Niels Arestrup Movies

An impressionable and vulnerable Arabic man gets thrust into a hellish prison, and ironically discovers greater opportunities for success than he ever possessed outside of the bars, in this violent melodrama from French succès d’estime Jacques Audiard (The Beat That My Heart Skipped). Tahar Rahim stars as Malik El Djebena, a petty criminal incarcerated for six years. Once inside and subjected to all of the standard brutalities that most prisoners endure (including a rough strip search), he is quickly educated in the "ways" of the prison, an institution torn violently between gangs of Corsicans and Arabs. The head Corsican thug, César Luciani (Niels Arestrup), offers Malik an ultimatum: either he rubs out an Arab inmate named Reyeb (Hichem Yacoubi), or he himself dies. Not only does Malik succeed with the hit, he earns the begrudging respect of the other prisoners, and -- after securing several days' release for good behavior -- uses off-time to forge a deeper and more multi-layered network of criminal ties than he ever dreamed possible. But as his own power and confidence grow, they threaten to outstrip César's own insistence on submission and obedience at all costs. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Charlie (Guy Marchand) returns home after being declared legally dead to reclaim his wife Georgia (Caroline Cellier) and cash in on a lucrative life insurance policy in this shadowy drama. He finds Georgia is married to the crooked cop William (Niels Arestrup), who has his eye on the insurance money. Antihero Charlie and the villainous police inspector head towards an inevitable confrontation, while Georgia is caught in the middle. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Adultery and the possibility of patricide provide the motives behind this French drama, set in a Parisian suburb. Claire is in her earlier forties and is married to Claude, an alcoholic whom she once passionately loved. Together they have a young daughter and 15-year old Guillaume. Claire is having an affair with 24-year old Laurent whom she sees several times per week. Laurent's mother is Madeleine. She and Claire were once rivals for the formerly dashing Claude. Guillaume is an aficionado of detective novels and has a real affinity for detective work. He is well aware of his mother's shenanigans. Claude hasn't a clue. Then a local police inspector tells Claude the truth about his wife. Soon after, Claude is discovered dead. Apparently the cop had his own reasons for giving Claude the fatal news. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Set in the near future when a subterranean world is ruled over by a totalitarian psycho, this tame story about the macho hero Diesel (Gerard Klein) and the woman he saves (Agnes Soral) is too cliched to convince for long. When the woman, a prostitute, has to run for her life because she witnessed a murder, Diesel comes to her rescue, and a series of chases and confrontations follows. From the three gangsters after the woman, to the ruler of the city, the characters tend to be surface sketches and the situations predictable. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

A psychiatrist who probes the mind of traumatized soldiers attempts to unlock the secret that drove a gentle but deeply-disturbed World War I veteran to the edge of insanity in the feature debut from writer/director Gabriel Le Bomin. While most physicians casually dismiss the visibly disquieting ailments of the afflicted veterans who occupy the hospital beds in his institution as "malingering," Dr. Labrousse (Aurelien Recoing) tends to look a bit deeper before making his diagnosis. Antonin (Gregori Derangere) is a patient of Dr. Labrousse's who, despite being assigned the decidedly non-violent duty of tending to carrier pigeons, has now become locked in a catatonic state. Confounded as to how Antonin fell victim to such severe battle fatigue, Dr. Labrousse turns a camera on his patient and gradually begins to introduce a variety of different stimuli that will help him to better gauge the true impact of the damaged man's trauma. It is precisely this stimuli that unlocks Antonin's deeply suppressed memories about the war, and begins to reveal that his malady is not the result of the things that happened to him, but the horrifying sights be bore witness to as the war dragged on and ravaged the bodies of his fellow soldiers. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Je Tu Il Elle was the first feature-length effort from avant-garde filmmaker Chantal Akerman. The story, simple in extreme, concerns a high-strung woman taking a lengthy journey through France. Her life up until now has been one huge question mark. By dwelling long and hard on every experience, she hopes to find answers during her cross-country odyssey. Chantal Akerman herself plays a major role in Je Tu Il Elle, which also features Niels Arestrup and Claire Wauthion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Marie (Miou-Miou) is a young girl from a working-class family who falls for Gerard (Daniel Duval) before she discovers he is a vicious, sadistic pimp. She is degraded, abused, and beaten regularly by Gerard as she is forced into a life of prostitution. Marie later decides she must leave her pimp to regain control of her body, mind, and soul. Maria Schneider co-stars with Neil Arestrup in this voyeuristic and disturbing story. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In this compilation of newsreels and archival footage, director Edgardo Cozarinsky has put together images from occupied France during World War II with readings from a journal by a German officer, Ernst Juenger. The story is rounded out with scenes from concentration camps and views of the devastation wrought by Allied bombings. One segment of the documentary mentions that Maurice Chevalier) was among the French accused of collaboration with the Germans, and although Cozarinsky must feel this is an accurate portrayal, Chevalier was exonerated of any wrong-doing after the war -- perhaps it would have been better to present both sides in this instance, in keeping with the theme of the indiscriminate casualties of war. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The idealism of the '60s is put to the test in the '70s in this Swiss film. When an outsider to a radical group offers to help the group get guns for an "action," they accept the guns, but reject him as a police provocateur. Because he lacks their help, his deeds on their behalf land him in prison. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

"Radical chic" was a phenomenon of the upper classes in the late '60s and early '70s: liberal, socially concerned and very wealthy people would emulate the attitudes, mannerisms and style of the radicalized and revolutionary poor. They would even go so far as to socialize with revolutionaries and provide them with funding for their activities. In this drama, a similar group of bored rich people gets more involved with the radical element than they had planned, and things get out of hand. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Meeting Venus is based on a play cowritten by the film's director, Istvan Szabo. Glenn Close plays a celebrated Swedish opera star Karin Anderson who is slated to appear in an internationally-telecast production of Tannhauser. Ms. Anderson balks at the notion of working with obscure Hungarian conductor Zoltan Szanto. The much-anticipated production may never get off the ground, thanks to labor-management difficulties, intramural jealousies, and clashing egos. Admidst all this chaos, the mismatched Anderson and Szanto fall in love. Filmed in Budapest, Meeting Venus was far from a box-office hit thanks in great part to an inadequate advertising campaign; hopefully it will gain the wide audience it deserves on videocassette. (PS: Glenn Close's singing is dubbed by real-life opera luminary Kiri Te Kanawa. We tell you this because the lyp-synching is done so well that you might actually believe that Close is performing those arias herself). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When they are called upon to investigate a sex murder, Melville and Pignon (Jean Carmet and Jean-Pierre Marielle), two rude and crude (not to mention racist) policemen, find themselves in the midst of the multicultural machinations of members of the international film community in fashionable St. Tropez. The real culprit is an extremely clever man, who knows that they can be counted on to arrest the most obvious suspect while he looks on. Nonetheless, they are dogged, serious men who hunt down every clue, and are unfazed by the carryings-on of the excitable artists they encounter. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide