Humbert Balsan Movies

In Housewarming (the original title of which translates as Remodeling: You Know When It Starts...), Carole Bouquet stars as Chantal Letellier, a wealthy, powerful, and happily divorced Paris attorney who devotes a lot of her time to helping the city's poorly treated immigrants. Chantal literally dances her way through the courtroom, winning over the judges with ease. Her busy life seems to be going swimmingly until she decides to remodel her massive apartment. She hires a brilliant but mercurial former client from Colombia, Eduardo (Marcial Di Fonzo Bo), as her architect. He and his illegal immigrant crew are highly qualified, just not in the jobs they've been hired to do, and they quickly begin to demolish her home. A few other problems arise. Poncin (Jean-Pierre Castaldi), an obnoxious wealthy former client, has fallen in love with Chantal and begun stalking her. Her young daughter, Pulchérie (Giulia Dussolier), apparently has a crush on a worker with a questionable background who speaks no French and calls himself Betamax (Geovanny Tituaña). Chantal's teenaged son, Martin (Ferdinand Chesnais), quickly grows irritated with the destruction, and the workers' devil-may-care attitude. As Eduardo's ambitions grow, and the project's costs mount, Chantal's immense reserve of patience begins to wane. Housewarming, directed by Brigitte Roüan, marks the last filmed appearance by legendary producer Humbert Balsan, who committed suicide in 2005. The film also stars Aldo Maccione, Didier Flamand, Sotigui Kouyaté, Bernard Menez, and Françoise Brion. Housewarming was shown by the Film Society of Lincoln Center as part of their Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in 2006. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

Filmmaker C.S. Leigh writes and directs his first feature film with the extreme drama The Process. French actress Béatrice Dalle plays an actress trying to kill herself. Through long, uncomfortable takes, the film explores her tortured existence. After a disastrous on-stage appearance with her estranged husband (Guillaume Depardieu), she engages in a rough sexual three-way with two men (Daniel Duval and Sebastien Viala). She also loses her child to a car accident and her breast to cancer. The Process was screened at the Berlin Film Festival in 2004 with live musical accompaniment by John Cale. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

Sex, class, and race collide at a French private school in Robert Salis' Grande École. The privileged upper-class Paul (Gregori Baquet) is a student at the school who, although already involved with a girlfriend, becomes attracted to both a new roommate and a lower-class Arab school employee. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Alain Beverini's Total Kheops is a story about men on different sides of the law who are in love with the same woman. As young adults, Fabio (Richard Bohringer), Ugo (Robin Rnucci), and Manu (Daniel Duval) were friends and all had feelings for Lole (Marie Trintignant). Fabio ends up a policeman, but Ugo and Manu take on a life of crime. Twenty-five years after their time together, Manu gets out of jail and joins Lole who has waited for him. He is killed that night. Ugo makes an appearance, but before long Fabio is the only one of the three who could possibly win Lole's heart. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

A whimsical comedy with a touch of tragedy, Egyptian director Youssef Chahine's Silence...We're Rolling features famed Tunisian singer Latifah as Malak, a pop star whose career and home life are fraught with troubles. Alfi (Ahmed Bedir), the screenwriter of what should be her next hit movie, has writer's block, and her husband has left her for her best friend. One night she meets Lamei, a handsome young man (Ahmed Wafik) who commences to woo her, but her friends and family are all convinced he's nothing but a charming con man out to get her money. Alfi, who also happens to be in love with Malak, conspires with her family to hatch a plot to expose Lamei's true intentions and show Malak who her true loved ones are. ~ Tom Vick, Rovi

Klaus Maria Brandauer stars in this gorgeously photographed French-German-Dutch biopic on the life of 17th century Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn. Told in flashbacks from the point-of-view of the aged artist, the film opens as the young van Rijn arrives in Amsterdam. Soon after establishing his career as a painter, he marries the radiant Saskia (Johanna ter Steege). As he makes a name for himself, he can soon afford to buy a large house by teaching wealthy aristocrats how to paint. However, the couple's happiness is short-lived; Saskia dies soon after bearing their son, Titus. Crushed, van Rijn seeks comfort first in the arms of his maid Geertje (Caroline van Houten) and then with his second wife, Hendrickje (Romane Bohringer), who gives birth to a daughter. In spite of his genius, van Rijn's determinedly eccentric behavior alienates the very members of the elite who were paying his bills. At one point, the artist's home and belongings, including many of his paintings, are seized and sold for humiliatingly low prices in a rigged auction. Rembrandt was directed by painter-turned-director Charles Matton. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Editor Franssou Prenant made her directorial debut with this drama, which she also co-wrote and appears in, in a supporting role. Two women, angry Myope and happy Lunette (both played by Franssou Prenant), bounce ideas off each other in a small apartment, until Lunette fashions a story about Agathe (Cecile Garcia Fogel) and her husband Pierrot (Manuel Cedron), a one-time musician who now teaches gym. While the two love each other, they cannot communicate without quarreling. Prenant shot the story of the couple in 16mm, while the framing segments of the two women were filmed in Super 8mm. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Ideas are imperishable, such is the premise of this powerful, upbeat allegory from one of Egypt's most esteemed directors, Youssef Chahine. Ostensibly the true tale of revolutionary Muslim philosopher Averroes who lived in 12th-century Spain when Arabs ruled Anadulsia, it parallels the story of Chahine's own experiences with Islamic fundamentalists when he released his 1994 film L'Emigre because it dared depict a sacred Muslim prophet. During that time, fundamentalists were not content to merely have the film banned, they also threatened Chahine's life. Despite their destructive efforts, the fundamentalists ultimately failed and L'Emigre became one of Egypt's most successful films. Averroes was a follower of Aristotelian thought, an innovative lawyer and an important scientist (he discovered the purpose of the retina) who lived during the rule of the great liberal Caliph Al Mansour. At the time, the Caliph's rivals were part of Magdi Idris, a fundamentalist sect, who sought to destroy his power by cloaking their own political agendas in religious dogma and spreading it liberally amongst the easily influenced peasantry. Averroes' ordeal began when fundamentalists found his many books espousing a humanistic doctrine contrary to their own. Demanding an end to the spread of the philosophers radical, rationalist ideas, they insisted that the Caliph launch a fatwa against Averroes. To this end, all of his books were publicly burned and Averroes himself was exiled. But before the burning occurred, Averroes' faithful students copied each of his detailed Commentaries on Aristotle and smuggled them to Egypt where in time they were passed down to become the cornerstones of modern Western philosophy. While the narrative itself is relatively straightforward with few epic embellishments, the film contains a few decidedly Arabic twists, such as the inclusion of several Egyptian song and dance numbers that Western audiences may find jarring. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi