Anne Roussel Movies

It is 1620, and the young King of Spain (Gabino Diego) is technically a married man, because the great churchmen have conducted a grand public wedding ceremony joining him with a wife. However, as the real rulers of the state, they have perversely kept him completely innocent in matters of sex, so that his marriage remains unconsummated. One day, one of the king's few friends sees to it that he gets to spend a little time with a high-class prostitute (Laura del Sol). In fact, she's so high class that she's the favorite whore for the Grand Inquisitor himself. After the king's initiation into the joys of the female body, he publicly declares his desire to see his queen naked, which scandalizes his prudish and very hypocritical court. The Inquisitor (Fernando Fernan Gomez), when he learns of the boy's meeting with the prostitute, issues two conflicting instructions to two different aides. He sends one to have her arrested and another to warn her to go into hiding. That kind of convoluted behavior is the norm in this humorous historical drama. One of the controversies the court entertains itself with is whether or not the king committed adultery with the prostitute, since it could be alleged that he wasn't quite completely married at the time, according to the legal and theological conventions of the time. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

American humorist Jules Feiffer and French director Alain Resnais are oddly paired for this satirical comedy about an American cartoonist in Paris. Adolph Green is a stunner as Joey Wellman, a cantankerous American cartoonist traveling abroad for the first time. In tow is Lena Apthrop (Linda Lavin), and the two are ostensibly journeying to Paris to attend a comic-strip exhibition in which Wellman's work is included. But it turns out the exhibition is just an excuse for Wellman to track down his errant daughter Elsie (Laura Benson), who has left Cleveland to take up literature at the Sorbonne. Her professor, Christian Gauthier (Gerard Depardieu) happens to be a big fan of Wellman, and he corrals the cartoonist and Lena to go to the fashionable country estate of his mother Isabelle (Micheline Presle), who tries to put up with her son's American friends. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

This symbolic drama from director Benoit Jacques underscores the characters' human need for affection. Children steal lemons for the thrill, while women steal other women's men from them just to prove they can. Drug smuggling, clandestine love affairs, and two lovers involved with the production of Shakespeare's Othello carry on with their own off-stage tragedy. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

The fertile filmmaking community of Burkina Faso gives birth to another stark, social realist tale with this feature from director Pierre Yameogo. Me and My White Pal concerns the hand-to-mouth existence of Mamadi, an African student studying in France who becomes embroiled with violent gangsters when he intercepts a drug package and attempts to profit from it. While tending to cars in his menial parking-garage job, Mamadi discovers the stash, which his "white pal" persuades him to try to sell. Once he does, the twosome find themselves running all the way back to Burkina Faso to escape the dealers. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

A pair of French detectives enter a different world after they are assigned to solve a puzzling double homicide that occurred in an African neighborhood in Paris. The corpses of the two masked Malian women were discovered ritually mutilated and hanging from a ceiling. The detectives' search leads them to a Malian father and his 18-year-old daughter. The father confesses to the crime, but further investigation reveals that he is lying. Even more puzzled than before, the two investigators consult a noted professor who tries to help them understand the true nature of the crime. The story is based on a book by controversial French academic Tobie Nathan, a self-proclaimed "ethno-psychiatrist," who has been researching the problems experienced by France's many immigrants, particularly African ones, as they wrestle with the clash between their native beliefs and their new culture. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The title character in the Belgian-French The Music Teacher is a retired opera star, played by Jose Van Dam. The teacher's most gifted pupil is singer/musician Anne Roussel. Her love for her teacher is one of the motivating factors of the story, as is Roussel and Van Dam's relationship with another pupil, petty thief Philippe Volter. Complicating matters is one of Van Dam's old enemies, who endeavors to exploit the talents of the pupils. Written and directed by Gerard Corbiau, The Music Teacher unfortunately drags whenever the principals stop singing and start talking. But what singing! And what cinematography! Small wonder that this film was nominated for a "Best Foreign Picture" Academy Award. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide