Arnaud Larrieu Movies

A man takes a last chance on love in this romance blended with science fiction. An unnamed calamity leads to global war, massive natural disasters and plagues that have decimated the world's population. Robinson Laborde (Mathieu Amalric) has lost his arm to a virus that has claimed millions and is in failing health, and while he's already married to Chloe (Karin Viard), after meeting a beautiful Spanish woman named Laetitia (Omahyra Mota) he falls hopelessly in love. Robinson leaves Chloe and sets out to find Laetitia and win her heart, but finding her is no simple task, and he finds himself traveling across the wreckage of what was once Europe, making his way across the continent only to end up in bomb-stricken Paris. As he travels, Robinson is faced with many opportunities for romantic adventures, in particular with the beautiful but cryptic Iris (Clotilde Hesme) and Ombeline (Catherine Frot) an attractive older woman who was once involved with his father; he also attracts the attentions of Theo (Sergi Lopez), an old friend who sings with the opera. Les Derniers Jours Du Monde (aka Happy End or This Is The End; the title literally translates as "Last Days Of The World") was an official selection at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Getting away from it all causes more problems than it solves in this comedy from the French writing-directing team of Jean-Marie Larrieu and Arnaud Larrieu. Alexandre Darou (Jean-Pierre Darroussin) and his wife Aurore Lalu (Sabine Azema) are a pair of well-known actors who need a break from the tension and fast pace of their lives in show biz. Adopting the names "Mr. and Mrs. Go," Alexandre and Aurore head for a village high in the mountains of Southwest France, where they hope to enjoy some relaxing downtime and they won't be bothered. However, Alexandre and Aurore underestimated their own fame, and it isn't long before everyone in the town knows that a pair of movie stars are in their midst. As the couple head into the hills, Alexandre and Aurore discover they don't have much of a talent for roughing it, and while she believed that getting away from the city would help her deal with a recent bout with nymphomania, getting back to nature only increases her appetite for other men. Le Voyage Aux Pyrenees (aka Journey To The Pyrenees) was shown as part of the Directors Fortnight series at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The Larrieu brothers, who have directed numerous films together, concentrate on summer in this feature, the title of which means 'The End of Summer' in English. Every image of the film evokes summer. The eight-minute red herring in the prologue, used to lead the viewer into thinking what follows is a documentary on the summer holiday habits of the French, foreshadows the dramaturgical structure of the film. The focus is on the '68 generation and what has become of them. The mood is ironic, even provocative. Diana, a pretty blond woman and Eduard, a young man, meet at the station of Carcassone, a trendy tourist destination in the South of France. The two have not seen each other for a year, and Diane has been working on her thesis on the decline of socialism in the metropolis. They go to a little village in the mountains where Eduard spent his holidays as a child. There they meet Gilbert, an old friend of Eduard's mother who lives a communal and free-spirited life in a very old house with his daughters, goats, donkeys, and chickens. Sophisticated urban-academic Diane cannot digest rural food and gets sick, missing the opportunity to learn about the survival of socialism in the countryside. The film is a commentary on long-lost innocence, the fascination with provincial life, and the freedom to do what many others would like to do. Fin d'ete was in competition at the 1999 Mannheim International Film Festival .

~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi