Suzanne Flon Movies

A fresh-faced orphan from the provinces labors away at the last old-fashioned café on Avenue Montaigne as the Paris theater elite prepare for the biggest night of the year in Jet Lag director Danièle Thompson's whirlwind comedy of intersecting lives. Jessica (Cécile De France) may have been orphaned at the tender age of four, but her doting grandmother (Suzanne Flon) did her best to bring the motherless girl up right. A one-time ladies' room attendant at The Ritz, Jessica's grandmother was a woman well known for her extraordinary taste. Upon arriving in Paris to work as a waitress at a modest café nestled between a renowned concert hall, a venerable theater, and a high-profile auction house, Jessica soon finds herself interacting with a curious cross section of the thriving entertainment industry. As rehearsals for the upcoming shows get under way and Jessica is assigned the task of delivering food to the hardworking actors and low-earning stagehands, she soon discovers that even the most famous of people are often forced to make difficult decisions in life.

Jean-François Lefort (Albert Dupontel) is a classical pianist whose devoted wife has him booked at venues across Europe for the next six years. As the free-spirited musician struggles to eschew the formality of his upcoming concert appearance, self-made businessman Jacques Grumberg (Claude Brasseur) takes time out from his May-December romance and his stressful medical treatment in order to auction off a collection that he has been building his entire life and reach out to his estranged intellectual son, Frédéric (Christopher Thompson). Meanwhile, back on the theater front, popular television actress Catherine Versen (Valérie Lemercier) prepares to star in a farcical play, a famous American film director (Sydney Pollack) begins auditioning actors for an upcoming film about Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, and a cheerful concierge on the verge of retirement (Dani) enjoys her final stint rubbing elbows with the biggest and brightest stars in Paris. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Jean Becker's Effroyables Jardins (Strange Gardens) is a tale of survival during WWII. At the beginning of the 1960s, French teenager Lucien (Damien Jouilleot) is deeply embarrassed by the quirky behavior of his father Jacques (Jacques Villeret), as well as Jacques' ongoing performances as a clown at public celebrations. Lucien's mother, Louise (Isabelle Candelier), does nothing to stop her husband. Jacques' friend Andre (Andre Dussollier) tells Lucien about Jacques' experience during the war, a time when both Jacques and Andre were in love with Louise. After doing their part for the French resistance, Jacques and Andre are captured by the Nazis and informed that they may well be executed in less than twenty-four hours. Their unusual relationship with a Nazi guard makes all the difference, and reveals to Lucien the motivation behind his father's actions. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

When a man kills his wife -- who happened to be the most hated woman in the village -- no one is sure if he should be punished or congratulated in this darkly farcical comedy. Jojo (Jacques Villeret) runs a small farm in rural France, and asks for little from life; all he wants to do is finish his chores, tend his goats, and work on his stamp collection. But Jojo's wife Lulu (Josiane Balasko) will not hear of it; often drunk and chronically ill-tempered, Lulu goes out of her way to make Jojo miserable, and she's earned the frightened enmity of nearly everyone in town. After Lulu destroys both his stamp collection and his milk pails in a fit of pique, Jojo visits a lawyer, Jacquard (Andre Dussollier), and posing as a wife-killer, asks how he would defend him in court. With Jacquard's strategy fresh in mind, Jojo contemplates doing away with Lulu when he finds out that she's already made plans to finish him off with poisoned wine. A sudden fight with a bread knife finds Lulu dead and Jojo on trial for murder. Jacquard finds himself putting his earlier theories to work when he's hired to defend Jojo, but to his surprise, many of Jojo and Lulu's neighbors arrive to lend a degree of support. While practically no one will say that Jojo is innocent of the crime, everyone agrees that the community is better off without Lulu -- and are willing to say so in court. Un Crime Au Paradis is a remake of the 1951 hit La Poison; the box-office success of Un Crime Au Paradis in France led to a theatrical re-release of the earlier film. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This poetic French drama about the inner experience of a returning World War I soldier, is based on the much-loved and highly regarded novel La Vouivre by Marcel Ayme. Georges Wilson, a well-established presence on the French stage, makes his filmmaking debut as a screenwriter and director. A "vouivre" is a wood-nymph, beautiful but completely lacking in human sensibilities. At the start of the film, Arsene (Lambert Wilson), a discharged soldier, returns to his family's farm. His return provokes quite a reaction, as he had been presumed dead. He is tormented by memories of the war, and finds brief consolation in his experiences with the wood-nymph (Laurent Treil). However, despite her magical qualities, it becomes clear that even a peasant farmer has more richness and depth to his character than the soulless "vouivre" can ever attain. In the novel, it's not clear whether the wood-nymph is real or the product of hallucinations caused by a head injury Arsene sustained in the war. In this movie version, the reality of the "vouivre" is never questioned. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Molinat (Phillippe Noiret) and Leroyer (Guy Marchand) are two cops who hate each others guts but are called on to solve the gunshot deaths of victims found on an Atlantic beach resort. The two focus on some females who have a psychological problem with men who are breathing. Molinat sends Leroyer to investigate some sultry suspects, knowing his hated colleague may never come back alive. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In this 80-minute biographical documentary, Pablo Picasso is portrayed through his art, historical footage that lays a background for his work, interviews with fellow artists Joan Miro, Hans Harting, and Edouard Pignon, and scenes of Picasso both at work and just relaxing. The narrative was created by Picasso's friend Helene Parmelin, a journalist, and Jacqueline Picasso poses at the end surrounded by many of his canvasses, a testimony to his prolific career. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

A doctor gains a new perspective on her life and career when she faces a life-threatening illness in this drama. Francoise (Annie Girardot) is a French physician with a very busy schedule. While she's well respected by her patients and colleagues, she has precious little time to spend with her husband Gerard (Francois Perier), her pregnant teenage daughter Elisabeth (Isabelle Huppert), or her sullen son Julien (William Coryn). She somehow manages to find time for her lover Daniel (Jean-Pierre Cassel), but Francoise's life is already starting to fray at the edges when she receives the upsetting news that she has cancer. Francoise, however, learns to put on a brave face and faces her disease and its difficult treatment with optimism and a fierce resolve. Annie Giradot's performance in Docteur Francoise Gailland earned her a Cesar (the French Academy Award). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This French spy thriller makes a number of surprising variations on familiar themes. Tibere (Lino Ventura) is a Soviet nuclear scientist who comes to London with a platoon of his colleagues for a conference. When he is injured in an auto accident, he gets separated from them. The accident was a set-up by British MI5 (secret service). It turns out that he is a Frenchman who was kidnapped by the Soviets many years before. The British insist on his returning to the West to helping the British and French spy agencies. They don't look after him any too well, however, and he ends up being chased by everybody under the sun, including the KGB. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Teresa (Suzanne Flon) is the neurotic, middle aged woman living in an expansive apartment in Rome. Elana (Anne Doat) is the young student who rents a room from her. Elana is soon distracted from her scholastic endeavors when she is duped into caring for the obviously unstable Teresa. The sudden appearance of Teresa's estranged husband Lorenzo (Robert Rimbaud) and his infatuation with the student leads Teresa to consider shooting her young border. Flon won an acting award at the Taorima Film Festival for her performance in this tragedy. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Zita, portrayed by Katina Paxinou, is a Parisian widow who has suffered a stroke. She is cared for by her niece Joanna Shimkus, who chafes under the responsibility and wanders off. Shimkus falls in with thieves and lowlifes, finally ending up in jail. She is bailed out by her family doctor (Paul Crauchet), but soon she's back in her old seedy nightclub haunts. While making love to jazz musician Jose Maria Flotats, Shimkus begins reminiscing about her childhood with her aunt. Somewhat chastened, a more mature Shimkus returns home to resume her duties--but by this time, Aunt Zita has died. The film's sympathies are squarely with the niece, whose "escape" from her aunt is meant to represent her final break from childish dependency. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This is an updated version of the Alexander Dumas classic. Edmond Dantes (Paul Barge) is framed and imprisoned for collaboration with the enemy during World War II. When he escapes from jail he travels to South America where rumors of his death are soon taken to be fact. He discovers a treasure and plots his return to seek revenge against those who had falsely accused him of being a traitor. Cars replace horses for the chase scenes in this modernized version of Monte-Cristo as Edmond fights to regain his name, his property, and the woman who was taken from him years earlier. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Bernard Blier directs and stars in this routine spy saga. A vacationing doctor is caught in a web of international espionage after his chance meeting with a medical patient in Poland. He is soon followed by a concerned secret service agent (Bruno Cremer) who warns the unsuspecting doctor that his daughter could be in danger. The physician's chance encounter with the man he treated leads the spies to believe he is in collaboration with the enemy. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide