Franck Chorot Movies
- 2009
On the most fundamental level, the two neighboring French villages of Super-Charmoussey and Charmoussey couldn't possibly be more different: the former is an affluent, thriving ski resort town, the latter a village struggling financially - to such a degree that it seems barely able to stay afloat. For decades, the two villages have engaged in an intense and longstanding rivalry, with a perennial beauty contest between the towns; the lucky young winner, each year, automatically graduates to the Miss Franche-Comtr competition. For 22 years, Super-Charmoussey has won, hands-down, with its endless supply of gorgeous young European women who are primed and coached by outside professionals for maximum success. But this year, Charmoussey's mayor opts for a change in plan; longing to beat Super-Charmoussey at its own game, he summons village expatriate-turned-professional actor Franck (superstar Benoit Poelvoorde) to leave his Parisian home, move back into the community, and uncover the many secrets that Super-Charmoussey's citizens routinely use to give themselves a leg up. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Benoît Poelvoorde, Olivia Bonamy, (more)
- 2008
Two scientists (Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley) embark on a dangerous journey when they splice human DNA into preexisting genetic-engineered experiments in this sci-fi thriller from director Vincenzo Natali and executive producer Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth). ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley, (more)
- 2008
Beauty is the only thing that can save a small town where pretty women are in short supply in this comedy from French director Patrice Leconte. Charmoussey is a dingy back-alley of a small town located next door to Upper Charmoussey, which is home to an upscale ski resort. Upper Charmoussey is doing so well that the owners of the resort are considering buying their shabby neighbor lock, stock and barrel and expanding their business into the territory. But the citizens of Charmoussey take a curious pride in their hometown, and they think their best bet at survival would be to field a winning contestant in an upcoming beauty pageant. Unfortunately, Charmoussey's contestants have finished out of the money in the contest for more than twenty years in a row, so they decide they need the help of a show biz professional to groom their crop of hopefuls. Enter Franck Chevrel (Benoit Poelvoorde), a former local boy who has come home for a visit; Franck has appeared in a few big time movies and television shows, and even if he was just an extra without lines, that still makes him more of a star than anyone else in town. Franck isn't sure he has the skills to help the local gals win a beauty pageant, but when he learns it would allow him to spend time with a girl he used to love (Olivia Bonamy), he decides to give it a try. La guerre des miss (aka Beauties At War) received its North American premiere at the 2009 Seattle International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 2008
A cop on the edge of an emotional collapse is on the trail of a violent madman in this edgy crime thriller from French writer and director Olivier Marchal. Charles Subra (Philippe Nahon) is a habitual criminal who, after serving twenty-five years in prison on a sentence for rape and murder, is up for parole. While Charles insists he's seen the error of his ways and wants to repay society for his crimes, Justine (Olivia Bonamy) isn't buying it -- Charles murdered her mother and father while she watched, and she writes him a long letter explaining in detail why she wants him to stay behind bars. Charles is granted parole anyway, but it soon becomes clear that the clever criminal fooled the prison authorities -- he still has a taste for murder and wants to kill again, starting with Justine. Louis Schneider (Daniel Auteuil) is a police detective who meets with Justine and helps protect her from the madman on the loose, but he's not the best man for the job these days -- shattered by the sudden death of his wife and child and haunted by a serious of brutal murders he's been investigating, Louis's psyche is in tatters and he's only marginally more stable than the criminal he's trying to catch. Director and screenwriter Olivier Marchal was inspired to make MR 73 by his own experiences as a police officer in the early Eighties; the title is police slang for the Manurhin 73, a standard handgun for French beat cops in the Seventies and Eighties. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Auteuil, Olivia Bonamy, (more)
A woman is thrust into a world where everything is subtly unfamiliar in this edgy thriller from writer and director Sean Ellis. Gina McVay (Lena Headey) is a radiologist who is enjoying dinner one evening with her family and her boyfriend Stefan (Melvil Poupaud) when a mirror shatters for no apparent reason. After a few moments, no one thinks much of it, but the next day Gina is leaving work and she sees something even more troubling -- a woman who looks just like her, driving a car identical to her own. Curious, Gina sneaks into the doppelganger's apartment and sees a photo of herself and her father in the hallway. Seriously rattled, Gina runs out and drives away, only to get in an accident that lands her in the hospital. After she's released, Gina asks Stefan if she can stay with him, but while he looks the same, his personality and behavior are quite different from the way she remembers him, and she begins having vivid nightmares which become all the more terrifying when the same horrific images begin popping up in her waking hours. The Broken received its American premiere at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lena Headey, Ulrich Thomsen, (more)
Film noir meets future shock in first-time feature filmmaker Julien Leclercq's ambitious sci fi thriller about a hard-boiled French police lieutenant investigating the mysterious death of an illegal immigrant. Years ago, wanted human trafficker Dimitry Nicolov (Alain Figlarz) murdered Police Lieutenant David Hoffman (Albert Dupontel)'s wife and partner to death as the horrified lawman watched helplessly nearby. In the aftermath of that killing, Nicolov disappeared without a trace. Flash forward to the year 2025, and the only thing that keeps Hoffman going is the thought of seeking revenge against Nicolov. When the body of a young illegal immigrant is discovered with mysterious scars around her eyes and her synapses completely fried, Lieutenant Hoffman's investigation eventually leads him to an ultra-modern plastic surgery clinic run by Professor Brügen (Marthe Keller). Much to Lieutenant Hoffman's surprise, Professor Brügen's clinic isn't simply concerned with issues of the flesh, but the valuable commodity of memory and identity as well. Currently, Professor Brügen has focused the majority of his research on a captive patient named Manon (Mélanie Thierry) - a teenage girl who had been horribly injured in an auto accident. As the investigation intensifies and Lieutenant Hoffman begins to make the connection between medical research and human smuggling, what was once a simple case of a wanted human trafficker gradually evolves into something infinitely more ominous. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Albert Dupontel, Estelle Lefébure, (more)
- 2005
Djamel Bensalah's comedy Once Upon a Time in the Oued stars David Saracino as Yacine, a young man attempting to get out of the marriage his parents have arranged for him. As he sets off for a summer with his family in Algeria, he and his best friend Johnny (Julien Courbey), meet a pair of women who the twosome flirt with. Johnny wants nothing more than to play football for the Algerian national team, and Yacine's younger brother must face a rather painful tradition. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julien Courbey, David Saracino, (more)
Euro screen legends Gérard Depardieu and Daniel Auteuil star, respectively, as French cops Denis Klein and Leo Vrinks, in Olivier Marchal's tough-as-steel policier 36 Quai des Orfevres. The story unravels at the titular Parisian police headquarters, where Klein (who heads up the department's anti-crime unit) and Vrinks (who manages the "search and action squad") go head-to-head -- competing with one another not only to succeed their boss, but to be the first to solve an ongoing series of security-van robberies. Ultimately, the men resort to sabotaging one another, and thus set the stage for an ongoing series of twists, turns, reversals, and betrayals. Valeria Golino and Catherine Marchal co-star; Olivier Marchal co-authored the script with Dominique Loiseau, Julien Rappeneau, and Franck Mancuso. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Auteuil, Gérard Depardieu, (more)
