Colette Emmanuelle Movies

A woman struggles to hold on to the man she loves in this drama set in the 1930s from Belgian filmmaker Frédéric Fonteyne. Elisa (Emmanuelle Devos) is a housewife who is passionately devoted to her husband, Gilles (Clovis Cornillac), who works in a steel mill. Despite taking care of twin daughters and unfailingly seeing to the cooking and cleaning in their home, Elisa is as adoring of Gilles as she was on the day they met, and she eagerly tends to his ravenous sexual appetite. However, while most men would be thrilled to have a wife like Elisa, after years of marriage she begins to suspect that he might be having an affair with her sister Victorine (Laura Smet) while Elisa is pregnant with their third child. Elisa is too much in love with Gilles to leave him, but while she can accept her husband's faults, neither she nor her husband are certain if this is a casual fling or a love affair that will put an end to their relationship. La Femme de Gilles (aka Gilles' Wife) was adapted from a novel by Madeleine Bourdouxhe. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Benoit Mariage's psychological drama L'Autre (The Missing Half) concerns a pregnant woman whose marriage falls apart. The film opens with Clair (Dominique Baeyens) learning that she is expecting twins. Her husband Pierre (Philippe Grand'Henry), a successful optometrist, is thrilled by the news and begins planning accordingly. Clair becomes overwhelmed and decides to abort one of the embryos. Although Pierre is supportive of her decision, he leaves her after the procedure. Claire befriends Laurent (Laurent Kuenhen), one of Pierre's patients. Laurent lives in a home for the mentally challenged. Clair works through her depression and isolation with the help of Laurent, and her taking on the responsibility of directing him and his fellow patients in a Christmas play. This film was screened at the San Sebastian Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

While Louis XIV had the longest reign of any French monarch and used his nation's military might to significantly expand his nation's control of Europe, he was also a noted patron of the arts with a particular love for dance, and this historical drama looks at the unlikely relationship between the King of France and noted 17th century composer Jean-Baptiste Lully. As a teenager, Louis XIV (played by Emil Tarding) was the ostensive ruler of France, but his mother Anne of Austria (Colette Emmanuelle) made most of the decisions, while Louis staged elaborate dance pieces set to the music of Lully (Boris Terral). When Lully was forced to leave Italy, he found an eager patron in young Louis, who loved his music and was fascinated by the flamboyant composer and his libertine ways. Years later, after Louis XIV had grown to adulthood, the more mature ruler (now played by Benoit Magimel) took control of France's political and military affairs, to the annoyance of the Prince de Conti (Idwig Stephane), who had been Anne of Austria's top advisor. But as Louis confronted his European neighbors, he also established a French dance academy and commissioned Lully to write a number of new dance scores. Lully's flamboyant nature and open infidelity with both men and women earned him the enmity of the more conservative members of Louis XIV's court, but the King remained Lully's champion until health problems began to affect his ability to dance -- causing him to lose interest in performance, as well as in Lully's music. Le Roi Danse also explores Lully's relationship with Jean Baptiste Poquelin Moliere, with Tcheky Karyo portraying the great playwright. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide