Benoît Magimel Movies

While to most outsiders Paris seems the very picture of beauty and civility, France has had a long and unfortunate history of intolerance toward outsiders, and this powerful drama from filmmaker Mathieu Kassovitz takes an unblinking look at a racially diverse group of young people trapped in the Parisian economic and social underclass. Vinz (Vincent Cassel), who is Jewish, Hubert (Hubert Kounde), who is Black, and Said (Said Taghmaoui), who is Arabic, are young men from the lower rungs of the French economic ladder; they have no jobs, few prospects, and no productive way to spend their time. They hang out and wander the streets as a way of filling their days and are sometimes caught up in frequent skirmishes between the police and other disaffected youth. One day, a street riot breaks out after police seriously injure an Arab student; the three friends are arrested and questioned, and it is learned that a policeman lost a gun in the chaos. However, what they don't know is that Vinz picked it up and has it in his possession, and when Vinz, Hubert, and Said get into a scuffle with a group of racist skinheads, the circumstances seem poised for tragedy. Actress Jodie Foster was so impressed with La Haine when she saw it at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival that she helped to arrange American distribution for the film through her production company, Egg Pictures. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A teen party gone out of control provides the focus of this drama which explores the transitions of youth in a transitional time set in the post-disco, pre-punk, early 1980's. Ariane, a teenager, is rebelling against her father and her boyfriend Pierre. She decides to hold a small party. The party is crashed by a large crowd of rude outsiders who proceed to destroy her home. Afterward, Ariane must face her obsessive neatness. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Virginie is the daughter of the local bar owner and has ambitions to become a writer. She is an upbeat and inquisitive girl. In her mountain town just after World War II, the two local children at the top of the economic ladder are the grown, orphaned siblings Anne and Jacques, both of whom are in love with the vivacious Virginie. However, Anne gets to her first, and the two of them share a deep romantic bond which Virginie writes about in her diary. Jacques can tell that his beloved is in love with someone else, and he is deeply jealous. One day he steals her diary and finds many entries in it about a mysterious person named "Paul." To Virginie's dismay, her enraged male suitor reads intimate passages from her diary to the villagers passing through the town square after church. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Young Laurette (Sophie Aubry) is mature beyond her years. Certainly, compared with her feuding parents, she's a pillar of responsible behavior. It's a good thing, too, as she has three younger siblings who would come to no good end if she weren't there to look after them. Particularly after both parents have run off screaming into the night (in different directions) after an argument. In this comedy, Laurette is left in charge on that occasion for almost two weeks. Little boss that she is, she insists that her parents come back together, but receives her comeuppance when that happy result comes about through no act of hers. Meanwhile, during her parent's absence she had had a brief fling of her own, and, pregnant, is headed off to New York city to join her boyfriend. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi