Cyrile Colbeau-Justin Movies

Filmmaker Christopher Thompson charts the rocky road to fame for one rock & roll band in this drama from France. It's 1985, and Lust is a Parisian rock group led by sexy and charismatic singer Manu (Arthur Dupont) and hotshot guitarist Lucas (Marc-Andre Grondin). Joined by their longtime friends Philippe (Abraham Belaga) and Jacob (Jules Pelissier), Manu and Lucas find making their way to the top is tough going, but as audiences discover their music, they attract the attention of Mario (Francois Civil), a well-connected manager, and they begin enjoying the fruits of success. But as Lust find stardom in their grasp, Manu and Lucas's relationship begins to fray thanks to drugs, ego and Laura (Elisa Sednaoui), a beautiful woman who becomes Manu's girlfriend while stealing Lucas's heart. Bus Palladium was named for a popular Paris rock club of the 1980s; the film received its North American premiere at the 2010 Seattle International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A cop on the edge of an emotional collapse is on the trail of a violent madman in this edgy crime thriller from French writer and director Olivier Marchal. Charles Subra (Philippe Nahon) is a habitual criminal who, after serving twenty-five years in prison on a sentence for rape and murder, is up for parole. While Charles insists he's seen the error of his ways and wants to repay society for his crimes, Justine (Olivia Bonamy) isn't buying it -- Charles murdered her mother and father while she watched, and she writes him a long letter explaining in detail why she wants him to stay behind bars. Charles is granted parole anyway, but it soon becomes clear that the clever criminal fooled the prison authorities -- he still has a taste for murder and wants to kill again, starting with Justine. Louis Schneider (Daniel Auteuil) is a police detective who meets with Justine and helps protect her from the madman on the loose, but he's not the best man for the job these days -- shattered by the sudden death of his wife and child and haunted by a serious of brutal murders he's been investigating, Louis's psyche is in tatters and he's only marginally more stable than the criminal he's trying to catch. Director and screenwriter Olivier Marchal was inspired to make MR 73 by his own experiences as a police officer in the early '80s; the title is police slang for the Manurhin 73, a standard handgun for French beat cops in the '70s and '80s. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Gallic actress-turned-director Josiane Balasko - a Euro cinema mainstay best known for her unconventional romantic lead in Bertrand Blier's 1989 Trop belle pour toi - helms and co-stars in Cliente, a quirky and offbeat look at the bittersweet life of a male prostitute, which Balasko co-adapted from her 2005 novel with screenwriter Franck Lee Joseph. Eric Caravaca stars as Patrick, a French hustler in his mid-30s whose path criss-crosses with that of infomercial actress Judith (Nathalie Baye) in a local park. A nascent divorcee, she's in the mood for a quick fling, and follows suit with Marco, but this infuriates her sister, Irene (Balasko). Both sexual partners intend to enjoy the liaison as a one-time engagement; for better or worse, it soon repeats itself on multiple occasions and evolves into a deep-seated and very sticky relationship with lots of emotional strings. Significantly, this makes matters very complex and messy for Marco, who happens to be married to hairdresser Fanny (Isabelle Carre) and shares a residence with her, her mother (Catherine Hiegel) and her goth-decked sister (Marilou Berry, Balasko's real-life daughter)). Fanny, it seems, harbors no knowledge of Marco's real profession; when she discovers the truth, she systematically attempts to use her husband's profession to her own selfish advantages in lieu of objecting passionately or leaving him. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

The bleakest and most claustrophobic nightmare of many a European actualizes in director Régis Wargnier's apocalyptic thriller Pars vite et reviens tard (AKA Have Mercy on Us All). Not long after his abandonment by his girlfriend, French police captain Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg is confronted by a string of bizarre signs strewn across Paris - strange talismans and omens that appear inexplicably on Parisian doors, whispered words that forebode an unspeakable onslaught of doom. All suggest someone's crude warning, and a riddle that Adamsberg must solve to stave off a coming tragedy - but the meaning eludes the captain until calamity hits: the Plague returns, wiping out scores of victims in its wake. And more problematically, it appears that some malevolent soul is single-handedly controlling the outbreak, willing it wherever he or she chooses. Lucas Belvaux, Marie Gillain, Michel Serrault and Mathias Mlekuz co-star; Wargnier co-authored the script with Harriet Marin, Lawrence Shore, Julien Rappeneau and Ariane Fert, adapted from the novel by Fred Vargas. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Euro screen legends Gérard Depardieu and Daniel Auteuil star, respectively, as French cops Denis Klein and Leo Vrinks, in Olivier Marchal's tough-as-steel policier 36 Quai des Orfevres. The story unravels at the titular Parisian police headquarters, where Klein (who heads up the department's anti-crime unit) and Vrinks (who manages the "search and action squad") go head-to-head -- competing with one another not only to succeed their boss, but to be the first to solve an ongoing series of security-van robberies. Ultimately, the men resort to sabotaging one another, and thus set the stage for an ongoing series of twists, turns, reversals, and betrayals. Valeria Golino and Catherine Marchal co-star; Olivier Marchal co-authored the script with Dominique Loiseau, Julien Rappeneau, and Franck Mancuso. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Gangsters is the directorial debut of veteran writer and actor Olivier Marchal, who spent ten years as a police detective in France. Frank (Richard Anconina) is captured and interrogated by the police, who want him to reveal the location of a vaulable briefcase. Flashbacks tell the story of the missing briefcase, in which Frank and Little Claude (Jean-Louis Tribes) are present during a violent burglary in a nightclub. Anne Parillaud (from La Femme Nikita) plays the fearless prostitute Nina. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi