Maite Nahyr Movies
- 1994
The unbearable vanity of the human male facing death is one of the subtler themes of this French drama which tells the story of a dying man who finally finds and desires to conquer the perfect sex object. Poor Le Clainche is about ready to keel over from a heart attack. He's already had one and knows the second will be fatal. He is in his sixties, and though tired really wants to have sex with a beautiful woman one more time (for old time's sake). Odile, a tennis pro, is the sex object possessing a natural beauty that drives men crazy. She is a daring young thing. She first appears at a carnival where she has just finished a breathless roller coaster ride. She becomes intrigued by a striptease tent and is tempted to join them after the barker tries to coerce her. When La Clainche sees Odile in a railroad compartment she instantly becomes the object of his desire and he stands firm in his commitment to have her. His come-on is not subtle and she, the perfect woman, actually considers it. A strange relationship begins. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Pierre Marielle, Richard Bohringer, (more)
- 1993
Due to there being an excess of girls in her family, the seventh daughter (Amina) is given a boy's name (Ahmed) and is treated that way by everyone including her father. However, when she grows to an age where she tries to shave and grow a mustache, contemplating taking a wife, these palpable impossibilities clue the family into the fact that she isn't, perhaps, entirely sane. On his deathbed, her father (Francois Chattot) attempts to rectify things by renaming her with a girl's name (Zahra) and telling her to go out and live as a woman. Still pretending to be a man, and moving freely in that manner, she travels across Morocco to find a situation in the house of a blind Consul (Miguel Boss) and she runs afoul of his romantically possessive sister. There, the contradictions in her present and past come home to roost in the most tragic possible way. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miguel Bose, Maite Nahyr, (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)
- 1990
- PG
An American comic (Patsy Kensit) is trying to make it in the comedy dens of Paris, but her soon-to-expire visa forces her to visit a marriage broker. He fixes her up with a songwriter (Stephane Freiss), but French immigration remains suspicious even after the marriage. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- 1985
Director Otar Iosseliani hit the nail on the head when describing Favorites of the Moon as "an abstract comedy." Indeed, if ten different people who saw the film were asked to describe the plot, there would be ten different answers. All would agree, however, that the storyline is contingent upon two inanimate objects: an 18th-century chinaware set, and a 19th-century nude portrait. The dozens of characters inextricably linked to these two items are drawn from social circles ranging from chi-chi art lovers to unscrupulous terrorists. The film's original title was Les Favoris de la Lune (no lie!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pascal Aubier, Alix de Montaigu, (more)
A depressed aspiring filmmaker falls in love with a suicidal young woman in this off-beat French drama, the second feature from director Leos Carax. Both have been recently dumped by their lovers and neither is coping very well. They meet via an apartment intercom system. Later the filmmaker sees her by the Seine. They finally meet in person at an elegant party and begin a long, strange conversation over a kitchen table. During the course of their talking, the two find themselves unable to resist their mutual neediness and this leads them to tragedy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Denis Lavant, Mireille Perrier, (more)
- 1983
Based on Erskine Caldwell's novel, Le Batard could also refer to this French film born from an American novel, with the American South transformed into the south of France. An unemotive Gerard Klein is Patrice, the Paris automobile mechanic who travels to Marseille to identify the body of his loose-living and long-lost mother, who has been found murdered. After proceeding to kill off her barroom boss, he meanders around the south of France looking for sexual relationships. He comes across a teenage musician and is attracted enough to her obvious appeal to establish a more permanent liaison, taking her with him to Paris to set up housekeeping -- for she is pregnant. Soon she is driven to the limits of depression and boredom caring for their home and a new baby, and he has reached his limits of confinement and responsibility -- so he takes off again. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gerard Klein, Julie Jezequel, (more)
In this dream-sequence film, renowned Italian director Federico Fellini expounds at length on the nature, complexities, attitudes, and hang-ups of women and how this all relates to men "hunting" sexual conquests. Snaporaz (Marcello Mastroianni) is traveling in a compartment on a train when he lapses into sleep and dreams the ensuing story. He follows a woman off the train and through a field and then loses her. Soon, as a representative of the male sex in general he finds himself in a hotel, among myriad women attending a feminist conference. Surreal episodes take him through a villa with his alter-ego Dr. Katzone (Ettore Manni, who died during filming) and references to his sexual exploits. Reunited with his former wife for a moment, he starts another sequence which reviews his past. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marcello Mastroianni, Anna Prucnal, (more)
- 1979
Marie (Miou-Miou) is a young girl from a working-class family who falls for Gerard (Daniel Duval) before she discovers he is a vicious, sadistic pimp. She is degraded, abused, and beaten regularly by Gerard as she is forced into a life of prostitution. Marie later decides she must leave her pimp to regain control of her body, mind, and soul. Maria Schneider co-stars with Neil Arestrup in this voyeuristic and disturbing story. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miou-Miou, Maria Schneider, (more)
Director Roman Polanski casts himself in the lead of the psychological thriller The Tenant. Trelkovsky (Polanski) rents an apartment in a spooky old residential building, where his neighbors -- mostly old recluses -- eye him with suspicious contempt. Upon discovering that the apartment's previous tenant, a beautiful young woman, jumped from the window in a suicide attempt, Trelkovsky begins obsessing over the dead woman. Growing increasingly paranoid, Trelkovsky convinces himself that his neighbors plan to kill him. He even comes to the conclusion that Stella (Isabel Adjani), the woman he has fallen in love with, is in on the "plot." Ultimately, Polanski assumes the identity of the suicide victim -- and inherits her self-destructive urges. Some critics found the movie tedious and overdone; others compared it to Polanski's early breakthrough, Repulsion. The film was based on Le Locataire Chimerique, a novel by Roland Topor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roman Polanski, Isabelle Adjani, (more)
