Arlette Bonnard Movies

A father-daughter relationship is melded, strained, and deepened by a shared angst: the grandmother in the family left her home by train and never arrived at her destination. The father Pierre (Jean Rochefort) is distraught that the police could basically dismiss the issue as inexplicable, and he decides to retrace on foot the voyage his mother should have made. His daughter Amelie (Camille de Casablanca) goes with him, and the story evolves as the two walk along the train tracks, searching in the nearby terrain and bushes for any evidence that might point to what happened. Along the way, their once antagonistic and distanced relationship (Amelie is a student, her father is a picture-restorer) begins to work itself out. By the time the mystery of the grandmother's disappearance is resolved, the father and daughter have resolved their differences. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Nominated for an Academy Award, Claude Sautet's A Simple Story (Une Histoire Simple) examines the behavior of its characters as dictated by their environment. Romy Schneider plays Marie, a fortysomething working woman whose tiresome existence has prompted her to inaugurate an affair. Marie eventually parts with her lover, aborting the pregnancy resulting from her liaison. She pauses long enough to take stock of her current situation, and to muse on its possible outcome. Though exuding star quality throughout, Romy Schneider is thoroughly believable as the essentially ordinary, nonspectacular heroine. Her behavior is not that of a wealthy play-actress but a genuine bourgeois woman emotionally hemmed in by her social strata. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This gentle, closely observed autobiographical tale, a first film by director Diane Kurys, got a very favorable critical reception at the time of its release. It concerns the experiences of Anne (Eleonore Klarwein) and Frederique (Odile Michel), the 13- and 15-year-old daughters of a separated Jewish couple. They are attending a grim, rule-crazy school in the early 1960s. Anne is unsocial and not much of an "achiever"; she tries to find out what is going on around her by eavesdropping on her mother and her older sister. Frederique is much more outgoing, has a crush on someone much older than herself, and is beginning to feel the first pangs of love. They are both awkward around their father, whom they visit on school holidays. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Le Juge et L'Assassin probes a curious relationship between condemner and condemnee. Philippe Noiret plays Rousseau, a French judge who holds the fate of convicted child killer Bouvier (Michel Galabru) in his hands. Should Rousseau decide that Bouvier is insane, the killer will not go prison. As they come to know each other better, both are given the rare opportunity of exploring the vagaries of the human mind. The previously unbendable judge alters several long-held opinions concerning criminals, while Bouvier is for the first time in his life able to articulate the thought processes which motivate his actions. It is clear at times that much of the dialogue in Judge and the Assassin stems from Bertrand Tavernier's own lifelong feelings of loneliness and isolation. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi