Dani Movies
A fresh-faced orphan from the provinces labors away at the last old-fashioned café on Avenue Montaigne as the Paris theater elite prepare for the biggest night of the year in Jet Lag director Danièle Thompson's whirlwind comedy of intersecting lives. Jessica (Cécile De France) may have been orphaned at the tender age of four, but her doting grandmother (Suzanne Flon) did her best to bring the motherless girl up right. A one-time ladies' room attendant at The Ritz, Jessica's grandmother was a woman well known for her extraordinary taste. Upon arriving in Paris to work as a waitress at a modest café nestled between a renowned concert hall, a venerable theater, and a high-profile auction house, Jessica soon finds herself interacting with a curious cross section of the thriving entertainment industry. As rehearsals for the upcoming shows get under way and Jessica is assigned the task of delivering food to the hardworking actors and low-earning stagehands, she soon discovers that even the most famous of people are often forced to make difficult decisions in life.
Jean-François Lefort (Albert Dupontel) is a classical pianist whose devoted wife has him booked at venues across Europe for the next six years. As the free-spirited musician struggles to eschew the formality of his upcoming concert appearance, self-made businessman Jacques Grumberg (Claude Brasseur) takes time out from his May-December romance and his stressful medical treatment in order to auction off a collection that he has been building his entire life and reach out to his estranged intellectual son, Frédéric (Christopher Thompson). Meanwhile, back on the theater front, popular television actress Catherine Versen (Valérie Lemercier) prepares to star in a farcical play, a famous American film director (Sydney Pollack) begins auditioning actors for an upcoming film about Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, and a cheerful concierge on the verge of retirement (Dani) enjoys her final stint rubbing elbows with the biggest and brightest stars in Paris. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Jean-François Lefort (Albert Dupontel) is a classical pianist whose devoted wife has him booked at venues across Europe for the next six years. As the free-spirited musician struggles to eschew the formality of his upcoming concert appearance, self-made businessman Jacques Grumberg (Claude Brasseur) takes time out from his May-December romance and his stressful medical treatment in order to auction off a collection that he has been building his entire life and reach out to his estranged intellectual son, Frédéric (Christopher Thompson). Meanwhile, back on the theater front, popular television actress Catherine Versen (Valérie Lemercier) prepares to star in a farcical play, a famous American film director (Sydney Pollack) begins auditioning actors for an upcoming film about Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, and a cheerful concierge on the verge of retirement (Dani) enjoys her final stint rubbing elbows with the biggest and brightest stars in Paris. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cécile De France, Valérie Lemercier, (more)
- 2003
French filmmaker Claire Doyon makes her feature-length writing and directing debut with the drama Les Lionceaux, which translates to "Little Lions," but is given the English language title Sleep Tight. Lisa LaCroix and Marie Felix play two seemingly feral teenage sisters who inhabit a deserted island with their estranged parents. Soon a guy washes up on shore and changes things. Sleep Tight was shown at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lisa LaCroix, Marie Felix, (more)
- 1999
- NR
The idea for this film about a generation and its lost ideals came to Romain Goupil after attending several funerals of friends in the fall of 1996, where the '68 generation, now in influential positions in media or politics, kept meeting each other. It seemed as if the revolution that they had tried to make was being buried with each coffin. A mort la mort is in some ways an homage to this generation, now in their fifties. They were a privileged generation that thought that they could change the world, doing everything that their parents failed to do. There were no actual deaths in France as there were in Germany or Italy, but the system was not ideal for personal issues or for love. There was always a scapegoat for the injustices of the world, be it capitalism or imperialism. That way the blame could be placed somewhere else. Some of the '68 generation are still faithful to the principles of their youth and still continue to fight for the illusions of the past. But with the war going on in Kosovo, the only way is to take direct action against Fascism. While narrating the story of a generation, the director uses humor, making fun of the thousand ways of fidelity to ideas, to passion and to women and how the ideal of fidelity fares when confronted with reality. The protagonist, Thomas (played by Goupil himself) tries to face life that has passed with a theory of offense. That is why he has to say "'Death to Death'' to put an end to all deaths, but this is an illusion, it is fiction which only cinema can make real. The film tries to face all issues by taking a contrary approach. 52nd Cannes Film Festival, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Romain Goupil, Marianne Denicourt, (more)
- 1985
A tribute to the late, great French director Francois Truffaut, this documentary was undoubtedly named after his last movie, Vivement Dimanche, released in 1983. Included in this overview of Truffaut's contribution to filmmaking are clips from 14 of his movies arranged according to the themes he favored. These include childhood, literature, the cinema itself, romance, marriage, and even death (The Green Room). Of lesser notice in this documentary is the life of the man himself. There are some scenes of his receiving an award or two and some interview footage, but nothing extensive. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
L'Amour en Fuite (Love on the Run) is presented in flashbacks from the previous four movies as Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud) meets up with people from his past. As the fifth and final film in the series, Antoine is over 30 years old and meets with his wife, Christine (Claude Jade), to sign the papers for their divorce. As it is the first no-fault divorce of its kind in France, the press surrounds them. In the crowd is also Antoine's past love, Colette (Marie-France Pisier), who is now a lawyer and in love with Xaiver the Librarian (Daniel Mesguich). Antoine is in love with Sabine (Dorothée), but she breaks things off when he ditches her to go see his son at the train station. While he is there, he impulsively joins Colette on a train ride where they recall their past and go through his recent autobiographical novel. Finally, Monsieur Lucien (Julien Bertheau) also re-enters Antoine's life and they visit his mother's grave at Montmartre. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Pierre Léaud, Marie-France Pisier, (more)
Known to English-speaking audiences as Day for Night, La nuit américaine was director François Truffaut's loving and humorous tribute to the communal insanity of making a movie. The film details the making of a family drama called "Meet Pamela" about the tragedy that follows when a young French man introduces his parents to his new British wife. Truffaut gently satirizes his own films with "Meet Pamela"'s overwrought storyline, but the real focus is on the chaos behind the scenes. One of the central actresses is continually drunk due to family problems, while the other is prone to emotional instability, and the male lead (Truffaut regular Jean-Pierre Leaud) starts to act erratically when his intermittent romance with the fickle script girl begins to fail. In addition to all this personal drama, the film is besieged by technical problems, from difficult tracking shots to stubborn animal actors. The inspiration for future satires of movie-making from Living in Oblivion to Irma Vep, La nuit américaine was considered slight by some critics in comparison to earlier Truffaut masterworks, but it went on to win the 1973 Oscar for Best Foreign Film. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jacqueline Bisset, Valentina Cortese, (more)
- 1973
This French suspense drama concerns the efforts of a small-time criminal (Robert Hossein) to spring his older brother from jail. The younger man and his friends kidnap a non-descript detective to serve as a hostage they can exchange for the brother. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marc Porel, Robert Hossein, (more)
- 1972
In order to fight gangsters, the local townspeople and some hippie tourists overcome their differences in this French comedy/thriller. The villagers had hoped to lure a richer slice of the tourist trade to their town, but what they got were a bunch of fairly grungy hippies. After putting up with their antics for a while, the locals run the hippies out of town, but not far. The Countess' estate is nearby, and she wants them on her land to irritate the gangster who has forced his company on her. When the gangster makes the mistake of alienating the townspeople, his goose is cooked. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- André Pousse, Jean Lefebvre, (more)
