Guilaine Londez Movies

A lawman infiltrates Paris's criminal underground to bring a gang of killers to justice in this violent thriller. Abel Vargas (Gerald Laroche) is a powerful crime boss who is serving time in prison, and as he's being transferred from one penitentiary to another, his police escort is met by a large band of Vargas's underlings, who attack them with furious violence. When the dust settles, Vargas is a fugitive and a large number of officers are dead. Police detective Vincent Drieu (Richard Berry) is put in charge of the investigation to find Vargas and his henchmen, and after losing patience with his fellow gumshoes, Drieu begins working undercover, hoping to find Vargas's associates by passing as a fellow member of the criminal fraternity. In time Drieu finds a pair of cops who understand his style and working methods, Kathia (Aissa Maiga) and Wazemme (Bernard Blancan), and together they dig deep into the French underground, courting danger as they become friends with the people they intend to put behind bars. Les Insoumis (aka Crossfire) was the first theatrical feature from director Claude Michel Rome, who previously distinguished himself in European television. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A bourgeois office drone whose raison d'état is the music of French rocker Johnny Hallyday awakens one day in an alternate universe where the famed musician never recorded a single song. When he's not at the office dutifully plugging-away, Fabrice (Fabrice Luchini) lives a deadly dull life in the suburbs of Paris with his bored wife (Guilaine Londez) and rebellious teenage daughter (Elodie Bollee). The only thing that ignites passion in Fabrice's lifeless existence is the music of Johnny Hallyday, and every chance the smitten Fabrice gets he ventures up into the attic to worship at the shrine he has built to the larger-than-life pop icon. One night while drunkenly shuffling home, Fabrice goads on a quick-tempered neighbor and earns a stiff punch in the nose for his efforts. Upon awakening to discover that his elaborate rock star shrine is now a simple collection of beer cans, Fabrice calls to report a burglary to police. Strangely enough, no one - not even the police or his wife - has ever heard the name Johnny Hallyday. Subsequently, Fabrice makes it his mission in life to locate Hallyday and get him behind a microphone by any means necessary. Though the world's biggest Johnny Halliday fan does indeed eventually stumble across a bowling alley proprietor (Hallyday) who was once an aspiring teenage rock star, he soon finds his efforts to revive the failed singer's career thwarted in the most unexpected of ways. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A warm and gentle human fable with a left-wing political undercurrent, the French-language picture Looking for Cheyenne concerns two women passionately in love with one another, and yet hopelessly separated. Journalist Cheyenne (Mila Dekker) is reeling -- not only from a split with one of the great loves of her life, high school science prof Sonia (Aurelia Petit), but from a recent and unexpected job loss -- the product of her company's decision to downsize. When she finds it next to impossible to land another job, Cheyenne eventually throws up her hands in disgust and drops out altogether. Refusing to live by society's constraints, and rejecting every government "handout" that comes down the pike, Cheyenne lives without running water, electricity, or groceries, preferring instead to live off of discarded vegetables that she discovers in trash cans and to light her residence with candles. Meanwhile, Sonia keeps her job, but enters into an affair with a freewheeling young man, Pierre. An anarchist who spends his time passing out flyers full of anarchist catchphrases and taglines, he readily admits to Sonia that he could care less about her pansexuality and is willing to accept her on her own terms. Sonia's affair represents an attempt to drown the sorrow out of her life, for she -- like Cheyenne -- is still destroyed and devastated by the recent breakup. As each woman grapples with a unique outlet for her sorrow, eccentric and endearing characters waltz in and out of their lives and form various romantic couplings; these include a wealthy middle-aged woman of a predatory nature (Guilaine Londez); a comely and naïve coed who decides to stage her own form of social rebellion (Eleonore Michelin); an affable and ebullient Russian (Miglen Mirtchev); and a man who believes in returning to the soil (Laurence Côte). Director Valerie Minetto thus weaves together a giant life tapestry composed of joys and sorrows, unexpected treasures, and resounding disappointments. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

A father who is determined to enjoy his vacation even if it kills him hits the high seas -- and the high seas hit back -- in this comedy from France. Jacques Monot (Denis Podalydes) is spending a few weeks of the summer at the seaside with his wife, Albertine (Guilaine Londez), and their four children. However, the resort community where they've landed is not proving to be very entertaining, and Jacques is looking for a way to make their stay more exciting. An encounter with a persuasive (if less than scrupulous) salesman leads to Jacques purchasing a rattletrap sailboat, and despite the fact that he's never handled a sailboat in his life, Jacques decides to take his new craft out for a spin on the ocean with chaotic results. Liberte-Oleron was directed by Bruno Podalydes, the brother of leading man Denis Podalydes; the siblings also collaborated on the film's screenplay. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Lots of people wish they could be someone else, but a French businessman decides to do something about it in this satirical comedy. Francis Bergeade (Michel Serrault) runs a factory in a small town that makes toilet seats. With his employees on strike and his wife plundering his bank account as she plans their daughter's wedding, Francis's life isn't much fun; his one real pleasure is eating and drinking well, in the company of his friend Gerard (Eddy Mitchell). One evening, Francis is watching a television show about people who've gone missing, and he sees the sad story of Dolores (Carmen Maura), a woman living on a beautiful farm in the South of France who has no idea where her husband has gone. When a picture of Dolores's husband is shown, Francis is amazed to discover that it looks just like him. He soon steps forward and poses as Dolores's husband, leaving his wife to wonder where he is. However, she doesn't seem all that worried, since before long she's having an affair with Gerard. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Aimless young lovers Julie and Jack leave their provincial home and head for Paris to spend a year doing little more than wandering about and making frequent love. To support them, Jack gets a night job driving taxi. Julie does not work and while he works, she strolls the boulevards. Trouble comes when Julie falls for Joseph, a day-shift cabbie and begins a nighttime affair with him. At first Julie feels no guilt nor sense of betrayal, but as the intensity of the affair with Joseph, who has fallen deeply in love with her, increases, things get more difficult until Julie is forced to face up to her actions in the film's realistic finale. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi