Philippe Noiret

A man looking for a reason to live gets more than he bargained for in this black comedy from France. Edy (François Berléand) is an insurance salesman who has fallen into a deep depression. Edy can scarcely work up the energy to do more than listen to his collection of classic jazz records (at full volume, much to his neighbor's annoyance) and drink all night, and he's made some unsuccessful attempts at suicide. However, Edy's efforts to end his own life not only don't do the job, they have a bad habit of destroying other people's property, and in one case killing an innocent bystander. Unsure of what to do, Edy calls upon his friend Louis (Philippe Noiret) for advice. Louis, who helped Edy get started in the insurance game, has some ideas of how to bring excitement back into his friend's life, but Edy becomes nervous when Louis leads him into a life of crime that gets messier with each passing day. Edy also stars Yves Verhoeven, Laurent Bateau, and Marion Cotillard. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Well into his sixties, iconoclast director Bertrand Blier continued to provoke Cannes audiences with this absurdist sex comedy in 2003. Les Côtelettes profiles the antics of two aging friends/antagonists who battle for the affections of one's maid. Leonce (Philippe Noiret) and Potier (Michel Bouquet) are polar opposites: the former a liberal member of the bourgeoisie, complete with a well-groomed son and an attractive mistress; the latter, a curmudgeonly right-wing ne'er-do-well who lives to upset the status quo. When Leonce's housekeeper Nacifa (Farida Rahouadj) enters the picture, the two become rivals, each attempting to bed her -- but both find themselves equally drawn to the attractive specter of Death (Catherine Hiegel) that appears before them. Les Côtelettes began life as Blier's stage play before the director committed it to the big screen. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

Like Star Wars, E.T., and other movies that have been trifled with at their peril, a very different kind of film gets "corrected" with the arrival of Cinema Paradiso: The New Version, an update of Miramax's Cannes darling and Best Foreign Film winner. Unfortunately, the same motive of squeezing out a few extra dollars applies here as well, even if it's disguised as a restoration of the director's vision, rather than what it actually is: a compromise of the film's effectiveness. If this was Giuseppe Tornatore's original cut, it seriously calls into question the director's judgments as an artist. The importance of a judicious editor comes into sharp relief during this new three-hour version, which leaves the repeat viewer longing for the brisk pace of the original, and the first-timer grappling with why the film is so revered. The extra 51 minutes of footage bloat the previously poignant third act, drawing it out interminably and deadening its wonder. What made the ending of Cinema Paradiso so bittersweet is that it did not attempt to solve the riddles of lost love, which rarely get sorted out in real life. By providing an unjust and unwarranted explanation of the lovers' tragic separation, as well as a new epilogue, Tornatore brings his tale of nostalgic history thudding into the present tense. He also reverses the understanding of key characters, their motivations, and the ultimate vindication of their actions. The mostly untouched first two acts still burst with the joie de vivre of a small town invigorated and transformed by its communal love of cinema. But the last hour squanders the contagious momentum of the previous two, doing crucial damage to the emotional closing scene, a defining moment that has rightly assumed classic status. Instead of catharsis, the end now elicits a sensation that's regrettably contrary to that: relief. The date of 2002 on this film (which pertains only to the release of the extended version) explains the presence of actress Pupella Maggio, who acted in the picture in the late '80s but died in 1999. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide

This is a comedy with an edge about a world-famous cellist, Jascha Steg, in love with Ana, a violinist. Jascha's world tour with a Schumann concerto brings him to perform a concert in Evian. His parents, whom he has not seen for a long time, have come with his uncle to see him perform. But Jascha has no peace of mind because Ana is there with her husband. Two days spent by a lake, and a picnic in the mountains when all the characters reveal the most hidden aspects of their personalities, drastically transform his life and consequently his art. The film reflects the difficulties confronted by an artist when he tries to reach people close to his heart. Veterans Philippe Noiret and Carole Bouquet carry their roles with conviction. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide

Based on an award-winning play by Jean-Noel Fenwick, this fact-based drama offers a lively account of the lives and professional struggles of Noble prize-winning research scientists Pierre and Marie Curie. The two meet at the Paris School of Physics & Chemistry in a frosty laboratory. There Pierre (Charles Berling) and fellow researcher Gustave Bemont (Christian Charmetant) are busy with their work when the brash Marie Sklodowska bursts in to join them. She has been assigned there at the request of the school director Rodolphe Schutz (Phillipe Noiret), a man determined to have his school win the coveted Science Academy palmes, the highest honor in the French scientific community. Though she apparently speaks no French, Sklodowska proves her brilliance from the start. When not busy in the lab, Sklodowska and Pierre are busy in the boudoir indulging in another kind of experimentation that leads to love and ultimately marriage. This complicates matters for it is not easy to juggle the rigors of science, antagonistic colleagues, national pride and the demands of a family. Science aficionados in the audience may get a tickle from the cameo appearances by two Nobel laureate physicists, Pierre-Gilles de Gennes and Georges Charpak who show up as delivery men coming to unload a huge truckload of radium-bearing rocks. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A prominent French surgeon of Jewish heritage (Phillippe Noiret) suffers a massive heart attack in the film's prologue and as his life hangs in the balance, scenes from his life growing up in Algiers flash by. The resulting drama recalls his life and in so doing pays homage to the contributions of his Mamma Titine (Sophia Loren) in giving him the strength and skill to overcome poverty and the stigma of his religion in his homeland. The ailing Joseph Levy's reminiscence begins when he was a 13-year-old student during WW II. Though one of the brightest in his school, he is expelled following the enactment of new anti-Semitic laws. With somewhat of a struggle, he is able to be put back into school. At home, Levy seems to be Mamma Titine's favorite, even though he has four other siblings. She is a strong, supportive woman who without complaint raises her children alone while her husband works in the Paris civil service under a false name. Though an essentially honest woman, Titine will stop at nothing to ensure that she meets her children's emotional and physical needs. As the months pass into years, Joseph gradually comes of age and learns subtle ways of rebelling. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Aimed at younger audiences, this special-effects filled French comedy centers on the afterlife adventures of two recently deceased fellows, Georges, a gentle chauffeur and his ruthless corporate tiger of an employer, Phillipe. Unfortunate Georges meets his demise at the hands of a gunman just as he discovers that he has won the lottery. Shortly thereafter, his boss Phillipe is murdered by his business rival Martigues. As ghosts, no living soul can see or here Georges and Phillipe who set out together to put their earthly affairs in order before taking off to their respective final resting places. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Based on a short story from Giuseppe Pontiggia's popular Italian book Vite di uomini non illustri (Lives of Non-Illustrious Men), this comedy chronicles the many lively phases in the life of Claudia Bertelli, who lived between 1949 and 2011. Born to former radicals turned conservative middle-class Milanese, Claudia realizes that her parents can never consciously decide whether they find her behavior shocking or tolerable. During the 1960s, Claudia gets involved with protesting and falls in love for the first time with an idealistic, angry reactionary who subsequently disappears "underground" for many years. By the time he finally emerges he has become a corrupt devotee of the Socialist Party leader Bettino Craxi. By the 1970s, Claudia's protests have taken a feminist bent. She shocks her parents when she gives birth to a black baby from an unknown father and then later marries a Jewish philosopher. It doesn't last, but Claudia continues to be socially conscious for the rest of her life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this remake of the 1983 Ardiente Paciencia by Antonio Skarmeta, the time and place have been changed to Italy in the 1950s, but the relationship between the Chilean Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda and Mario (Massimo Troisi), the postman who delivers his copious mail, is still the focus of attention. In this version of the story, scripted by a collective of Anna Pavignano, the director Michael Radford, Troisi himself, and a few others (based on Skarmeta's original story), Neruda is an aloof and slightly elitist figure who is seeking solitude on an island off the coast of Italy, taking a respite from political problems at home. Mario is a poet at heart and employs every measure he is capable of inventing to win his way into the affections and attention of the great author. As his efforts start to bear fruit and Neruda unbends and begins to share conversation and philosophy with Mario, the postman idolizes the poet all the more. Eventually, Neruda shares his leftist political philosophy as well -- and helps him win over the captivating Beatrice, the woman of Mario's dreams. When Neruda leaves, Mario enters into high gear as he prepares material for the next time he sees Neruda -- his ardor and patience, alluded to in the original title -- are essentially indestructible. (Massimo Troisi) was fated never to know that Il Postino would receive worldwide acclaim and be nominated for an Oscar for "Best Picture" in 1995 (the first foreign film nominated in that category since Ingmar Bergman's Cries and Whispers 22 years earlier). Suffering from a heart ailment and unable to work more than an hour or two on the filming of Il Postino each day, he died in his sleep at the age of 41, the day after shooting ended on the film. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

A burned out actor begins to question his sanity in this French comedy that stars the writer/director Michel Blanc in a dual role. In the first role Blanc plays himself as an exhausted actor. He has been doing too much TV and too many movies. Odd things begin to happen and Blanc becomes convinced his sanity is slipping away. He is seen going berserk at Cannes with a series of starlets. At Cannes, he meets festival head Gilles Jacob whom he persuades to give the room number of Gerard Depardieu. After Blanc is accused of attempted rape, he goes to a psychiatrist who prescribes peace and quiet in the country. He goes to the Provencial estate of his friend Carole Bouquet. It is there Bouquet and Blanc meet Blanc's devilish double Patrick Olivier. After a lengthy chase the two sit down and decide that Blanc will take only the high quality roles while Olivier will do the rest. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

If such a thing as gentle humor can be wrung from murderous misogyny, this all-star comedy is the embodiment of it. The basic point of the film seems to be this: unattached men long to live with women, and once they do, they long to live without them. In this story, Paul (Thierry Lhermitte) is upset about his wife's having left him. He can't stop thinking about her, and eventually decides that he'd be much happier if he knew she was dead. Then, he thinks, he could put an end to his obsessing. His uncle, a judge (Phillippe Noiret), knows of a man who killed his wife more or less on purpose, and got away with it. Paul and his uncle get together with the lucky killer, Vincent (Richard Bohringer), and, on their way to visit Paul's wife, discuss how Vincent managed to kill his wife and get away with it. Along the way, the aggravations women bring to men are pretty thoroughly (and humorously) hashed over. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide