Jean-Louis Livi Movies

A man tries to make sense of his relationship with the woman who gave birth to him in this drama co-directed by Claude Miller and his son Nathan Miller. When he was five years old, Thomas Jouvet (Vincent Rottiers) and his brother Patrick were abandoned by their mother, Julie (Sophie Cattani), without any clue of why she chose to walk away from them. While Thomas was adopted by a caring couple, Yves (Yves Verhoeven) and Annie (Christine Citti), young Thomas (Maxime Renard) became an angry and rebellious kid, and he found himself shipped off to a boarding school after too many fistfights with his classmates. Deciding he needs to confront his mother about what happened when he was five, teenage Thomas slips away from school and manages to obtain Julie's address, but when he sees her, he's too shaken to talk and simply walks away. It's not until Thomas is a grown man working in an auto repair shop that he works up the nerve to introduce himself to Julie in hopes of making his way back into her life, though by this time she has another young son whom she's looking after on her own. Je Suis Heureux Que Ma Mere Soit Vivante (aka I'm Glad My Mother Is Alive) received its world premiere at the 2009 Venice International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Two adults struggle to avoid letting their erotic passion for one another guide them into infidelity in this subtly erotic, understated chamber drama from France. Vincent Lindon stars as Jean, a burly blue-collar mason who lives semi-contentedly with his wife, Anne-Marie (Aure Atika), and son, Jérémy (Arthur Le Houérou), in some unspecified provincial French town. Little passion exists in Jean's life -- until his path crisscrosses with that of Véronique Chambon (Sandrine Kiberlain), his son's violin teacher. Completely taken with the woman's cultural sophistication (manifested through her love of classical music) and intellectualism, Jean begins contemplating an affair with this virtual stranger, and offers to repair one of her windows as an excuse to be more proximate to her. Ultimately, suspense begins to build as the question lingers of whether the two will give in to their desires. Stéphane Brizé directed and authored the script, an adaptation of Eric Holder's novel. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Alain Resnais, one of the towering figures of the French New Wave, demonstrates he still has plenty to say in this drama based on a novel by Christian Gailly. Marguerite (Sabine Azéma) is a successful dentist with a busy practice and an offbeat hobby, flying small airplanes. One day, while running errands, Marguerite loses her wallet, and it's found by Georges (André Dussollier), a seemingly happy man with a wife, Suzanne (Anne Consigny), and two children (Vladimir Consigny and Sara Forestier). As Georges looks through the wallet and examines the photos of Marguerite, he finds he's fascinated with her and her life, and soon his curiosity about her becomes an obsession. Georges' attempts to integrate himself into Marguerite's life begin to alarm her, and she hires a private security team (Mathieu Amalric and Michel Vuillermoz) to keep him away, but Georges is determined that his new love for her will not be denied. Les Herbes Folles (aka Wild Grass) received its world premiere at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

An orthodox Jewish teen living with her family in France attempts to balance her religious upbringing with her increasingly complex view of the outside world in director Karin Albou's incisive meditation on religion, philosophy, and the weight of romance on the mind of a growing girl. Eighteen-year-old student Laura (Fanny Valette) lives with her widowed mother (Sonia Tahar), her sister (Elsa Zylberstein), and her brother-in-law (Bruno Todeschini) in the suburban Paris neighborhood of Sarcelles. Though her exposure to the world thus far has been culturally limited due to the fact that her family resides in a neighborhood is often referred to as "Little Jerusalem" due to its large Jewish population, Laura's studies have told her that the world is full of interesting and diverse people. An overly serious and self-disciplined girl whose outward maturity defies her youthful age, Laura vows to avoid romance before finding that fate doesn't always play by the rules. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Director Gen Sekiguchi and screenwriter Taku Tada, phenomenally successful award winners in Japan's advertising industry, make their feature-film debut with the fast-paced omnibus film, Survive Style 5+, which incorporates five strange tales that occasionally intersect. The ubiquitous Tadanobu Asano introduces the film, playing a man who has apparently just murdered his lovely wife (Reika Hashimoto). He drives out to the woods, buries the body, and returns home to find her waiting for him, and not in a particularly good mood. In the second story, Yoko (Kyôko Koizumi), a driven copywriter who constantly spews ad ideas into her handy minicassette recorder, has just had quick, unfulfilling sex with Aoyama (Hiroshi Abe), a sleazy, conceited TV hypnotist who proceeds to insult her work and her personal hygiene. Yoko takes it well, but she's got plans for the jerk. In the third story, Kobayashi (Ittoku Kishibe), a good-natured salaryman, is hypnotized by Aoyama into believing he's a bird. His family has a whole new set of problems when Aoyama is incapacitated before he can break the trance. The fourth thread follows three dimwitted burglars (Yoshiyuki Morishita, Jai West, and Kanji Tsuda) as they grapple with both professional and sexual confusion. The final plotline concerns a hot-tempered English hitman (Vinnie Jones) and his goofy employer (Yoshiyoshi Arakawa), who also serves as his translator as the hitman asks nearly everyone he meets, "What is your function on this planet?" Sonny Chiba has a cameo as the hen-pecked president of a drug company. Survive Style 5+ was shown at Subway Cinema's New York Asian Film Festival in 2005. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

A woman looking for love finds a man who leads her into a life of crime in this thriller. Carla (Emmanuelle Devos) is a woman in her mid-twenties who works as a secretary in a real estate office. More cute than pretty, Carla is shy by nature, and the fact that she has a hearing problem has made her all the more withdrawn. While she longs for a relationship with a man, she finds herself living vicariously through her friend Annie (Olivia Bonamy), a single parent who dates often while Carla babysits her child. Carla makes the acquaintance of Paul (Vincent Cassel), a rough-hewn small-time criminal who has just been released from prison on parole. While Carla ought to know better, she finds herself strongly attracted to Paul, and Paul responds in kind. But before long, it becomes obvious that Paul is having an influence on Carla's normally stable nature; eager to get even with a co-worker who had wronged her, Carla persuades Paul to steal one of her company's files, which makes things more than a bit difficult for Carla's rival. Carla and Paul's actions go from malicious to seriously criminal when Paul hatches a scheme to rob a nightclub owner to whom he owes money -- a scheme that involves Carla's keen skill as a lip reader. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Camille Claudel director Bruno Nuytten brings us a tale of the kind of l'amour fou that only the French can do so persistently. A moody, intense drama that opens with a present day car crash, Passionnement is told partially as an extended flashback centering on events that took place around Bastille Day ten years earlier. On the island of Porquerolles, Alice (Charlotte Gainsbourg) spies on Bernard (Gerard Lanvin), a man who has returned to France after living in Brazil for some years. The two had once been lovers, and Alice's obsession with Bernard -- which apparently didn't wane during their time apart -- sets in motion a string of events culminating with the aforementioned car crash. Dysfunction abounds. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi

Monsieur Naphtali (Elie Kakou) is a good-natured but somewhat feeble older man turned away from the rest home where he lives. In search of a place to stay, he finds his way to Paris, where a woman taking surveys takes pity on him and brings him home for a meal and a bed for the night. Naphtali finds himself spending the evening with the survey woman, her brother who works in publishing, his lovely but unhappy wife, an alcoholic doctor, and his wife, an ill-tempered judge. In a simple and unpretentious manner, Naphtali forces them all to open up about themselves and discuss elements of their lives that they usually prefer to avoid. Monsieur Naphtali was the final film for French comic Elie Kakou, who died two months before the film was released. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Pierre Richard directed, co-scripted and stars in this French comedy. Former top film comedian Romain (Richard) is on a downward spiral -- rehearsing a play directed by his sister while also dealing with his wife, mistress, taxes, low self-esteem, demands for attention from his two children, and a private detective attempting to snap incriminating photos. Producer Jean-Louis Levi appears in a cameo as a poverty-stricken bum. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

This French tale, set in the 17th century, chronicles the marriage between an errant knight and a beautiful spinster. The tale begins in 1629, and the knight is Nathan Le Cerf who joins the regiments of Count Anchire after he loses his entire family to the plague. Nathan's first assignment is to kill the gambling rival of the count in a duel; Nathan obeys, but gets wounded in the process. Still he makes it back to his master and is expecting a generous reward. Instead, the count reviles the knight, invokes Louis XIII's ban on dueling, and orders Nathan beheaded. Nathan will have none of that. Despite his bleeding abdominal wound, he escapes into the countryside. Initially he finds shelter with his lifelong friend, a chalk maker; he then goes on to one of his patrons, an artist. Nathan is relegated to living in a humble hut in the wilds. Eventually he meets an impoverished noblewoman, Marhte de Lairac. She is a rare vision of beauty with her flowing red hair and wide eyes. She and Nathan decide to wed and she begins living with him in the simple cottage. At first the two are quite formal with each other, but soon a real sexual chemistry develops between them. Marthe seems to be terribly excited by Nathan's desire for vengeance against the treacherous count and she eagerly helps him train. The count eventually shows up and Nathan gets revenge. Unfortunately his actions create a disturbing change in his relationship with Marthe. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Disney not only recycled the French farce Mon Pere, Ce Heros but brought back the lead actor of the original, Gerard Depardieu, for the Americanized remake My Father, the Hero. Depardieu plays Andre, the loving but neglectful French father of fourteen-year old Nicole (Katherine Heigl), who now wants to be called Nicky. To make up for lost time, Andre picks up Nicole from the condo of his ex-wife Megan (Lauren Hutton) to take her on a vacation to the Bahamas. Nicole, bitter at her father's frequent absences and embarrassed to be seen with him in the Bahamas, concocts a tale in which she tells her fellow vacationers that Andre is her lover -- and an ex-con to boot. Andre, oblivious to whom everyone thinks he is, tries to act like a father taking his daughter on a trip, shocking everyone with unintentional double entendres. At the same time, Nicole is making eyes at the handsome Ben (Dalton James). ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

The sweet sentimental gauze of director Giuseppe Tornatore's international hit Cinema Paradiso (1988) is nowhere to be found in this dark, Kafkaesque crime thriller that takes place, stage play-style, mostly in the confines of one room. Gerard Depardieu stars as Onoff, a famed author who has become a recluse in recent years, publishing nothing. Late one night he is picked up by police officers, who find him running across the French countryside in the rain, breathless and apparently suffering from short-term memory loss. A murder has been committed in the nearby woods, and suspecting Onoff's involvement, the authorities detain him at a leaky, dark command post to await the arrival of an inspector (Roman Polanski), ironically a fan of Onoff's work, who will interrogate his subject and try to arrive at the truth. Una Pura Formalita (1994) was produced simultaneously with Polanski's Death and the Maiden (1994), another film with a stage-bound quality featuring a long, stormy night's interrogation in a single room. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi