Martin Lamotte Movies

Six of France's greatest screen comedians reunite in this long-awaited sequel to the classic box-office hits Les Bronzes and Les Bronzes Font du Ski. Skirt-chasing Popeye (Thierry Lhermitte) has settled down and married beautiful Graziella (Ornella Muti), and together they run an upscale resort hotel in Sardinia. However, Popeye still has his eye on the ladies rather than the bottom line -- he's carrying on with a beautiful young cook -- and Graziella warns him that he has to stop giving free rooms to his old friends. Unfortunately, this edict comes down just as Popeye's pals arrive, expecting a stay on the house. Jerome (Christian Clavier) was making a fortune as a plastic surgeon until a malpractice suit ended his career; now he hopes to reconnect with his former wife Gigi (Marie-Anne Chazel). However, when Gigi shows up it's clear she's also been seeing a plastic surgeon, and has brought along her new beau, upscale wig salesman Jean-Claude (Michel Blanc). And wealthy and smug Bernard (Gerard Jugnot) and Nathalie (Josiane Balasko) arrive with their dog in tow, though their vacation goes through a rough patch when Bernard makes a potentially disturbing discovery about their son. Les Bronzes 3: Amis Pour La Vie (aka Les Bronzes 3: Friends Forever) was directed by Patrice Leconte, who was also behind the camera for the original two films. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Traveling down the river from the distant Bolivian outpost of San Jacinto in 1945, moody traveler Timar (Grégoire Colin) reflects on his star-crossed affair with the eponymous Adela (Eulalia Ramon) at her husband's decrepit hotel. Because Adela was married, deceitful, and adept at using her feminine charms, trouble duly followed her steamy encounter with Timar, problems ranging from difficulty in finding good hired help to a sudden abundance of dead bodies, and culminating in a climactic courtroom showdown. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

A middle-aged, slightly pudgy and earthy waitress finds herself wooed by a handsome marine animal trainer from a local theme park. Arlette (comedienne Josiane Balasko, France's answer to Roseanne) has no idea that she is the long-lost heir to the vast fortune of a dying business tycoon. Her new suitor Franck (Christophe Lambert), who is dangerously indebted to Las Vegas gamblers, is well-aware of her status and is being forced by the gamblers to court and marry her so they can later kill her and collect her inheritance. As this is a comedy, the story takes several humorous twists and turns, especially when Franck really does fall in love with the feisty Arlette and comes clean about the scheme. This leads Arlette and Franck to hatch their own plan for turning the tables on the crooks. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This sumptuous French drama offers episodes from the notorious life of 18th century socialite and playwright Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais. The story begins in the 1770s with a rehearsal of his "The Barber of Seville." Young friend of Voltaire, Philipp Gudin introduces himself to the great playwright and offers to become his personal secretary. He then becomes the adventurous Beaumarchais' keeper as the author gets involved in a variety of situations including a duel with an angry husband, his battle with the corrupt French government and a serious long-term affair with Marie-Theres de Willer. It all comes to a climax when King Louis XV assigns the playwright a secret mission to London. There he must find and retrieve a damning document from transvestite aristocrat Chevalier D'Eon. Unfortunately, Beaumarchais gets tangled up with supporting American rebels and ends up tossed in jail. Louis XVI sees that he is finally released and then the writer becomes an arms smuggler for American revolutionaries. All of his activities bankrupt him and so Beaumarchais must return to writing plays. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this French comedy, Antoine is a Union delegate at a factory that is falling on hard times. With business in a slump, it looks like the factory will have to close its doors, but when Antoine wins the lottery, he uses his new fortune to buy the company and keep the business going. However, it isn't long before Antoine discovers things are a lot tougher for management than he ever imagined. Golden Boy stars Jacques Villeret, Martin Lamotte, Anne Roumanoff, and Virginie Lemoine. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Kamel is the son of French-born Algerians, and he has learned fairly quickly that working for others, at least for him, is no way to ensure that he won't remain poor. However, he is a bright, enterprising lad, full of confidence and energy, and he soon gets a profitable but unconventional business going. He also has a relationship with a non-Muslim girl, whose middle-class parents are simultaneously appalled by the relationship and charmed by the man himself, so much so that they permit him to sleep in her bed at their home. La Thune is a French slang term for "money." ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this coming-of-age drama, based on a novel by Charles Juliet, François is a sensitive and thoughtful student at a military boarding school in 1948. He is fourteen and an orphan, and the French are still fighting in Indochina, as they will continue to do for many years. He believes he will be sent to fight there when he graduates, and he is sure he will die in that far-away place. While he sees himself as stubbornly principled, others, including the school's bullies, simply see him as stubborn and a nuisance besides. In fact, his humiliation by the school's bullies is so constant that one of his persistent fantasies is to become a skilled boxer and trounce them all. That is one reason why he has become fixated on one of the school's military instructors, a handsome sergeant who was a championship boxer. While there may be an unformed erotic component to his fixation, it does not manifest overtly but adds fuel to his sexual initiation with the sergeant's wife. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Martin (Martin Lamotte) is probably a little cracked in the head. Why else would he pick up a suspicious-looking hitchhiker (Pierre Richard) when he's been hearing about a dangerous escaped convict on the radio? It's not until the man is already in his car that he realizes that he could have a dangerous person on board. What's more, he can't seem to shake his now unwelcome hitchhiker. Eventually, he leaves his car behind altogether and becomes a hitchhiker himself. For a while this seems to work, and he even gets to have a brief affair with a woman who picks him up, but like a bad penny, his car and the hitchhiker catch up with him again... ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

When Jenny Quester (Catherine Deneuve) is harassed over the phone by a mysterious caller, she enlists the help of her policeman brother Frank (Andre Dussolier) in this suspenseful crime drama. She fears the calls may be from a murderer who recently was discharged from an insane asylum. Later Jenny finds evidence that someone has been in her apartment. Last-minute plot twists provide anxiety and thrills in this directorial debut for Elisabeth Rappeneau. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Bayard (Remi Martin) is a lowly squire who joins the army of King Charles (Patrick Timsit) after he is rejected by the noblewoman Blanche de Savoie (Anne-Gisel Glass). Bellabre (Gerard Jugnot) is the army captain who trains Bayard for the proposed invasion of Naples. Bayard returns a conquering hero to win the heart of Blanche, who defies the newly crowned King Louis XII (Martin Lamotte) and the Machiavellian Scottomayor (Roland Giraud) to marry her heroic soldier. Sight gags and parodies abound in this comedy that contains some of the grim humor of Monte Python And The Holy Grail. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide