Jacques Herlin Movies

Gladiator duo Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe re-team for this adaptation of author Peter Mayle's best-selling novel about a London-based investment banker who relocates to Provence in hopes of selling a small vineyard he has inherited from his recently deceased uncle. As a child, Max Skinner (Freddie Highmore) was taught to appreciate the finer things in life while wandering the vineyard estate of his sophisticated uncle Henry (Albert Finney). Life has a strange way or turning out how you least expect it to though, and 25 years later, Max (Russell Crowe) is now a prosperous moneyman wheeling and dealing in the cutthroat world of London business. When Max learns that Henry has recently passed away and that he has been named the sole beneficiary of his late uncle's modest estate, the keen businessman hastily arranges a flight to France in order to assess the value of the old property and get it prepped for sale. After Max arrives to find the vineyard in a crumbling state of disrepair, his troubles are further compounded by the stubbornness of gruff estate winemaker M. Duflot (Didier Bourdon) and the unexpected arrival of a determined California beauty named Christie (Abbie Cornish), who presents herself as a long-lost cousin while making a dubious claim to Henry's estate. Meanwhile, the overstressed Max reluctantly finds himself falling for local café owner and town siren Fanny (Marion Cotillard), whose formidable guard is quickly worn down by the smitten beneficiary. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Michael Di Jiacomo made his directorial debut with this allegory that opens with a 12-minute black-and-white prologue about three French filmmakers who encounter the tuba-playing Tollkeeper (Mickey Rooney) on a silent stretch between two ghost towns in the Utah desert. In NYC, an armed thief (John Turturro) holds up despairing cabdriver Henry (Tim Roth), who tells him to go ahead and pull the trigger. With the thief gone, Henry's next passengers are the three Frenchmen seen earlier, and he takes them into New England where he's so spellbound by the beautiful Fatima (Mili Avital) that he takes a job with her irritating mother in order to maintain his pursuit of Fatima. Shown at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

A film in German only, this is the story of the saving of a homestead. When a student inherits a hotel in a sad state of disrepair and about to be defaulted out from under her, she uses her imagination and her friends to turn it into a money-making affair. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

The literal English translation of the German-titled film here is "The Hostess of the Lahn." Suzanne (Terry Torday) is the beautiful redhead who runs an inn in the town of Giessen. She is the subject of many inspirational love songs by the student population. The lyrics also reflect the Germans' resentment and hostility toward the French occupation by the army of Napoleon. Suzanne appears in various stages of undress in this slow-moving feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Entangled, directed by Max Fischer, is a confusing, indifferently acted story of fashion-model Annabelle (Laurence Treil) and the men who fall in love with her. In flashbacks, Annabella meets writer David Merkin (Judd Nelson) who writes a novel which she submits anonymously to a competition. David, jealous of Annabella, and aided by his photographer friend, Max (Roy Dupuis), follows Annabella to the chateau belonging to mysterious Patrick Garavan (Pierce Brosnan) where he observes her being photographed in a menage-a-tois. After an accidental murder, several plot twists and a car-crash, the film reaches a confusing, unsatisfying conclusion. Entangled is adapted from the French novel Les Veufs, written by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac who wrote many celebrated mystery novels. Here, despite all, the plot drags along, until the improbable, highly confusing conclusion, which director Fischer attempts unsuccessfully to explain using flashbacks and a narrative. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

Susanne (Terry Torday) is the hostess of a popular hotel on the Lahn River. When she vacations in Paris, she becomes romantically involved with the emperor Napoleon. She sets him up with a bride and manages to uncover some military secrets in the court of the amorous emperor. There is plenty of nudity and suggestive dialogue to spice up what is otherwise a routine script with little imagination. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In this comedy an officer is trying to get women for his soldiers, a count trying to win over an innkeeper, a man worried about keeping his job. ~ All Movie Guide

Best known for their historical epics that examine class and social issues in British life through a thick lens of tasteful production design and good manners, director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant set their sights on an American protagonist for a change with Jefferson in Paris. As the title suggests, Jefferson in Paris deals with the five years that Thomas Jefferson (Nick Nolte) spent as U.S. ambassador to France prior to the French Revolution; while Jefferson is sympathetic to the revolutionary forces in France, he's become well enough acquainted with the ruling aristocracy that he finds himself torn between the two sides of the issue. Jefferson, a recent widower, also becomes friends with Maria Cosway (Greta Scacchi), who is married to a foppish British artist; while it's obvious the two are in love, neither is in a position to do anything about their infatuation. And while Jefferson's daughter Patsy (Gwyneth Paltrow) loves her father, she's very upset with him when he sends her to a convent school. In this midst of this personal turmoil, Jefferson's younger daughter Polly (Estelle Eonnet) arrives in Paris, with her slave Sally Hemmings (Thandie Newton) in tow. Attractive and bright (if uneducated), Sally catches Jefferson's eye, and a friendship develops that grows into something deeper; in time, Sally becomes pregnant, and her family claims that Jefferson is the father. At the time Jefferson In Paris was released, the question of Sally Hemmings' relationship with Thomas Jefferson was a matter of lively historical debate; since then, genetic evidence has shown that, while Jefferson's paternity can't be proved beyond a doubt, it is likely that he did father children with Hemmings. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Italian Director Elio Petri, best known for his film Investigation Of A Citizen Above Suspicion, here tells a complicated tale about a bank clerk who is literally allergic to money. Not only that, the clerk (Flavio Bucci) doesn't like the effect money has on people. For some reason, he steals things from a dishonest butcher (Ugo Tognazzi). This gives the butcher a convenient opportunity to file huge insurance claims for the thefts. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A notorious, internationally known sex symbol (Phoebe Cates) attempts to track down her birth mother in this glitzy, deliciously trashy melodrama. The mother could be one of three women, all of whom have vowed to never reveal the secret truth behind the child's illegitimate birth. Based on the novel by Shirley Conran. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

"White Voices" is a vernacular term referring to Italian Castrati of the 18th century Vatican Choir. The Castrati were male children who were castrated so that they could retain their beautiful soprano singing voices into maturity. Paolo Ferrari plays a Roman youth who isn't keen on being gelded and bribes his way out of it. Even so, he trains with the choir and becomes an habitue of the houses of the rich and famous, using his supposed lack of male essentials to his advantage--especially in bed. Ferrari comes a-cropper when he impregnates a girl and is forced to go under the knife to establish an alibi! It is very, very hard to write about White Voices without making a wisecrack, so we'll cut this short (oops!). The film, a French/Italian coproduction, was originally released in France as Le Sex Des Anges and in Italy as I Castrati. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Stranger is a literal (but still very cinematic) adaptation of the novel by Albert Camus. Marcello Mastrioanni stars as Meursault, a man who feels utterly isolated from everyone and everything around him. This alienation results in sudden, inexplicable bursts of violence, culminating in murder. The subsequent trial of Meursault manages to convey the oppressive heat of its Algerian setting with director Luchino Visconti's usual veneer of elegant decadence. Though set in the 1930s, the sensibilities of the film were very much attuned to the 1960s: the problem was that Camus' sentiments had been adopted by so many other filmmakers of the period that The Stranger seemed rather commonplace. The film was originally released in Italy as Lo Staniero. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide