Frederique Bel Movies

This wild and raunchy, adult-oriented animation remained in the Top Ten at the French box office for weeks after its premiere. Recalling the creations of Ralph Bakshi (Fritz the Cat, Heavy Traffic), it actually originated as a Canal Plus television series in the early 2000s that in turn evolved into a comic book before morphing into this feature. In a shoddy, run-down neighborhood at the edge of an unnamed European metropolis, two lowlifes, Joe Hustleton (rapper IZM) and Tony Pepperoni (Vincent Cassel), devise a couple of wild schemes to reel in enough money to land a vacation to sunny Santo Rico island. Each man adopts a unique approach: Joe decides to sell five kilos of cannabis that he picked up on credit from slimeball dealer Zoran (Gilles Lellouche), but if he doesn't pay the principal back in a reasonable amount of time, he's had it; Joe opts for a more straitlaced approach (so to speak) by simultaneously building a sauna at the palatial home of rich judge Nomercy (François Levantal) and guarding the man's house during his vacation -- a job that leads to enormous complications given Joe's serious yen for Nomercy's sexy daughter Clemence (Diane Kruger of Inglourious Basterds). Meanwhile, a number of unsavory supporting characters pop up, including a couple of porno directors, a possessive girlfriend, and two hoods who must hide out in a swimming pool when their plans to get to Santo Rico fall through. The French title, incidentally, is a slang word for blacks with only mildly derogatory connotations. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Just how much damage can a homely, socially-taunted pariah wield against her neighbors when revenge is the order of the day? Such is the question at the heart of Vilaine (AKA Ugly Melanie), widely regarded as the (unofficial) "nasty opposite" of Jean-Pierre Jeunet's audience-pleaser Amelie. Though she is initially a sweetheart who delights in acts of kindness to others, obese and klutzy Melanie (Marilou Berry) seldom, if ever, elicits any gratitude from the recipients of her generosity. This sets the stage for a nasty and startling reversal when Melanie's sexy, svelte cousin, Aurore (Frederique Bel) pushes her to the edge with a cruel prank - the lie that Melanie has a Valentine's Day suitor. Melanie grows so distraught that a torrent of pent-up rage emerges and prompts her to undertake hideous, cathartic revenge on the innocents around her, including a number of small pets. Directors Jean-Patrick Benes and Allan Mauduit approach the material as transgressive, jet-black comedy that challenges accepted standards and frequently lapses into deliberate bad taste. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

While most people fall in love and then move in together, a nerdy musician manages to get it backwards in this French comedy. David (Emmanuel Mouret) is a French Horn player who has come to Paris in search of a job playing professionally with an orchestra. David is socially inept and painfully shy around women, so he's quite surprised when, while looking for a flat, he meets Anne (Frederique Bel), a beautiful but scatterbrained gal who informs him she knows someone who is looking for a roommate. It's a while before Anne gets around to telling David that she's the one in need of a roommate, and when she asks him if he'd like to start splitting the rent at her place, he agrees. While Anne would appear to be infatuated with David, he's too nervous to do anything about it at first, and by the time he's worked up the courage to make a move, Anne informs him she has a new boyfriend. Determined to beat Anne at her own game, David tells her he's won the heart of nineteen-year-old Julia (Fanny Valette), though the truth is he's been hired to give the awkward girl French horn lessons by her social climbing mother (Ariane Ascaride). However, David's efforts to one-up Anne hit a snag when he learns the truth about her new beau. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Audrey Tautou, who rose to international stardom with the title role in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's worldwide smash Amélie, reunites with the director for this drama, set during the darkest days of World War I and its immediate aftermath. Mathilde (Tautou) is a pretty but frail young women who was left with a bad leg after a childhood bout with polio. Mathilde lives in a small French village with her Aunt Bénédicte (Chantal Neuwirth) and Uncle Sylvain (Dominique Pinon), and is engaged to marry Manech (Gaspard Ulliel), the son of a lighthouse keeper who is fighting with the army near the German front. Manech is one of five soldiers who have been accused of injuring themselves in order to be sent home; in order to discourage similar behavior among their comrades, Manech and the other soldiers are sentenced to death, and the condemned men are marched into the no man's land between the French and German lines, where they are certain to be killed. Mathilde receives word of Manech's death, but in her heart she believes that if the man she loved had been killed, she would know it and feel it. Convinced he's still alive somewhere, Mathilde hires a private detective (Ticky Holgado) shortly after the end of the war, and together they set out to find the missing Manech. Jodie Foster appears in a supporting role as a Polish expatriate living in France. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide