Agnes Soral Movies

As World War I looms ever closer on the horizon, an elite police task force organized by Minister of the Interior Georges Clemenceau (aka "The Tiger") mobilizes to apprehend the gang responsible for the first motorized hold-up in French history. The year is 1912, and despite operating in the shadow of the guillotine French gangsters continue to flourish. In order to ensure the safety of the public Minister of the Interior Clemenceau creates a dozen "mobile brigades" consisting of policemen with automobiles and fingerprinting equipment and deploys them nationwide. One such unit, fronted by straight-arrow cop Valentin (Clovis Cornillac, and consisting of sardonic brute Pujol (Edouard Baer), badge-toting pugilist Terrasson (Oliver Gourmet), and Italian immigrant Achille (Stefano Accorsi), is assigned the task of tracking down the gang led by notorious anarchist Jules Bonnot (Jacques Gamblin). An ambitious criminal mastermind whose recent heist involving a getaway car set a new standard in armed robbery, Bonnot has grown dangerously emboldened while establishing himself as France's most wanted. Meanwhile, as the Paris opera prepares to stage a new version of Ivan the Terrible and Russian princess Constance Bolkonski (Diane Kruger) embarks on an affair with Bonnot behind the back of her unsuspecting husband (Alexandre Medvedex) - who is furtively attempting to establish a self-serving three way alliance between Russia, England, and France - crack journalist Jean Jaures (Andre Marcon) struggles to bring it all together in the headlines as World War I and the Russian Revolution loom heavy on the horizon. Director Jerome Cornuau collaborates with screenwriters Xavier Dorison and Fabien Nury to resurrect the popular French television series of the 1970s with a multi-layered period thriller that is likely to evoke memories of the similarly themed Untouchables for stateside audiences. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Charlotte Silvera's Girls Can Get Away With Anything is about a young girl who acted in a film. Eight-year-old Judith (Thylda Bares) was plucked from everyday life to act in a film that was made in Paris. After returning home from the experience, she finds that her parents' marriage is on the rocks. She makes her way back to Paris with her friend Nora (Nora Rotman), and the two of them do what they can to survive. Girls Can Get Away With Anything was shot on digital video and was screened at the Paris Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Fifteen-year-old Sabine is unusually confident and analytical. She is also extraordinarily gifted in mathematics. This tender romance chronicles her coming-of-age at the hands of a gentle and fun-loving 40-year-old Czech playwright named Jiri. Because she is so bright, Sabine, who lives in a low-income housing project with her unemployed parents and little sister, makes money on the side doing other people's homework. One day Jiri sees her taking money from some thankful young men on a bus and mistakes her for a prostitute. Under this impression, he invites her to his hotel and with her acquiescence gently becomes her first lover. Sabine approached the situation with logic and afterwards remains cool and calculating until she later spies Jiri with another woman. When faced with that, Sabine's cool demeanor disintegrates and trouble follows. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Based on a novel by French author Michel Tournier, this drama chronicles the redemption of Abel, a French POW responsible for kidnapping dozens of young boys for recruitment by the Nazi SS during WW II. The film opens with black-and-white shots of Abel's childhood in Paris. The year is 1925 and already he has problems getting along with teachers and students. Then he is befriended by the portly young Nestor. Abel loses his only friend during a terrible fire that demolishes the school and leaves him convinced that he has been blessed by fate to survive. Fourteen years quickly pass; the story turns to color, and the now hulking Abel is seen working in a Paris garage. He also spends time with his girlfriend Rachel. It is she who playfully dubs him "ogre" because he is rather rough in bed. Abel has always loved children. He was good friends with little Martine, until she falsely accuses him of rape and he is sent to prison. During the war, he is freed by the German invaders who involve him with the upper echelons of the SS and give him a job as a hunting assistant on Goering's Bavarian estate. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

A feather-light and funny musing on the nature of love, fate and starting over, Claude Lelouch's comedy begins with the meeting of Fabio Lini, an actor turned undercover Paris cop and the notorious lawyer-cum-businessman Benoit Blanc . Both have come to the same clinic to have their ulcers checked, and as they chit-chat, they realize that they have much in common. Relations with women have played big parts in their ulcers. Both freely acknowledge that male/female relations are always problematic, and yet, despite the hindrances the unions present, neither Claude nor Benoit is able to live without them. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this comedy-fantasy a group of Russian eccentrics discover that they can go to Paris from their home in St. Petersburg by leaping through an apartment window. The first eccentric is Nikolay, an oddball teacher. Next is his rotund, crude neighbor Gorokhov and his family. One night Nikolay and Gorokhov climb through a hidden window to get on the roof. They get rip-roarin' drunk the destroy the studio apartment of Nicole, an artist. It is only in the morning that they realize that they were actually in Paris. Soon Gorokhov's whole family is going to Paris where they loot and bring back Western goods into Russia. It is Nicole's apartment they go to and she is going crazy by their repeated visits. She turns the tables and climbs through the window to their home. She is appalled by modern St. Petersburg with its violence, poverty, and political upheaval. She gets into trouble with the local police but is saved by Nikolay who convinces them that she is Edith Piaf on tour. Later Nikolay decides to take his students to Paris. Unfortunately, they don't want to leave and the window is going to close for the next 20 years. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Widower Edouard Pierson (Jeremy Irons) fought for Australia in World War Two, but he was born (and married) in Belgium. For the past twelve years, he has been living in Australia with his daughter. His occupation as a wool merchant is in keeping with his family's tradition. He is determined to remain in Australia, and is equally determined to keep his daughter (Danielle Lyttleton) from learning much about her mother, whom she never knew. Nonetheless, when his brother (Tcheky Karyo) calls urgently from Belgium, requesting his help in saving the family's business there, he returns to his hometown of Verviers. In addition to saving the family business, he comes to have second thoughts about returning to Australia after he has a brief affair with a Belgian woman (Fanny Ardant). Meanwhile, his daughter has made contact with her grandmother (Helene Surgere), and is beginning to learn about her mother. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

The loves and lives of three sisters provides the basis of this melodrama. The eldest is intelligent and very aware of life's ticking clock. The middle sister lives on emotions, while the youngest is an idealistic, impassioned pre-med student. The story is loosely based on Chekhov's play Three Sisters. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

A look at Communism behind the Iron Curtain, this comedy is set in a posh Moscow hotel run by the hypocritical Igor (Philippe Noiret). Igor is busy making money off his black market dealings when Party officials and the KGB land at his hotel. They are looking for Jewish dissidents and just the kind of activity that is keeping Igor in good caviar. Unless he wants to shovel snow in Siberia, Igor has to find a way to safely get the Jewish dissidents out of his hotel and cover up his black market tracks. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

In a complex story of automotive intrigue, oil barons, corporate finance, and international villainy, the inventor of an environmentally friendly car powered by energy cells becomes the target of killers. After Ralph Korda (Jurgen Prochnow) has given his patented worldcar to a German automaker for testing, he is confronted by ominous men, eager to get their hands on his patent. Evil Arab petroleum lords also want to stop this threat to the gasoline market any way they can. Unable to disentangle himself from the women who keep him distracted, Korda is slow to realize that even his closest associates may be trying to send him six feet under. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Lambert (Coluche) works at night as a gas station attendant, not even attempting to stay sober the rest of the time. Every night the young Bensoussan (Richard Anconina), a minor drug dealer, stops by the gas station on his motorcycle and the two men slowly establish a solid friendship. Their relationship deepens steadily, partly because Bensoussan reminds Lambert of his son -- and it is then revealed that Lambert is actually a former police inspector who hit the proverbial brick wall when his son died of a drug overdose and his wife left him. The well-developed, father-son-type friendship between Lambert and Bensoussan eventually causes the former police inspector to take up his old ways and go on a manhunt aided by Lola (Agnes Soral), Bensoussan's love interest. The two of them take on the underworld of drug cartels and hitmen, reaching ever closer to the highest bosses -- and closer to each other -- as their own lives are increasingly on the line. For some critics who may have been more accustomed to Coluche the comic, he may have been a little self-conscious in his part, and the movie slightly predictable, but at the same time Coluche received the 1984 Cesar award for "Best Actor" for his interpretation of Lambert, Richard Anconina received the "Best Supporting Actor" and "Most Promising Young Actor" awards, and two other Cesars went to this film for "Best Sound," and "Best Cinematography." ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi