Claire Bouanich Movies
- 2009
A woman's presence at a family wedding opens old wounds and resurrects long-simmering tensions between two warring clans in this drama from director Fanny Ardant. Ten years ago, Judith's husband was murdered. In the aftermath of the crime, she and her three children were exiled. Today they live in Marseille. Judith has her fair share of secrets, but they're only part of the reason she's never returned to visit her family. When Judith receives an invitation to her cousin's wedding, she accepts at the behest of her children, who are eager to explore their roots and meet their estranged relatives. But spending a summer in the country won't be any picnic for Judith, because the closer the wedding gets, the more obvious it becomes that the rising tensions aren't about to break anytime soon. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ronit Elkabetz, Abraham Belaga, (more)
- 2006
French comedy director extraordinaire Luc Moullet helms and stars as himself in the nutty mockumentary The Prestige of Death (aka Le Prestige de la Mort, 2006). The premise has Moullet -- in a deprecative self-caricature -- far past the prime of his youth and audience appeal. To regenerate public interest, this scheming opportunist fakes his own death (delayed, within the story, by the passing of Jean-Luc Godard), then assumes the identity of an oddball drifter whose body he finds in the desert during a location-scouting trip. No points for guessing that the ploy works -- but how will Moullet contend with his new persona, or continue his film career, without raising the ire of nearly everyone? ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Luc Moullet, Antonietta Pizzorno, (more)
- 2005
Richard Dembo's third directorial effort, La Maison De Nina, concerns a group of Jewish children living in an orphanage in Paris at the end of WWII. Soon there is an influx of children at the orphanage whose parents did not survive the concentration camps. Eventually those newcomers and the orphans who already lived there are feuding over the importance of their Jewish heritage. The children must deal with their grief in a variety of ways including religion, music, and one poor child by deciding to not talk. Dembo, an Oscar winner in 1984, passed away while the film was in post-production. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Agnès Jaoui, Sarah Adler, (more)
Directed and written by Philippe Muyl, the family-friendly Le Papillon (The Butterfly) concerns a search for the title creature. Often lonely because of her single mother's busy work schedule, eight-year-old Elsa (Claire Bouanich) befriends an elderly neighbor man named Julien (Michel Serrault), eventually joining him on a trek to find a rare butterfly that lives for only 72 hours. As the relationship between the two teaches them both a few things about themselves, Elsa's mother (Nade Dieu) worries that her daughter has been kidnapped. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Serrault, Claire Bouanich, (more)
