Macha Meril Movies
Morocco-born supporting actress Macha Meril (born Macha Gagarin) spent her career appearing in French and English features. She occasionally played leads in films such as La Femme Mariee (The Married Woman) (1964). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 2006
In the 1970s, as French citizens make long-delayed attempts to come to terms with the Nazi collaboration of World War II for the first time, the country buckles beneath the weight of collective guilt. One man - the former Collaborationist police head René Bousquet (Daniel Prevost) - bears primary responsibility for deporting Jews to concentration camps during the War. Incredibly, Bousquet has buried his own diseased past and completely severed himself from ties to a guilty conscience, settling into a quiet, unassuming life as a financier. Then, the accusations start, and a period of interrogation commences that will ultimately span 15 years, as Bousquet turns to one family member and assumed political ally after another and attempts to round up alibis to protect himself. He doesn't count, however, on the public unveiling of each of these allegiances and cover-ups as the broad network of conspiracies that they actually are. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Prévost, Philippe Magnan, (more)
- 2000
A woman who is tried of being pushed around discovers the alternative isn't all she thought it might be in this provocative comedy. Claudia (Antonella Ponziani) is a woman in her early thirties who works as a production assistant on a popular talk show, though she doesn't much care for her job. Claudia also isn't so thrilled with her boyfriend Giovanni (Mario De Candia), especially since he's invited a large percentage of his free-thinking extended family to stay at their apartment -- his divorced parents (Macha Meril and Piero Natoli), his sister and her kids, and his father's new significant other (Tasha Rodrigues). To make matters worse, Giovanni is an actor who has been between jobs for some time, and Claudia is the only person living in the flat who has a steady income and a willingness to perform household maintenance. The stresses of both work and her home life are taking a toll on Claudia, who is suffering from a number of minor ailments. Giovanni's mother, a follower of New Age healing techniques, is convinced Claudia's problems are psychosomatic, and when she teaches her a way of ridding her mind of debilitating energies, Claudia is transformed into a new woman. But Giovanni's family soon discovers that the newly empowered Claudia isn't about to put up with them, while Claudia finds her new emotional strength only lasts for so long. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Antonella Ponziani, Cecilia Dazzi, (more)
This gentle French comedy has a meandering plotline as it traces the exploits of a young man recognized as a the son of a star. The main protagonist is 23-year old Harvey who works as the guide for a group of Georgian singers who have a Paris gig. He is interested in Dinara, the 18-year old interpreter for the group. While in a restaurant, they encounter Marco Garciano who tells them he played the small lad in Crin blanc, a classic French film. He is really a half-time chauffeur and con-artist. Marco tells Harvey that he is the son of Gascogne, the father of the New Wave, and close friend and inspiration to many directors between 1958 and 1962. Marco tries to prove his point by taking Harvey and Dinara to meet some former French film impresarios. They see Alexandra Stewart and Bernadette Lafont. They also meet Claude Chabrol while he eats lunch. They meet many more including director Michel Deville. All they meet are convinced that Harvey is indeed Gascogne's son. Many of the female stars claim to be his mother. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Grégoire Colin, (more)
- 1993
Adultery and the possibility of patricide provide the motives behind this French drama, set in a Parisian suburb. Claire is in her earlier forties and is married to Claude, an alcoholic whom she once passionately loved. Together they have a young daughter and 15-year old Guillaume. Claire is having an affair with 24-year old Laurent whom she sees several times per week. Laurent's mother is Madeleine. She and Claire were once rivals for the formerly dashing Claude. Guillaume is an aficionado of detective novels and has a real affinity for detective work. He is well aware of his mother's shenanigans. Claude hasn't a clue. Then a local police inspector tells Claude the truth about his wife. Soon after, Claude is discovered dead. Apparently the cop had his own reasons for giving Claude the fatal news. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Caroline Cellier, Claude Brasseur, (more)
- 1992
When Caroline (Kim Cattrall) begins to have nightmares and visions of her twin sister Lisa's watery demise, she rushes to London to try to reach her sister before it is too late. As she searches for her sister, Caroline begins to discover that her twin's life is more dangerous and desultory than she had imagined. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1992
Isabella is the much-loved child of a movie producer, growing up in the 1950s. Key moments in her life are seen as she returns each summer to her family's vacation home on the seaside in Tuscany. The argumentative family has its ups and downs, some of them as a result of successes or reverses in the father's moviemaking career. Practically the only member of the family who doesn't fuss and quarrel all the time is Isabella's mother, her father's second wife. All her siblings are the children of the first wife. Isabella has a "toy" that any movie buff would love to play with: a movieola, a machine usually reserved for film editors who can view the film or films they are working on at their own pace, stopping or reversing the action and running it at any speed. The films she plays on hers indicate what stage she is at in her life, as she grows from an insecure girl to a confident woman. This family drama and coming-of-age story is based on the recollections of filmmaker Fiorella Infascelli, who grew up in the household of her producer father Carlo Infascelli. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Philippe Noiret, Macha Meril, (more)
- 1991
- PG13
Meeting Venus is based on a play cowritten by the film's director, Istvan Szabo. Glenn Close plays a celebrated Swedish opera star Karin Anderson who is slated to appear in an internationally-telecast production of Tannhauser. Ms. Anderson balks at the notion of working with obscure Hungarian conductor Zoltan Szanto. The much-anticipated production may never get off the ground, thanks to labor-management difficulties, intramural jealousies, and clashing egos. Admidst all this chaos, the mismatched Anderson and Szanto fall in love. Filmed in Budapest, Meeting Venus was far from a box-office hit thanks in great part to an inadequate advertising campaign; hopefully it will gain the wide audience it deserves on videocassette. (PS: Glenn Close's singing is dubbed by real-life opera luminary Kiri Te Kanawa. We tell you this because the lyp-synching is done so well that you might actually believe that Close is performing those arias herself). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Glenn Close, Niels Arestrup, (more)
- 1989
This poetic French drama about the inner experience of a returning World War I soldier, is based on the much-loved and highly regarded novel La Vouivre by Marcel Ayme. Georges Wilson, a well-established presence on the French stage, makes his filmmaking debut as a screenwriter and director. A "vouivre" is a wood-nymph, beautiful but completely lacking in human sensibilities. At the start of the film, Arsene (Lambert Wilson), a discharged soldier, returns to his family's farm. His return provokes quite a reaction, as he had been presumed dead. He is tormented by memories of the war, and finds brief consolation in his experiences with the wood-nymph (Laurent Treil). However, despite her magical qualities, it becomes clear that even a peasant farmer has more richness and depth to his character than the soulless "vouivre" can ever attain. In the novel, it's not clear whether the wood-nymph is real or the product of hallucinations caused by a head injury Arsene sustained in the war. In this movie version, the reality of the "vouivre" is never questioned. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lambert Wilson, Jean Carmet, (more)
- 1986
- R
Julie Andrews delivers a virtuoso dramatic performance in Duet for One. Based on a play by Tom Kempinski, the story concerns brilliant concert violinist Stephanie Anderson (Andrews) who is slowly succumbing to the ravages of multiple sclerosis. Stephanie's problems are compounded by her cheating husband David Cornwallis (Alan Bates), and her protégé Constantine Kassanis (Rupert Everett), who shows signs of "selling out" to popular entertainment. Max von Sydow, who previously co-starred with Andrews in Hawaii, plays psychiatrist Dr. Louis Feldman, who tries to help Stephanie cope with her debilitations, but who ends up as much an albatross around her neck as David and Constantine. Critics are still divided over whether or not the mystical sequences between Andrews and the ghost of her violin teacher (Sigfrit Steiner) truly work within the context of the plotline. Duet for One was the third English-language production for Russian filmmaker Andrei Konchalovsky. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julie Andrews, Alan Bates, (more)
- 1986
A long parade of actors and actresses pop up in an unconnected series of skits, vignettes, and sight gags in this comedy anthology by Jean Curtelin. Among the sketches performed is one with Jean Carmet playing a man from the sticks woefully burdened with the challenge of getting through a dog food commercial on less than one tank of intelligible French. Another skit shows a silent duel between an airport custodian and an automatic door, while another with the renowned Michel Galabru sets up a strange teacher-student exchange. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andréa Ferréol, Pierre Arditi, (more)
- 1985
This suavely-fashioned film with an all-female cast focuses primarily on three women and the man who goes in and out of their lives. One member of this trio is a saleswoman (Marie-France Pisier) with an open relationship that suddenly closes when she learns that her lover has been unfaithful. It seems that he has dallied with a book-dealer (her nemesis) who ultimately does not propose as much of a threat to the disillusioned saleswoman as a certain actress (Clementine Celarie). Along with these three are several other females who interact with the main protagonists. Set up more in the manner of a stage play with changing scenes and acts, this drama is still unusual for its all-distaff cast. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marie-France Pisier, Dominique Lavanant, (more)
- 1985
Gaetan (Michel Serrault) is a television comic whose jokes have kept his program alive, but in more recent times, his senior gag writers have not had their hand on the pulse of his changing audience. A series of circumstances bring two young cafe-theater comedy writers to the rescue (Thierry Lhermitte and Gerard Jugnot), partially due to Gaetan's efforts. The new material is so successful that Gaetan is offered the lead in a serious feature-length movie, and if he had any hesitation about the venture, his wife squelched it with visions of a higher social and economic standing for them both. But the project does not go exactly as planned, and before he knows it, Gaetan runs into trouble. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Serrault, Gérard Jugnot, (more)
Vagabond, directed by Agnes Varda is the dark disturbing story of a female drifter named Mona (Sandrine Bonnaire). The film opens as Mona's frozen body is found in a drainage ditch and proceeds to tell her story in a series of flashbacks and semi-documentary style "interviews" with the people who have known Mona during the last few weeks of her life. Mona is a distant, independent and not-very-likeable woman who goes from place to place, living where she can and with anyone who will take her in. Mona's true nature remains a puzzle, both to those who thought they knew her, and to the audience. As the movie progresses it becomes clear that no one knew the true Mona and she, because of her aloofness and essential coldness, provided a canvas for those she met to write upon. Who Mona really was, and what she thought remains ambiguous. Sandrine Bonnaire is excellent as Mona, making an unappealing and cold character interesting and intriguing. Director Agnes Varda began her career as a still photographer. This beginning is evident in her elegant framing of the film. She has an instinctive awareness of and a photographer's eye for visual detail which makes the film cold, bleak, and aridly beautiful. Internationally acclaimed, Vagabond is Varda's most successful film. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sandrine Bonnaire, Macha Meril, (more)
In this suspense thriller inspired by the novel Eye of the Beholder by Marc Behm, Catherine (Isabelle Adjani), a serial killer, seduces men and then murders them just before moving on to the next victim. She spreads her mayhem through various countries in Europe, only slightly ahead of the mentally anguished detective (Michel Serrault) who tracks her -- he fantasizes she is his long-lost daughter and disposes of her trail of corpses to foil the police. Catherine pauses for a real love affair with a blind architect (Sami Frey) but the detective is overcome by jealousy and causes the man's death. This drives Catherine into despair -- and a return to her psychotic killing. As the police dragnet closes in, both Catherine and the detective are brought closer to a final confrontation with their internal demons. The version released in the U.S. runs only 96 min. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Serrault, Isabelle Adjani, (more)
- 1983
Unfortunately bound by clichés and stereotypes rather than original insights and new viewpoints, this condensed movie version of an 8-hour television series does not do complete justice to its noble topic of courage in the face of the World War II holocaust. The story is based on the memoirs of Martin Gray (Michael York plays the older Gray and Jacques Penot the younger), a Polish Jew who survived the Warsaw Ghetto and escaped Treblinka, the Nazi death camp where his mother and brothers died. After leaving Treblinka, Martin returns to Warsaw in time to join the Jewish insurrection at the Warsaw ghetto. In 1943, thousands of Jews in the walled ghetto revolted and fought the German occupation forces for six weeks, killing 5,000 Germans but losing their heroic struggle -- that six-week battle is a major focus of the film. Miraculously, Gray survives the war and moves to France where he meets and falls in love with Dina (Brigitte Fossey) -- and then has a major second tragic episode in his life that opens this film, and in the story and in real life it inspires him to write his memoirs. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael York, Brigitte Fossey, (more)
- 1983
Set against the Allied invasion of North Africa in 1942, this overly-ambitious, comedy-drama focuses on the relationship between its two central characters, Leon Castelli (Roger Hanin) a half-Algerian, half-French bartender, talkative, but with a generous soul, and Etienne Labrouche (Philippe Noiret) the French colonial mayor of the town. Leon gets propositioned on a business deal by an American soldier and joins him in setting up an "underground" night spot in an abandoned airplane hangar that soon catches on and thrives like weeds in a garden. Etienne, in the meantime, starts an affair with the governess of his children and is caught out by his wife, who sends the woman packing. Since the ex-governess needs to support herself somehow, she accepts a waitress job working in the underground nightclub. The word gets out, and before much time has gone by, the nightclub is trashed by a hired gang. Furious at Etienne because he feels this is the mayor's way of paying him back for hiring the governess, Leon picks up a shotgun and goes to Etienne's estate seeking revenge. But fate has other ideas, and when he arrives, Leon discovers that Etienne's father has just died and left a bombshell of a revelation about his parentage that changes everything. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Philippe Noiret, Roger Hanin, (more)
Claude Lelouch's Bolero covers a time span of half a century, concentrating on several generations of music lovers, all hailing from different nations and cultural backgrounds. Each of the principal actors plays multiple characters. Among the cast-members is James Caan, Robert Hossein and Geraldine Chaplin. The film's original title was Les Uns et les autres. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Hossein, Nicole Garcia, (more)
- 1981
In French filmmaker Bertrand Blier's seriocomic Beau Pere, Ariel Besse plays a 14-year-old girl who is perversely attracted to her 30-year-old stepfather (Patrick Dewaere). Daddy fends off these unnatural attentions, but eventually gives in and allows himself to be seduced. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick Dewaere, Ariel Besse, (more)
- 1979
Set in 1919, this confusing, slow-paced, labyrinthian political drama focuses primarily on the confrontation between two military leaders, Konrad von der Berg (Franco Nero) and Erich von Lehner (Helmut Berger). The implication is that the outcome of their meeting will determine whether Germany will be dominated by the Nazis or not. As the two men confront each other in a deserted military camp, they display a wide range of emotions and a seemingly unflagging ability to talk. Flashbacks reveal the history of their relationship. In the end, one destroys the other but then he has to go back and face the rising Nazi menace. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Franco Nero, Helmut Berger, (more)
- 1979
Robert #1 is played by Charles Denner, while Robert #2 is played by Jacques Villeret. Beyond their common name, the two Roberts are as different as night and day. Oh, there is one more resemblance: both Roberts are lonely, and both hope to meet suitable mates through a computer dating service. As they await the arrival of their new dates, Robert et Robert become fast friends. Of the three favorite film subjects of writer/director Claude Lelouch--romance, crime, and politics--Robert et Robert falls firmly into the first category. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Denner, Jacques Villeret, (more)
- 1978
Local Italian rock 'n roll dancing stars Rosario Biccica and Rodolfo Banchelli are featured in this movie which follows them throughout Italy as they compete in dance championships. In an homage to Saturday Night Fever, the lead performers play themselves: blue-collar kids whose tedious lives are spiced by the excitement they get on the dance floor. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Macha Meril
