Edith Scob Movies

Three siblings must come to terms with their mother's mortality as they decide what to do with her valuable belongings in this warm family drama from filmmaker Olivier Assayas. Hélène Berthier (Edith Scob) is about to turn 75, and her children are gathering at her home in the country for a party. Adrienne (Juliette Binoche) has flown in from New York City, where she lives with her boyfriend, James (Kyle Eastwood). Jérémie (Jérémie Renier) has taken a rare break from his globe-trotting business interests to stop by with his wife (Valérie Bonneton). And Frédéric (Charles Berling), the only one who lives close enough to visit regularly, has also come with his spouse, Lisa (Dominique Reymond). Hélène has inherited a large and valuable collection of art from her brother, and with her health beginning to fail, she approaches Frédéric and asks that he, Jérémie, and Adrienne come up with a plan to deal with the pieces after her death. Frédéric wants to keep the collection together and see if they can persuade a gallery to purchase and present them as a set. Jérémie and Adrienne have other ideas, but as he's pondering a business opportunity in China and she's planning on settling in America for good, they don't have as much influence over the final decision as Frédéric. L'Heure d'Été (aka Summer Hours) was produced in part by the celebrated French art gallery Musée d'Orsay, and was one of a handful of films created to honor the museum in its 20th anniversary year. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Time takes the most painful toll of all on a man confined to a home for the aged in this short drama from writer and director Olivier Bouffard. Paul (Michael Lonsdale) is an elderly man who is slowly falling victim to the ravages of senility. While Paul was once loved by his son and grandchildren, his wildly unpredictable behavior makes him difficult to deal with, and though his family still visits him on occasion, they appear to do so out of a sense of obligation rather than a genuine desire to spend time with him. Adding to Paul's sorrows is the unfortunate fact he's outlived many of his friends, while his surviving contemporaries no longer stay in touch. Ce Que Je Vous Dois (aka What I Owe You) was screened in competition at the 2007 Rotterdam International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

One woman's actions inspire a variety of reactions among those around her in this period drama. Therese (Laetitia Casta) and Firmin (Frédéric Diefenthal) are a young couple of modest means living in France in 1882. Firmin earns a living as a blacksmith, while Therese finds work at an inn. At the inn, Therese makes a point of making the acquaintance of Mme. Numance (Arielle Dombasle), a wealthy woman who is known for her compassion and eagerness to help those less fortunate. When Therese loses her job after getting pregnant, Mme. Numance takes pity on the young couple, and invites them to move into the estate she shares with her husband (John Malkovich). Therese and Mme. Numance become close friends, and before long the lady of the house has come to regard Therese more as a daughter than a guest. But some believe Therese might be using her friendship with Mme. Numance for her own gain, which in their eyes is confirmed when Therese borrows a large sum of money from her benefactors after Firmin develops legal trouble. Therese and Firmin are unable to pay back the Numances, and soon the wealthy couple falls on hard times; those watching these events unfold wonder if Therese deliberately brought the generous family to ruin, or if is it all a product of simple naïveté. Alexandre Astruc helped to adapt the screenplay for Les Ames Fortes, based on the novel by Jean Giono; Astruc was also set to direct the project at one point, but after his unexpected death, Raúl Ruiz stepped up to the director's chair. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Claude Miller directs this surreal comedy about a woman's nightmarish trip to the hospital. Beset by troubles with her family, her married lover, and her studies, anthropology grad student Claire (Anne Brochet) suffers from fainting spells and migraines. After a couple of unnervingly bizarre consultations with Dr. Fish (Yves Jacques), she is sent to a neurological hospital to recuperate. There she shares a room with Odette (Mathilde Seigner), who was recently paralyzed, and with elderly Eleonore (Annie Noel), who is harmless, though simply stark raving mad. This film was screened at the 2000 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

A visually stylish comedy with dramatic overtones from director Tonie Marshall, Vénus Beauté (Institut) looks at the lives of three women who work at a small but successful beauty salon. Angele Nathalie Baye is an attractive woman just edging into middle age who is looking for companionship without commitment, even when it comes knocking. Her co-worker Samantha (Mathilde Seigner) has more boyfriends than she knows what to do with, and Marie (Audrey Tautou), the youngest of the group, is still learning the ropes of both love and beauty treatment. Fans of classic French cinema will want to keep an eye peeled for guest appearances from Emmanuelle Riva, Micheline Presle and Edith Scob. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In the midst of WW I, a doctor and a lawyer team up to turn a ramshackle old mountain chateau into a sanatorium/health spa that caters to the afflicted from most every stratum of European society, most of whom show up with false hope in their hearts and plenty of equally false identities. Even the proprietors have a few deceptions, chief among them is the part of the resort where they provide shelter for dying and horribly maimed soldiers. Still the atmosphere of this high-class convalescent home is that of great gentility that thinly disguises the seaminess of the guests' secret activities. Though much of the film is a quirky comedy, tragedy comes creeping in when people begin dying of unnatural causes, and not even the pure mountain air can save the owners and the residents. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This rather esoteric Portuguese-French drama is filled with poetic imagery. It is notable for it's beautiful photography as it follows a devoted nurse from her Portuguese home to the strange Cape Verde islands. Mariana is the nurse assigned to care for the injured immigrant worker Leao who is in a coma. With him she returns to his Cape Verde village. She was dissatisfied with her currently depressing life and willingly went. She begins to feel almost claustrophobic in the grim environment as she encounters a series of disturbing characters who drag her deeper into their depressing and hopeless lives. Mariana begins to reevaluate her former life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this film, director Rene Feret tells the story of his parents' lives. In 1935 his mother Aline (Valerie Stroh) works in her parents' cafe in a mining town in northern France. There, she meets a customer, Pierre (Jean-Yves Berteloot), and decides she is going to marry him. In a reversal of roles, she is the one who proposes to him, and she also engineers a false pregnancy to persuade her parents to okay the match. With a few stops along the way, the story picks up after the war with the birth of the couple's third son, who is given the name Rene in memory of their first, dead son. Never rich, they achieve some level of financial stability just as their sons are about to head off to the city for college. The love between the two older people is highlighted in a poignant scene as, just as he is about to die, the father shares a champagne toast with his wife in memory of one of their happier moments. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Muriel (Annie Giradot) is a shy woman who bluffs and blusters around in order to hide her shyness and to protect her loneliness, even though she longs wistfully for a companion of some sort. She has been lonely so long that now she is an old maid and has never been wooed. In this gentle French film, Muriel gets a glimpse of romance when Gabriel (Philippe Noiret) walks into the seaside hotel she is vacationing in. His car has broken down, and he has to stay there for a few days while it is repaired. Hers is the only dinner table with room at it, and Gabriel cannot prevent himself from charming women. She is stiff with him at first, but soon they develop a friendship. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A Swiss actor struggles with social problems and boredom as he tries to extricate himself from an unsatisfied home life. He has an affair with an actress, but the romance leaves him even more empty inside as he continues to suffer from youthful restlessness and dissatisfaction at work and at home. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Emmanelle Riva won a Best Actress Award at the Venice Film Festival for her portrayal of a tortured wife in this 1963 French-language adaptation of the novel by Francois Mauriac. Director Georges Franju remains faithful to the book. Riva plays the title character, who feels suffocated in her marriage to the upper-class twit Bernard Desqueyroux (Philippe Noiret). Theirs is a bland marriage in an isolated country mansion surrounded by servants. Therese tries to poison her husband with arsenic, but the dose isn't fatal. She is arrested, but Bernard refuses to press charges, instead bringing her home to a prison of his own devising. He locks her in a bedroom and allows her only cigarettes and wine. Much later, he frees her for a party, and their friends are shocked at her deterioration. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

Famed French comic Fernandel cannot do much for this uninspired mystery story with intended comedic overtones by director Leo Joannon. Fernandel plays Albert, the unhappy brunt of jokes by his fellow office-workers who goes from the frying pan into the fire. Albert gets caught up in a robbery that also goes from bad to worse when it leads to several murders. Although he is not a killer and essentially innocent, there does not seem to be very much that Albert can do to convince others of the truth. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

La Tete Contre Les Muirs (U.S. title: The Keepers) was director Georges Franju's 2nd cinematic offering for 1958, and his first purely fictional film. Franju's prior training in documentaries helps to bring a veneer of reality to this harrowing glimpse within the walls of an insane asylum. Pierre Brasseur plays Marbeau, a traditionalist "head doctor" who takes on the case of young Francois (Jean-Paul Mocky). Though not really insane, Francois has been institutionalized for daring to defy his wealthy father. The story is told from Francois' point of view, as he teeters on the edge of madness during his involuntary internment. The film is essentially a plea for more sensible treatment of the mentally disturbed and the emotionally distressed, calling for much-needed widespread reforms -- something that, alas, was not readily forthcoming in the late 1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide