Stéphane Freiss Movies

The rise and fall of one couple's marriage goes under the microscope in this drama from French filmmaker François Ozon. Gilles (Stephane Freis) and Marion (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi) have filed for divorce following several years of marriage, and after the judge declares their union is over, the film follows the couple through five lengthy flashbacks, presented in reverse chronological order, in which glimpses of their lives together are shown, ending with the couple meeting for the first time. As the film follows the peaks and valleys of Gilles and Marion's relationship, viewers witness a few of the many small events that make up a marriage. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A man born and raised on France's Southern coast is exiled to the Northern territories in this comedy from actor, director and screenwriter Dany Boon. Philippe Abrams (Kad Merad) helps run the post office in a picturesque small town in the South of France. Philippe's wife Julie (Zoe Felix) has been down in the dumps, and he thinks one way to lift her spirits would be to relocate to the more glamorous surroundings of the Cote d'Azur. However, Philippe's attempts to finagle a transfer fail, and he ends up demoted -- he's sent to Bergues, a village in Northern France stuck between Belgium and England. Philippe is appalled at the news, and matters only get worse when he has to learn the local dialect, a strange bouillabaisse of French, Flemish and Latin dialects. Julie opts to stay behind, and as Philippe drowns his sorrows in beer on his first night in town, he nearly runs over a man while driving home drunk -- who turns out to be one of his new colleagues at the post office, Antoine Bailleul (Dany Boon). But Philippe finds to his surprise that he enjoys life in Bergues, and he becomes infatuated with Annabelle (Anne Marivin), a beautiful letter carrier. Philippe is pondering just what he should do about his feelings for Annabelle when he gets word from Julie that she's decided to join him in the unfashionable North. Bienvenue Chez Les Ch'tis was a major box office success in France, grossing over $80 million in little more than a month in theaters. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This is a very flat first attempt at comedy by François Velle in which two Polish brothers arrive in Paris with dreams of becoming rich and famous, and sure enough, they are soon participating in some forgotten film festival as a producer and a director -- but will this get them anywhere? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

An American comic (Patsy Kensit) is trying to make it in the comedy dens of Paris, but her soon-to-expire visa forces her to visit a marriage broker. He fixes her up with a songwriter (Stephane Freiss), but French immigration remains suspicious even after the marriage. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

In this comedy-drama, a young but sterile man suddenly wants to be a father. A friend calls this the "kangaroo complex," because male kangaroos do not have pouches to carry their offspring. So Loic (Roland Giraud, just out of his starring role in Trois Hommes et une Couffin later to be remade in the U.S. as Three Men and a Baby), goes looking for a solution to his "complex." He cannot have children himself because of a bad case of the mumps when he was in his mid-20s. That does not leave many options open to him until he accidentally comes across his old girlfriend with her 6-year-old son and notes that the little boy looks a lot like him. It does not take much to convince him that the boy is his own but once having reached that conclusion, the rest of his plan for new-found fatherhood is loaded with pitfalls. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The tale of this movie is familiar enough, Sheherazade (Catherine Zeta-Jones) has been married to a ruler (Thierry Lhermitte) who wants many wives, but only one at a time. Consequently, as soon as he has bedded them, he has them put to death. In most retellings, the girl staves off this unfortunate conclusion by putting off the connubial event for a thousand and one nights, telling irresistable stories instead. In this one, she gets hold of a magic lamp and acquires a genie named Jimmy Genius (Gerard Jugnot) from the 20th century, who helps her escape and avoid recapture a thousand and one ways, by providing her with airplanes, cars, and other twentieth-century magical devices. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Antoine de Caunes' second feature, Monsieur N. is a historical mystery thriller about Napoleon. Sir Hudson Lowe (Richard E. Grant) is assigned to guard Napoleon (Philippe Torreton) while the latter is in exile in Saint Helena. A local girl, Betsy (Siobhan Hewlett), has a crush on the exiled leader. This, along with the fact that keeping Napoleon on the island is costing the British a great sum of money, leads Lowe to consider drastic action. Monsieur N. was screened at the 2003 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Three childhood friends are each confronted with different sides of the tumultuous impact of WWII in this period drama from Italy. Andrea (Andrea Renzi), Guido (Stephane Indovina), and Nives (Lorenza Indovina) grew up together in a city along the Italian coastline. Andrea was the son of a successful druggist who studied medicine according to his father's wishes, even though he dreamed of being a writer. Guido's father was a merchant seaman, and Guido was expected to follow in Dad's footsteps, though he is a gifted musician. And Nives is a woman who loved both men as they loved her. As the War draws to a close, Guido, who became a member of Mussolini's Black Brigade, has been emotionally shattered by the atrocities he witnessed. Andrea is in charge of the hospital where Guido struggles through his delirium; Andrea and Nives try to guide Guido through his mental chaos by recalling the happier days of their youth. Sulla Spiaggia E Di La Molo was based on the novel by popular Italian author Mario Tobino. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this British-French comedy of manners, Parker Posey stars as Margaret, an award-winning writer of bawdy novels who's grown vaguely dissatisfied with her life in Manhattan -- and her marriage to Edward (Jeremy Northam), a junior poetry professor. Engrossed in the sexually charged 18th century French diary she's adapting for her next book, Margaret heads on a research trip to France only to discover that the chateau at which the diary was written has been turned into a nunnery full of singing sisters. Nevertheless allowing her fertile imagination to get away from her, Margaret experiences the events of the diary as a series of naughty daydreams, simultaneously becoming besotted with Martin (Patrick Bruel), the French music producer who's currently cutting an album with the nuns. When Margaret returns to New York, Martin follows, setting the stage for all sorts of romantic entanglements in Margaret's lofty social circle, which includes Till (Elizabeth McGovern), her playwright sister, and Lily, a bisexual socialite. The feature debut of documentarian Brian Skeet, Misadventures received only a belated video release in America, excised of much of its overt sexuality, including a full-frontal shot of an entire soccer team. What remained, however, was still quite sexy and grown-up. London pop combo Saint Etienne's music didn't fare as well. Although the group's 20-song soundtrack eventually came out in Japan under the title The Misadventures of Saint Etienne, only a few tracks made it into the actual film; in fact, a different subset was included in the American and continental releases. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

Vagabond, directed by Agnes Varda is the dark disturbing story of a female drifter named Mona (Sandrine Bonnaire). The film opens as Mona's frozen body is found in a drainage ditch and proceeds to tell her story in a series of flashbacks and semi-documentary style "interviews" with the people who have known Mona during the last few weeks of her life. Mona is a distant, independent and not-very-likeable woman who goes from place to place, living where she can and with anyone who will take her in. Mona's true nature remains a puzzle, both to those who thought they knew her, and to the audience. As the movie progresses it becomes clear that no one knew the true Mona and she, because of her aloofness and essential coldness, provided a canvas for those she met to write upon. Who Mona really was, and what she thought remains ambiguous. Sandrine Bonnaire is excellent as Mona, making an unappealing and cold character interesting and intriguing. Director Agnes Varda began her career as a still photographer. This beginning is evident in her elegant framing of the film. She has an instinctive awareness of and a photographer's eye for visual detail which makes the film cold, bleak, and aridly beautiful. Internationally acclaimed, Vagabond is Varda's most successful film. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide