Christian Charret Movies

Two homeless men are brought together by fate in this gritty neorealistic drama from France. After quarreling with his family, college-age Victor (Cyril Troley) decides to move out and find an apartment of his own. However, Victor's desire for independence isn't coupled with a bankroll, and when he falls behind on the rent at his tenement flat, he's evicted on New Year's Eve and is forced to fend for himself on the streets. Victor steals some CDs and sneaks into a party, hoping to sell them, but an argument causes him to be thrown out, and he finds himself trying to catch a few hours sleep in a train station. While Victor sleeps, his shoes are stolen by Momo (Gerald Thomassin), an older homeless man who is hoping to put himself back on his feet by marrying a woman from North Africa who is having problems with immigration authorities. As Victor and Momo wander the streets of Paris, they bump into each other, and get along well enough to spend an evening drinking together, until Victor realizes that Momo is the man who stole his shoes. A fight between them leads to an arrest and a night in a homeless shelter, where the two have a sobering encounter with Blaise (Didier Berestetsky), an elderly vagrant. Paria had its North American premiere at the 2001 San Francisco Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Although Highlander: The Raven was a spin-off of the long-running sci-fi adventure series Highlander, it actually bore scant resemblance to its "parent" show. Top-billed Elizabeth Gracen, a former Miss America, reprised her Highlander role as the beautiful Amanda Darieux, a reformed cat burglar, who like her ex-lover Duncan MacLeod (played in the original series by Adrian Paul), was an "Immortal" -- though she certainly didn't look like she was 1,200 years old! Foresworn to uphold Duncan's values and fight against evil and injustice throughout the world (provided she could avoid being beheaded, the only way that an Immortal could be permanently killed), Amanda was teamed with detective Nick Wolfe (Paul Johanssen), whom she had met after being "reborn" when Nick shot down his crooked partner. Quitting the force due to ethical disagreements with his superiors, Nick became a private detective, circumventing proper legal procedure whenever it suited his purposes. He also carried a torch for his partner Amanda, and shared the secret of her immortality, as did Amanda's middle-aged companion, a con artist named Lucy Becker (Patricia Gage). As often as possible, Nick and Amanda did leg work for ex-federal agent Bert Myers (Hannes Jaenecke), who ran a security organization. In the tradition of Highlander, Highlander: The Raven filmed the first half of its debut season in Canada, and its final episodes in Paris, where Amanda and Bert had relocated to set up a new private-eye agency, with Nick handling exclusively European cases. Added to the cast at this time was Robert Cavanah as Amanda's platonic roommate and confidante, Father Liam Riley. Debuting in American syndication on September 26, 1998, Highlander: The Raven lasted 22 hour-long episodes, the last of which was "open-ended" enough to warrant a revival somewhere down the line (Nick discovered that he himself was an Immortal, and was a bit uncomfortable about his new status!). ~ Rovi

The title of this slapstick comedy, Koko Flanel, is apparently a takeoff on the famous name of deceased fashion designer Coco Chanel. In the story an odd-looking, dimwitted lad (popular comedian Urbanus) whose previous job experience involves selling bird houses, lands a fifteen-year contract as a model with a top advertising agency. Impeturbable and probably incapable of understanding what's going on anyway, the lad wants to marry the production assistant at the agency who signed him to the contract, so that he can fulfill a deathbed promise to his father to have some children, and behave at least as well as his older brother, a policeman. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi