Fanny Valette Movies
- 2009
Gallic helmer Abel Ferry (not to be confused with Abel Ferrara) helmed this French-language gorefest. A group of twenty-something friends undertake a mountain-climbing expedition to Croatia. Despite petty internal squabbles, a romantic rivalry, and one poor fellow's dire case of acrophobia, all goes as well as can be expected, until one of the climbers, Guillaume (Raphael Lenglet), makes the ignorant decision to chart an abandoned trail. Before long, the innocent travelers fall prey to the machinations of a crazed mountain butcher named Anton (Justin Blanckaert), including an oversized bear trap for humans and a spike-filled pit; when Anton learns of the climbers' presence on his mountain, full-fledged carnage ensues. As something of an in-joke, Anton's name literally translates as "to go into battle." ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fanny Valette, Johan Liberau, (more)
In 1645, the French playwright and actor Jean-Baptiste Poquelin -- better known as Molière -- mysteriously disappeared for several weeks, and this lavish comedy drama imagines a scenario that could explain what may have happened to him. At this time, Molière (Romain Duris) is touring the French countryside with his traveling theater company, and he's yet to be recognized as one of the continent's great authors (or achieve significant financial success). Molière is put in jail after skipping out on some unpaid debts, but is freed after his fine is paid by two strangers. Molière discovers his benefactors are acting on behalf of Jourdain (Fabrice Luchini), a very wealthy man who has a beautiful wife, Elmire (Laura Morante) and two lovely daughters. However, Jourdain has fallen head over heels for Celimene (Ludivine Sagnier), a gorgeous widow, and he's written a short play in order to demonstrate his feelings for her. Jourdain needs someone to help him polish his script and serve as an acting coach, and he's recruited Molière for the job. Needing the money, Moliere accepts, but he poses as a man of the cloth, Monsieur Tartuffe, to keep his identity a secret. Molière soon realizes that Jourdain's talent exists only in the rich man's imagination, and that Jourdain already has a rival for Celimene's affections, the charming but duplicitous Dorante (Edouard Baer). Molière was written and directed by Laurent Tirard. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Romain Duris, Fabrice Luchini, (more)
- 2006
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
- Starring:
- Emmanuel Mouret, Fanny Valette, (more)
An orthodox Jewish teen living with her family in France attempts to balance her religious upbringing with her increasingly complex view of the outside world in director Karin Albou's incisive meditation on religion, philosophy, and the weight of romance on the mind of a growing girl. Eighteen-year-old student Laura (Fanny Valette) lives with her widowed mother (Sonia Tahar), her sister (Elsa Zylberstein), and her brother-in-law (Bruno Todeschini) in the suburban Paris neighborhood of Sarcelles. Though her exposure to the world thus far has been culturally limited due to the fact that her family resides in a neighborhood is often referred to as "Little Jerusalem" due to its large Jewish population, Laura's studies have told her that the world is full of interesting and diverse people. An overly serious and self-disciplined girl whose outward maturity defies her youthful age, Laura vows to avoid romance before finding that fate doesn't always play by the rules. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fanny Valette, Elsa Zylberstein, (more)
