Marina Hands Movies

Recalling such prior successes as The Big Chill, Peter's Friends and Return of the Secaucus 7, director Daniele Thompson's seriocomedy A Change of Plans follows a group of four French couples who converge in an apartment over the course of one lengthy summer's eve and spend the time chatting about life, personal goals, relationships and sex. The said event unfurls during the perennial "Fete de la musique" in the City of Lights. Attendees include: the shark-like divorce attorney who owns the apartment, M.L. (Karin Viard) and her out-of-work husband Piotr (Dany Boon); slick, unctuous attorney Lucas (Patrick Thompson) and his slightly stuck-up homemaker wife Sarah (Emmanuelle Seigner); gynecologist Melanie (Marina Fois) and her oncologist husband Alain (Patrick Bruel); and M.L.'s sister Juliette (Marina Hands) and her much older boyfriend Erwann (Patrick Chesnais). As the night unfurls, it becomes readily apparent that none of the partners are happy and that virtually all have cheated or are planning on cheating on each other, which turns the film into an extended meditation on dissatisfaction and infidelity among the Parisian upper-crust. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

D.H. Lawrence's once-scandalous tale of a married woman who finds herself through an affair with another man is brought to the screen in this adaptation directed by Pascale Ferran. Constance Chatterley (Marina Hands) is a lovely woman in her mid twenties who is married to Sir Clifford Chatterley (Hippolyte Girardot), a wealthy British nobleman many years her senior who is paralyzed from the waist down due to an injury sustained during World War I. While Constance loves her husband, she has grown weary of her life as a bird in a gilded cage, as well as her husband's lack of affection. One day, Constance steps out to take a walk and pauses to tell Parkin (Jean-Louis Coulloc'h), the estate's groundskeeper, that the cook would like him to shoot a pheasant for the evening's meal. Constance discovers Parkin is only half-dressed, and the physical strength of his body makes a strong impression on her. Parkin senses Constance's attraction to him, and he's equally taken by her beauty; in time the two throw caution to the wind and give in to their mutual passion. Constance blooms through her lovemaking with Parkin, and she finds his simple, rustic individualism is more to her taste than the life her husband has given her. But as Constance embraces her love for Parkin, others become aware of their relationship. Lady Chatterley was adapted from Lady Chatterley et l'Homme des Bois, the second of three versions Lawrence would publish of his best-known novel (it was published in English as John Thomas and Lady Jane). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A series of tragedies befalls a small French town near the front during World War I in Yves Angelo's Grey Souls. As the film opens, the body of a young girl, Morning Beauty (Joséphine Japy) is found on the banks of the river, an apparent murder victim. We then flash back several months. Lysia (Marina Hands of The Barbarian Invasions), a pretty young woman, arrives in town to take the place of a shell-shocked schoolteacher. Because the teacher has defiled his room, Lysia moves into a small cottage on the estate of the taciturn local prosecutor, Destinat (Jean-Pierre Marielle), who has recently retired. While Lysia obsesses over her lover, who is away at the front, Destinat obsesses over Lysia, surreptitiously opening her love letters before giving them to her. Then a letter arrives that Destinat has trouble bringing himself to turn over to the lovelorn woman. The atmosphere of death and despair grows in the town. A policeman (Denis Podalydès) with a pregnant wife is routinely harassed by resentful soldiers on their way to the front. After the little girl's body is discovered, a witness comes forward who saw Destinat with her shortly before her death. But Mierck (Jacques Villeret of The Dinner Game), the vulgar, mean-spirited judge in charge of the case, and his cruel military attaché, Matziev (Franck Manzoni), seem less interested in actually solving the crime than in pinning it on some hapless lowlife. Grey Souls was scripted by Angelo and Philippe Claudel, based on Claudel's novel. The pair had previously collaborated on Sur le Bout des Doigts. Grey Souls was shown by the Film Society of Lincoln Center as part of their Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in 2006. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Yves Angelo's Sur Le Bout Des Digts (On the Tips of Her Fingers) is a drama about a piano playing daughter and mother. Juliette (Marina Hands) has devoted her entire life into making her teenage daughter Julie (Anne-Sophie Latour) a concert pianist. Julie is exceedingly talented, but her love of playing makes her something of a shut-in. She does not notice that Juliette is growing more and more unbalanced due to the difficulty she has coming to terms with her daughter's success. The director started his career as a cinematographer. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide