Stephane Sanseverino Movies
- 2008
Filmmakers Frédéric and Samuel Guillaume team to direct this charming tale of a 15-year-old who sets out to find his long-lost father and instead stumbles into the adventure of a lifetime. Max's father was a famous troubadour named Johnny Bigoude who disappeared shortly after his boy was born. Now Max is a teenager who is known to the locals as something of a busker himself, and he's determined to find out what became of his old man. When Max hears word that Johnny is planning an underground gig in the small town of Hilaire, he hits the road and hopes for the best. Upon arriving in the town, Max quickly realizes that Saint-Hilaire is in fact a company town that seems to have been virtually monopolized by Bzzz & Co. -- a popular manufacturer of fly swatters. The manager in charge of operations is the indolent Rodolfo. Though initially hesitant to work for such a shiftless lout, Max soon meets the pretty Felice and decides to sign on with Bzzz & Co. anyway. Soon enough, however, Rodolfo's incompetence catches up with him and the shareholders make the drastic decision to fire half of the workers and bring in a stringent new management team. When a series of subsequent calamities send the townspeople into an uproar, it's up to Max and Felice to get to the bottom of the mystery and restore order in Hilaire. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lorant Deutsch, Patrick Bouchitey, (more)
In this bizarre surrealist comedy from France, a handful of oddball characters live in world where people heap strange forms of abuse on animals -- dwarves stage bullfights with rhinos, zoos open restaurants where the privileged can dine on the animals on display, and the wealthy lock themselves into their mansion with the angry pit bulls trained to protect them. In the midst of such madness, a stocky animal handler (Gustave Kervern) who can neither hear nor speak falls in with a pair of dissolute zookeepers (Benoit Delepine and Eric Martin) who are hooked on ketamine and shoot one another with tranquilizer darts for fun. The zookeepers involve their new friend in a crazy scheme to kidnap the pet dog of a very wealthy and extremely large woman, Avida (Velvet), but the three men prove to be wildly inept criminals, and once they're found out, Avida forces them to help her in a plan to take her own life. Featuring a cameo appearance from acclaimed filmmaker Claude Lelouch, Avida was written and directed by Benoit Delepine and Gustave Kervern, who also act in the film; it received its American premiere at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gustave Kervern, Benoit Delepine, (more)
- 2006
A lonely orphaned princess makes the acquaintance of a kindly unicorn whose friendship helps the struggling girl to finally realize what true happiness is all about in this animated children's fantasy from premiere French children's author Grégoire Solotareff and filmmaker Serge Elissalde. Mona (Isild Le Besco) lives a lonely existence in a crumbling castle on the shores of the sea -- where she is cruelly mistreated by a pair of bullying rats. Just as it seems that Mona will never find her place in the world, a coltish unicorn named U (Vahina Giocante) appears before her and claiming that it is her duty to set Mona down the path of happiness. Over the course of the next few years, Mona and U become the very best of friends. When Mona blossoms into a charming preteen and U returns home one day with a playful lizard named Lazare (Guillaume Gallienne), Mona fast becomes friends with both the congenial reptile and his family -- a boisterous group of musicians who reside in a nearby tree. When the rats voice their displeasure at the company of Mona's new guests and the newly empowered princess finally stands her ground against the tyrannical rodents, the once quiet castle soon becomes a place of happiness and merriment. As love begins to blossom between Mona and guitarist Kulka, U ponders an uncertain future now that her selfless mission in life is finally complete. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vahina Giocante, Isild Le Besco, (more)
