Jean-Philippe Lafont Movies
The Danish/French Babette's Feast is based on a story by Isak Dinesen, also the source of the very different Out of Africa (1985). Stephane Audran plays Babette, a 19th century Parisian political refugee who seeks shelter in a rough Danish coastal town. Philippa (Bodil Kjer) and Martina (Birgitte Federspiel), the elderly daughters of the town's long-dead minister, take Babette in. As revealed in flashback, Philippa and Martina were once beautiful young women (played by Hanne Stensgaard and Vibeke Hastrup), who'd forsaken their chances at romance and fame, taking hollow refuge in religion. Babette holds a secret that may very well allow the older ladies to have a second chance at life. This is one of the great movies about food, but there are way too many surprises in Babette's Feast to allow us to reveal anything else at this point (except that Ingmar Bergman "regulars" Bibi Andersson and Jarl Kulle have significant cameo roles).. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stéphane Audran, Jean-Philippe Lafont, (more)
- 1985
The sentiments of producer, co-writer, and star Alain Delon provide the particular slant in this routine thriller about vigilante justice over other vigilantes. The angry hero (Delon) leaves France in a fury because of a technicality in the justice system that failed to convict the murderers of his wife. After lazing away his days in a Congolese village, sleeping with whatever woman he chooses or playing cards, he finds out that vigilantes have murdered his daughter because they are intent on ridding France of undesirables -- which include delinquents (a category mistakenly attributed to her) and North Africans, as well as drug dealers. Now really out of control, revenge propels the bereaved father to return home and murder the vigilantes one by one, maiming them first to watch them suffer. Justice, of course, is too blind to catch up with him. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alain Delon, Jacques Perrin, (more)
- 1984
- PG
Georges Bizet's 1875 opera about Carmen, the colorful cigarette factory worker whose flirtations with the soldier Don José are forgotten in her love for the matador Escamillo, is the source for director Francesco Rosi's cinematic version of the same story. Plácido Domingo sings the part of Don José, Julia Migenes-Johnson sings Carmen, and Ruggero Raimondi is Escamillo. Although there is nothing to fault in the singing itself, some viewers may feel that director Rosi has stayed closer to a stage production than the medium of film would warrant. Carmen received the 1984 Cesar award for "Best Sound." ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julia Migenes, Plácido Domingo, (more)
