Roger Jendly Movies

Based on a short novel by Ania Carmel, this dark drama follows the survival developed by a brother and sister forced to grow up under the tyrannical rule of a father who brutally attempts to instill a sense of self-reliance and preparedness into them by acts of cruelty. They cannot turn to their mother as she is dying of a terrible illness. To cope, Daniel and Marie form a close bond and communicate telepathically. When their mother finally dies, the children flee as their father tosses furniture out the windows. First they stay with a group of kindly cheese makers. When they prove to have sinister ulterior motives, the kids move on. One night at a disco, a man tries to seduce Marie and this sets the stage for tragedy. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The year 1989 marked the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution, and a number of filmmakers put together movies intended to celebrate that event. This historical action drama, based on the book Sous le vent de galerne by Andre Guilloteau looks at some of the less well-known and unappealing consequences of the republican takeover. In 1793, the entire region of Vendee rose up in revolt against the republican French government. Instead of bringing relief from the heavy taxation imposed under the monarchy, the republican government actually raised taxes in the region, and to add insult to injury, also imposed a heavy burden of military conscription ("the draft") on it. In the story, the inhabitants of one of the villages of the region organize under their blacksmith and a local nobleman to fight the government forces, but before they can prepare for a proper battle, they are massacred. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

After moving to Switzerland to be the mail-order bride of an uncouth middle-aged Swiss man, Julie (Marie Gaydu), who comes from an island in the Indian Ocean, discovers that she cannot bear the man. After she leaves him, she embarks on an affair with Jean (Jean-Philippe Escoffey), the son of a local brickworks owner, much to the distress of that man's father. For a while their romance goes relatively smoothly, until the boy discovers that she is pregnant and won't submit to an abortion. Frantic, he goes haring off to some other country for a while. When he gets back, he gets hysterical about seeing their child. In this melodrama, when he finally decides to send Julie and her baby back to their remote homeland, the situation doesn't turn out well. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

A disparate, small group of smugglers try to expand their income by carrying illegal cargo across the French-Swiss border in this routine tale of life on the shady side. Paul (Hugues Quester) works as a mechanic in his father's car repair shop, but he makes extra cash by smuggling goods and people across the border. He dreams of getting his pilot's license and going to Canada to work. Mali (Berry Berr) works in a factory and smuggles narcotics across the border for extra lucre. Finally, Jean (Jean-Philippe Ecoffey) works on his father's farm and is not at all interested in smuggling until he meets Mali. After he agrees to help Paul smuggle some gold into Switzerland, he has no idea that Paul realizes the police are hot on his trail. The results are disastrous. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Roger, a learned and bookish Swiss ethnologist (Roger Wiedmer) has long held an ambition to travel from Genoa to Rio de Janeiro by ship in order to trace Claude Levy-Strauss' journey in his famous work "Tristes Tropiques." He decides to embark on the journey immediately because his wife wants to start a family after 10 years of marriage and he knows this may be his last chance to realize his dream. Once on the ship -- loaded with wildly individualistic travelers -- Roger meets Zaira (Zaira Gelbert), a Brazilian woman returning home after a few years of wandering around Europe as a part-time student and nightclub dancer. Zaira and Roger share French in common, but that is about all. When Roger tells her he wants to study Brazil's Native Americans up-close, Zaira takes him down to the engine room to introduce him to one. She also gives him the idea of recording conversations with the passengers on the ship, and voilà, a medley of off-the-wall types provide ample fodder for comedy. By the time they reach Rio, Roger feels Zaira is a lot more appealing than Levy-Strauss, but his interest does not seem to be reciprocated. Once this trip is over, the "Sad Tropics" might have a fully different meaning for Roger than for his venerated Levy-Strauss. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

The Death of Mario Ricci is a Swiss/French/West German coproduction, filmed on location in Switzerland. Gian-Maria Volonte stars as a TV newscaster who journeys to a remote alpine village to interview a famed malnutrition expert. Upon his arrival, Volonte learns that there's an ongoing investigation in the village concerning the mysterious death of an Italian immigrant. Inexorably, the journalist becomes involved in the investigation, and with equal inexorability the chain of evidence leads to the malnutritionist. The Death of Mario Ricci is consistently lovely to look at, though dramatically it's as hollow-centered as a piece of Swiss chocolate. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Sebastien Grenier (Lino Ventura), a former French spy, is working as a financial analyst in Zurich and cultivating an on-going relationship with Anna Gretz (Krystyna Janda), a German teaching at the university. Then his peaceful existence starts to disintegrate when he is recruited by a top French intelligence operative (Michel Piccoli) to discover how one of their own secret agents was found out and executed in broad daylight by a gang of terrorists. Sebastien starts to work but is immediately put off by the fact that his contacts are being murdered before he can reach them. As he gets deeper and deeper into the case, he comes to realize that he is being used in an elaborate political scheme, a scheme that leads to the death of Anna and a vow to get the killers who have now ruined what is left of his life. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

This is an underdeveloped, weak drama with sexual overtones that may offend some audiences. The story is about a young man falsely accused of murder who has to keep running from the authorities because they think he is guilty. He is a painter with no fixed address, which does not impress the police, but they let him go because they have no evidence he committed the crime. Before long the painter runs into a twelve-year-old girl who could exonerate him, a girl who is running away from home herself. Pedophilia becomes a subtheme at this point as the relationship between the painter and the girl gets increasingly ambiguous. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

In the story of Reperages, Victor (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is a film director who has arranged to shoot a version of Anton Chekhov's play The Three Sisters. Casting her in the lead will enable his troubled wife, who has separated from him, to earn some money and receive some much-needed emotional support. Julie (Delphine Seyrig), his wife, has a drug problem, but Cecilia (Lea Massari), her co-star, happily approaches her with just the right kind of off-camera friendship to keep her going. A young actor ironically dies while shooting his audition piece: a death scene. This strange event has a beneficial and sobering effect on everyone. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

A small theater group is trying to put on a production of Voltaire's play Azire, a little-known work, in celebration of the 200th year of his death. They are unable to raise any funding, and the company's efforts are commented on from heaven by Voltaire and his buddy Rousseau. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In this French-language Swiss film, an up-and-coming young engineer briefly finds love with a waitress from Italy. However, he is married and is running for an elective post in his region of the country. When his feeling of coziness with the relationship exceeds his discretion, he allows word of it to get out, and that loses him the election. In addition, the waitress feels that he has been having a relationship with a woman in his imagination rather than with her and decides to end the affair. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, this is perhaps one of the best films to come out of Switzerland. The acting is effortless, the dialogue flows, and the story revolves around an office party thrown by an office drudge whom, to the surprise of his co-workers, invites them to an office party in his home--a mansion, complete with servants! What follows is a case of strangers thrown together discovering each other and is a masterpiece of understatement as the ever-patient butler tries to keep a lid on the situation. ~ Tana Hobart, Rovi