Maurice Garrel Movies

Actress-cum-director Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi's sophomore feature, the comedy-drama Les Actrices (Le reve de la nuit d'avant), follows the trials and travails of Marcelline (Tedeschi), a tense and jittery stage thesp whose personal and professional life threaten to fall into pieces simultaneously. On a personal level, Marcelline hits the midpoint of her life, hears her biological clock ticking, and longs desperately for a child. At work, Marcelline's inability to find the core of her character, Natalia Petrovna, in a production of Turgenev's A Month in the Country only causes her emotional tension to double. In time, she regresses into such a basket case that she can barely respond to the stage director's query about whether she is right or left-handed. Marcelline's natty and overanxious mother (Marisa Borini, Tedeschi's mother in real life) weighs heavily on her as well, pressuring her constantly about the need to find an appropriate suitor before time runs out; instead, Marcelline finds herself drawn helplessly to Eric (Louis Garrel) a sexy young actor in the production - who, without her knowledge, nurtures reciprocal affections. This parallels the events that befall Petrovna in Turgenev's play, and indeed, at one point the spirit of Petrovna (Valeria Golino) appears to Marcelline for much-needed counsel. Meanwhile, as Marcelline weathers her own personal crises, one of her friends, Nathalie (Noemie Lvovsky) - the assistant to the play's director - struggles with her offstage lack of fulfillment as a wife and mother. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Anemone(Anne Aymone Bourguignon) is a young teenage girl who gets mixed up with a murderous hippie. Her father is a psychiatrist who allows his daughter the freedom to make her own choices. The hippie murders and robs a woman janitor then proceeds to seduce the impressionable Anemone. She is horrified to discover her friend has committed murder. Her father, symbolically dressed as a policeman, leads his daughter by the hand to safety in this story of youthful indiscretions. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This tragic musical drama chronicles the star-crossed love between beloved French singer Edith Piaf and World Middleweight boxing champion Marcel Cerdan who died in a plane crash. The tumultuous affair is paralleled by the love affair of a French POW and his young pen pal who get engaged after writing to each other for four years and having never met. Their romances are framed by the sad, torchy songs of Piaf. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The stories of two desperate characters turn out to share an important link in this drama from French filmmaker Arnaud Desplechin. Nora (Emmanuelle Devos) is a woman in her mid-thirties who wants people to believe that her life is going just the way she wants. But a look below the surface shows this isn't quite the case; she's been divorced twice, her latest relationship is on the rocks, her ten-year-old son, Elias (Valentin Lelong), is becoming increasingly withdrawn, and her father (Maurice Garrel) is in poor health. When Nora learns that her father's digestive problems are actually cancer and he may only have a few days left to live, she desperately wants to turn to Ismael (Mathieu Amalric), her second husband. But Ismael is having a crisis of his own after a pattern of increasingly strange behavior has led him to an involuntary stay in a mental hospital. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this drama that alludes to the Algerian War with France of the 1960s, Thomas (Alain Delon) is a deserter from the French Foreign Legion who is on the run from authorities. He helps damsel in distress Dominique (Lea Massari), who has been taken hostage by a group of terrorists. Thomas is wounded but manages to escape after killing the guard who inflicted the injury. Dominique gives Thomas money to escape to France after he secures her freedom, but he is caught between the Foreign Legion and the terrorists seeking revenge. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Carl (Matthieu Carriere) is the young scholar who comes to live with French geologist Julian (Maurice Garrel) and his wife Isaballe (Marie Dubois) and two children. Carl is eager to study with the famous geologist, but soon he is involved in a love affair with his mentor's wife. A jealous laborer tells the husband of the tryst and Isaballa confesses to her husband. He has tempered his once callous exterior and gruff demeanor in the wake of his wife's infidelity in this plodding romantic drama. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

A hangdog, middle-aged painter falls in love with a tender young college student after he leaves his philandering wife and his children in this romantic French drama. To console himself, the fundamentally bohemian Phillippe finds comfort in the arms of various prostitutes, especially Valeria. It is while searching for her that he meets lovely Justine, the student. Sparks fly and they move into together. Things go well until Phillippe begins pining for his children. This makes insecure Justine terribly jealous and tumult erupts until the aging artist is able to discover the true source of his anxieties. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

At the core of this docudrama are six French-speaking villages that were transferred to the jurisdiction of a Dutch-speaking province when political lines were drawn. The director of Le Grand Paysage d'Alexis Droeven (Jean-Jacques Andrien) was born and raised in this area and filmed scenes of the demonstrations that took place when the transfer occurred -- scenes that are used in the film. Additional background on the region emerges as the viewer sees that the economic policies dictated by the European Common Market intensify the cultural clashes in this zone because the policies often damage the earnings of the farming community -- and the farmers have no way to alter the ECM mandates. The film conveys a good sense of these issues that threaten the way of life of the small community, and at the same time, a mini-drama plays out against this backdrop. The drama begins with the death of an elderly farmer and unfolds over the four days that elapse between his death, the funeral rites, and the day following the burial. The son in the family, Jean-Pierre Droeven (Jerzy Radziwilowicz) must make a decision about the family's milk-producing cattle farm -- should he sell it and move out of this politically blighted region? His Aunt Elisabeth (Nicole Garcia) has her own views on the decision. She is a lawyer, and lives in the city of Liege, long since abandoning the small farming community herself. As the son and aunt interact with each other, their perspectives begin to shift, unsettling questions arise as to their real roots, and they find that even the memories of their dead father are not always in agreement. Through its in-depth probing of ordinary human situations, the film conveys a sense of dignity and meaning to lives that are beset by forces they cannot control. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

An international group of travelers trek around the world, from France to Brazil and Chile and, finally, to Easter Island, where some of their number are chosen to meet aliens who resemble small suns. One man who was not chosen tags along uninvited. For punishment, he is given the task of guarding the site until the next visit, some 500 years hence. This talky film (in French) features fine travel footage. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Six directors combine efforts for this documentary, a searing anti-American indictment of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Alain Resnais, William Klein, Joris Ivens, Agnes Varda, Claude Lelouch, and Jean-Luc Goddard all direct segments. They are quick to point out that the U.S. is radically divided about their country's policy to stop the threat of communism. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide