Robert Charlebois Movies

Music-video director Denis Villeneuve made his feature directorial debut with this Canadian drama about an auto accident aftermath. When Simone (Pascale Bussieres) nods off at the wheel, her car goes out of control. She escapes any serious physical injury, but her life changes direction nevertheless. She cancels a planned trip to Italy, quits her modeling job, and calls her friend Philippe (Alexis Martin) with the suggestion that they have a baby together. He agrees, but only with the condition that they do it in the desert, so the two soon leave Montreal for Utah. Shown in the Certain Regard section at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Based on a semi-autobiographical novel by Ania Francos, this tragi-comedy follows the diagnosis and internment of lawyer Lola Friedlander (Carole Laure) in the cancer ward of a large clinic. There Lola encounters Marie-Aude (Jeanne Moreau) and Cathy (Dominique Labourier), two very different patients from opposite walks of life who each contribute to Lola's adjustment. Given that the doctor at this clinic is a media-star, there is a certain aura of unreality to the story that also permeates some of the episodes involving subsidiary characters like Lola's boyfriend or her archetypal Jewish family. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this romantic comedy with serious undertones, a young Frenchman agrees to marry a Polish dissident so she can escape to France and freedom at a time when she may be in danger. After their marriage in Warsaw and a honeymoon replete with Polish policemen and her real lover, the Frenchman returns to Paris to wait for her passport to come through. Soon there are problems in Warsaw, however, and he takes off by car (an air strike is on) to salvage the plan. On the way back from Warsaw, the Polish woman and the Frenchman become lovers in truth -- but their romantic liaison, although perfectly legal, is thwarted by problems beyond their control and she leaves for the U.S. One year later, the two accidentally meet in the airport while she is on her way to Warsaw again -- and are forced to decide what to do about their very uncertain relationship. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

An ordinary man is driven to violence in the name of revenge in this drama. Paul Varlin (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is a businessman who decides to take his wife and daughter on a vacation. While stopping for gas, Varlin's wife is accosted by a gang of motorcycle thugs, who progress from ogling her legs to raping both the wife and the young girl, and then killing them both. When Varlin discovers this horrible crime, he takes it upon himself to track down and kill the bikers in the name of justice. L'Agression also features Catherine Deneuve and Claude Brasseur. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This montage-like, symbolic film deals with society's oppression of the individual. Combinations of black-and-white and color photography are used to take satirical swipes at advertising, nuclear war, and abortion, and to illustrate the fact that humankind has a choice and the heart can never be captured. The abstract and at times incomprehensible format and plodding pace of this film will not appeal to most tastes. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Elia Kazan directed this drama inspired by a true story. Karel Cernik (Fredric March) is the leader of a troupe of Czechoslovakian circus performers who have been plying their trade in Eastern Europe for years. When Czechoslovakia falls under Communist rule, the proud and independent Cernik finds that he is no longer free to operate his circus as he sees fit. Many of his performers are conscripted into military service, and his equipment and possessions are declared government property, though the state fails to maintain it properly, or even to give him access to the material to fix it himself. Finally, when Cernik's remaining performers are ordered to insert pro-Communist messages into their acts, he decides that he can take no more and begins making plans to escape to Bavaria during an upcoming tour. Cernik's plans hit a snag, however, when he learns that one of his performers is a spy for the Czech communists, working in collusion with government factotum Fesker (Adolphe Menjou). While politics are making a mess of his professional life, his daughter Tereza (Terry Moore) is complicating matters at home because of her romance with the handsome but unreliable lion tamer Joe Vosdek (Cameron Mitchell), much to the chagrin of both Karel and his wife Zama (Gloria Grahame). The Birnbach Circus troupe, along with a variety of other European carnival performers, appear as themselves in this film, lending the performances a keen authenticity. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide