Jane Birkin

The French-language psychological drama Boxes - which represents veteran actress Jane Birkin's (Blow-up) directorial debut on a narrative feature - constitutes an extended, theatrically garrulous meditation on the rift of understanding inevitable between parents and children. In addition to directing, Birkin also stars, as Anna, a fiftysomething woman in the throes of menopause, who journeys to her family's summer home in Brittany and leafs through the boxes of the title, filled to the brims with mementos and tidbits of family history. As Anna pours over the contents, individuals from her life materialize before her eyes, including her venerable deceased father (Michel Piccoli), her three daughters by different men (Natacha Regnier, Lou Doillon and Adele Exarchopoulos), and her headstrong mother (Geraldine Chaplin). The journey into the past thus becomes a cerebral and philosophical meditation on familial relationships, and an exploration of such themes as love, faithfulness, betrayal, and changes wrought by the ravages of time. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Chanteuse Jane Birkin pays homage to her former husband and musical collaborator, the late Serge Gainsbourg, with this special concert of his music, arranged in the manner of Northern African folk music. Recorded at Paris' Olympia Theatre in the spring of 2002, Jane Birkin: Arabesque includes the songs "La Chanson de Prévert," "L'Amour de Moi," "Ces Petits Riens," "Elisa," "Les Clés du Paradis," "Baby Alone in Babylone," "C'Est Comme Ca," and many more. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

After making a living by providing English subtitle translation to numerous French films, American filmmaker Andrew Litvack makes his debut as a writer/director with the Merchant Ivory production Merci Docteur Rey. Set in Paris, this farcical comedy involves the troubles of young gay man Thomas (Stanislas Merhar). First his opera diva mother, Elisabeth (Dianne Wiest), comes for a visit and she doesn't know he's gay. When he accepts a blind date with someone from an online chat room, he ends up witnessing a murder and possibly discovering the identity of his real father. Eventually he ends up telling his story to a therapist, who is instead replaced by unstable voice-over actress Penelope (Jane Birkin). Also includes cameo appearances by Vanessa Redgrave, Simon Callow, Bulle Ogier, and Jerry Hall. Merci Docteur Rey was shown at the 2002 Mill Valley Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

James Ivory directed this drama adapted from Kaylie Jones' 1990 autobiographical novel in which the character Bill Willis is based on her father, James Jones, author of From Here to Eternity and A Thin Red Line. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's screenplay about expatriate Americans in Paris during the 1960s/1970s offers a portrait of a normal family (as opposed to the dysfunctional families of The Ice Storm and many other 1990s films), seen from the point of view of daughter Channe. Her father is Bill Willis (Kris Kristofferson), a successful novelist and WWII veteran who's married to enthusiastic poker-player Marcella (Barbara Hershey). Divided like the sections of a novel, the story's first chapter is titled, "Billy," in which French orphan Benoit (Samuel Gruen) is brought to the Willis household for adoption, while his unmarried biological mother (Virginie Ledoyen) writes about him in her diary. Six-year-old Benoit has been shipped through so many orphanages and foster homes that he doesn't unpack his suitcase. Benoit's presence prompts the young Channe (Luisa Conlon) to turn to her protective Portuguese nanny Candida (Dominique Blanc). After Benoit becomes acclimated to his new family, he asks that his name be changed to Billy. In the second segment "Francis" a strong friendship develops between Channe (Leelee Sobieski) and fatherless Francis Fortescue (Anthony Roth Costanzo). Obsessed with opera, Francis lives with his expatriate British mother (Jane Birkin). The family's French idyll is disrupted when Bill Willis plans a return to the United States because he wants American doctors to treat his bad heart. The closing act "Daddy" takes place in North Carolina during the 1970s as Bill's health worsens, Billy (Jesse Bradford) grows up, and an alienated Channe seeks acceptance through sex. A bedridden Bill dictates his fiction to Channe, who transcribes tapes and types his manuscript pages. During intimate conversations about boys and sex, Willis helps his daughter find her footing on the path of life. This movie arrived only 14 weeks prior to the release of Terrence Malick's 1998 adaptation of the elder Jones' The Thin Red Line. Shown at 1998 film fests (Venice, Toronto). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

In this homage to acclaimed TV scripter Dennis Potter (1935-1994), famed 75-year-old French director Alain Resnais (Hiroshima, Mon Amour, Last Year at Marienbad) has actors lip-synch in a manner instantly recalling Potter's Pennies from Heaven (1978 TV serial, 1981 movie) and The Singing Detective (1986), regarded by some as the best original work ever created for television. Completing her history dissertation, Camille (Agnes Jaoui) is a Paris tour guide, and Simon (Andre Dussolier) is a regular on her tours because he's attracted to Camille -- although he claims to be researching his historical radio dramas. Camille's sister, business-executive Odile (Sabine Azema), is married to weak, furtive Claude (Pierre Arditi). In the past Odile was close to successful businessman Nicolas (Jean-Pierre Bacri), now married with kids and returning to Paris after an eight-year absence. Odile seeks an apartment from real estate agent Marc (Lambert Wilson). Camille and Marc begin an affair. Nicolas is also looking for an apartment, since he hopes to eventually have his family join him in Paris. These characters make easy transitions back and forth from the dialogue to 36 song fragments. The film's debt to Dennis Potter is acknowledged with a dedication in the opening credits. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

This homage to the cinema by venerated movie-maker Agnes Varda, often dubbed the "grandmother" of the French New Wave, features an all-star international cast. The story is based upon the memories and insights of the 100-year old Mr. Simon Cinema. He lives in a magnificent house filled with movie memorabilia. To help him remember the important details of his career he hires Camille, a film student to write down his remembrances and experiences which have involved all areas of movie-making. Camille comes once a day for 101 days. Film clips, photographs and actual visitors highlight his stories. As he continues to spin his yarns, the imagery in the film smoothly morph into other images. Camille, when not recording, is involved in other exploits including a romance with a production assistant, Mica who aspires to becoming a director. She also begins plotting a way to get to Mr. Cinema's fortune by having a friend pose as his long lost heir. Many other characters are peripherally involved including Death, an Italian seeking the rights to his film catalogue, and a memory specialist. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This unique French offering is a compilation of 30 short films focused on AIDS. The mini-films were based on over 3,000 ideas put in by French school children and were made by filmmakers on a voluntary basis. Most of the vignettes deal with heterosexuality and AIDS, but one deals with drug-usage, and one with homosexuality. It took four production houses three years to create this inspirational and informative film. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Amnesty International produced this film, which features more than two dozen greats of French cinema making pleas for the lives of political prisoners around the world. Each filmmaker speaks passionately on behalf of an individual whose life has been warped by political intolerance, imprisonment, torture or murder, as the lives of those prisoners or sufferers are documented onscreen. A variety of directors contributed shorts with this theme, and the ways in which the appeals are dramatized differ markedly from one to the next. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In Bertrand Tavernier's Daddy Nostalgia, Caroline (Jane Birkin of Agnes Varda's Kung Fu Master), a Parisian screenwriter who has recently left her husband and their young son, travels to the countryside when she hears that her British father, Tony (Dirk Bogarde of Death in Venice, in his last film role) is in poor health and has just had a serious operation. Caroline accompanies Tony and her taciturn French mother, Miche (Odette Laure), to their beautiful seaside home. Miche is determined to keep Tony from drinking or overextending herself, where Caroline is more willing to indulge her father in the few pleasures he has left. They playfully speak English with each other, while Miche speaks only French. Miche doesn't like to talk about the past, so Tony reminisces with Caroline about his former life as a sophisticated, well-traveled young man. Caroline is getting along well with her father, but as he talks about his cocktail parties and trips around the world, she remembers him neglecting her when she was a young girl. "I have no memory of you before you were 20," he admits. Tony speaks sadly of his relationship with Miche, which has deteriorated in the past few years. He notices that she used to say, "Come to bed," and now she tells him, "Go to bed." As the seriousness of his illness becomes clearer, Caroline takes Tony on a day trip to Cannes, where her deep reserve of anger toward him comes to the surface. When he speaks of his "beautiful life," and how things were better for everyone back then, she explodes -- "I don't care about your beautiful life! It was a beautiful, selfish life!" But Caroline also yearns for Tony's acceptance and love, and they both dread the day when she has to return to Paris. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Veteran French director Agnes Varda's Le Petit Amour is based on a short story by actress/songstress Jane Birkin. Birkin herself plays the main character, a loving but lonely 40-year-old divorcee. Her life is brightened a bit by the presence of a handsome 15-year-old, played by Mathieu Demy. Their romance forms the basis of this "petit" Varda effort, which is also known as Kung Fu Master (now you'll have to see it for yourself!). Shortly after the release of Le Petit Amour, Agnes Varda directed a documentary centering upon Jane Birkin, Jane B par Agnes V. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jean-Luc Godard wrote, directed, and starred in this offbeat comedy. He appears as a bumbling cinematographer who drops film cannisters as he rushes to a screening, and he and others board a plane helmed by a pilot who is reading a self-help book about suicide. A philosophical narration accompanies scenes of recurring imagery. A man dancing with a woman, the vapor trail of a jet against the sky, and a dead man with a huge knife in his belly are used along with a glass door being slammed in a little girl's face. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Andy Warhol "graduate" Paul Morrissey surprised his followers with his sensitive direction of the 1985 costume drama Beethoven's Nephew (Le Neveu de Beethoven) The eponymous character, Karl Beethoven (Dietmar Prinz), is snatched from his mother's home by egomaniacal composer Ludwig Van Beethoven (Wolfgang Reichmann). It is Beethoven's contention that nephew Karl is in the clutches of a "demon" (his mother!), and that only by taking charge of Karl himself can the composer tap the boy's inherent musical genius. Ultimately Karl rebels against Beethoven's obsessiveness by developing a relationship with a beautiful actress (Nathalie Baye). As Karl's independence grows, Beethoven's health declines, possibly because of the psychological ramifications of watching his surrogate son grow away from him. Adapted by Morrissey and Mathieu Carriere from a novel by Luigi Magnani, Beethoven's Nephew was released in the US nearly two years after its French premiere. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A man meets a woman who is the image of his late wife, which leads him to make many of the same mistakes over again in this drama. Shortly after the death of Katherine Mansfield, an author from New Zealand, her husband and editor John Middleton-Murray (John Gielgud) oversees the posthumous publication of several works that belatedly bring her fame and respect around the world. Thirty-three years after Katherine's passing, John travels to France (where Katherine died after contracting tuberculosis while traveling) to supervise the publication of a new collection of Katherine's journals and letters. While in Europe, John meets a young woman named Marie Taylor (Jane Birkin); she bears a striking resemblance to the late Katherine, and she also was born in New Zealand. As Jon and Marie get to know each other, Marie discovers just how much she has in common with Katherine -- and just how much was wrong with her relationship with John. Leave All Fair also features Simon Ward and Feodor Atkine. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide