Darius Khondji Movies

Stephen Frears, the director who bolstered his international reputation with his Choderlos de Laclos adaptation Dangerous Liaisons (1988), returns to the annals of period intrigue over 20 years later with this melodrama, which reunites him with Liasons scripter Christopher Hampton and star Michelle Pfeiffer. An adaptation of Colette's 1920 novel of the same name, the tale unfurls in late 19th century Paris -- La Belle Époque -- where numerous courtesans (or female companions of noblemen who occupied the royal courts) have worked their way up through the ranks of high society. Two retired courtesans, Charlotte Peloux (Kathy Bates) and Lea (Michelle Pfeiffer), meet for some routine gossip; Lea then meets Charlotte's hedonistic playboy son, nicknamed "Chéri" (Rupert Friend), and a passionate, erotic affair blossoms for the next six years between Lea and Chéri. Eventually, Charlotte makes an aggressive attempt to interfere with the situation by setting up an arranged marriage between Chéri and the virginal 18-year-old Edmée (Felicity Jones), the daughter of another ex-courtesan, Marie-Laure (Iben Hjejle). Lea feels irritated, and responds by seeking out young male lovers during a vacation in Biarritz, but the attached Chéri is not far behind, and in seemingly no time at all the two resume their bedroom liaisons. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Legendary filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai directs Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Rachel Weisz, and Norah Jones in his first English-language feature film -- a romantic road movie detailing the cross-country journey of a woman who sets off across the United States in hopes of mending her broken heart. Elizabeth (Jones) has just been through a particularly nasty breakup, and now she's ready to leave her friends and memories behind as she chases her dreams across the country. In order to support herself on her journey, Elizabeth picks up a series of waitress jobs along the way. As Elizabeth crosses paths with a series of lost souls whose yearnings are even greater than her own -- including a troubled cop (David Strathairn), his estranged wife (Rachel Weisz), and an embittered gambler (Natalie Portman) -- their emotional turmoil ultimately helps her gain a greater understanding of her own problems. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Acclaimed visual artists Douglas Gordon and Phillipe Parreno turn their attentions to filmmaking -- and one of Europe's leading soccer stars -- in this offbeat documentary. Zinedine Zidane is among the most celebrated athletes in European football; playing for Real Madrid, the Frenchman has earned a reputation for graceful yet aggressive play and a confrontational style. Gordon and Parreno have made a film about Zidane, but viewers of Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait will learn nothing about his life off the field, and only so much about his work on it. Instead of telling Zidane's life story, the filmmakers set up 17 cameras around the field (with the help of cinematographer Darius Khondji) for a April 23, 2005, game against Villarreal and carefully followed Zidane throughout the game, even when he wasn't in play. The subsequent footage was used to create a portrait in motion of the athlete, much in the manner of a painter or photographer, accompanied by excerpts from recorded interviews in which the footballer discusses his attitude toward the game and his feelings on the field. Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait (aka Zidane: Un Portrait du XXIe Siecle) was screened at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival as part of the Visions series, devoted to maverick filmmaking from around the world. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Directed by Richard Loncraine, Wimbledon follows the plight of aspiring tennis-star Peter Colt (Paul Bettany), whose bad luck seems to manifest itself just about everywhere. Professionally, Peter is near the very bottom of the world tennis ranks, and personally, he can't find love despite his best efforts to do so. In a rare turn of events, however, Peter is chosen as a wildcard to play at Wimbledon, the tennis world's most prestigious competition. While there, he meets American tennis ingénue Lizzie Bradbury (Kirsten Dunst), and his confidence on the court and off improves tenfold as he falls further in love with her. Driven by his newfound luck, Peter climbs to the top of the tournament players at record speed, until he actually has a fighting chance of winning the men's singles title -- the question is whether or not his good fortune will hold out long enough for him to get the trophy. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

A well-regarded spec script by A-list screenwriter David Koepp became this stylish thriller from director David Fincher. Jodie Foster stars as Meg Altman, a single mother of an diabetic preteen daughter, Sarah (Kristen Stewart). Meg's going through an unhappy divorce that forces her and Sarah to move into a new home. They choose a deluxe New York brownstone that coincidentally boasts an unusual feature: a "panic room," a vault-like hidden space capable of literally sealing itself off from the rest of the building. With its thick steel door on springs, separate ventilation and communications systems, and video monitors linked to cameras mounted throughout the home, the room is an impregnable fortress. It quickly comes in handy when the Altmans' new residence is invaded by a trio of thieves: Junior (Jared Leto), Burnham (Forest Whitaker), and Raoul (Dwight Yoakam). Meg and Sarah are able to secure themselves in the panic room before the robbers can get to them, but it turns out that Sarah's medication is still on the outside, the phone's not yet connected, and the loot the gang's seeking is inside the panic room with them. A cat-and-mouse battle of wits ensues, with Meg trying to outwit their captors over the course of one very long night, as her daughter's health dissipates. Panic Room (2002) co-stars Ann Magnuson, Patrick Bauchau, and Koepp's fellow screenwriter, Andrew Kevin Walker, in a cameo role. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Claire Cooper (Annette Bening), has been having psychic visions all of her life, though she's never been clear of what they mean. Now an adult, she lives an idyllic, small-town life in a Massachusetts farmhouse with her airline-pilot husband Paul (Aidan Quinn) and her young daughter Rebecca (Katie Sagona), while Claire illustrates children's books. A psychopath (Robert Downey Jr.) has been kidnapping young girls in their area, and one is currently missing. Claire has a recurring dream about the killer walking with a girl through an apple orchard. Paul tells police detective Jack Kay (Paul Guilfoyle), who doesn't believe him, as the girl's body had been found at the bottom of the lake. Claire's vision was actually a premonition, starting a chain of events that would create a two-way link to the killer. The key to the mystery is the lake itself, of which Claire dreams, created when the old town of Northfield was flooded to make a reservoir. As her psychiatrist Dr. Silverman (Stephen Rea) does not understand her now waking dreams, Claire alone must now lose herself to the visions. She must relive the killer's memories to find his identity and location. Director Neil Jordan has explored the nature of dreams in a more Freudian manner in his Company of Wolves. ~ Ron Wells, All Movie Guide

Two centuries after Ellen Ripley's death, doctors aboard the space station Auriga clone her using a blood sample taken from Fiorna 161, in hopes of harvesting the queen embryo that was incubating inside of her when she was trapped on the remote penal planet. Finally succeeding after numerous attempts, they remove the alien and repair the clone for further study. Before long, the Ripley clone has gained consciousness, and displays superhuman capabilities that suggest it possesses alien DNA. When Ripley discovers that General Perez (Dan Hedaya) is keeping the queen in a heavily fortified room of the space station, she warns the military man and his scientists that the creature cannot be contained no matter how hard they try. Meanwhile, General Perez has hired a crew of space pirates to deliver the cryogenically frozen bodies of another ship to the Auriga so they can be used to breed more aliens. The leader of the pirates is Johner (Ron Perlman), a gruff mercenary who engages Ripley to no avail. When Call (Winona Ryder), one of Johner's crewmembers, admits that she was sent to assassinate Ripley, General Perez attempts to have the pirates executed. The result is a tense standoff between the pirates and the military men, with the aliens causing havoc after breaking free of their containment cells. Attempting a daring escape, Ripley and the pirates discover the lab where she was cloned before being forced to swim through the mess hall, which has been submerged in water during the aliens' escape. Discovering a carefully guarded secret about Call's past, Ripley attempts to convince her to alter the Auruga's course, which was set to Earth when the ship went into emergency mode. With the fate of mankind hanging in the balance, Ripley is captured by the aliens and taken to their nest, where she comes face to face with the mutated results of the scientists' experiments. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Evita is based on the musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Actually, the film is more of an opera, with only short moments devoted to dialogue. "Evita" is the friendly, family version of the proper name "Eva," and this film tells the story of Eva Peron (1921-52), a woman whose name evokes powerful feelings in her native Argentina. Throughout this film, as in the musical, the story is explained and commented on by a character known as "Che," played here by Antonio Banderas. The film begins with the news of Evita's death, and then turns to a much earlier scene at her father's funeral. Eva (Madonna) was an illegitimate child (one of many) of a rural landowner and her seamstress mother. Hers is not a wealthy childhood by any means, and she is constantly discriminated against because of her lowly birth. She is refused admission to her father's funeral for this reason. This scene is contrasted with her own funeral, a spectacular affair, not different from the funeral of a beloved head of state. Eva Peron leaves her village at age 15, in the arms her lover Agustin Magaldi (Jimmy Nail), a traveling singer. With his help, she goes to Buenos Aires and begins her campaign to become a performer, actress, and public figure. Many men help her during these years, and she is reported to have given her favors freely. That changes when she becomes involved with Juan Peron (Jonathan Pryce). In 1944, when they meet, Peron is an ambitious young army officer, serving in the right-wing government of the time. When he falls afoul of the government and is imprisoned, Eva uses her position as a celebrity and radio performer to get him released. Peron marries his feisty mistress when he is freed from prison. Eva is a formidable supporter, and her help is crucial to his later becoming head of state. Once Juan Peron becomes the President of Argentina, Eva expects better treatment from Argentina's high society, but they snub her brutally. She, in response, diverts government money from society-led charities, and starts the Eva Peron Foundation. As its president, she works tirelessly to directly better the lot of Argentina's poor. For this work, and for having risen from poor origins to glory, she is beloved by huge masses of her fellow citizens, if not by those in high society. She also arranges for the enfranchisement of women in Argentina. Thus, her death of uterine cancer at age 33, while she was at the height of her power and influence, strikes the whole world as tragic. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Director David Fincher's dark, stylish thriller ranks as one of the decade's most influential box-office successes. Set in a hellish vision of a New York-like city, where it is always raining and the air crackles with impending death, the film concerns Det. William Somerset (Morgan Freeman), a homicide specialist just one week from a well-deserved retirement. Every minute of his 32 years on the job is evident in Somerset's worn, exhausted face, and his soul aches with the pain that can only come from having seen and felt far too much. But Somerset's retirement must wait for one last case, for which he is teamed with young hotshot David Mills (Brad Pitt), the fiery detective set to replace him at the end of the week. Mills has talked his reluctant wife, Tracy (Gwyneth Paltrow), into moving to the big city so that he can tackle important cases, but his first and Somerset's last are more than either man has bargained for. A diabolical serial killer is staging grisly murders, choosing victims representing the seven deadly sins. First, an obese man is forced to eat until his stomach ruptures to represent gluttony, then a wealthy defense lawyer is made to cut off a pound of his own flesh as penance for greed. Somerset initially refuses to take the case, realizing that there will be five more murders, ghastly sermons about lust, sloth, pride, wrath, and envy presented by a madman to a sinful world. Somerset is correct, and something within him cannot let the case go, forcing the weary detective to team with Mills and see the case to its almost unspeakably horrible conclusion. The moody photography is by Darius Khondji; the nauseatingly vivid special effects are by makeup artist Rob Bottin, best known for more fantasy-oriented work in films like The Howling (1981). ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

The conversations of an ill-suited couple who came together through personal ads form the framework of this French film that is comprised of a series of five strange, outworldly tales. The first tale, "Burning Revenge," tells of a man who pours gasoline over a service station in the dead of night and then uses a lit cigarette to threaten the attendant. The second, "Panic FM," follows a pizza delivery boy on his bicycle. While on his route, he is listening to a gory radio show and keeps encountering scary ghosts. "Dead End" depicts a couple who experience the same accident over and over while cruising down a country road. The fourth vignette "Sado's Blues" takes a darkly comedic turn as it chronicles the tale of a masochistic woman who invites a timid fellow up to her apartment and demands that he use her "toys" while having sex with her. The final tale "Happy Birthday" follows a wife and lover as they kill the husband using a diving outfit and a forest fire. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Eleven-year old Alexandrine (Sandrine Blancke) may be making something more out of what is happening in her family than is really there, but she appears to be afraid to be touched by her father (Alain Bashung), and gets really edgy when her mother (a nurse) has to work late. When one of her teachers puts two and two together and suspects incest, she encourages Alexandrine to press charges against her father. The girl at first tries to do that, but when her father shows up at the police station, the clams up. Even if she is only experiencing an imaginary terror, her father's nonchalance, her mother's complete refusal to consider the possibility and her grandparent's refusal to offer any consolation in the face of some troubling evidence must be horrifying to the girl. Whether there is incest in the family is open to some doubt, but there is no question that it harbors one very unhappy little girl in its midst. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A post-apocalyptic future becomes the setting for pitch black humor in this visually intricate French comedy. The action takes place within a single apartment complex, which is owned by the same man that operates the downstairs butcher shop. It's a particularly popular place to live, thanks to the butcher's uncanny ability to find excellent cuts of meat despite the horrible living conditions outside. The newest building superintendent, a former circus clown, thinks he has found an ideal living situation. All that changes, however, when he discovers the true source of the butcher's meat, and that he may be the next main course. This dark tale is played out in a brilliantly designed, glorious surreal alternate world reminiscent of the works of director Terry Gilliam, who co-presented the film's American release. Like Gilliam, co-directors Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro hail from an animation background, and have a fondness for extravagant visuals, absurdist plot twists, and a sense of humor that combines sharp satire with broad slapstick and gross-out imagery. This mixture may displease the weak of stomach, but those attuned to the film's sensibility will be delighted by the obvious technical virtuosity and wicked sense of humor. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide