Christopher Thompson Movies

Recalling such prior successes as The Big Chill, Peter's Friends and Return of the Secaucus 7, director Daniele Thompson's seriocomedy A Change of Plans follows a group of four French couples who converge in an apartment over the course of one lengthy summer's eve and spend the time chatting about life, personal goals, relationships and sex. The said event unfurls during the perennial "Fete de la musique" in the City of Lights. Attendees include: the shark-like divorce attorney who owns the apartment, M.L. (Karin Viard) and her out-of-work husband Piotr (Dany Boon); slick, unctuous attorney Lucas (Patrick Thompson) and his slightly stuck-up homemaker wife Sarah (Emmanuelle Seigner); gynecologist Melanie (Marina Fois) and her oncologist husband Alain (Patrick Bruel); and M.L.'s sister Juliette (Marina Hands) and her much older boyfriend Erwann (Patrick Chesnais). As the night unfurls, it becomes readily apparent that none of the partners are happy and that virtually all have cheated or are planning on cheating on each other, which turns the film into an extended meditation on dissatisfaction and infidelity among the Parisian upper-crust. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

A fresh-faced orphan from the provinces labors away at the last old-fashioned café on Avenue Montaigne as the Paris theater elite prepare for the biggest night of the year in Jet Lag director Danièle Thompson's whirlwind comedy of intersecting lives. Jessica (Cécile De France) may have been orphaned at the tender age of four, but her doting grandmother (Suzanne Flon) did her best to bring the motherless girl up right. A one-time ladies' room attendant at The Ritz, Jessica's grandmother was a woman well known for her extraordinary taste. Upon arriving in Paris to work as a waitress at a modest café nestled between a renowned concert hall, a venerable theater, and a high-profile auction house, Jessica soon finds herself interacting with a curious cross section of the thriving entertainment industry. As rehearsals for the upcoming shows get under way and Jessica is assigned the task of delivering food to the hardworking actors and low-earning stagehands, she soon discovers that even the most famous of people are often forced to make difficult decisions in life.

Jean-François Lefort (Albert Dupontel) is a classical pianist whose devoted wife has him booked at venues across Europe for the next six years. As the free-spirited musician struggles to eschew the formality of his upcoming concert appearance, self-made businessman Jacques Grumberg (Claude Brasseur) takes time out from his May-December romance and his stressful medical treatment in order to auction off a collection that he has been building his entire life and reach out to his estranged intellectual son, Frédéric (Christopher Thompson). Meanwhile, back on the theater front, popular television actress Catherine Versen (Valérie Lemercier) prepares to star in a farcical play, a famous American film director (Sydney Pollack) begins auditioning actors for an upcoming film about Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, and a cheerful concierge on the verge of retirement (Dani) enjoys her final stint rubbing elbows with the biggest and brightest stars in Paris. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A lush historical drama from Dutch director Marlene Gorris, The Luzhin Defense is set in Como, a gorgeous northern Italian lakeside town located at the foot of the Alps. The year is 1929, and Alexander Luzhin (John Turturro) is a talented Russian chess player travelling to Como by train for the World Chess Championship. Also on his train is Natalia (Emily Watson), who is journeying to Como to meet her mother Vera (Geraldine James) at their posh lakeside hotel. Vera wants Natalia to settle down with the right -- meaning rich -- man, and duly tries to set her up with Jean (Christopher Thompson), a French count. However, Natalia instead sets her sights on Luzhin, who returns her affections, and the two embark on an unusual and unpredictable love affair. Adapted from one of Vladimir Nabokov's lesser-known novels, The Luzhin Defense also features the talents of Mark Tandy and Kelly Hunter as Luzhin's parents -- seen in flashback -- and Orla Brady as his young aunt. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

A guy with unusual romantic problems comes up with an even more unusual solution in this black comedy from Spain. Miguel (Alberto San Juan) is a man who can't bear to hurt a woman's feelings, which is how he ends up with three girlfriends at once -- Fina (Ana Risueno), who has a bad leg; Gloria (Balbina del Rosario), whose looks scare most men away; and Dori (Lina Mira), who needs to lose a lot of weight. Miguel is already having enough trouble juggling three improbable lovers when he meets Claudia (Patricia Velasquez), a lovely woman from France who is quite attracted to him. Miguel is very fond of Claudia, but he knows his three significant others would be heartbroken if he left them. So he comes up with what seems like a reasonable solution -- he'll simply kill his current girlfriends so he can start dating Claudia full time. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Set in an unknown time and place during the 18th century, Isabel Coixet's follow-up to her 1996 drama Cosas Que Nunca Te Dije/Things I Never Told You centers on the reminiscences of The Teacher (Julio Nuñez), a 68-year-old man who shows up at the home of young Martin (Gary Piquer) and his ailing wife, with whose sister The Teacher was once romantically involved. The Teacher fell in love with Matilde (Olalla Moreno) sixty years ago when his father, a doctor, took him along on a housecall when she was ill. He meets Matilde again twenty years in the future and finds that though she has married Leon (Christopher Thompson) a French messenger, she still possesses a bewitching childlike innocence. Matilde does not realize that her spouse has fallen into a passionate relationship with the local fencing instructor's seductive daughter Valeria. After another long absence, The Teacher returns to the village. This time Matilde has heard about the ongoing affair. Miserable and eager to learn the truth, she begs The Teacher to take her to the fencing school where Leon and Valeria tryst so she can see for herself. The gallant Teacher refuses, but this doesn't stop the determined Matilde, and tragedy ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This historical drama, directed by Agnieszka Holland, focuses on the rocky relationship between the renowned 19th century French poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine. Rimbaud (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a teenage wunderkind known for his rebelliousness against conventional society and his surrealistic writing. He disrupts the life of Verlaine (David Thewlis), a more conventional writer who is older and married to a dutiful young wife, Mathilde (Romane Bohringer). The drunken Verlaine is unkind to Mathilde, even though her father is providing him with a house and an income to live on while he pursues his writing. Rimbaud overwhelms Verlaine, mocking his conventionality, constantly disrupting his domestic life, and somehow attracting the maniacal love of the older man. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

According to reviewers, an expert cast of character actors make this bedroom farce eminently watchable, despite glitches in the storytelling. In the story, a group of old friends and relations gather each year to celebrate Christmas together on the ski resort of Chamonix. They don't do much skiing, however, but mostly explore their own and their friends' and relations' romantic quandries. In the story, the widower family patriarch Leo (Daniel Gelin) announces his engagement to Francoise (Anouk Aimee), which provokes all sorts of reactions in his sons Max and Simon (Gerard Lanvin and Andre Dussollier) and their families, because their own marriages are really rocky. Among the complications: Simon's son is infatuated with Max's daughter, Max is trying to make time with a woman who works locally, Simon has brought along his mistress, family friend Stephane is having trouble with his girlfriend, who threatens suicide if he won't marry her, and a difficult time is had by all during this merrymaking season. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this sentimental, tragicomic drama, Matteo Scuro (Marcello Mastroianni) is an old widower living in Sicily. His five grown children have scattered all over Italy, and he has heard nothing but glowing reports from them about their lives and careers. One day he takes it into his head to visit these paragons who have fulfilled every one of his ambitions for them. Eventually he discovers that all his children have been lying to him for a very long time because they were afraid to disappoint their papa; their lives are shabby and very much on the edge, and one of them has long-since committed suicide (unbeknownst to him). This daunting truth provokes a heart attack in the old man, who still has a few lies yet to tell and hear, because he insists (as do his children) that "everything is fine." ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide