Catherine Hosmalin Movies
Their relationship fractured when older sister Juliette is sentenced to 15 years in prison, two siblings wage an emotional battle to rebuild their relationship, overcome the secrets that keep them apart, and finally express the thoughts that have lain dormant for well over a decade. The moment Juliette was convicted, her parents declared that they wanted nothing to do with her. Now, after 15 years behind bars, Juliette is a free woman and in desperate need of a human connection. When Juliette's younger sister, Léa, is approached by a prison social worker and asked if she would be willing to provide her recently paroled sibling with a place to live, she doesn't hesitate to open her doors and share her home. But Léa is happily married with two adopted daughters, and her husband, Luc, is uneasy with the arrangement. Still, the house is large, the couple is used to having company, and the two young girls are thrilled to have a new aunt. As Juliette gets settled, Léa does her best to make her feel welcome. Likewise, Léa's colleague Michel and emigrant couple Samir and Kaïsha also offer to help Juliette readjust to life on the outside. Along the way, Juliette slowly begins to emerge from her shell and Léa realizes just how much she missed her sister. Perhaps if she can put aside her feelings of guilt long enough to truly understand her sister's plight, these two strangers can finally remember what it means to be family. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kristin Scott Thomas, Elsa Zylberstein, (more)
Mr. Bean -- the stick-legged goofball man-child created by Rowan Atkinson on television in the early '90s, and in the 1997 feature Bean -- undertakes his second cinematic adventure in the comic romp Mr. Bean's Holiday. Growing thoroughly sick of the wet, cold, and clammy London weather, Mr. Bean (Atkinson) finds just the right tonic when he wins a trip to sunny southern France, all expenses paid, with a new digital video camera to accompany him. However, he runs headfirst into a series of outrageous and unpleasant situations, such as winding up in a French restaurant where a maître d’ (Jean Rochefort) convinces him to eat bizarre varieties of seafood that he's never before encountered, and discovering that the "Very Fast Train" certainly lives up to its name. Eventually, Mr. Bean (accompanied by a Russian traveling companion whom he meets along his journey) stumbles onto the French Riviera and spoils the latest movie production of snobbish, egomaniacal filmmaker Carson Clay (Willem Dafoe) -- little realizing that his own klutzy video footage will accidentally end up in Clay's film and be screened at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival. Unlike the first big-screen incarnation of Atkinson's character, Mr. Bean's Holiday adheres more closely to the formula of the original series by rendering the character almost completely mute. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rowan Atkinson, Emma de Caunes, (more)
- 2006
It's hard to say if the kids or the counselors need more supervision at the second-rate summer camp in this comedy from France. Vincent (Jean-Paul Rouve) runs "Ces Jours Heureux," a camp for kids in rural France, and as he gears up for the summer season, he has to round up a new staff of counselors to look after the campers. Vincent ends up with six eccentric twenty-somethings, including self-styled ladies' man Daniel (Lannick Gautry), Canadian party animal Truman (Guillaume Cyr), potty-mouthed lapsed Catholic Caroline (Josephine de Meaux), pretty but non-ambitious Lisa (Julie Fournier), handsome black guy Joseph (Omar Sy), and Nadine (Marilou Berry), who is made the camp medic by virtue of her status as a medical school drop-out. While the campers have to contend with bad weather, worse food and extended periods of boredom, the supposedly more mature counselors hardly fare much better, and occasionally face visits from the cops over the camp's various safety violations. Nos Jours Heureux (aka Those Happy Days) was written and directed by the team of Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache, who previously scored a box office hit with Je Prefere Qu'on Reste Amis. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Paul Rouve, Marilou Berry, (more)
- 2003
French filmmaker Philippe Le Guay writes and directs the ensemble comedy Le Cout de la Vie (The Cost of Living). Set in the city of Lyon over a period of a few days, the film reveals people's relationship to money through the intersecting lives of several characters. Fabrice Luchini plays the wealthy Brett, who likes to hang on tightly to his money, while Vincent Lindon plays the generous Coway, who has spent way more than he earns. Geraldine Pailhas plays Helena, a high-class escort with expensive tastes, while Isild Le Besco plays a down-to-earth young heiress who cares more about love than money. Meanwhile powerful businessman Nicolas de Blamond (Claude Rich) puts loads of people out of work when he shuts down his factories after he learns of his failing heath. The Cost of Living was shown at the 2003 Locarno International Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vincent Lindon, Fabrice Luchini, (more)
