Gilbert Melki Movies

An innocent looking beauty uses her deceptively timid appearance to destroy the lives of strangers and friends alike in director Michel Spinosa's portrait of one woman's shocking descent into self-destruction. Despite the fact that Anna (Isabelle Carré) always appears calm and collected on the outside, beneath her skin boils a simmering cauldron of delusion and despair. When concerned but married Dr. Andre Zanevsky (Gilbert Melki) helps Anna to regain her mental footing following a near-fatal suicide attempt, the disturbed patient tragically misconstrues his professional kindness as passionate romantic advances. But Dr. Zanevsky has been nothing but professional ever since Anna began treatment, leaving him deeply disturbed to discover that she has interpreted every small friendly gesture as a declaration of undying love. Though Dr. Zanevsky does his best to convince Anna that he is happily married, she soon begins stalking him from around every corner, snooping through his mail, and trying to convince his wife that he no longer loves her. Later, after Anna lands a job as a nanny in the apartment just above Dr. Zanevsky and his wife, she manages to find a way into their apartment and leaves a clue that she's never far away. Realizing that her disturbed daughter is no longer in control of her own thoughts, Anna's mother (Genevieve Mnich) reluctantly has her committed. But Anna won't be dissuaded from her goal quite so easily, and soon sets out to convince him of her love once and for all. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A former leftwing activist sets in motion a chain of events that spin far outside of his control - and finds himself branded a hijacker - in this political comedy starring rubber-faced European funnyman Benoit Poelvoorde. For many years, Daniel Piron (Poelvoorde) has regretted taking the path that reduced him from a socially-conscious, muckraking journalist to an ineffectual television weather man. Through it all, he idolized a gentleman known as Sacchi - a revolutionary who staged a protest by hijacking a school bus, but failed to achieve the goal associated with that act by landing on television and protesting perceived social injustices. Now, years later, Daniel and Sacchi's paths cross, and Daniel cooks up the wild scheme of making a film on the social change that has unfurled over the preceding decades, starring Sacchi and the other school bus hostages. Unfortunately, Sacchi himself is now reactionary and unremarkable, and Daniel must manipulate the events of the film to achieve his desired result. Little can he foresee the tumult that will erupt when the tables are turned and he is tagged as a terrorist. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

French helmer Lucas Belvaux's The Right of the Weakest - a stark kitchen sink drama with occasional and unpredictable flashes of humor - meditates on the question of when to resign oneself to a sad fate and when to buck the system, even if it means risking everything. This ensemble piece observes the perpetually flagging fortunes of several male steelworkers in a French industrial community whose one bright spot is a regular weekly card game. The men exist at varying levels of despair, but all are losers. They include: Jean Pierre (Patrick Descamps), a wheelchair-bound sad sack who must be carried to the card game; Robert, who lives in the same tenement and exhibits a propensity for waking up at odd hours and drinking himself into a stupor; and Marc (Lucas Belvaux), an assembly line worker at a beer factory whose job involves untangling bottles. Patrick (Eric Caravaca) qualifies as the most impressive of the group (which isn't saying much) - a househusband and college graduate, married and with a son, but one whose economic status sinks rapidly when his wife loses her only means of transportation to work. Ultimately, the men put their heads together and devise a wild method of escaping from the doldrums - which, though improbable, just might be crazy enough to work. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

A desperate man in serious debt attempts to wipe his account clean in the most permanent way imaginable, only to find himself saved from a grim, self-inflicted demise by his selfless attempt to rescue another would-be suicide in director Luc Besson's tenth outing as a director. André (Jamel Debbouze) is a debt-ridden 28-year-old who has until midnight to pay back 40,000 euros to one of Paris' most ruthless gangsters. When the menacing Franck (Gilbert Melki) has his thugs dangle André over the edge of the Eiffel Tower soon thereafter, the debtor who views himself as an American on a technicality seeks the help of the U.S. Embassy to no avail. After failing to convince the local police to lock him up for his own protection, André, sensing death is eminent, determines to end his life on his own terms. As André steps over the edge of the city's most awe-inspiring bridges and prepares to take that fateful plunge, he suddenly notices a statuesque blonde in a little black dress preparing to meet her maker in a similar fashion. As the woman leaps into the Seine, André instinctively jumps in to rescue her. Resting safely on the shore after looking death straight in the eye, the sorrowful pair soon finds their fates inexorably tied. Though André initially scolds the ravishing Angela (Rie Rasmussen) for attempting to deprive the world of such stunning beauty, she bitterly assures her one-armed savior that her physical perfection is without question only skin deep. Nevertheless the aggressive blonde betrays her own negative self-image by pledging to stick by André through thick and thin, and the unlikely duo soon sets out on a mission to solve André's formidable list of problems and get his life back in order again. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

It's Summer Rental meets Blame it on Rio when a French family heads off to the Mediterranean for a sultry summer vacation in the ensemble sex comedy Côte d'Azur, co-directed by Jacques Martineau and Olivier Ducastel (The Adventures of Felix). When the head of the clan, Marc (Gilbert Melki), decides to tote his wife, Béatrix (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi), and his teenage children Laura (Sabrina Seyvecou) and Charly (Romain Torres) off to his childhood beach home on the Riviera, a number of sexy liasons ensue. Charly -- though straight -- must contend with the come-ons of his best friend, Martin, a closeted homosexual infatuated with him for years but too shy to say so. Meanwhile, as Laura takes up with a young biker, Béatrix re-encounters her old boyfriend Mathieu (Jacques Bonnaffé); Marc's ex-flame pops up, too, both former lovers expressing interest in rekindling affairs. Soon, the entire vacation becomes a surfeit of hilarious erotic complications. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

A worldly construction supervisor travels to Tangier to ensure that a complicated job is completed by the projected date, only to find the torch he carries for a long-lost love rekindled with melancholy passion in director Andre Techine's pensive romantic drama. It's been thirty-years since Antoine (Gerard Depardieu) and Ceclile (Catherine Denuve) called it quits, but time has only seemed to amplify Antoine's longings for the woman that stole his heart so many years ago. Though Antoine has never married, Cecile is now the host of a successful radio show whose extended marriage to Moroccan doctor Nathan (Gilbert Melki) has yielded a now-grown son named Sami (Malik Zidi). When Antoine arrives in Northern Morocco to watch over his latest project, his attention soon diverts to Cecile - who has always been close in Antoine's mind despite the physical and emotional distance between them. Cecil isn't as willing to let go of her blissfully predictable routine, however, and as Antoine dejectedly ponders a means of making her change her mind, the appearance of Cecil's closeted son - who has recently arrived home with his troubled Moroccan girlfriend (Lubna Azabal) in tow - begins to cause complications of its own. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

French filmmaker Hélène Angel directs the medieval drama Rencontre Avec le Dragon (The Red Knight). Daniel Auteuil stars as the titular knight, an immortal adventurer named Guillaume de Montauban who was scarred in a terrible fire. Naïve teenager Felix de Sisteron (Nicolas Nollet) wanders out to join the hero on his adventures. Meanwhile, Guillaume travels with Raoul de Vautadour (Sergi Lopez), a man who unwittingly turns into a wild beast at night. Gilbert Melki plays the bad guy, Micholas Mespoulede. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Un Couple Épatant (An Amazing Couple) is the second installment in the ambitious French-language trilogy directed by Belgian-born filmmaker Lucas Belvaux. Where the first film, Cavale (On the Run), was a film noir thriller, this sequel is a lighthearted romantic comedy in the style of a classic French farce. Schoolteacher Cecile Costes (Ornella Muti) is worried about her husband, Alain (François Morel). He's overly concerned with his physical health and well-being, so much so that he keeps his hospital appointments a secret from his wife. Thinking he's been having an affair, Cecile hires Pascal Manise (Gilbert Melki) to spy on him. Alain then starts to suspect Cecile of being unfaithful, even though he knows Pascal is married to her friend Agnes (Dominique Blanc). An Amazing Couple was following by the third installment in the trilogy, the melodrama Après la Vie (After Life). ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

After Life is the third film in Lucas Belvaux's ambitious Trilogy, following On the Run, a thriller, and An Amazing Couple, a romantic comedy. After Life features the same characters as the other two films and happens over the same time period, but it's a melodrama, and the focus is on Pascal (Gilbert Melki), a cop, and his wife, Agnes (Dominique Blanc), a teacher, who is also a morphine addict. Agnes depends on Pascal to supply her with morphine, and he in turn has an arrangement to procure the drug from a nefarious local businessman, Jaquillat (Patrick Descamps). When a violent radical leftist, Bruno (Belvaux), escapes from prison and kills an associate of Jaquillat's, Jaquillat threatens to withhold Pascal's morphine supply until Bruno is dead. As his wife's mental and physical health deteriorates, Pascal feels compelled to subvert his moral qualms about turning the criminal over. His investigation leads him to detain Jeanne (Catherine Frot), a co-worker of Agnes' with past ties to Bruno. Cécile (Ornella Muti), another of Agnes' co-workers, begins to suspect that her husband, Alain (François Morel), is having an affair, and asks Pascal to look into it. Pascal finds his interest in the case is more than professional when he begins to develop feelings for Cécile. Meanwhile, Agnes, feeling neglected and desperate, goes out into the street to try to find her fix. She ends up running into Bruno, and the two forge an unlikely alliance. Belvaux's Trilogy was shown at the 2003 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

The Sephardic Jewish characters who headlined the riotous 1997 comedy Would I Lie To You? - all employees in the garment business - return for this laugh-filled 2001 sequel. At the center of the farce are Dov (Gad Elmaleh), Patrick (Gilbert Melki), Serge (Jose Garcia), Yvan (Bruno Solo) and Eddie (Richard Anconina), friends for life and colleagues in the said industry, who spend their days wheeling and dealing and establishing connections but run the socioeconomic gamut from filthy rich to lower working class. A series of misunderstandings commences when blue-collar Serge - employed as a motorcycle messenger and living with his parents - takes the wealthy Patrick's blue Rolls Royce convertible out on an errand and runs headfirst into Chochana (Elisa Tovati), a Jewish girl with whom he feels instantly smitten. She naturally assumes, given the car, that he's wealthy - and he of course does nothing to discourage this. In time, Serge manages to prolong the economic ruse to such a degree that he ends up engaged to the high-maintenance Chocana, and on a headfirst collision course with her furniture kingpin father (Enrico Macias). Meanwhile, the garment industry as a whole in Le Sentier (the chief Parisian neighborhood in which the men do business) suffers from a massive economic downturn, thanks in no small part to escalating labor costs and the flourishing of Internet start-ups; in desperation, Yvan and Eddie turn to EuroDiscount, a massive chain of European department stores, with a feeble attempt to sell their merchandise to that outfit. They fail to count, however, on the ugly reaction of the cunning manager, Vierhouten (Daniel Prevost), which threatens to send them spiraling toward bankruptcy. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

This French prison drama focuses on a penitentiary inmate known as the Mute (Olivier Martinez), who either cannot or will not speak, even though he can apparently hear well enough. When the Mute's cellmate escapes, both the Warden (Bernard Le Coq) and the Chief Guard (Claude Brasseur) try to get him to tell what he knows about the disappearance -- the Guard through violence, the Warden by transferring him to a new cell with four other prisoners and cutting off TV privileges to the inmates until the Mute spills the beans. One of the Mute's new roommates is a white collar criminal (Said Taghmaoui) who has just landed in prison and is not dealing well with the pressures of life behind bars, but his skills with computers make him a very usefully ally among the prisoners. Meanwhile, Flic (Gilbert Melki), a self-important police detective, is investigating the escape of the Mute's cellmate and is not happy with the low level of cooperation among the prison's population. La Taule received its North American premiere at Montreal's World Film Festival in 1999. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Acclaimed Belgian novelist Jean-Philippe Toussaint drew attention to his directorial talents in 1990 with a remarkable satire on modern life, Monsieur. His third feature, La Patinoire, is about a film director who is shooting a highly symbolic film called 'Dolores' at an ice rink. He has hired a Lithuanian ice hockey team with which he is having enormous communication problems. His actors all have inflated egos, his film crew is made up of fools, and there is a politician on his back. But he must finish the film, no matter what, in time for the Venice Film Festival. A black comedy which is applicable to all absurd situations of life, but particularly those associated with the film industry, La Patinoire is a clever satire from beginning to end, including its title. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide