Jacques Kirsner Movies
- 2008
A girl and her family find themselves at odds over just where her home truly is in this drama from writer and director Souad El-Bouhati. Sophia (Alexandra Martinez) is a ten-year-old girl who has lived in France since she was born. However, her parents emigrated to Europe from North Africa, and while Sophia thinks of herself as French, her parents still feel like outsiders in their adopted homeland. When Sophia's father loses his job, he announces to the family that they'll be moving back to Morocco, but she's furious at being taken from the only home she's ever known, and makes it clear she intends to go back. Years later, Sophia (Hafsia Herzi) is a teenager who has been obsessed with getting good grades; once she graduates from school at the age of 18, she's determined to leave Morocco and attend college in France, which in her heart is still her home. However, her family isn't as certain about her future as Sophia is, and she's also up against a local tradition that sees most young women married off as soon as they leave high school. Française was an official selection at the 2009 Rotterdam International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 1993
The sorry story of the Vichy government of France from 1940 to 1945 is the subject of this thoughtful historical drama. In return for a swift surrender in 1940, the French government was allowed to retain, in Vichy an unoccupied portion of the country. There, at the Hotel du Parc, the government enacted and carried out its own decrees, which paralleled the Nazi persecution of Jews elsewhere. While the film itself simply tells its story in a straightforward manner that reviewers found quite creditable, it is remarkable for the fact that it was actually made and released. Why? Because it punctures the convenient illusions so many had constructed about the period, and reveals that far from being coerced into cooperating with the Germans, a large number (perhaps a majority) of Frenchmen were quite enthusiastic. In fact, the producer found it extremely difficult to get anyone to cooperate in making the film, and it took him over six years to bring together the resources to begin shooting. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jacques Dufilho, Jean Yanne, (more)
- 1992
Long before America was mired in an unwinnable conflict in Vietnam, the French had spent decades in an attempt to hold onto their Indochinese colonies, which included Vietnam. By the early 1950s, several generations of dedicated, independence-minded Vietnamese had fought the French to a standstill. This long conflict culminated in a battle along the Laotian border near the town of Dien Bien Phu in March, 1954, which the French narrowly lost. That loss led to a negotiated settlement and the partition of Vietnam. Broken promises and French stubbornness resulted in continued conflict in South Vietnam and the eventual involvement of the Americans. In this film, the wider human face of that 1954 conflict is seen through the eyes of an American reporter, played by Donald Pleasence, as he travels through Vietnam researching the story. In particular, it follows the fate of one group of soldiers, members of the French Foreign Legion, whom the reporter meets at a bar in Hanoi. It is a remarkable testament to political changes in the world that this French movie was filmed in Vietnam with the cooperation of the Vietnamese government. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donald Pleasence, Patrick Catalifo, (more)
- 1989
This spy thriller tells the story of the real-life Soviet superspy Leopold Trepper (Claude Brasseur), who set up an espionage ring (L'Orchestre Rouge) right under the noses of the Nazis in occupied Western Europe. The information they gathered gave Stalin advance warning of Hitler's invasion of Russia, and was especially helpful during the Battle of Stalingrad. Trepper was captured by the Nazis and was briefly interrogated before escaping back to Russia, where he was immediately imprisoned, like so many of Stalin's top security operatives. This film is based on the 1967 best-seller by Gilles Perrault which made The Red Orchestra famous. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claude Brasseur, Daniel Olbrychski, (more)
- 1989
This film is based on a short novel by Russian author Anton Chekhov, with the settings changed to 1870 France. It concerns the romantic frustration of two extremely pleasant and civilized people. Alexandre (Jacques Villaret) is a middle-aged bachelor, pleasant and well-to-do, who fears the prospect of a lonely old age. With that in mind, he proposes to Julia (Sabine Azema), the beautiful and young only daughter of the town doctor. Given the lack of any real acquaintance between them, when she accepts his proposal, he is surprised. Once they are married, he is bitterly disappointed to discover that Julia married him because she also fears a lonely old age. Unskilled in matters of the heart, he had hoped and imagined that she was at least a little in love with him. When a financial reverse looms on the horizon, he throws himself into work and ignores his relationship with his new wife, who gradually has come to love him, though he remains unaware of this fact. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sabine Azéma, Jacques Villeret, (more)
- 1986
Antoine has a promising political career in front of him, if he can only keep from getting sidelined by inappropriate love affairs. He is a junior minister in France's socialist government, and he has had a hand in writing a number of important pieces of legislation. He has put his heart into crafting and promoting a bill to reform higher education. However, he is a little too young and idealistic to accept it when his party sacrifices his bill in order to gain a concession from the opposition on another important goal. Meanwhile, his love affair with a right-wing businessman's wife has been exceedingly difficult to consummate quietly. Antoine and Florence eventually decide they don't care that much about their reputations and throw caution to the winds. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nicole Garcia, Sami Frey, (more)
- 1982
A man's tragic past leads him to take justice into his own hands in this troubling look at life in Europe after WWII. Max Baumstein (Michel Piccoli) is a well-known human rights activist and avowed pacifist who, to the shock and puzzlement of many, murders a politician from South America. As Baumstein goes to trial, it is revealed that his victim was in fact a Nazi war criminal who ordered the deaths of thousands of people -- including Baumstein's parents. In flashback, Max recalls the horrors of the Nazi occupation of France, and he remembers Elsa Weiner (Romy Schneider), a woman who helped save his life and struggled to free her husband Michel (Helmut Griem) from a concentration camp after he was condemned for publishing anti-fascist literature. La Passante Du Sans-Souci marked the final screen appearance of actress Romy Schneider, who played both Elsa and Baumstein's wife Lina; Schneider died of heart failure shortly after it was released. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Romy Schneider, Michel Piccoli, (more)
- 1980
The Boy Soldier is set in the 1930s and is based on a novel by Yves Gibeau, a book that has the unusual distinction of being banned in military precincts in France. In the film, a young fellow, Simon Chalumet (Lucas Belvaux) is sent to a military school by his overbearing father, an ex-soldier who has little sympathy for his son's more gentle temperament, or for his interest in films. In spite of various forms of harassment meant to whip the young men into shape, Simon does survive the years of harsh treatment with his own interests and basic nature unscathed. Reality intrudes in the end, when Simon is sent to the front and faces war and combat for the first time. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lucas Belvaux, Jean Carmet, (more)
- 1980
In this drama, a provincial girl goes to Paris in search of her fortune. Although she finds the City of Light to be quite different from what she'd imagined it to be, the girl manages to retain her dignity. It is only after she is thoroughly disillusioned by her experiences there that she returns to her country life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruno Ganz, Patrick Chesnais, (more)
