Jérôme Robart Movies

Like the American pictures Magnolia and Happy Endings, French helmer Nicole Garcia's ensemble drama Charlie Says interweaves a tapestry of mordant and miserable existences. Garcia zeroes in on six vice-ridden Gallic men, all generally average and unremarkable individuals, and several at the midpoints of their sorry lives. The characters include: Mathieu (Patrick Pineau), an artic researcher returning to the town where he grew up to host an important conference; Adrien (Arnaud Valois), a national celebrity notorious for losing a tennis match, who must now resume formal court training; small-town mayor Jean-Louis Bertagnat (Jean-Pierre Bacri) , who prepares to honor Mathieu at a town ceremony and bides his off time in a stormy extramarital affair with landscape gardener Severine (Sophie Cattani); ex-con Joss (Benoit Pooleverde), a man attempting to survive parole without drifting back into crime; pool worker Serge Torres (Vincent Lindon) , a husband and father who flirts dangerously with married Finnish co-worker Nora (Minna Haapkyla); and Serge's son, the Charlie of the title (Ferdinand Martin) who has Nora's husband as a teacher but consents to ably assisting his father in the execution of an affair with Nora by falsely indicating his father's whereabouts to his mother. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Mimmi is a 19-year-old who is about to take her final exams. She is a quiet girl and somewhat passive, who lives with her mother in an apartment on the edge of the town. During a school trip to France, she sleeps with a man. When she discovers that she is pregnant, she runs to Paris to look for the baby's father. Soon she is lost in the big city with no money and nowhere to go. Platze in Stadten is a psychological drama by a young female director who has a sensitive eye for the issues of women. Screened as part of the New German Films program of the 49th International Berlin Film Festival, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi