets Mickey (Tchéky Karyo), a hood who has committed a successful bank robbery and plans to take brutal revenge on the brothers Venin for what they did to his girlfriend Mary (Sophie Marceau). Léon can hardly understand what Mickey is up to but he follows him everywhere and soon falls in love with Mary. This odd love triangle resolves in a tragic ending. The frantic pace of the film's action can be compared to that of a runaway, hell-bound train. The colors and sounds go out of control, and violence abounds -- all of which is intended to convey to a viewer the craziness of the time. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide