Roger Souza Movies
- 2002
Directed by Alain Raoust, The Cage follows 25-year-old Anne (Caroline Ducey), who has spent the past seven years of her life in prison. The crime was killing a small boy who had inadvertently gotten in the line of fire during a service station hold-up gone wrong, and Anne has never been able to forgive herself. Since she was a minor when convicted, however, Anne is up for what she believes is an undeserved parole. Once out of prison, she cannot come to grips with her freedom, and sets off to find redemption with the father (Roger Souza) of the child she had accidentally murdered. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Caroline Ducey, Roger Souza, (more)
- 2001
A young man must reconcile his nostalgia for the past with the unfortunate realities of the present in this drama. Shortly after graduating from college, Paul (Mathieu Amalric) receives word from his mother Odette (Michele Gary) that his father (Roger Souza) has been diagnosed with cancer and doesn't have long to live. Paul decides to come home for an extended visit, and while he's happy to become reacquainted with his mom, he has issues with his father and isn't sure how to approach him. After several years away, Paul is shocked at how much the countryside has changed; developers have been buying up property in the area, and suburban subdivisions are replacing the family farms he remembered. Paul renews his friendship with Thierry (Fabrice Cals), who was his best friend as a boy, but he soon finds this is another area where things have changed; Thierry's girlfriend these days is Odile (Lauryl Brossier), who confesses to Paul that she was infatuated with him when they were schoolmates years ago, and while he's quite smitten with her, he doesn't want to betray his friendship with Thierry, who is growing visibly uncomfortable with their casual affection. As Paul must come to terms with his relationship with his father, he also has to face the reality that his father's death will mean the end of the family's farm -- a prospect that bothers Paul more than it does Odette. Amour D'Enfance was screened at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, where it was shown as part of the Un Certain Regard series. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mathieu Amalric
- 1998
- NR
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
- Starring:
- Claude Brasseur, Marianne Denicourt, (more)
George Sluizer's 1992 English-language remake of his 1988 Dutch thriller The Vanishing follows the same plot-line as the original film, yet with one important difference. The film details a young man's (Kiefer Sutherland) search for his girlfriend (Sandra Bullock), who disappeared at a gas station after the couple had a fight. Where the original film didn't reveal what happened to the girlfriend until late into the movie, the 1992 version opens with her kidnapper (Jeff Bridges) plotting his abduction. Over the course of the film, Sutherland's search for Bullock is intercut with footage of Bridges that illustrates his mental illness and his repeated attempts to abduct women. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Bridges, Kiefer Sutherland, (more)
Based on Time Krabbe's The Golden Egg, The Vanishing is a deeply disturbing psychological thriller about a young man's search for his girlfriend after she disappears at a rest stop during a short trip. Over the course of three years, the man obsessively searches for her, using his spare time to put up posters and leave handbills, hoping that someone will give him a clue to the mystery surrounding her disappearance. The kidnapper, having watched the man for some time, is intrigued by his increasing obsession and finally contacts him. He then gives the man the opportunity to learn firsthand of his girlfriend's fate. The film, frightening and moving with a chilling conclusion, is a small masterpiece as director George Sluizer confronts and examines the true nature of evil and obsession. Sluizer remade The Vanishing in an American version four years after the release of the original Dutch film, inexplicably changing the shocking ending which gave the original film such power. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu, Gene Bervoets, (more)
- 1986
- PG
Co-adapted by director Claude Berri from a novel by Marcel Pagnol, this hugely successful French historical drama concerns a bizarre battle royale over a valuable natural spring in a remote French farming community. City dweller Jean Cadoret (Gérard Depardieu) assumes ownership of the spring when the original owner is accidentally killed by covetous farmer Cesar Soubeyran (Yves Montand). Soubeyran and his equally disreputable nephew Ugolin (Daniel Auteuil) pull every dirty trick in the book to force Cadoret off his land, but the novice farmer stands firm. Although the Soubeyrans appear to gain the upper hand, the audience is assured that they will eventually be foiled by the vengeful daughter of the spring's deceased owner -- thus setting the stage for the film's equally successful sequel, Manon of the Spring. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gérard Depardieu, Yves Montand, (more)
Manon of the Spring (Manon des Sources) has also been released as Jean de Florette II in the US, as it is a sequel to Claude Berri's Jean de Florette. Both films are drawn from the same source: Filmmaker/novelist Marcel Pagnol's 1952 rural romance, also titled Jean de Florette. Manon (Emmanuelle Beart), now fully grown, is a shepherdess who prefers to keep her distance from the local villagers. She is determined to uncover the truth behind the death of her father (played by Gerard Depardieu in Jean de Florette) and to wreak vengeance on the men she holds responsible. The more sympathetic of the two men, Ugolin (Daniel Auteil), is in love with Manon, but this does not weaken her resolve. She causes the village's water supply to diminish, blaming this action upon Ugolin and his duplicitous co-conspirator Cesar (Yves Montand). The upshot of this vengeful behavior ends in tragedy for all concerned. The joint winners of eight French Cesar awards, Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring were released to the U.S. in tandem in 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yves Montand, Daniel Auteuil, (more)
- 1983
Without any plot to speak of, and no sequential, dramatic events, this film about young women who dress up as men and fight off the installation of new metal forges in their region in 1830 starts dragging quickly. The French peasants scare off a judge in the opening segment of the film, and at the end, when the judge finally gives up and leaves, it is hard to understand why. One part of the problem is a lack of action, the other is that the villagers speak Provençal and this has to be translated to the judge and by the time all the double talk has been completed, the industrial revolution hardly seems like big news anymore. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Paul Roussillon, Jean-Quentin Chatelain, (more)
