Jean-Claude Carrière Movies

Surrealist master Luis Bunuel is a towering figure in the world of cinema history, directing such groundbreaking works as Un Chien Andalou, Exterminating Angels, and That Obscure Object of Desire, yet his personal life was clouded in myth and paradox. Though sexually diffident, he frequently worked in the erotic drama genre; though personally quite conservative, his films are florid, flamboyant, and utterly bizarre. This documentary, directed Jose Luis Lopez Linares, tries to illuminate some of these contradictions. It features interviews ranging from the historical -- Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes -- to the personal -- his wife and children. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

In a remote branch of the Brazilian Amazon, Americans Lewis (Tom Berenger) and Wolf (Tom Waits) are stranded when their plane runs out of gas. They are kept company by an evangelist missionary (John Lithgow) and his wife (Darryl Hannah). The preacher and his followers want to preach to the primitive Niaruna Indians, while others are interested in the Niaruna for more diabolical reasons-specifically, business concerns that would like to claim the Indians' land for development. The local police chief cuts a deal with the mercenaries Lewis and Wolf: if they will agree to bomb the Niarunas out of existence, they will be paid enough money to leave the country. Instead, Lewis, part Native American himself,aligns himself with the Niarunas. From this moment on, he and the tribe are doomed. A long-standing pet project of producer Saul Zaentz, At Play in the Fields of the Lord was adapted from the best-selling novel by Peter Matthiesen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this bizarre surrealist comedy from France, a handful of oddball characters live in world where people heap strange forms of abuse on animals -- dwarves stage bullfights with rhinos, zoos open restaurants where the privileged can dine on the animals on display, and the wealthy lock themselves into their mansion with the angry pit bulls trained to protect them. In the midst of such madness, a stocky animal handler (Gustave Kervern) who can neither hear nor speak falls in with a pair of dissolute zookeepers (Benoit Delepine and Eric Martin) who are hooked on ketamine and shoot one another with tranquilizer darts for fun. The zookeepers involve their new friend in a crazy scheme to kidnap the pet dog of a very wealthy and extremely large woman, Avida (Velvet), but the three men prove to be wildly inept criminals, and once they're found out, Avida forces them to help her in a plan to take her own life. Featuring a cameo appearance from acclaimed filmmaker Claude Lelouch, Avida was written and directed by Benoit Delepine and Gustave Kervern, who also act in the film; it received its American premiere at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Directed by Jonathan Glazer, Birth takes place in New York's Upper East Side, where Anna (Nicole Kidman), a 35-year-old widow, resides. Just as Anna has shaken off what she thought were the final remnants of her old life -- she has even found love with a new man, Joseph (Danny Huston), whom she plans on marrying -- Sean (Cameron Bright), a ten-year-old boy, comes into her life insisting that he is the reincarnation of her late husband. Though she initially brushes off the boy's claims as the result of a crush on her, his grave demeanor and uncanny knowledge of her life leads Anna through a self-reevaluation that not only threatens her marital plans with Joseph (Huston), but also strains her relationship with her mother, Eleanor (Lauren Bacall). ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Based on a Eugene Saccomano novel entitled The Bandits of Marseilles, this movie was followed by a sequel entitled Borsalino and Co. This movie captures the mood of 1930 Marseilles beautifully with the use of ambience and music. Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo portray two gangsters who kill their way to the top. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, over-achieving men who are involved in a multi-car automobile accident meet and get to know one another in the hospital. One collects old furniture under the guise of being an antique salesman, another stars in television commercials, and another is an inventor. Meanwhile, the wives of three of them meet and get a taste of freedom without their husbands. Eventually their differences are resolved and happiness is enjoyed by all. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Bruno Ganz plays a West German journalist whose frequent assignments to war-torn nations have left him jaundiced. He is assigned to cover the civil war in Beirut. The combination of his harrowing experiences on the job and his after-hours relationship with widow Hannah Schygulla affects Ganz deeply, in spite of the wall he's built around himself. He suffers a crisis of conscience when he is forced to commit himself to someone--and something--for the first time in his life. The plot of Circle of Deceit was based on the reminiscences of novelist Nicolas Born; the picture's realism is grotesquely enhanced by the decision to film on location in Beirut, surrounding the actors with genuine wartime carnage--bodies and all. Originally titled Die Falschung, Circle of Deceit is not a comfortable experience, but few will stop watching once the film has started. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In 1982, legendary Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda fled his homeland and relocated in France to direct this powerful story about the ethical boundaries of power and leadership, which had many parallels to Poland's volatile political situation in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Danton (Gérard Depardieu) and Robespierre (Wojciech Pszoniak) were close friends and fought together in the French Revolution, but by 1793 Robespierre was France's ruler, determined to wipe out opposition with a series of mass executions that became known as the Reign of Terror. Danton, well known as a spokesman of the people, had been living in relative solitude in the French countryside, but he returned to Paris to challenge Robespierre's violent rule and call for the people to demand their rights. Robespierre, however, could not accept such a challenge, even from a friend and colleague, and he blocked out a plan for the capture and execution of Danton and his allies. Wajda remained in France until 1989, when the collapse of Communist rule made it possible for him to return to his homeland. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This German sex comedy follows the adventures, sexual and otherwise, of a teenaged innocent who wants to find out all she can about the world, and she uses sexuality as one of her tools of discovery. Though this is not a hardcore feature, it depicts many sexual situations and has much sexual language. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Among the other interesting features of this French crime drama is a brief consideration of the dire consequences of the legalization of drugs. The Chief (Michel Bouquet) is a drug dealer whose empire ranges beyond the country guilty of legalizing drugs. He has been captured and nearly killed by an American rival and is being kept painfully alive by life-support machinery. The film begins in the future when the Chief is awakened from suspended animation and in flashback recounts his story to the naked woman who has freed him. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The lives of a great artist, a corrupted holy man, and a beautiful woman cross paths at a crucial moment in history in this epic-scale historical drama from director Milos Forman. Near the end of the 18th century, Francisco Goya (Stellan Skarsgård) is a gifted but controversial artist whose provocative and often satirical work has earned the enmity of the Spanish government as well as the Catholic Church, who hold tremendous power as the Inquisition rages. Surprisingly, Brother Lorenzo (Javier Bardem), a monk involved in the Inquisition, has hired Goya to paint a portrait of himself, and to prove to the Inquisitor General (Michel Lonsdale) he's not in cahoots with the renegade artist, Lorenzo targets Inés (Natalie Portman), one of Goya's favorite models, as a possible heretic. Under torture from Lorenzo, Inés signs a false confession, and her wealthy and powerful father, Tomás Bilbatúa (José Luis Gómez), offers Lorenzo a taste of his own medicine by brow-beating him into signing a document confessing that his mother was an ape. Lorenzo flees Spain as his reputation lies in tatters, and Goya earns greater infamy as he paints a wildly unflattering portrait of Queen María Luisa (Blanca Portillo) under commission from her husband, King Carlos IV (Randy Quaid), but Inés remains in prison thanks to her coerced confession. Fifteen years later, Lorenzo has become a follower of the Enlightenment, and returns to Spain as Napoleon's forces storm the nation and the Inquisition finally collapses; Lorenzo attempts to liberate Inés from prison, but a shocking discovery awaits him. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

When a real-estate promoter attempts to take over the homes of two electronics whizzes and boot them out, they contrive ingenious ways to inconvenience and harass him. Louise (Catherine Deneuve) specializes in robots and artificial intelligence, and Leo (Claude Brasseur) makes miniature machines. By pooling their knowledge, they are able to pull off a crucial robbery using a very special box of chocolates. The bond they form while fighting their common enemy transforms into one of love. Despite their victory over the tycoon, they accept the patronage of an Arab king and leave for a place where their unusual skills are appreciated. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide