Armand Marco Movies

Nouri Bouzid wrote and directed this French-Tunisian drama about three Arab women: Divorced mother Aida (Anmel Hedhili), who works as both a university professor and a Tunis taxidriver. Aida lives for the visits of her married lover in Gaza. Her house guest is withdrawn Fatiha (Nadia Kaci), who witnessed the killing of her family in Algeria. Aida has a chance encounter with her former college classmate Amina (Leila Nassim), now a housewife. Amina takes flight from her unhappy marriage by running away to Aida's apartment. Shown at Venice '97 and 1998 film fests (Montpellier, Valencia, Karlovy Vary). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck, who later went on to become the nation's Minister of Culture, directed this drama that examines the violence and instability of his country's darkest days. In the early 1960s, the corrupt Francois "Baby Doc" Duvalier rose to power in Haiti, and his private army, the Tontons Macoutes, enforced his bidding with an iron fist. Sarah (Jennifer Zubar) is an eight-year-old girl whose father gains the enmity of Janvier (Jean-Michel Martial), a despotic local official who has long responded with torture and violence to those who oppose his tyranny. Now that Duvalier rules Haiti, Janvier has become an associate of the Tontons Macoutes, giving him the power to inflict punishment with impunity. Sarah's parents flee the country in fear of their lives, leaving Sarah and her two sisters behind; the children are left in the care of their grandmother (Toto Bissainthe), a brave woman who refuses to bend to Janvier's will. L'Homme Sur Les Quais received a nomination for the Golden Palm award at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In a drama in which even God has a role (Philippe Leotard) as well as Michael York, it is certain that serious issues are at stake. Set during the time before the state of Israel was created and established, a British officer has been captured by a band of Jewish resistance fighters with the intent of killing him at dawn. One of the Jews was sentenced to die after being captured by the English, and this death will be in retaliation. The trouble is that a young and ambivalent fighter is left holding the officer captive with orders to shoot him at the pre-arranged time. It is a long night of soul-searching before the Jewish soldier comes up with a solution to his quandary. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

A tall and gangly Victoire (Liselotte Christian) arrives in Paris looking for the ideal French lover -- and because she stands well above many of her preceding romantic partners, that is an added dimension to consider. As she finds and drops a series of possibilities -- a free-wheeling sociologist, an up-tight intellectual, and a dentist fixated on sports -- she begins to wonder if this simple quest may turn out to be an impossibility after all. Although director Annette Carducci) tends to stereotype the male characters, their characterizations fit the premises of a light comedy. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This is a music documentary about the Canadian music group, Offenbach, and their tour of France. Standard fare, the film shows them horsing around backstage and delivering the musical goods onstage. The main distinguishing feature of Tabernac is that it is one of the very first French "rockumentaries." ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

After collaborating on a series of small-scale political films under the alias of the Dziga Vertov Group, pioneering French director Jean-Luc Godard and filmmaker and activist Jean-Pierre Gorin attempted to fuse their Maoist theories of revolutionary art with a more accessible structural framework in this leftist comedy drama. Susan (Jane Fonda) is an American journalist working as a French correspondent for a radio network; her husband, Jacques (Yves Montand), was once a major filmmaker during the French New Wave, but now supports himself directing television commercials as he tries to come to terms with his political responsibilities. Jacques tags along when Susan visits a sausage factory to interview the manager (Vittorio Caprioli); their visit unexpectedly coincides with a wildcat strike staged by the plant's employees, who hold the boss captive as they lash out against both their employers and their union in a bid for more money and greater dignity. Over the course of the day, many of the participants speak to the camera about their varying degrees of commitment to radical political and economic change, while we are also afforded an inside look at Susan and Jacques' splintered relationship. Shortly after Tout Va Bien was released, Jane Fonda made her famous (or infamous, depending on your perspective) visit to Hanoi, an action which led Godard and Gorin to create a companion film, Letter to Jane, in which they dissected a photo of Fonda in Vietnam for its multiple levels of political meaning. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide