Francis Boespflug Movies
- 2012
Two mothers living in a sleepy seaside town find their lifelong friendship put to the test when the community learns that they have fallen in love with each other's sons, and attempted to keep the relationships secret in director Anne Fontaine's adaptation of Doris Lessing's 2003 novella The Grandmothers. Naomi Watts, Robin Wright, Xavier Samuel, and James Frenchville star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
A woman has her life turned upside down in unexpected ways by a well-meaning slob in this comedy from director and co-screenwriter Anne Fontaine. Agathe (Isabelle Huppert) and Francois (Andre Dussollier) are a pair of upper-class intellectuals who have been together for years; she manages an art museum, and he works in publishing. The couple is raising a son, Adrien (Donatien Suner), but the spark has gone out of their relationship and their bond is based on tolerance rather than love. Patrick (Benoit Poelvoorde) is a Belgian handyman whose son Tony (Corentin Devroey) is close friends with Adrien; when Francois learns that Patrick may lose custody of his son because he's out of work, he offers him some work doing remodeling at their home. While Patrick is certainly a pest, he loves his son, and his carefree and unpretentious manner rubs off on his employers. After Francois walks out on Agathe, she takes in Patrick and Tony, and the two single parents stumble into a deeper relationship. Mon Pire Cauchemar (aka My Worst Nightmare) received its North American debut at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Audrey Tautou, who rose to international stardom with the title role in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's worldwide smash Amélie, reunites with the director for this drama, set during the darkest days of World War I and its immediate aftermath. Mathilde (Tautou) is a pretty but frail young women who was left with a bad leg after a childhood bout with polio. Mathilde lives in a small French village with her Aunt Bénédicte (Chantal Neuwirth) and Uncle Sylvain (Dominique Pinon), and is engaged to marry Manech (Gaspard Ulliel), the son of a lighthouse keeper who is fighting with the army near the German front. Manech is one of five soldiers who have been accused of injuring themselves in order to be sent home; in order to discourage similar behavior among their comrades, Manech and the other soldiers are sentenced to death, and the condemned men are marched into the no man's land between the French and German lines, where they are certain to be killed. Mathilde receives word of Manech's death, but in her heart she believes that if the man she loved had been killed, she would know it and feel it. Convinced he's still alive somewhere, Mathilde hires a private detective (Ticky Holgado) shortly after the end of the war, and together they set out to find the missing Manech. Jodie Foster appears in a supporting role as a Polish expatriate living in France. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Audrey Tautou, Gaspard Ulliel, (more)
- 1999
What if you could step 70 years into the future from a portal in your bathroom? French director Cedric Klapisch asks this question and many others in this oddball sci-fi flick. The film opens at a wild Buck Rogers-themed New Year's Eve party on December 31, 1999. After smoking a requist amount of drugs, 25-year-old Arthur (Romain Duris) and his girlfriend Lucie get in the millennial spirit with a spontaneous romp in the bathroom. She is aching to have a kid, though Arthur is more ambivalent on the matter, and at the critical moment, he withdraws. Later, he uses that same bathroom for its intended purpose, and he discovers a ceiling panel that transports him to the sun drenched Paris of the 21st century, which could easily be mistaken for northern Africa. Much of the city looks like a Moroccan souk set amid the Sahara. Only the occasional Mansart roof and the now much shorter Eiffel Tower poking out of the sand reminds Arthur that he is indeed in Paris. He soon meets a white-haired old man named Ako (played by New Wave veteran Jean-Paul Belmondo) who informs him that he his Arthur's son. Ako and his offspring beseech the still vacillating Arthur to impregnate Lucie ASAP so that they may exist. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Starring:
- Romain Duris, Jean-Paul Belmondo, (more)
Claude Miller directed this French psychological drama adapted from Emmanuel Carrere's 1995 novel (based on a factual news item). Detailing a troubled boy's traumas at a holiday camp, the film recalls Miller's other adolescent dramas -- The Little Thief, The Best Way to Walk (also at a holiday camp), and An Impudent Girl. When young Nicolas (Clement Van Den Bergh) is set to go on a school ski trip, his father (Francois Roy) has safety concerns because of a recent bus accident. Instead of allowing Nicolas to join his classmates on the bus, he chooses to drive the youth to the camp, upping the boy's anxiety level. At the remote camp, Nicolas forgets to take his bag from the car, bringing more fears to the surface. He becomes friends with an undisciplined boy, Hodkann (Lokman Nalcakan), who lends him pajamas. The film dramatizes Nicolas' visions as he describes his dreams and nightmares to Hodkann. Shown in competition at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Clement Van Den Bergh, Lokman Nalcakan, (more)
- 1997
While hiking in the countryside near a coastal town in Normandy, two young lovers have a spat and separate. The woman is run down by a ghostly Land Rover and disappears. Meanwhile, her beau comes to a big old house where he is taken in by an old and lonely man. It doesn't take long for the young man to realize that his host is wacko and terrified of dying and is willing to take extreme measures to prevent this from happening. Though billed as a thriller, director Michael Ferry chose to focus on the inner thoughts and fears of the protagonists rather than exciting action sequences. All of the violence occurs off screen. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- John Berry, François Négret, (more)
Carrington is the true story of the peculiar love affair between two nonconformists in Victorian England: painter Dora Carrington (Emma Thompson) and author Lytton Strachey (Jonathan Pryce). Dora is a young English artist who is part of the Bloomsbury Group, an assemblage of British writers, painters, and eccentrics that includes the likes of Virginia Woolf and E.M. Forster, when she meets Strachey. A confirmed homosexual before meeting Carrington, Strachey inquires who the "ravishing boy" is and discovers that it's a woman. Shocked to discover this, he finds himself captivated by her, and they begin an unusual 17-year love affair/friendship. Strachey (most famous for the groundbreaking book Eminent Victorians) and Dora eventually move in together and have a series of offbeat sexual experiences with other members of the group and sometimes even with the same man; at one juncture, Dora even marries another man. Yet their relationship endures until Strachey's death years later. Pryce was honored as Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival for his performance. ~ Don Kaye, Rovi
- Starring:
- Emma Thompson, Jonathan Pryce, (more)
- 1990
- PG13
Tatie Danielle is a black comedy about a widow who is intent on ruining the lives of her great-nephew and his wife. Tsilla Chelton plays the title character, who mourns the death of her husband by tormenting everyone she meets. Eventually, she moves in with her nephew and his vain wife. Soon, her family is at war with Tatie, and takes off for Greece, leaving her in the care of Sandrine (Isabelle Nanty), an au pair who is as equally bitter as Tatie herself. At first the two don't get along, yet the two eventually become friends. However, Sandrine is invited to accompany an American student for an overnight stay at the beach, which would leave Tatie alone for a night. Angered, Tatie fires Sandrine, and while she is alone, she goes into deep depression, eventually setting the family's apartment on fire. The fire becomes a national story, with Tatie cast as a poor old lady and the family labeled as cruel and heartless villains. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tsila Chelton, Catherine Jacob, (more)
- 1990
The two black men in this tragedy live on the fringes of French society, and come from Africa and the Caribbean. Among the things they share in common is involvement in the illegal sport of cockfighting. The film follows their exploits and daily lives among the poor of France, as they train their birds and enter them in matches. Be advised: some reviewers found the fight footage so repellent that they were unable to comment on the merits of the film, which is by the acclaimed director of Chocolat. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Isaach de Bankolé, Alex Descas, (more)
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