Guy Thauvette Movies

A gifted forger and confidence man attempts to stay one step ahead of the lawman determined to bring him to justice in this comedy-drama from Steven Spielberg, based on a true story. Frank W. Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a 16-year-old high school student who finds himself emotionally cut adrift when his mother, Paula (Nathalie Baye), leaves his father, Frank Abagnale Sr. (Christopher Walken), after Frank Sr. falls into arrears with the Internal Revenue Service. One day at school, Frank Jr. attempts to pass himself off as a substitute teacher, and easily makes the subterfuge work. His small-scale success gives Frank some ideas, and he soon discovers bigger and more profitable ways of hoaxing others, passing himself off as an airline pilot, a doctor, and an attorney. Along the way, Frank learns how to become a master forger, and uses his talent and charm to pass over 2.5 million dollars in phony checks. Frank's increasingly audacious work soon attracts the attention of Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks), an FBI agent who is determined to put Frank behind bars. Frank seems to enjoy being pursued by Carl, and even goes so far as to call Carl on the phone to chat every once in a while. While posing as a doctor, Frank falls in love with Brenda Strong (Amy Adams), a sweet girl working as a candy striper. When Frank asks Brenda to marry him, he decides to assume a new identity to impress her father, Roger (Martin Sheen) -- who happens to be the District Attorney of New Orleans, LA. Catch Me If You Can was based on the autobiography of the real Frank W. Abagnale Jr., who has a cameo in the film and today works on the side of the law as a top consultant on preventing forgery and designing secure checking systems. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The highly acclaimed and famously eccentric classical pianist Glenn Gould is the subject of this idiosyncratic film portrait. As the title suggests, Gould's life is explored through a series of thirty-two self-contained but interrelated vignettes, a structure inspired by Bach's "Goldberg Variations," the compositions that were the basis for one of Gould's most famous recordings. Fictional recreations, many starring an excellent Colm Feore as Gould, follow the musician from his precocious childhood to his early death at the age of fifty. Juicy biographical details like a surprising early retirement from public performance and an addiction to prescription drugs are featured prominently, but equal attention is paid to Gould's challenging theoretical ideas. Director Francois Girard refuses to provide easy explanations for the pianist's quirks, instead using his unconventional structure to provide great insight while suggesting the real Gould remains essentially unknowable. Especially interesting is the film's mix of dramatization and documentary, as it juxtaposes its fictional recreations with actual interviews with Gould's friends and associates. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

It is Christmas Eve, and it's snowing hard. For reasons of his own, Pouliot (Claude Blanchard) tells his two friends (Guy Thauvette and Marcel Leboef) that he won't join them in their attempt to rob a department store. After some discussion, the two (who are brothers) go ahead with their planned theft. They have been followed by a radio reporter (Denis Bouchard), who is aware of the whole scheme. When one of them is caught by the police as they leave the scene of the crime, having killed someone in the confusion, the reporter suggests that the remaining thief take him hostage - at his radio station. Once they are ensconced at the radio station, they are beseiged by advertisers insisting that they interrupt their live-crime broadcast with ads, since everybody is listening to it. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

And Then You Die is a 115-minute Canadian melodrama starring Ken Welsh as an above-the-border drug czar. Having amassed a fortune on the miseries of others, Welsh intends to retire. But the Mafia, notorious for its poor retirement plan, wants a piece of Welsh's riches. So does a vicious motorcycle gang. And so too do certain double-dealing members of the police squad pursuing Welsh. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When handsome, magnetic and a bit of a rogue, young Steven Brown returns to his hometown on the Gaspé peninsula in Quebec in 1936 after wandering around the world a bit, his added glamor sets many a female heart pounding. However, this same town is noteworthy for its claustrophobic air of moralistic repression, and one result of his return is an outbreak of crimes of passion, including a couple of rapes. In fact, for a short time it looks like his entire town is out to destroy itself. Somehow the young man survives to tell this tale as an old man, reliving his memories through flashbacks. This sensitively crafted film is based on a novel by Anne Hébert, and all the English characters in it were recast as French-speaking. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

With an unlikely hero who apparently excels at almost anything, this confused saga of survival in the wilderness and accidental murder starts out hard to believe and stays that way. C.H. (Luc Matte) used to be a star player for the Montreal Canadiens and has turned in his puck and hockey stick for the pursuit of women -- as well as a good game of chess (he is a master at that too). He supports himself by waiting tables and one day takes some time off to go on vacation in the Quebec wilderness, where some local thugs give him a hard time. From that point onward, things get worse after one of the hooligans is accidentally killed. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

One of Canada's talented directors, actress Micheline Lanctot expresses an effective, engaging approach in this simple, poignant drama about Armand (Jocelyn Berube), a handyman with one problem romance after another. The quiet Armand settles into Montreal after his wife has left him and before long, he continues the momentum when an ill-considered liaison with a nubile woman ends on her insistence. Next, Armand gives his heart to a frustrated housewife, though this decision is hardly well thought out. In the meantime, a gay man who rents out a room in his apartment has unfulfilled longings directed at the unsuspecting handyman. L'Homme a Tout Faire won a Silver Medal for "Best Picture" at the 1980 San Sebastian Film Festival. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide