Patrick Floersheim Movies

Thomas (Alain Musy) is living with his mom and granddad in a huge country house. He makes a teltext phone call requesting that Santa Claus visit his house for Christmas. Instead, a crazed lunatic in a Santa outfit comes to visit, and for the rest of the film, Thomas is kept busy fending off the murderous Santa, in this French-style and relatively nonviolent thriller. Despite a superficial resemblance, this movie is not intended for child viewers the way Home Alone is - not least because by the end of the film, the kid no longer believes in (or cares about) Santa Claus. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Like other young men in his soccer-obsessed town, a belligerent and rebellious factory worker Francois Perrin plays on a local team. His obnoxious tendencies endear him to no one. Trouble brews when a woman cries rape and the team's star player becomes the chief suspect. To protect the valued kicker, the team owners decide to frame the boorish Francois for the crime. As a result, he loses his job, gets booted from the team and tossed into jail. Shortly thereafter, the team is en route to a key match and their bus gets into an accident (in one of the story's comical highlights) that disables half the team. Now desperate for players, the owners arrange to get Francois temporarily released. The rest of this lively French farce follows Francois as he gets sweet revenge upon all those who wronged and rejected him. The screenplay was penned by distinguished writer/director Francis Veber, who is best known for writing La Cage aux Folles. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This suspenseful French thriller examines the actions of a predatory woman who must eventually face the consequences of her actions. It is the final film of writer/director Christopher Frank, released after his death. Julien is a self-confident executive working at a Paris debt collection company. Julien impetuously invites Angela to dinner after his wife Anna and his son go on vacation. Angela is aggressive and wants to have sex with Julien. He does not rise to her bait. Angered, Angela leaves little reminders behind so that Anna will know she was there. Soon Angela moves into the same building as the couple. She becomes Anne's baby-sitter and begins doing everything she can to make it seem as if she and Julien are having an affair. The effect is not lost on Anne who begins to doubt her husband. Angela confronts Julien at the site of a building renovation. Julien hits Angela in the head with a shovel and kills her. He conceals her body in a hollow wall, then buys and moves into the apartment where it is hidden. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Following the disastrous Pirates (1986), director Roman Polanski got back on creative track with this finely-wrought thriller that, while failing to impress at the box office, was nevertheless his most critically well-received film of the decade. Harrison Ford stars as Richard Walker, an American doctor who has come to Paris, where he's scheduled to deliver a paper to a medical conference. Richard has brought along his wife Sondra (Betty Buckley), because Paris was the site of their honeymoon 20 years earlier. Sondra picks up the wrong suitcase at the airport, which leads to her kidnapping and an ever-more complicated quest that takes Richard into the seedy and dangerous underworld of European drug smuggling and terrorist arms sales. Along the way, he is rebuffed by skeptical officials at the American Embassy and meets Michelle (Emmanuelle Seigner), a sexy courier who agrees to help him in exchange for the money she's owed for trafficking in narcotics. Playing cleverly on American fears about Europe's Byzantine politics and "decadent" society, Frantic received, from many observers, perhaps the greatest compliment possible for a thriller, comparison to the work of Alfred Hitchcock. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

This adaptation of Ben Hecht's novel is a satire that unfolds as a mystery story. A Hollywood studio is producing another spectacular when the top billed male stars suddenly show up as corpses, killed before the critics could ever put pen to paper. Under suspicion is a talent agent. Is he guilty or not? These macabre events have everyone off their feed, from the producers down to the lowest gofer. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Sam Fuller (1911-1997) directed this rather mediocre crime story about a Bonnie-and-Clyde couple -- how they got together and how they are pursued for a murder they never committed. François (Bobby Di Cicco) and Isabelle (Veronique Jannot) meet in an unemployment office, a likely place to find others in their profession: he is a cellist and she, an art historian. While there, Isabelle gets into a nasty incident with one of the clerks, and François helps her out of the office with the end result that the two continue meeting and eventually fall in love. They try to make money as street musicians, though nothing seems to work out. Isabelle then suggests they rob the three unemployment office personnel who were the most obnoxious to them, a suggestion that leads to their breaking into an apartment in which the occupant accidentally falls to his death. At first both Isabelle and the police believe she pushed the man out the window -- and the chase is on. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

A lusty executive for a high-tech company tries to juggle his life between two disparate wives and his mistress. He is also in the Army Reserves and it is while serving his annual two weeks that he gets into big trouble. Actually, he is not actually serving; instead, he convinced his buddy to pretend to be him and go in his stead. The problems begin when the stand-in is arrested for being a spy. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In the labyrinthine streets of 21st century Paris, where every move is monitored and ever action recorded, a mysterious kidnapping sets into motion a catastrophic series of events that could ultimately prove the downfall of civilization. The year is 2054, and the Avalon Corporation has securely woven its way into every aspect of modern living by making youth and beauty the most valued commodity around. Troubles arises in the City of Lights when a high-profile scientist named Ilona (voice of Romola Garai) is kidnapped, and policeman Barthélémy Karas (voice of Daniel Craig) is assigned the task of solving the case. As his investigation leads Karas down a menacing path where death lurks around every bend, he soon discovers that events that took place in 2006 have cast a dark shadow over the future of humankind. A film that mixes Blade Runner aesthetics with stark, Sin City-style visuals, Renaissance was filmed using motion-capture animation and features extravagant production design by Alfred Frazzani (Immortel Ad Vitam). ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Set in the City of Light, this crime melodrama chronicles the attempts of a US drug agent to stop a major drug-lord. Though the agent realizes his three predecessors have been assassinated, and that the French government doesn't necessarily approve of the Yank's harassment of a French citizen, he is determined to succeed. Then a Parisian cop quietly suggests that Anthony Quinn himself hire an assassin to kill the drug lord. He thinks about it long and hard, before agreeing to it. Later he is shocked to learn that the assassin is an old war buddy. The hit man then works overtime to cozy up to the criminal and earn his trust. While he is doing that, the agent learns that events have changed and he must capture the drug lord alive. Unfortunately, he must first find a way to call off the professional killer before it is too late. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi