Gil Alma Movies

Just how much damage can a homely, socially-taunted pariah wield against her neighbors when revenge is the order of the day? Such is the question at the heart of Vilaine (AKA Ugly Melanie), widely regarded as the (unofficial) "nasty opposite" of Jean-Pierre Jeunet's audience-pleaser Amelie. Though she is initially a sweetheart who delights in acts of kindness to others, obese and klutzy Melanie (Marilou Berry) seldom, if ever, elicits any gratitude from the recipients of her generosity. This sets the stage for a nasty and startling reversal when Melanie's sexy, svelte cousin, Aurore (Frederique Bel) pushes her to the edge with a cruel prank -- the lie that Melanie has a Valentine's Day suitor. Melanie grows so distraught that a torrent of pent-up rage emerges and prompts her to undertake hideous, cathartic revenge on the innocents around her, including a number of small pets. Directors Jean-Patrick Benes and Allan Mauduit approach the material as a transgressive, jet-black comedy that challenges accepted standards and frequently lapses into deliberate bad taste. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

One man's dogged search for freedom and a better life leads him on a picaresque journey in this comedy-drama from celebrated filmmaker Costa-Gavras. Elias (Ricardo Scamarcio) is a young man from a nameless country in the Mediterranean who has tossed away his passport and paid a smuggler a handsome fee to be hidden inside a ship making its way to Europe. When immigration authorities stage a surprise inspection, Elias jumps ship along with a number of other unauthorized passengers, and hours later he washed up on the clothes-optional beach of a luxury resort on the Southern coast of France. Wearing tattered clothes amidst folks who wear designer originals when they bother to dress at all, dogged by hunger while guess nibble at lavish open buffets, and presumed to be a laborer by the few guests who pay attention to him, Elias is a stranger in a very strange land as he tries to avoid immigration police and survive in a place where he can't speak the local language. Elias stumbles into a brief affair with Christina (Juliane Köhler), a German tourist looking for kicks, but he fares better when he meets Nick Nickelby (Ulrich Tukur), a traveling magician who gives Elias a job as a temporary assistant and invites him to visit him in Paris. When Nickelby moves on, Elias decides to make his way to the fabled city, which is the beginning of a long and sometimes dangerous journey though class-conscious Europe. Eden à l'ouest (aka Eden Is West) was screened at the 2009 Berlin International Film Festival only a few days after its world premiere, appropriately held in Paris. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi