Paulo Branco Movies
- 1998
Arthur (Mathieu Amalric) is a history teacher who lives alone in Paris after having broken up with Claire (Jeanne Balibar). He is a sensitive man, full of existential doubts and questions. He has to go to Lisbon to meet an eminent historian whose work is the subject of his thesis. Having just made up with Claire, he decides to take her along. She's an ideal travel companion and it seems their relationship has not yet exhausted its potential. But moving from Lisbon to Oporto, their fantasy of a second honeymoon clashes with the reality of a world on the verge of a nightmare. Director Jean-Claude Biette uses the three cities -- Paris, Lisbon and Porto -- for stylistic purposes. There are also three bridges in the film -- Seine, Tejo and Douro. The choice of Porto, which has a bridge constructed by Gustave Eiffel, reminds the viewer of the veteran Portuguese director Manuel Oliveira, although the bridge filmed in Porto is a different one. The figure of the old professor is a variation of a dramatic element seen in all previous films of the director. Trois Ponts sur la Riviére was screened as part of the International Forum of New Cinema section of the 49th Berlin Film Festival, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeanne Balibar, Mathieu Amalric, (more)
- 1998
The 89-year-old Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira wrote and helmed this Portuguese-French-Spanish-Swiss co-production, an anthology film drama featuring three tales linked by the theme of death. In "The Immortals," adapted from a Helder Prista Monteiro play, two famous doctors, an 80-year-old father, and his 60-year-old son, contemplate senility and death. "Suzy," from an Antonio Patricio story, is set in the '30s when a young courtesan dies on the operating table. "Mother of the River" is from an Agustina Bessa-Luis fable about eternal life. Shown out of competition at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jose Pinto, Luis Miguel Cintra, (more)
- 1998
In order to make some much-needed cash for himself, 65-year-old Portuguese prison inmate Eugenio impersonates a young woman and begins a romantic correspondence with a lonely Portuguese truck-driver living in Boston, convincing him that her tragic life has culminated in financial dire straits so he will send money. At first Eugenio's sister Idalina assists him in creating the character of Maria da Luz. Touched by her sweetness and apparent loving nature, the trucker willingly sends her money. When Idalina starts fearing they will be caught, she backs out of her arrangement with Eugenio who then convinces his young cellmate Vasco to help write the letters and even sends a picture of himself at age seven to "prove" that Maria has a young son. As prison life exacts an increasingly heavy toll upon Eugenio's health, his feminine alter-ego helps sustain him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Canto Castro, Francisco Nascimento, (more)
- 1997
Set in 1949 Portugal when the country was under strict right-wing government, this drama follows the flight of a 19-year-old political fugitive and the resourceful but mysterious older man who agrees to help him get out of the country. The precise reasons why young Andre, who was involved with a revolutionary movement, was put into prison is never clarified. After his escape from prison, Andre is introduced to the button-down Lambaca. He is not what Andre was expecting, and he does not completely trust the gun-toting Lambaca, but with everything to lose -- including the fortune in cash he carries upon him -- the youth has no choice but to follow him. As the difficult trek into the north continues, Andre's trepidation mounts. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1997
In this French-Portuguese film -- directed by Jacques Rivette's screenplay collaborator Christine Laurent -- French vocalist Laure Constant (Laurence Cote) goes to Montevideo, Uruguay, to see her old lover Colossus (Jose Olivera), but when he's a no-show, she becomes involved with several other men, while listening to advice from some older French women who are costume designers. Shown at the 1997 Locarno Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laurence Côte, Joaquim Olarreaga, (more)
- 1997
- NR
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Octogenarian film director Manoel de Oliveira travels autobiographical avenues in this portrait of a film director Manoel (Marcello Mastroianni) who is shooting on location in Portugal. During a break, one of the film's actors, Afonso, born in France but of Portuguese descent, travels to his father's birthplace, accompanied by the director and two other actors. The journey takes them to Alto Minho in the north of Portugal, where they look back on rural Portugal and the memories of a lifetime. This was Mastroianni's last film. The film is loosely based on the experiences of French actor Yves Afonso while shooting a film in Portugal in 1987. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marcello Mastroianni, Jean-Yves Gautier, (more)
- 1997
Like its predecessor Few of Us, Lithuanian cult film director Sarunas Bartas's The House is highly abstract and nearly silent but for a pair of narrators. Whereas the first film was primarily centered on life in a remote mountain village in Lithuania and had loose plot, this one pays tribute to a huge, and aging lakeside manor and is plotless. The narrators speak to an unseen mother and the house may or may not be the fantasy or dream of one of its many diverse residents. For much of the film's two-hour running time, these inhabitants, who reflect people of varying races, shapes, sizes, degrees of attractiveness and ages, are seen aimlessly wandering about looking sad and exhausted. Sometimes, some of the prettier female residents will doff their clothing. Meal times are particularly morose as no one speaks or pays each other any mind at all. It is only toward the end of the film that anything substantial occurs. It happens during a masked ball and is a commentary on the Soviet takeover of Lithuania and a heartfelt prayer for the preservation of Lithuanian local cultures. While there is not much of interest in the story, the beautiful cinematography, which utilized a palette of pale colors and natural lighting and employed largely stationary imagery punctuated by the occasional slow tracking shot, helps maintain viewer interest. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Francisco Nascimento, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, (more)
- 1997
Taking a droll look at modern love, this complex, dark comedy centers on the relationships between Parisian doctor Annie Simonin and two very different male patients. Thirty-four years old and divorced, she has just been temporarily abandoned by her vacationing receptionist and doesn't quite know what to do with herself. At a dinner party she meets egocentric actor Richard Piotr who is starring in a dreadful experimental version of Richard III. She accepts his invitation for a drink after the party and he spends most of their time discussing the idiosyncrasies of his last girlfriend. Annie is not blind to Richard's glaring faults, but still finds him interesting. A bit of a hypochondriac, he makes an appointment to see her professionally so that he can get a check-up and a flu shot, even though it is not flu season. Soon they are mixing business with pleasure in her office. As it is the slow season for doctors, Annie has only one other regular patient, Laurent Blondel. A former drug addict, he is coping with AIDS by refusing to allow her to treat him. As time passes, Richard shows symptoms of something far more disturbing than hypochondria and Laurent's cavalier attitude towards his deadly disease causes problems for Annie. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeanne Balibar, Jean-Quentin Chatelain, (more)
Raul Ruiz directed this typically eccentric look at the nature of crime, the human mind, and life in the modern world. Solange (Catherine Deneuve) is a defense attorney with a reputation for taking on cases that can't be won -- and proving it by losing them. Her latest lost cause is Rene (Melvil Poupaud), a young man on trial for murdering his Aunt Jeanne (also played by Deneuve), a cruel psychiatrist who raised him as a child and was convinced from infancy that he was destined for a life of crime. While Rene would seemingly need a good lawyer in his situation, he prefers instead to play games with Solange's mind and finds unlikely allies in a strange society of French and Belgian psychologists, headed by Georges (Michel Piccoli), who seems crazier than anyone he's treating. Solange, however, finds herself falling in love with Rene, which only makes a difficult situation more unpleasant for everyone. Through a series of layered flashbacks, we're shown Rene's crime several times from a number of perspectives, which ultimately makes his actions seem more vague with each repetition. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Catherine Deneuve, Michel Piccoli, (more)
- 1997
Realizing that teenage mom Tina is about to gas herself and her new child, Tina's young boyfriend grabs the infant and takes it to the streets of Lisbon. What he does next comprises the bulk of this extremely downbeat, minimalist drama from Portuguese director Pedro Costa. Once in the street, the boyfriend attempts to sell the child. When that fails, he leaves it at a nurse's house. That doesn't work out either so the youth gives the baby to a streetwalker. Meanwhile Tina and her friend try to get the baby back. When they fail, they decide to get revenge upon the boyfriend. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vanda Duarte, Nuno Vaz, (more)
- 1997
Distinguished French actor Michel Piccoli was 72-years-old when he made his directorial debut with this keen black comedy of a wildly dysfunctional family and the destructive games they play whenever they force themselves to get together. Piccoli also penned the screenplay. Constantin is the father and rules his small dynasty of three unsuccessful sons with an iron fist. Every Sunday, Constantin insists that the family gather for dinner, even though these meals genuinely possess a nightmarish quality due to the unruly grandkids, the unbridled lusts the brothers have for each other's wives, and their ceaseless bickering. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maurice Garrel, Dominique Blanc, (more)
- 1996
Michel and Juliette have just broken up over Michel's affair with the much younger Romance. Alice and Nicolas are still together, but maybe this is because Nicolas does not know of Alice's affair with handsome sports photographer Gaspard. This sly sex comedy, the sophomore effort of Belgian filmmaker Lucas Belvaux, follows the covert sexual misadventures of the troubled foursome. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ornella Muti, Jean-Pierre Léaud, (more)
- 1996
Set in the 17th century, this earnest religious drama follows the struggle of the Catholic church to establish itself in Japan. Through missionaries and young Japanese converts, the Church seems about to solidify its position in the Nagasaki area when a Shogun, wanting to protect Japanese culture and traditions, rebels, and orders the slaying of four Japanese priests. The story then jumps to modern times and centers on Jane Powell, a lovely European cultural commissary who has come to Nagasaki to see a new opera about the killings by Edward Ishita. The story of one of the priests who is tortured while the Shogun attempts to force him to give up his faith unfolds in even greater detail as she visits the city's historical sites and muses upon the city's changes since her last visit. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1996
Sophie Calle is a French photographer. Greg Shephard is handsome, depressive, broke and slightly disaffected. Two years before this documentary was made, they met in a New York bar and decide to travel to California together in Greg's prize possession, a most unreliable car. They decide to record their adventures and insights with separate video cameras. Thirty-nine-year-old unmarried Sophie brings a hidden agenda to the journey as she is hoping that Greg will fall for her. But during the long trip, neither speaks much to the other, even though they share meals and hotel rooms together. Instead, they seem to prefer talking to their cameras. Still, once in Las Vegas, something possess the disparate duo to marry in a drive-through chapel. This brings up the question of sex: will they or won't they consummate their marriage? Meanwhile, the car has suffered immensely during the journey forcing another question to arise: will it make it to California? ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sophie Calle, Greg Shephard, (more)
- 1996
Dreamy and bittersweet, this Italian comedy chronicles the fantasies of an overweight dreamer. All her life the rotund and thirtyish Isotta has had a propensity for day dreams. Born too thin, her overprotective mother too soon fattened her up, thereby insuring a life of obesity for her daughter. When not dreaming away her days or working at a factory, Isotta deals with her father's compulsive gambling habit and hangs out with her friends Luisa and Caterina. One day, Isotta meets a handsome Greek salesman and they become friends. Things are fine until she misinterprets his friendship for something else. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1996
- R
After fatally shooting a stalker, Parisian bar-maid Lea must live the life of the title reptile. At the time of the killing she was living with Francis, a much older American ex-con. After committing the murder, the fleeing and frightened Lea is saved by Paris paper boys Jean and Luc. Later she tells her sad story to hard-drinking Moskowitz, a middle-aged cop who secretly desires her. His unrequited love leads to tragedy. Meanwhile, Lea continues living with Francis, but also shacks up with Luc while trying to avoid the jealous cop. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chiara Mastroianni, Seymour Cassel, (more)
- 1996
This French language drama from Portuguese filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira takes an ironic look at the pretentiousness of international jet-setters while simultaneously examining an obsessive romantic relationship between an aging Lothario and a beautiful married woman. The tale begins at a garden party in a lovely villa in the Azores held by Rogerio and Leonor for handsome, middle-aged Michel and his mistress Irene, a noted Greek movie star. The guests aren't there long before an obvious attraction between Leonor and Michel prompts them to head for a private beach (their tryst, if there was one, occurs off-camera). Five years later, the foursome again meet for a garden party and once again they pair off after spending much time discussing gender differences, emotion, social insight and exchanging witty bon mots. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Piccoli, Irene Papas, (more)
- 1996
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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marcello Mastroianni, Anna Galiena, (more)
- 1996
This beautifully wrought art film from Lithuanian filmmaker Sharunas Bartas will offer a challenge to the most experienced arthouse patrons. With a primary focus on the setting, a ramshackle Tofolar village deep within Russia's Sayan mountains, the film contains minimal dialogue, and very little obvious narrative, preferring instead to focus on natural sounds to draw the audience completely into a seldom seen world where nature is so beautifully ruthless that hope for the people can be found not through conversation, but through the humblest physical pleasures. The impoverished village is so remote and so high up that the only transportation comes from horses, domesticated elk and a single tank. A helicopter suddenly appears and delivers a young woman. Her reasons for visiting the snow-covered town are never explained. An old man invites her to his home and she sits within it broodingly smoking a cigarette. He does the same. Neither moves much. Little is said, and neither looks particularly happy about life. The rest of the villagers seem much the same. They day slowly progresses and as the vodka comes out, a grim fiesta begins. The guests get increasingly drunk while an accordion player performs melancholy songs. Two very inebriated, nearly unconscious young men provide the film's only real action when they suddenly attempt to rape the woman. She quickly pulls out a knife. A dead body is seen in the next shot, but it is never clear who killed him. Before the story ends, another killing will occur, but only after a chase. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yekaterina Golubeva, Petr Kishteev, (more)
- 1996
A hangdog, middle-aged painter falls in love with a tender young college student after he leaves his philandering wife and his children in this romantic French drama. To console himself, the fundamentally bohemian Phillippe finds comfort in the arms of various prostitutes, especially Valeria. It is while searching for her that he meets lovely Justine, the student. Sparks fly and they move into together. Things go well until Phillippe begins pining for his children. This makes insecure Justine terribly jealous and tumult erupts until the aging artist is able to discover the true source of his anxieties. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Luis Rego, Aurelia Alcais, (more)
- 1995
This European thriller, set in Sri Lanka, attempts to expound upon the philosophical implications of life, death, and memory. JB, an academic famed for his studies of oriental culture and alcoholic who has never recovered from his wife's suicide, returns to Sri Lanka to translate a book written on glass. It is supposed to contain Buddha's discourse upon memory. While he is there, an attractive nurse, Julia asks him to assist a young boy who wants to locate his father who is now living in a Tamil-occupied area. The Tamil terrorists will kill any trespassers. Compounding JB's conflict in deciding to go is that his former home where he lived with his wife is in that area. Unbeknownst to him, the boy is really a Tamil spy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-François Balmer, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, (more)
- 1995
- NR
This gentle French comedy, takes an intellectualized look at the nature of a crush as it tells the tale of 20-year-old Claire, a young woman seemingly suffering a terminal case of ennui. She glumly goes through the minimal motions of living until she falls in love with handsome Gregoire, a highly intelligent philosophy student. He gives her an unusual translation of Le Journal d'un seducteur by Kierkegaard. This is no ordinary philosophical tome and anyone who opens it becomes strangely aroused and susceptible to love. Not only is Claire entranced by the book's magic, her psychoanalyst also finds himself ensnared. Meanwhile, mysterious Gregoire seems to hold the key to the mysterious book in his refrigerator, and if he doesn't, then the corpse therein just may. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chiara Mastroianni, Melvil Poupaud, (more)
The musings of internationally renowned Portuguese filmmaker Manoel de Oliveiera on the power of thought and desire, and on good and evil, provide the underlying themes for this interesting reworking of the story of Faust. The story centers on the unconventional American professor, Michael Padovic, and his stunningly beautiful wife, Helene, who journey to an eerie Portuguese convent to prove that Shakespeare was in reality, a Jewish Spaniard. They journey to the spooky old convent of Arrabida where they are housed by the sophisticated, but rather creepy guardian of the monastery, Baltar, who immediately seems attracted to the cool Helene. In order to spend more time with her, Baltar arranges for Michael to spend all his time in the convent's great library; he is assisted by a beautiful young librarian. It is the wicked Baltar who tries to tempt Michael (in the way that Mephistopheles tempted Faust) into becoming immortal through his research and writing. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Catherine Deneuve, John Malkovich, (more)
- 1994
The seemingly unrelated scenes in this 110 minute black and white cinematic collage reflect the highly personalized vision of filmmaker Raul Ruiz. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Luc Bideau, Melvil Poupaud, (more)
