Daniel Toscan du Plantier Movies

A slow, complex and involving tale of a French priest and his moral trials and tribulations, Under the Sun of Satan is adapted from the Georges Bernanos novel of the same name. Father Donissan (Gerard Depardieu) struggles to save the soul of the 16-year-old pregnant woman Mouchette (Sandrine Bonnaire) in this allegorical drama. She is the mistress of a married politician, but she carries the child of a poor nobleman. Mouchette shoots and kills the nobleman when he refuses to run away with her, and the emotionally tortured Donissan flagellates himself with a chain and despises his superior Menou-Serais (Maurice Pialot). This dramatic struggle of good versus evil took the Golden Palm Award for Best Film at the 1987 Cannes Festival. The selection was not without controversy, as the verbal protests of the audience led to an obscene gesture from the miffed director. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Director, co-writer, and star Maurice Pialat brought his typically unblinking New Wave style and interest in socially aberrant behavior to this psychological drama, winner of two Cesars (the French equivalent of the Oscar) for Best Film and Most Promising Young Actress (Sondrine Bonnaire). Bonnaire plays Suzanne, a 15-year-old girl who has become sexually promiscuous with anyone who will have her, despite her lack of affection for any of her lovers. The only boy she refuses is Luc (Cyr Boitard), whose feelings for Suzanne are sincere. When Suzanne's beloved father (Pialat) abandons his increasingly neurotic wife (Evelyne Ker), Suzanne's depression and lack of direction deepen. While her mother becomes a screeching mental case, her brother Robert (Dominique Besnehard) begins beating her, although he also harbors a disturbing attraction to Suzanne. In the denouement, Pialat depicts the devastating long-term results of Suzanne's abusive upbringing. Pialat draws powerful performances from his cast, with no finer example than the riveting acting Bonnaire -- in only her second film. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

In order to be technically free of the mortal sin of suicide, a young man who has given up on the world pays a drug-addict to shoot him. Charles (Antoine Monnier), who is a student, has tried political action and investigated the claims of religion but ultimately finds nothing which will change the overwhelming bleakness he feels surrounded by. In this austere movie by director Robert Bresson, the power of the storytelling comes from the lucidity of the imagery captured on film, rather than in the acting. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi