Marie-Christine Barrault Movies

This ambitious attempt to film a portion of Marcel Proust's epic novel Remembrance of Things Past stars Jeremy Irons as Charles Swann, a Jewish intellectual who has managed to overcome growing anti-Semitism in 19th century France and travels in an elite social circle. But Swann has become obsessed with Odette (Ornella Muti), a courtesan who cares more for money than Swann's passion for her. In time they marry, but Swann soon realizes his desire for her is based purely on physical lust for someone with whom he has no rapport, or even much affection, and the relationship begins to erode the social acceptance Swann struggled to achieve. Meanwhile, the Baron de Charlus (Alain Delon) finds himself similarly attracted to a young man who does not share his desires. Un Amour de Swann was much praised for its production design and the cinematography of frequent Ingmar Bergman collaborator Sven Nykvist, though many felt director Volker Schlondorff failed to capture the narrative depth and complexity of Proust's novel. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Based on a non-fiction bestseller of the same name by Rolf Hochhuth, Eine Liebe In Deutschland is about a tragic and forbidden love affair between Stanislaw, a Polish POW (Piotr Lysak) and Paulina (Hanna Schygulla) a fruit-and-vegetable vendor in a small town in Germany along the border with Switzerland. Their affair would have gone undetected except for the busybody women of the village, and when Stanislaw is picked up by a German stormtrooper (Armin Müller-Stahl) and brought in for a mock trial, he is given a chance to prove his racial purity and so perhaps escape execution. As for Paulina, she is ostracized by the villagers and imprisoned for consorting with someone who was not of the same high Aryan caste as herself. Depressing, yet politically relevant to Poland of the early 1980s, this film by acclaimed director Andrzej Wajda) is an effective and emotional statement on the nature of oppression. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Based on an autobiographical novel by Marie Cardinal, this well-acted psychological drama details the tormented relationship between Marie (Nicole Garcia) and her mother, stemming from Marie's childhood on their estate in Algeria. The mother, Eliane (Marie-Christine Barrault) had lost a child before Marie was born, and was consumed with hatred for her husband who was carrying tuberculosis and may have been the cause of the child's death. That hatred was never resolved, and Marie grew up in a bitter and strained household. As both women grow older, Marie marries and raises a family while her mother sinks ever deeper into anger, frustration, poverty, and isolated despair. She vents her destructive emotions on her daughter and is completely resistent to her daughter's attempts to help her, to make her life better. At the beginning of the film, Marie has been hemorrhaging and collapses on the Metro - but instead of following the advice of her doctor (and uncle) and going through surgery, she goes into psychoanalysis, where her past slowly comes to light over a three-year period. The sessions with the psychologist and her on-going relationship with her mother unfold as the events in the film. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Both subtle and obvious fluctuations in a mother-daughter relationship are explored in this sensitive, insightful drama by Charlotte Dubreuil. Divorcee Jeanne (Marie-Christine Barrault) lives alone with her sixteen-year-old daughter Sarah (Beatrice Bruno) and the two of them have developed a very close, perhaps even too close, relationship. Jeanne still sees her ex-husband once in awhile, has a boyfriend, and at times may have a casual and intimate relationship with someone other than her boyfriend. Jeanne takes Sarah to a doctor to see about birth control and tries to acknowledge her continuing transformation into adulthood. But her daughter's growth and need for independence as well as Jeanne's own life issues make staying centered a challenge. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Lieve is a Belgian woman who marries just as World War II is beginning. When the Germans invade, her husband goes off to fight them, but he swiftly returns home after the invasion succeeds. Later, he decides that the Germans are on the right side of things, and goes off to fight for them on the Eastern Front. Soon afterward, a resistance fighter is stranded on her doorway, and she hides him. The two of them fall in love, and the conflicts and joys of this relationship cause Lieve continued grief well after the end of the war. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

L'Etat Sauvage is based on the novel by Georges Conchon which won the highly esteemed Prix de Goncourt. The story chronicles the mindless racism of both the departing French colonial overlords and the emergent black Africans in a newly emerging African state. Laurence (Marie-Christine Barrault) suffers the outrage of her white acquaintances, including her former lover Gravenoir (Claude Brasseur) and her ex-husband Avit (Jacques Dutronc), for her affair with Patrice Doumbe (Doura Mane), an official in the new government. He in turn is ridiculed by his fellow cabinet ministers for stepping out with a white woman. The vilification escalates to such a point that Patrice is brutally murdered, and Laurence barely escapes the country alive, with the help of her ex-husband Avit. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This film explores everyday lives of a small group of middle-class women who meet frequently (if not daily) by the tennis courts and in the beauty parlor. The film revels in their intrigues and difficulties, and the way they meet the challenges of day-to-day life. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Adapted from the novel Die Döppelgänger by Theodor Storm, this black-and-white drama tells the tragic story of a war veteran who, in 1860, returns to his home in Schleswig Holstein after serving a term for robbery. There he finds nothing but hardship and rejection, save from the town's mayor and a young servant girl, whom he marries. Ridiculed and abused, with practically no work, he turns to drink and one night accidentally kills his wife. The child of their marriage is taken away from him, and at this point he is left with the options of becoming a robber, starving to death, or emigrating. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Eric Rohmer ends his cycle of "Six Moral Tales" with this delightful film starring Bernard Verley as Frederic, a happily married man who discovers that he can't stop looking at beautiful women. As he says in a voiceover, "I feel marriage closes me in, cloisters me, and I want to escape." His escape comes to him in the form of Chloe (Zouzou), a woman from his past. Chloe had left for America as a successful model but has now returned to Paris, bored with her life and saddled with a man she doesn't love. Although Frederic is reluctant to see her at first, they agree to meet in the afternoons -- just to talk. He feels a freedom with her that he doesn't experience with anyone else because they have, he thinks, no commitments to each other. So, they talk of their problems and their relationships and, before long, Frederic finds that he is becoming increasingly attracted to her. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

The "my" in My Night At Maud's belongs to the protagonist played by Jean-Louis Trintignant, a Catholic engineer whose struggle with his faith is renewed when he falls instantly in love with a woman he's never met (Marie-Christine Barrault) while attending mass. A chance meeting with an amoral old friend (Antoine Vitez) the same night places him in a potentially compromising situation when he's forced to spend the night with Vitez's alluring acquaintance Maude (Françoise Fabian), a sophisticated woman who challenges Trintignant's belief through intellectual and fleshly means. ~ Keith Phipps, All Movie Guide