Didier Bezace

Remi Bezancon's romantic comedy My Life in the Air stars Vincent Elbaz as Yann, a young man whose mother died during a plane flight while giving birth to him. These events traumatized him to the point that is unable to fly, even though the airline would allow him unlimited free access to any of the flights. Now he works as a flight simulator instructor, although he never actually leaves the ground, and he must sort out his feelings when an old girlfriend returns to confuse issues with his current gal pal. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

This way-offbeat comedy from Gallic director Jeanne Labrune concerns two young French women, best friends Léa and Jacinthe. While Jacinthe develops a fixation with the moths that begin to cluster in frightening quantities throughout her apartment, Léa finds herself drawn to a dim-witted fellow employed by a local supermarket, then impulsively decides to follow him home via train. When Léa mysteriously disappears during the days that follow, Jacinthe naturally grows concerned about her friend and decides to investigate. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

A screwball comedy that covers one week in the lives of a group of Parisians, Ca Ira Mieux Demain relies on chance encounters between its characters to propel its plot. Included amongst the characters are two girls, Annie (Sophie Guillemin) and Marie (Isabelle Carre); Marie's mother Elisabeth (Jeanne Balibar); the bourgeois and anal-retentive Sophie (Nathalie Baye) and her husband Xavier (Jean-Pierre Darroussin); and the put-upon Franck (Didier Bezace), who is constantly being harangued by his wife, Celine (Nathalie Besancon), about his unhealthy eating habits. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

Ça commence aujourd'hui, a social drama, is Bertrand Tavernier's first major film since winning a César (the Oscar of France) in 1996 for his epic Capitaine Conan. Set in a forlorn mining town near Valencienne in the north of France, the story is about one man's struggle to bring life to his once prosperous village and its inhabitants. Philippe Torreton, who won a César for Best Actor with his title role in Capitaine Conan, plays Daniel, the head teacher of a nursery school in a town demoralized by unemployment. Daniel is determined against all odds to bring life to the community. When a parent who has come to pick up her children collapses at the school grounds due to alcohol abuse, and social services turns a deaf ear to all pleas for help, Daniel decides to take the law into his own hands. Despite resistance from the townspeople, in the long run his efforts are not fruitless. Initially, he is assisted by his girlfriend Valéria, a young sculptor; gradually, the school nurse Samia joins forces with them. Ça commence aujourd'hui is a film committed to everyday heroism; it takes a multilayered approach to an array of problems. The visual force of the storytelling is especially powerful. Tavernier's Ça commence aujourd'hui received a Special Mention for its subject matter, the Ecumenical Jury award and FIPRESCI award (Federation of International Film Critics) at the 49th International Berlin Film Festival, 1999. Tavernier was previously the 1995 Berlin Golden Bear winner. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide

The film is based on a true story of a young actor, Robert Hugues Lambert, who was hired to play the role of aviation hero Mermoz in occupied France during WW II. But his career came to a brutal end when his homosexuality was discovered and he was sent to a Nazi camp. The Vichy government's directive to bring to screen edifying films based on national myths, such as Charlemagne or Joan of Arc, led one producer to decide to make a film about Mermoz, an airmail pioneer who perished at the height of his fame, crashing in 1936. This symbolic figure was also an activist in an extreme rightwing party, the vice-president of a movement known as 'The Crosses of Fire.' Lambert, a relatively obscure theatre actor was hired for his physical resemblance. Another actor was hired to complete the film, but the sound crew managed to smuggle a microphone through the barbed wires to get a recording of Lambert's voice. The film had its premiere in Paris, but Lambert was shipped to Auschwitz, never to return. Based on this story, Jean Claude Grumberg wrote a fictional comedy about making a film during the Occupation. He decided that only a comedy could narrate the way most French people went about their business with their heads in the sand during the Occupation, seeking refuge in derivative comedy. The film's light tone, however, changes dramatically at the end when Lambert is taken away. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide

André Téchiné's complex and ambitious crime drama starts with a prologue in which a little boy is awakened in the middle of the night by two strangers bringing home his father's body. The story of the deceased, Ivan (Didier Bezace), and his involvement with car thieves unfolds in flashbacks as told by different people: Ivan's policeman brother Alex (Daniel Auteuil); Juliette (Laurence Côte), a young woman involved with the both brothers; and Marie (Catherine Deneuve), an unhappy philosophy professor in love with Juliette. Auteuil and Deneuve played siblings three years earlier in Téchiné's similarly rueful family drama Ma Saison Préferée. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide

This made-for-TV drama from France examines the life and times of Charles Pathe (played by Didier Bezace), a producer and entrepreneur who became one of the pioneering figures of the French film industry. The film examines the ups and downs of Pathe's career, as well as his encounters with American film trailblazer George Eastman (Ronald Guttman) and legendary French comedian Max Linder (Alain Fromager). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

It is only a few years into the future, but the face of France has changed drastically, due to its takeover by a moralistic, hypocritical and totalitarian regime. Women with children who want to divorce their husbands are not allowed to do so, all political parties have been outlawed, smoking is illegal and everyone must work. After a spat with her boyfriend, Carole (Laure Marsac) hails a taxi, not realizing that she has done so without any of the money or identification papers she needs. Her driver (Bruno Cremer) attempts to help her, but a variety of mishaps bring her to the attention of the police, who proceed to arrest her on made-up charges and a phoney HIV-positive result on tests given at the time of arrest. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Bertrand Tavernier directed this gritty, unglamorous look at the grunge work police officers perform in attempting to uphold the law. Didier Bazace stars as Lucien Marguet, a drug squad cop who is dedicated to getting drugs off the street. Lucien is passionate about eradicating drugs, even though his small drug busts barely put a dent in the rampant drug use throughout the city. But still Lucien persists. He confronts HIV-positive prostitute Cecile (Lara Guirao) about her drug habit and criticizes his paper-shuffling boss Dodo (Jean-Paul Comart) for not making the big drug busts and concentrating, instead, on the small-timers. Tavernier takes his camera into the drab goings-on of a dedicated cop, and the fascination lies in the intensity of Lucien's appointed cause as he continues unappreciated and ignored. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

From time to time a deceased novelist or artist is sufficiently revered that, as a form of homage, his disciples will take one of his unfinished projects and attempt to bring it to completion. The screenplay for La Petite voleuse was written by Claude Miller, Luc Beraud and Anne Miller based on a scenario co-authored by the late French cinema great Francois Truffaut. It brings a respectful, unsentimental, and unflinching eye to bear on the life of Janine Castang (Charlotte Gainsbourg), a 16-year-old girl beset with antisocial drives due in part to an unpleasant home life. After the Second World War, her mother was made an outcast for consorting with the Germans, and she entrusted Janine to the doubtful care of her milquetoast brother and his highly unsympathetic wife. Janine has a vivid fantasy life, and a problem with kleptomania. After she's caught stealing she's forced to go to work as a maid rather than continue in school. Soon afterward, her romantic nature flowers in a number of new relationships which place new obstacles before her. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide