Rona Hartner Movies
Based on the 1997 National Book Award-nominated novel of the same name by Diane Johnson (co-writer of the script for Stanley Kubrick's The Shining), Le Divorce is a romantic comedy from director James Ivory. Revisiting the "Americans in France" theme that Ivory explored in 1998's A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, the film stars Kate Hudson as Isabel Walker. When she receives word that her pregnant poetess sister Roxy (Naomi Watts) has been left by her philandering French husband, artist Charles-Henri de Persand (Melvil Poupaud), Isabel offers her help and moral support. As the depressive Roxy struggles with the separation proceedings -- which include the rights to ownership of a work of art that's a family heirloom -- Isabel takes a job with author Olivia Pace and has a fling with the bohemian Yves (Romain Duris). But things get complicated when the younger, more impudent sister decides instead to pursue Charles' uncle, the snooty, married diplomat Edgar (Thierry Lhermitte), and when a mysterious man (Matthew Modine) starts stalking Roxy. Eventually, the rest of the plucky Walker clan has to come to the aid of the siblings. Stockard Channing and Sam Waterston co-star. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kate Hudson, Naomi Watts, (more)
On the heels of his award-winning, emotionally devastating 2001 drama The Piano Teacher, German filmmaker Michael Haneke weaves this disturbing tale of a family forced into a harrowing confrontation with a group of strangers set against the backdrop of a global apocalypse. In the aftermath of an unseen but catastrophic global disaster, a shaken family slowly makes their way to the presumed safety of a holiday home in the French countryside. Upon arrival, the family discovers their home inhabited by a woman and a horrified man. When a shot rings out, a life is taken, and time seems to stand still. In the aftermath of unspeakable violence, it appears that the only hope for a band of desperate refugees lies in a nearby train station and a locomotive that -- despite their most optimistic hopes and prayers -- may never actually arrive. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Isabelle Huppert, Maurice Bénichou, (more)
- 2003
Romanian filmmaker Peter Calin Netzer directs the bleak realist drama Maria, based on the true story of working-class Romanian woman Maria Tiranesi struggling to make the transition to a market economy. Played by theatrical stage actress Diana Dumbrava, Maria is a pregnant mother of six with an abusive alcoholic husband (Serban Ionescu). After he gets arrested and skips town, she is left alone with nowhere to go. Refusing an offer of a lot of money for her newborn child, Maria eventually turns to prostitution. After she tells her story to a local TV channel, the mayor gives her a job and an apartment as part of a publicity stunt. Maria won two Bronze Leopard awards at the 2003 Locarno International Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Diana Dumbrava, Horatiu Malaele, (more)
- 2001
Two people brought together by fate find it's not easy to live on love in this drama with a sharp sociopolitical subtext. Agatha (Rona Hartner) is a beautiful young woman from Romania who had a brief but passionate love affair with a French surgeon when he visited her country as part of a charitable medical team. Agatha has decided to come to France to rekindle their romance, but when she arrives in the city of Roubaix, she discovers he didn't take their relationship nearly as seriously as she did. With nowhere to go, Agatha is befriended by Mehdi (Roschdy Zem), a cab driver who helps her find a place to stay. Mehdi is attracted to Agatha, and she returns his interest, but as it turns out Mehdi is already seeing someone -- Cecile (Karole Rocher), who is having an affair with Mehdi while involved with his close friend Marc (Pierre Berriau). Hoping to move away from Roubaix with Agatha and start a new life, Mehdi gets a job as a bill collector, while Marc impulsively walks off his job and an angry Cecile gives him his walking papers. Agatha soon discovers, however, that Roubaix offers few opportunities for undocumented aliens, and that even lifelong residents have a hard time getting by. Sauve-Moi received its North American premiere at the 2001 San Francisco Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roschdy Zem, Rona Hartner, (more)
What do three hitmen, a lost foreskin, and the pope have to do with each other? This wacky French comedy answers this question and many more. Set during the 1997 papal visit to Paris, 23-year old father Jonas (Clemont Sibony) is given his son's foreskin in a wad of tissues after the bris and solemnly told to bury it in three days without fail. Three days later, Jonas suddenly remembers his sacred duties while playing keyboards at a bar mitzvah and tries to leave. Unfortunately, the bar mitzvah boy's father comes to believe that Jonas has been flirting with his drunk and buxom wife Sophie (Emmanuelle Devos) and orders him murdered by three of his crack hitmen. Later, when Jonas tries to comfort Nina (Rona Hartner), a Romanian hell-bent on seeing the pope, he unwittingly gives her the exact wad of tissues that contain the foreskin. Tracking down Nina and finding a suitable place to bury the foreskin in the urban scrawl of Paris proves to be no easy task. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clément Sibony, Rona Hartner, (more)
- 1999
Acclaimed director Tony Gatlif spins this wildly anarchic tale about three young punks, a bevy of cinematic inside jokes, and a talking stork. Otto and Louna (Romain Duris and Rona Hartner), along with their brainy pal Ali (Ouassini Embarek), rescue a wounded stork who turns out to be an illegal immigrant and a deserter from the Algerian army. The car-thieving, gun-toting crew helps the bird to freedom while rubber-stamping new films with such epithets as "tripe" and shooting someone for insulting the good name of Jean Vigo. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Romain Duris, Rona Hartner, (more)
- 1997
- NR
In this comedy-drama, Stephane (Romain Duris), a young man from France, travels to Romania on a mission; his father has recently passed away, and since the old man's favorite singer was an unrecorded gypsy vocalist from Romania, he has come to track her down and put her music on tape. However, he's not sure where she is, and as he wanders though a village in battered shoes on a cold night, an older gentleman of gypsy blood, Izidor (Isidor Serban) allows him to spend the night in his home after regaling him with drunken rants about his dire fate. While gypsies take a dim view of strangers, Stephane goes out of his way to ingratiate himself into their community, and as the locals develop a grudging trust for him, Stephane meets Sabina (Rona Hartner), a beautiful gypsy dancer whose allure is matched by her fiery personality and blunt vocabulary. Izador is Sabina's accompanying musician, and as Stephane is drawn into Sabina's web by the passion of both her dancing and her lovemaking, he also becomes friends with the older man and struggles to better understand his way of life. Director Tony Gatlif, himself of gypsy heritage, previously directed a documentary about gypsy musicians, Latcho Drom. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Romain Duris, Rona Hartner, (more)
