Pascal Bonitzer Movies

A man is shot dead, but is the woman with the gun really the killer? That's the all-important question in this thriller from France. Henri Pages (Pierre Arditi) is a successful politician who with his wife Elaine (Miou-Miou) has invited an eclectic group of guests to their country home for a weekend get-together. Joining Henri and Elaine are Pierre Collier (Lambert Wilson), a prominent psychoanalyst; his unhappy wife Claire (Anne Consigny); Pierre's lover Esther (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi), an artist; Lea (Caterina Murino), an exhibitionistic actress who was once involved with Pierre; Philippe (Mathieu Demy), a straight-laced writer; and Marthe (Celine Sallette), a beautiful woman given to severe mood swings. Henri has a large collection of guns, and while Pierre is enjoying a swim, he's shot to death with one of the rare firearms. While Claire is holding the murder weapon when the body is found, police detective Lieutenant Grange (Maurice Benichou) isn't so certain he has an open and shut case on his hands, and begins looking into the many people who have a reason for wanting Pierre out of the picture. Grange's investigation becomes even more challenging when Lea makes it clear she's sexually attracted to him. Le Grand Alibi (aka The Great Alibi) was adapted from the novel The Hollow, a Hercule Poirot mystery by Agatha Christie. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Jacques Rivette's Histoire de Marie et Julien (The Story of Marie and Julien) stars Emmanuelle Béart and Jerzy Radziwilowicz as a pair of ex-lovers who get back together after their lives change. Julien (Radziwilowicz) is a clock repairman whose girlfriend has left him. Marie (Béart) is a mysterious woman who does not bleed after being cut. Her boyfriend has died. Marie and Julien had once engaged in an affair when they were each involved with other people, and now that they have no emotional entanglements, they slowly begin a new relationship. This film started decades before as a project in Rivette's "Scenes From a Parallel Life" series and abandons the majority of the formal rules imposed by the filmmaker on the other films in the cycle. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

A romantic comedy from acclaimed French director Jacques Rivette (La Belle Noiseuse), this film centers on three men and three women whose lives converge during the run of a play in Paris. The star of the play, Camille (Jeanne Balibar), is returning to Paris after leaving her stuffy boyfriend Pierre (Jacques Bonaffe) and residing in Italy. Her Italian theater company has brought her to France, where the show is run by her lover, director, and co-star Ugo (Sergio Castellitto). Ugo is concerned with the show's poor attendance, but also busy searching for a long-lost play by an Italian playwright. While on his quest, he discovers the beautiful young Do (Helene De Fougerolles), a student who offers to help him. Do's mother has a library that may contain the lost play, and Ugo runs into her possessive half-sibling Arthur (Bruno Todeschini), a shady man pursuing an affair with Pierre's wife Sonia (Mariane Basler), who also has a questionable past. After a brooding dinner at Pierre and Sonia's home, tensions mount in everybody's relationships and their romantic journeys are similarly tested. A lighter work from the usually dramatic filmmaker Rivette, the film was made by the director at the amazing age of 73.
~ Jason Clark, Rovi

A conflict of cultures adds an unusual twist to La Nuit du Destin/Night Of Destiny, a suspense thriller from France. Mr. Slimami (Gamil Ratib) is an Algerian retiree living in Paris who witnesses a murder while taking a walk one evening. He's spotted by the assailant, but Slimami manages to slip away before being caught. The victim turned out to be a prominent businessman, and police are soon searching for the witness as well as the killers. Slimami does not want to step forward, both as a matter of personal safety and because he prefers to let the French police handle their own affairs. His son Alilou (Boris Terral), a budding journalist, openly decries the failure of the witness to come forward as a black mark on the Muslim community in Paris, unaware that the man in question is his father. La Nuit du Destin/Night Of Destiny received its American premiere at the 1999 Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose, California. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Innovative director Jacques Rivette created the memorable, multi-leveled classic Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974), seemingly the inspiration for Susan Seidelman's Desperately Seeking Susan (1985). Rivette generates a far-different mood in this French-Swiss-Italian murder mystery. Medical researcher Sylvie (Sandrine Bonnaire) is keeping late lab hours when she catches her brother Paul (Gregoire Colin) with her gun. Having discovered a five-year-old photo with new evidence of their father's death, Paul wants to kill Walser (Jerzy Radziwilowicz), who now heads their dad's high-tech company. To protect Paul, Sylvie decides to kill Walser herself, and she boards the train for Walser's country estate. But is Walser guilty? ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

Marcello Mastroianni plays several different roles in this off-beat, witty exploration of a man with multiple personalities from world-class filmmaker Raúl Ruiz. Mastroianni first appears as Parisian traveling salesman Mateo Strano who suddenly shows up at the home of Maria, the wife he abandoned twenty years before. She eventually remarried Andre. Mateo begins telling the skeptical Andre that he never really left Marie. Instead he was bewitched by fairies and has been living in the apartment across the street the entire time. He seems so serious, that he is able to lure Andre to the alleged apartment. There Mateo murders him with a hammer and then calmly returns to Maria who seems nonplused by the sudden turn. With pride she shows Mateo their adopted daughter. Mastroianni next appears as Sorbonne professor of negative anthropology Georges Vickers, a grown man who still lives with his cranky mother until he inexplicably leaves to become a vagrant. Living on the streets, he encounters Tania, a streetwalker with a passion for the philosophies of author Carlos Castaneda's Don Juan. The hooker and the tramp stay together until the day that Vickers returns and he leaves. It is soon afterward that he discovers that Tania is really the president of a major corporation. When he learns that she has been jailed for attempting to murder her creepy ex-husband, Vickers uses his clout to save her. The story then jumps to a newlywed couple happily struggling in a humble garret. Their lives change dramatically when a benefactor suddenly appears and provides them with a marvelous country house. They are also given a mute butler (Mastroianni) who answers their every beck and call. It doesn't take the couple long to figure out that the sinister valet (who actually owns the chateau) is quietly poisoning them. In terror they leave, but later he finds them and demands that they give him their baby daughter. He gives the child to Maria, Mateo's wife. Mastroianni's fourth persona, that of industrial magnate Luc Alamand then appears. He is in trouble when he learns that the wife, daughter, and sister he manufactured to impress potential clients are actually coming. The stress causes the sudden emergence of his other disparate personalities. Interestingly, though each live wildly different lives, they are clearly the same mild-mannered, self-effacing character. The comedy in the story works on wildly different levels with sight gags and puns running simultaneously with literary and cultural satire. Beneath it all runs a serious message about the destructiveness and confusion caused by trying to create a single European culture. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The mid-life crisis of a middle-aged, depressive college professor/author provides the center of this French character study. Abel Vichac has really let himself go. Though a successful writer, and supposedly working on a book about 'regret,' he is barely functioning. He can't sleep at night. During the day he is easily distracted, irresponsible and moody. He also ignores his patient live-in lover Aliette who has stuck by him for 10 years. As he mopes through another day, he gets into several awkward occasions. One of his students, Florence tells him off in a café. A young woman, Catherine hears this and afterward introduces herself as a fan. Later he decides to find her address and visit her apartment. There Abel meets Catherine's roommate Aurore and the former's jealous boyfriend Bruno for a tense scene. He is returning home when Abel encounters his brother's former lover Olga and this creates more awkwardness. It all reaches the breaking point when Babel attends a birthday party, goes skinny dipping, and then has a telling encounter with a gun. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this downbeat drama from France, Benoit (Xavier Beauvois) is an upper class art student who is shocked to discover that he's been drafted into the Army. Eager to avoid military service, Benoit feigns illness, consults a psychiatrist for depression, and even tells the draft board he's gay, all to no avail. In a fit of desperation, Benoit attempts suicide, only to learn in the hospital that he has tested positive for HIV. Now that he has a real reason to be depressed, Benoit sinks into an emotional downturn and ends up in jail, where he is introduced to Omar (Roschdy Zem), who suggests that he can make big money fast by smuggling drugs. With nothing better to do, Benoit goes into business with Omar, and with his ill-gotten gains, he travels to Italy, where he meets a beautiful young woman named Claudia (Chiara Mastroianni). Benoit and Claudia quickly fall in love, but the lure of the drug market soon proves more powerful than Benoit's feelings for his girlfriend. Director and star Xavier Beauvois won the Jury Prize at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival for his work on this film. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Jacques Rivette directed this richly detailed six-hour drama based on the story of Joan of Arc. In Part one, "Les Batailles," Jeanne the Maid (Sandrine Bonnaire) leaves her childhood home in Domremy after hearing what she is sure was the voice of God. She believes that she can help lead France to victory on the battlefield, and she persuades Charles, dauphin of France (Andre Marcon) to allow her to guide his troops. Part two, "Les Prisons," concerns the sad aftermath of Jeanne's defeat at Orleans. Jeanne is sent to prison, where in two separate trials she is tried for heresy and impersonating a man, with both her life and the sanctity of her mortal body at stake. A four-hour version, with each of the two parts trimmed down to two hours, is also available. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

French critic and filmmaker André Téchiné directs the intense family drama Ma Saison Préférée (My Favorite Season), which he co-wrote with screenwriter Pascal Bonitzer. Family matriarch Berthe (Marthe Villalonga) is advancing in years and developing health problems, so she goes to live with her daughter Emilie (Catherine Deneuve). Emilie is a cold, fiftysomething professional who lives in a large upper-class home in Toulouse. She also lives with her husband Bruno (Jean-Pierre Bouvier), her daughter Anne (Deneuve's real-life daughter Chiara Mastroianni), and her adopted son Lucien (Anthony Prada). When Christmas arrives, Emilie's troubled brother Antoine (Daniel Auteuil) arrives at the house for a visit. He and Emilie have not spoken since their father's funeral three years ago. Despite his attempts to maintain control, Antoine quickly comes into conflict with Bruno. Painful emotional realities from the past return and cause violent conclusions. My Favorite Season was shown in competition at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi