Cecile Tanner Movies

Swiss director Alain Tanner, who wowed audiences in the 1970s with his art house classic Jonah, Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000 (1976), returns to the same territory with this decidedly more downbeat film. The movie details the life of Jonah (Jerome Robart), who has indeed just turned 25. A recent film school graduate, he is living with his Senegalese girlfriend and childhood sweetheart Lila (Aissa Maiga), and occasionally shooting documentaries. The film explores the shifting emotional landscape of Jonah and Lila's relationship as the two take in a boarder, Irina - a Russian woman on the lam from Soviet mobsters, for whom she made an adult movie. Meanwhile, Lila longs to return to Senegal to be with her grandmother. Jonas et Lila, a Demain ran at the 1999 San Sebastian Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Olivier Peray made his directorial debut with this French-Swiss-Spanish co-production reminiscent of Eric Rohmer romances. At a roadside cafe, Sophie (Sarah Grappin) listens while Alain (Vincent Elbaz) tells her a story about Lionel (Bruno Putzulu), seen sitting elsewhere in the cafe. As the tale progresses, the film does a four-year flashback: Alain and Lionel are both employed at a publishing firm where Lionel gains such a rep as a "sex machine" that Alain bets him he can't spend a night with a woman without having sex. Lionel agrees to this bet and chooses to hit on Claire (Smadi Wolfman), a travel agent who initially gives him a false name and address and then later tells him she's married. After much sex-slanted repartee, the two have sex. The movie might end right here (at the 40-minute mark) -- except that Alain reveals to Sophie that he has not related a true account of the actual events. He then launches into a totally different version of what transpired. Shown at the 1998 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

Paul (Dominic Guard) is a journalist who is up to date on the latest horrors of the modern world and is heartsick about them. He has a wife (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi) and a steady job but leaves both of them suddenly for parts unknown. His wife is worried about him, and she is angry that he left without a word. She is sufficiently concerned to seek out one of Paul's former flames (Angela Molina) for information about where he might have gone. Soon, this girl has joined her in a quest to find Paul. They finally discover him in a Spanish resort town on the coast, moodily riding his motorcycle over the countryside and sharing philosophical musings with Antonio (Francisco Rabal), a magnetic older man who fought against Franco in the Spanish Civil War. Romantic and sexual complexities brought on by the rivalry between these two attractive women add to Paul's malaise.
~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Sauve Qui Peut (la Vie), a pessimistic but visually stunning film, marks Jean-Luc Godard's return to cinema after having spent the 70s working in video. The film presents a few days in the lives of three people: Paul Godard (Jacques Dutronc ), a television producer; Denise Rimbaud (Nathalie Baye), his co-worker and ex-girlfriend; and Isabelle Riviera (Isabelle Huppert), a prostitute whom Paul has used. Denise wants to break up with Paul and move to the country. Isabelle wants to work for herself instead of her pimp. Paul just wants to survive. Their stories intersect when Paul brings Denise to the country cottage he is trying to rent and Isabelle comes to see it without knowing that the landlord has been her client. The film is broken into segments entitled "The Imaginary," "Commerce," "Life," and "Music." Each of the first three sections focuses on one character and the last section brings all three characters together. This complex film is often closer to an essay than a story; it uses slow motion and experimental techniques to explore questions of love, work, and the nature of cinema. Sauve Qui Peut (la Vie) was Godard's first film with his frequent collaborator Anne-Marie Miéville, who edited and co-wrote the film. ~ Louis Schwartz, Rovi