Catherine Arditi Movies

A man who thinks he's found an easy ride through the Army during World War I has his world turned upside down when facial injuries render him unrecognizable in this wartime drama. In the summer of 1914, Adrien Fournier (Eric Caravaca) is an engineer conscripted into the French Army, where he is made a lieutenant and assigned to join a group of soldiers helping to design and build a bridge to move troops near the front lines. While scouting a suitable location for the bridge, Fournier and his fellows are caught in the middle of an attack, and a shell explodes in his face. Fournier survives the attack, but while his limbs and his body suffer only minimal damage, his face is torn to shreds -- only landing in the mud prevents him from bleeding to death (the dried muck seals off a number of key blood vessels severed by the blast). It is some time before Fournier can be moved to an Army hospital, and he cannot talk through his ruined mouth, communicating with notes scratched onto a small chalkboard. Fournier finds himself in a special hospital wing for officers who've suffered severe injuries (a relatively comfortable area a good bit different from the crowded and spartan wards for common foot soldiers), and as a dedicated surgeon (Andre Dussollier) struggles to rebuild Fournier's face with the primitive means available to him, the once-handsome engineer ponders an uncertain future. Commiserating with Fournier are Alain (Jean-Michel Portal), his best friend from college; Pierre (Gregori Derangere) and Henri (Denis Podalydes), a pair of fellow officers also suffering facial injuries; and Anais (Sabine Azema), a patient and warm-hearted nurse who brings hope to the hospital's most severely injured men. La Chambre Des Officiers was screened in competition at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Over the course of five seasons, this film chronicles a young woman's rise to power within a tempestuous all-female office. Employing elements of fantasy, realism, drama and satire, much of the story takes place in the confines of an oppressive looking steel and glass skyscraper owned by a powerful insurance company. Though the office is populated only by women, the place seethes with tension due to office politics and the personal turmoil suffered by the employees, something that the beautiful and outwardly ruthless office supervisor Carabosse does her best to ignore. When the ever business-like Carabosse finally gets promoted, she appoints Agate (the story's true protagonist) as her successor. Power corrupts and it does not take long for the compassionate Agate to transform into a copy of Carabosse. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This European buddy movie chronicles the relationship between a famed yet depressive hairdresser and the suicidal plumber who becomes his "adopted" son after he rescues him from a canal. Georges is the hairdresser who gained notoriety as a hairdresser to stars such as Grace Kelly, and Ava Gardner. His clients are all interesting. For example, there is the butcher who loves tall hair on his mistress' head, and a balding fellow who wants his remaining hair combed forward. Gus, after being mistreated in love, decides to end it all by jumping into a canal. Georges tries to save him and the soggy twosome become bosom buddies. Georges takes Gus to the Louvre where he critiques the hairstyles on the art work. After a peer breaks his arm, Georges agrees to take his place in the World Hairdressing Championships in the Czech Republic. Many surreal hairstyles are to be seen there, including replicas of the Eiffel tower, a battleship, and a burning building. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

American humorist Jules Feiffer and French director Alain Resnais are oddly paired for this satirical comedy about an American cartoonist in Paris. Adolph Green is a stunner as Joey Wellman, a cantankerous American cartoonist traveling abroad for the first time. In tow is Lena Apthrop (Linda Lavin), and the two are ostensibly journeying to Paris to attend a comic-strip exhibition in which Wellman's work is included. But it turns out the exhibition is just an excuse for Wellman to track down his errant daughter Elsie (Laura Benson), who has left Cleveland to take up literature at the Sorbonne. Her professor, Christian Gauthier (Gerard Depardieu) happens to be a big fan of Wellman, and he corrals the cartoonist and Lena to go to the fashionable country estate of his mother Isabelle (Micheline Presle), who tries to put up with her son's American friends. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Martin Morel (Jean Poiret) is a philandering executive who talks his friend Guillaume (Jacques Villeret) into posing as the husband of his teenage mistress in this uneven romantic comedy. Morel's indulgent wife Beatrice (Eva Darlan) must decide whether or not to forgive Martin after Guillaume and the mistress fall in love. All the action takes place at the Morel family's Alpine ski resort. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide