Frederic Andréi Movies
A visually stylish comedy with dramatic overtones from director Tonie Marshall, Vénus Beauté (Institut) looks at the lives of three women who work at a small but successful beauty salon. Angele Nathalie Baye is an attractive woman just edging into middle age who is looking for companionship without commitment, even when it comes knocking. Her co-worker Samantha (Mathilde Seigner) has more boyfriends than she knows what to do with, and Marie (Audrey Tautou), the youngest of the group, is still learning the ropes of both love and beauty treatment. Fans of classic French cinema will want to keep an eye peeled for guest appearances from Emmanuelle Riva, Micheline Presle and Edith Scob. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nathalie Baye, Bulle Ogier, (more)
- 1997
A doctor learns some things he never expected to know as he searches for a friend on a mission of mercy in this drama. Pierre Feldman (Jean-Yves Dubois) is a French physician who visits the African nation of Port Djema in hopes of finding a close friend and colleague. Port Djema is being torn apart by a bloody civil war, and Pierre's friend, a fellow doctor, went there as a medical volunteer. He's since disappeared, and Pierre hopes to track down his friend and a child under his care. As Pierre is plunged deeper into the nation's civil unrest, he becomes acquainted with Alice (Nathalie Boutefeu), a cab driver who serves as Pierre's guide and appears to have known his friend; and Jerome (Christophe Odent), a French official in Port Djema who seems to know more than he's willing to tell about the fate of a number of French citizens. Port Djema earned a Silver Bear for director Eric Heumann at the 1997 Berlin International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Yves Dubois, Nathalie Boutefeu, (more)
- 1986
A non-conventional crime thriller that offers a tour of Paris at night, Paris Minuit begins with a bank robbery in which three of the thieves are killed and two escape with minor wounds. The pair that get away are lovers (Frederic Andrei and Isabelle Texier) who opt for hiding out separately while the police are still looking for them. In order to keep in touch with each other, they have special drop-offs for postcards that encode their next meeting place (using classical poetry). Since the police are not authorities on poets of any period, they are hard put to find the duo. Family concerns start to intrude on the two wanted suspects, and all the while, even the opaque police are closing in. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frederic Andréi, Isabelle Texier, (more)
The diva of the title is a famous black opera singer (Wilhelmina Wiggins-Fernandez) who steadfastly refuses to be recorded. The singer is idolized by young French mail-carrier Jules (Frederic Andrei), who sneaks a tape recorder into the theater and records her performance. This is witnessed by a pair of Taiwanese criminals, who unlike Andrei wish to profit from the bootlegged recording. They begin to pursue the boy, as do a couple of home-grown hooligans who believe that Jules is in possession of some murder evidence. The serpentine plot leads to a warm friendship between Jules and the reclusive diva - and to a brilliantly photographed (by Philipe Rousselot) motorcycle chase through the subway tunnels of Paris. Diva marked the directorial debut of Jean-Jacques Beineix, whose obvious fondness for the more esoteric techniques of the Nouvelle Vague never impedes his willingness to simply entertain his audiences. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frederic Andréi, Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez, (more)
Released outside of France as Travels on the Sky, Voyage en Douce stars Dominique Sanda and Geraldine Chaplin as sisters. Both ladies are married, though Chaplin has just left her husband. Insecure about this move, Chaplin joins the self-reliant Sanda for a weekend vacation in the south of France, where the two siblings carry on a long discussion about male-female relationships. By the time Monday rolls around, the previously indecisive Chaplin emerges as the more resilient of the two sisters. Voyage en Douce director Michel Deville prevailed upon 15 famous French writers to contribute anecdotes concerning their sexual experiences; the most powerful (and best staged) was the story of a rape--a story contributed anonymously. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dominique Sanda, Geraldine Chaplin, (more)
- 1978
Marie (Annie Girardot) teaches high school and has a 16-year-old daughter in her class. Divorced some years previously, she has some vague egalitarian notions about friendship with her students and leaves her door open to them. One of her protégés is found beaten up just outside her door, and an emergency physician comes by to treat her. When her daughter starts seeing someone she doesn't much like, and she begins having a brief affair (her first since the divorce) with the ER doctor, she begins to reconsider her policy. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Annie Girardot, Patrick Dewaere, (more)
