Michel Jonasz Movies

The shocking story of a young man sentenced to a brutal juvenile home comes to the screen in this drama based on an autobiographical novel by Auguste Le Breton set in the early Thirties. Yves Treguier (($Emile Berling) is a fourteen year old who has run away from home and is picked up by police for vagrancy. Yves is sent to an "educational home" for orphans and juvenile felons; the home is more like a prison than anything else, and adults who oversee the youngsters in their care are more interested in discipline and hard labor than in attempting to teach their charges. Many of the boys at the home have become hardened prisoners who greet new inmates with violence or sexual abuse, but Yves is fortunate enough to share his cell with Blondeau (Guillaume Gouix), an older boy with a gentle spirit. Blondeau was simply abandoned by his wealthy mother, and has bittersweet memories of music lessons and reading poetry. While Blondeau has become resigned to his fate, Yves's spirit has not been broken, and he isn't in stir long before making plans to escape. After two attempts to run away fail, Yves is warned that a third offense will result in him being transferred to a prison for adults, but despite the long odds against him, Yves believes that he has a slim chance of escape but no chance at all if he stays on the inside. Les Hauts Murs (aka Behind The Walls) was the first theatrical feature from director Christian Faure, who previously distinguished himself working in television. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A young Jewish girl looking to escape the clutches of the Third Reich after seeing her parents and sister brutally slain while attempting to make their way to England is sheltered by an old friend whose status as a member of the "third" sex soon leads the Gestapo pounding on his door as well. Betrayed by a smuggler who sat idly by as her family was casually slaughtered by the SS, terrified Sara (Louise Monot) flees into the comforting care of childhood summer-vacation chum Jean (Jeremie Renier) and his faithful lover Philippe (Bruno Todeschini). Though safe for the moment thanks to Jean's quick-thinking plan to pass her off as a Gallic employee of his family's laundry business, Sara watches in horror as her homosexual protector is forced into a Nazi labor camp as a tragic result of a bad decision made by Jean's troublesome brother Jacques (Nicholas Gob). ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Director Sam Garbarski marked his feature film directorial debut in 2003 with the family-comedy drama Le Tango des Rashevski (The Rashevski Tango), a tale of one extended family's struggle to find meaning and identity within their own somewhat dormant Jewish heritage. When 81-year-old family matriarch Rosa Rashevski passes away, her descendants are left unprepared, as they have no idea what traditional Jewish rites they should be practicing. As a result, various Rashevski begin some rather intense periods of spiritual introspection, ranging from Rosa's granddaughter Nina's (Tania Gabarski, daughter of the director) proclamation to start and raise a Jewish family to grandson -- and former Israeli military man -- Rica's (Rudi Rosenberg) turbulent relationship with his Muslim girlfriend, Khadija (Selma Kouchy). To further complicate matters, a non-Jewish family friend named Antoine (Hippolyte Girardot) shows up at the funeral and strikes up a conversation with Nina, whom he used to baby-sit when they were both younger. As he grows more fond of the young woman and becomes intent on making her his wife, he learns of her intentions to have a Jewish family and tries to find a solution that would make the young woman reconsider him as a suitor. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide

Noted French filmmaker Claude Leloud directs this romantic comedy about a trio of femme fatale musketeers. In order to repay a stack of debts after a disastrous self-financed production of Chekhov's "Three Sisters," Olga (Anne Parillaud), Macha (Alice Evans), and Irina (Marianne Denicourt) hatch a mercenary scheme aimed at lonely Concorde passengers. Armed with exotic false identities and intelligence gathered by Irina's sister and airline employee Olivia (Olivia Bonamy), the three plot to seduce a lonely millionaire, maintain a chaste relationship long enough to exact expensive gifts, and then find an excuse to breakup. Olga's first mark, Oscar, immediately drops his wife when he learns that Olga is a direct descendant of Johannes Sebastian Bach, his favorite composer. Irina's mark, a fabulously wealthy nightclub owner who obsesses over buying a chateaux, dumps his wife, too, when he learns that she is related to Marie Antoinette. Macha has similar success with the president of an unnamed African nation when she reveals that she is descended from renowned humanitarian Albert Schweitzer. Things get dicey when Bayard, (Jean-Pierre Marielle) a suave, seasoned police commissioner gets involved in their dubious scheme. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

This somber drama chronicles the writings of Paltiel Kossover (Michel Jonasz), a Rumanian Jew who was incarcerated in a Stalinist prison. Zupanev (Erland Josephson) is a sympathetic court registrar who smuggles the documents and later presents them to the poet's son Grisha (Vincent David). ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In making this film about a director who is presently working on an autobiographical movie, real-life director Elie Chouraqui has played on a Jewish cultural theme (the "reel" director is Jewish) and the intermixing of 1960s movie-making techniques. In the film, director David is in his 30s and his autobiography brings in details about his growth to adulthood -- his early life along the seacoast in Normandy, his parents, his education, and in the present, his sister and her husband, and a few of his own lovers. Visions of the past enhance the events of the moment, such as in the scene of David's mother's death. In the end, viewers may be able to answer the question posed by the title -- "What makes David run?" ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide