Noel Godin Movies
- 2005
Valerie Lemercier's royal comedy Palais Royal! stars Valerie Lemercier as a commoner who is married to a prince (Lambert Wilson). When the king dies, the queen (Catherine Deneuve) pulls strings to have the Prince jump the order of succession and take control. The wife has little aptitude for being the wife of royalty, but soon becomes quite good at it in order to gain some power after she discovers that her husband is sleeping with another woman. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Valérie Lemercier, Lambert Wilson, (more)
- 2004
Three no-budget semi-professional filmmakers finally get their due in this witty but respectful documentary. Director Frederic Sojcher visits three fellow Belgian auteurs whose ambitions outstrip their budgets, or their recognition. Max Naveaux is a projectionist who decided to take a stab at making movies himself, putting together small-scale war films whose realism was heightened by the fact that the Belgian Ministry of Defense gave him permission to use real bullets for one of his movies. Schoolteacher Jacques Hardy has dabbled in creating film noir, costume horror, and comic-book adventures, most starring his friend Christian Vranken, who makes his living as a church caretaker and insists on casting approval for his female co-stars. And Jean-Jacques Rousseau is a self-styled surrealist whose commitment to obscurity is great enough that he insists on being interviewed while wearing a ski mask, and insists that while he could make better films if he had the budget of a Steven Spielberg, Spielberg couldn't make a film at all for the money Rousseau has at his disposal. Produced for Belgian television, Cinéastes à Tout Prix features plenty of clips from the works of the film's subjects, ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Max Naveaux, Jacques Hardy, (more)
Two irascible farmers find their bitter rivalry taking on epic tones in this pitch black comedy starring, written, and directed by Benoît Delépine and Gustave Kervern. They may spend their days toiling the land, but these two tillers of the soil are far from humble. When their ongoing feud escalates into all out war and both men wind up paralyzed by a tractor, they soon opt to focus their rage not on each other, but on the manufacturer of the machine. Now, as the former enemies make their way to Helsinki in order to exact their revenge, the stage is set for a hilarious confrontation. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Benoit Delepine, Gustave Kervern, (more)
