Jean-Marc Stehle Movies

In this film that sends up the foibles of filmmaking, a standard crew of actors, stage-hands, director, writers, producers, and others are gathered for the filming of a 45-second automobile commercial. Each role embodies an archetype (the harried director who has a deadline to meet, the Scrooge production manager who has a budget to meet, and the writers who are above these mundane concerns), and these personalities drive the working actors over the edge until they decide to lock them up and do their own thing -- happiness can be just around the corner if you are in the driver's seat. Hopefully, the actors will be able to bow out before the police catch on to the situation. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, 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

In this satirical comedy drama from France, white-collar workaholic Paul (Vincent Lindon) and his high-strung wife Helene (Catherine Frot) are driving to a party one evening when a young woman leaps into the path of their car, crying for help. Paul refuses to let her into the car, and soon several men catch up with the woman and begin beating her savagely. Paul insists on staying out of the matter, but Helene feels some sense of responsibility for what happened, and begins spending most of her time at the hospital where the woman remains unconscious. In time, it's determined that the woman's name is Noémie (Rachida Brakni), she's 22 years old, and works as a prostitute. By this time, Helene has become obsessed with protecting Noémie, and when a strange man (Wojtek Pszoniak) attempts to sign her out of the hospital, claiming he's her uncle, Helene sneaks Noémie out posing as a nurse and takes her to her mother-in-law's country house to recover. Eventually, Noémie is well enough to tell her harrowing story -- she was brought to France from Algeria by her father, along with her sister, and fell into life as a streetwalker shortly after learning that her family had sold her hand in marriage her to a man back in Algeria. Director Coline Serreau shot Chaos using digital video equipment -- and was impressed enough with the experience that she announced she had no interest in shooting on 35 mm film ever again. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The Opéra National de Paris performs Gioacchino Rossini's pitch black comedy opera in this 2002 performance directed for the stage by Coline Serreau. Bruno Campanella conducts the Orchestre et Choeurs de l'Opéra National de Paris, and Roberto Sacck, Carlos Chausson, and Dalibur Jenis star. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The last frantic days before the Germans seized France in 1940 provide an unlikely backdrop for this dark comedy. Viviane (Isabelle Adjani) is a glamorous and well-known film actress who attracts the attentions of many men -- often many she has no interest in knowing. One night, at a reception following the premiere of her latest picture, Viviane finds herself pursued by Beaufort (Gérard Depardieu), a government official whose girth exceeds his charm. To throw him off her trail, Viviane allows a cranky older man, André Arpel (Nicolas Vaude), to escort her home. During the evening, Viviane and André quarrel, and after slapping him, she discovers that he has simply dropped dead. An understandably terrified Viviane calls a former boyfriend, Frédéric Roger (Grégori Derangère), and asks him to help her get rid of the body. In hopes of reviving their romance, he agrees, but after an auto accident, Frédéric is caught with the body, and is taken to jail to await his trial. When word gets out that German troops are due to arrive in Paris at any minute, Frédéric and his fellow prisoners are instructed they're to be moved out of town; Frédéric is handcuffed to petty thief Raoul (Yvan Attal), and en route the two are able to make their escape. When Frédéric learns that Viviane has fled to Bordeaux, along with much of the French upper crust, he makes his way there, where he finds he has a new rival for her affections -- Beaufort, who no longer seems such a poor prospect. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Writer and director Sofia Coppola puts a new spin on the life and times of one of Europe's most infamous monarchs in this lavish historical drama which fuses a contemporary sensibility with painstaking recreations of the look of the 18th century. Born to Austrian nobility, Marie Antoinette (Kirsten Dunst) is only 14 years old when she's pledged to marry Louis XVI (Jason Schwartzman), the 15-year-old king of France, in an alliance that has everything to do with politics and nothing to do with love. Sent to France and literally stripped of her former life, Marie weds Louis, but to the consternation of the royal court, he seems either unwilling or unable to consummate the marriage while their advisors clamor for an heir to the throne. Young and more than a bit out of step with the new life that's been thrust upon her, Marie gives herself over to the pleasures of life in Versailles, knowing and caring little of the political intrigue that surrounds her. In time, Marie's trusted older brother, Joseph (Danny Huston), is brought in to coach Louis on the finer points of marital relations, and before long the couple is finally blessed with a child. However, as Marie tends to her children in the gilded cage of her palace and enjoys an affair with a Swedish nobleman, political power plays are throwing France into chaos, and the growing ranks of the poor rebel against the royals and their life of privilege. Also starring Rip Torn, Judy Davis, Steve Coogan, and Asia Argento, Marie Antoinette was given a controversial reception when it premiered at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide