Marthe Keller

Film noir meets future shock in first-time feature filmmaker Julien Leclercq's ambitious sci fi thriller about a hard-boiled French police lieutenant investigating the mysterious death of an illegal immigrant. Years ago, wanted human trafficker Dimitry Nicolov (Alain Figlarz) murdered Police Lieutenant David Hoffman (Albert Dupontel)'s wife and partner to death as the horrified lawman watched helplessly nearby. In the aftermath of that killing, Nicolov disappeared without a trace. Flash forward to the year 2025, and the only thing that keeps Hoffman going is the thought of seeking revenge against Nicolov. When the body of a young illegal immigrant is discovered with mysterious scars around her eyes and her synapses completely fried, Lieutenant Hoffman's investigation eventually leads him to an ultra-modern plastic surgery clinic run by Professor Brügen (Marthe Keller). Much to Lieutenant Hoffman's surprise, Professor Brügen's clinic isn't simply concerned with issues of the flesh, but the valuable commodity of memory and identity as well. Currently, Professor Brügen has focused the majority of his research on a captive patient named Manon (Mélanie Thierry) - a teenage girl who had been horribly injured in an auto accident. As the investigation intensifies and Lieutenant Hoffman begins to make the connection between medical research and human smuggling, what was once a simple case of a wanted human trafficker gradually evolves into something infinitely more ominous. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A boy makes an unusual and dangerous friend in this family drama. Aaron McGregor (Devin Douglas Drewitz) is a young boy who, after the death of his parents, goes to live with his aunt and uncle in a rural community. Aaron feels like an outcast in his new home, not accepted by his schoolmates and receiving little in the way of support or affection from his uncle Archie (Burt Reynolds). One of the few things that comforts Aaron is the sound of a pack of wolves who howl on the prairies late in the night; when a band of farmers attempt to kill the animals, Aaron discovers one is still alive and he attempts to nurse the survivor back to health. However, while Aaron is happy with his new friend, he learns the hard way that keeping a wolf under wraps is no easy task. Time of the Wolf also features guest appearances from Jason Priestley and Marthe Keller. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Benoit Jacquot directed this French drama about an older woman and a younger man, adapted from the novel by Yukio Mishima. When career woman Dominique (Isabelle Huppert) goes out to a nightclub one evening, her attraction to bartender Quentin (Vincent Martinez) is observed by cross-dressing Chris (Vincent Lindon), who approaches her and supplies inside dope on Quentin, leaving her intrigued. Although Dominique and Quentin travel in radically different spheres of income, class, politics, and education, these barriers recede into the background as sexual passion overcomes the couple. Shown in competition at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

This drama, set in 1938, chronicles a month in the life of the Portuguese journalist Pereira. He is first seen as a lonely, widowed, and overweight editor of the culture page of a second-rate Lisbon newspaper. Earlier in his career, he had been a news reporter. Pereira is fascinated with old literature; he is also obsessed with death. He hires himself an assistant, Monteiro Rossi, to prepare obituaries for old writers before they die. The young man and his girlfriend are both passionate fighters against the dictatorship in Portugal. They, along with a German Jewish woman, help to draw Pereira out of his dusty old books and spark his interest in the current political turmoil of Europe. Eventually they strongly encourage him to use his position to post notice of the impending dangers to the public. At their urging, Pereira is emboldened to publish his translation of an anti-German French short story. Although he sneaks it past the censors, his editor catches it and Pereira is in deep trouble. Meanwhile Rossi leaves his job to join the underground revolutionaries. Pereira keeps sending money to Rossi's girl, but he doesn't become totally committed to the cause until he meets up with the philosophical cardiologist who narrates the tale. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The made-for-cable costume drama Young Catherine is the story of Catherine the Great (Julia Ormond). As the film begins, Catherine is a teen-aged German girl who marries into the Russian royal family of the 18th century; by the end of the long production, she has ascended to the throne of Russia. Though the film looks fantastic, it is slightly too long and slowly paced to be consistently compelling. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Actor Klaus Maria Brandauer makes his directorial debut with The Seven Minutes (released in Germany as Georg Elser-Einer aus Deutschland. Brandauer also stars, playing a solid citizen of 1939 Berlin. Though loyal to the Fatherland, he despises Hitler and the Nazis. A few weeks after the start of World War II, Elser (Brandauer) begins cooking up a scheme to assassinate Der Fuehrer at a reunion for the participants of the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch. All he needs is seven minutes. All he doesn't need is the unwitting intrusiveness of innocent barmaid Anneliese (Rebecca Miller, daughter of playwright Arthur Miller). Even though we know the outcome, Brandauer sustains an incredible amount of tension. The film isn't quite in the league of Day of the Jackal, but it's not too far from it. The Seven Minutes was adapted by Stephen Sheppard from his own novel The Artisan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Oci Ciornie was an international co-production tailored for Marcello Mastroianni. It received good reviews in Italy and France, and Mastroianni was awarded "Best Actor" at the Cannes Film Festival. However, some in Russia felt that director Mikhalkov (who previously received wide acclaim for another Chekhov adaptation, (An Unfinished Piece for the Player Piano) tried too hard to cater to foreign tastes rather than to convey Chekhov's mood. So this film conveys more of a foreign idea what Chekhov is about rather than a Russian one. In the story, Romano (Marcello Mastroianni) is living the life of a "kept" man in that he is the penniless husband of a rich aristocratic woman who supports him. Whenever life at home becomes too difficult for him, he goes off to some spa or other for a "rest cure." In addition to resting, the clownish fellow flirts shamelessly with the women he finds at these resorts. During one of his restorative excursions, he meets a shy Russian woman named Anna, whom he is much taken with. When she leaves to return to her life at home, he resolves to follow her and woo her there. With a great deal of buffoonery and ingenuity (such as pretending to be a manufacturer of a special kind of glass), he gets a visa to travel into Russia. There, he finds her unhappily married to a minor official, and before he leaves for Europe he promises to return and marry her. When he gets back home, he finds that his aristocratic wife is experiencing a genuine crisis (her family has lost its money), and he soon forgets about Anna and his promises to her. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Viewers should be warned off this failed attempt at farce by its title alone. The film makes just about as much sense. Scripted, directed, and edited by Adriano Celentano a total of $10,000,000 was spent to poke almost violent "fun" at Christ's Second Coming. Joan Lui (Christ, played by Celentano), dressed in a hippie-style band and rimless glasses rides a 19th-century train filled with obviously hostile blacks. He gets off at a rural station and suddenly crosses over into a future world at war. Helicopters fly overhead, cars crash into each other, kidnappings occur and all the while Joan Lui is hanging out with the locals, talking. Episodes "condemning" hedonism or hypocrisy continue from there, but many segments are sure to be unconvincing and unfunny to some viewers at least. Song-and-dance numbers add to the confusion, and only a miracle of re-editing could save this film. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Originally a nine-hour British miniseries, this film on the last four decades in the life of Richard Wagner may have taken its long-winded cue from the lengthy operas of the famous 19th-century German composer and musical theorist -- the Ring des Nibelungen is 14-15 hours in itself, divided into four separate operas. This biographical film begins when Wagner is first recognized for his work, yet in that same year, 1848, he was forced out of his homeland for his radical politics (he supported the unification of separate kingdoms under one Germany) and settled in Zurich for awhile. Focusing on character traits that are well-known and would not endear him to anyone, the film details his bigotry (a confirmed anti-Semitic), his insensitivity, and his obsession with money -- he went after the bottom line even if it meant losing friendships or ruining his marriage. Although Wagner is known for his music theory and the contribution he made to opera during his lifetime, very little attention is given to his actual works in this film. Venerable British thespians (Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Vanessa Redgrave, Joan Plowright, and Richard Burton as Wagner) light up the cast but not always with the same brightness. In the final analysis, the slow-paced story is simply too long in the telling, and even the visually sumptuous costumes and production design cannot make up for a slow script, uneven acting, and problems in direction. The film version runs 300 minutes. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

With George C. Scott and Marlon Brando heading the cast, The Formula should have been far better than it is. Adapted by Steve Shagan from his own best-selling novel, the film is predicated on the concept that a formula for synthetic fuel had been developed by the Nazis during WW II. In the intervening 35 years since the war's end, the formula has disappeared and several people connected with it have died under mysterious circumstances. Also during this period, oil magnate Adam Steiffel (Marlon Brando) had commiserated with one of the decedents. Police officer Barney Caine (George C. Scott), a friend of the dead man, hopes to solve the mystery, and in so doing gets mixed up in a wide-ranging conspiracy to manipulate worldwide fuel prices. Reportedly, The Formula underwent a great deal of editing-room surgery before its release. If so, the editors certainly erred in retaining so many of the film's interminable "steadicam" sequences. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Starring Al Pacino and directed by Sydney Pollack, Bobby Deerfield stars Pacino plays the title character, a reckless race car driver. As his fame grows, Bobby becomes increasingly full of himself, which seriously jeopardizes his performance on the track and his private life. Marthe Keller plays Bobby's aristocratic, enigmatic lady friend, whose tragic secret sets the stage for melodrama. Also on hand is Ann Duperey as a racetrack groupie. Originally released at 124 minutes, Bobby Deerfield was pared down to 99 minutes by director Pollack for cable-TV consumption. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide