René Cleitman Movies

For years, one of filmmaker Terry Gilliam's great dreams was to make a screen adaptation of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra's classic tale Don Quixote, and in 2000 it looked as if his dream was to become a reality. In collaboration with Tony Grisoni, Gilliam had written a script called The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, in which a 20th century advertising man accidentally travels back in time and is mistaken by Don Quixote for his faithful companion, Sancho Panza. After ten years of shopping the project to American studios with no success, Gilliam and his producers had secured financing for the film from a consortium of European sources, and Johnny Depp had been cast as the time-tripping adman, with the venerable French actor Jean Rochefort as Don Quixote. However, as the production moved closer to its start date, more and more things began to go wrong -- contracts went unsigned, key cast and crew members had not yet arrived, and the carefully prepared budget seemed stressed to the breaking point. Nevertheless, Gilliam soldiered on, but after a mere six days of shooting, during which Spanish Air Force jets ruined several takes, flash floods destroyed several sets, and Gilliam struggled to keep his dream afloat, Rochefort suffered a severe back injury. The film's financiers decided to cash in their chips and pulled the plug in order to cash in on their insurance, though Gilliam struggled for months afterward to find a way to put the production back on track. Documentary filmmakers Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe had been invited by Gilliam to make a film about the production of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, and after shooting 80 hours of footage of the chaotic pre-production process as well as the aborted shooting schedule, they instead created Lost In La Mancha, a look at the "un-making" of the film, which along with the story of the project's brief rise and messy collapse, featured a look at several completed scenes from the film, as well as animated versions of the film's storyboards which offered a glimpse of the look and scale of the film Gilliam was attempting to create. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In this comedy, director Patrick Timsit plays a modern-day Quasimodo accused of 17 murders. The film uses the classic story of The Hunchback of Notre Dame to show the comic side of such everyday things as portable phones, Nintendo games, and the World Cup. The screen is always bigger and funnier than life, but the director tries to make a point that observation of life is enough to come face to face with corporal as well as verbal comedy. Using burlesque, he tries to create a more thought-provoking comedy. The highlight of the film was the discovery of a new Brigitte Bardot, Melanie Thierry, alias Esmeralda. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi

The great overlooked actress Gena Rowlands was cast in the starring role of Mildred in this film directed by her son, Nick Cassavetes. Rowlands appeared in several of John Cassavetes's remarkable films, notably A Woman Under the Influence. Mildred is a wealthy widow who lives with her daughter Ann Mary Margaret (Moira Kelly), who is constantly angry with her. Ann Mary moves out, and the void in Mildred's life is soon filled when she takes over babysitting J.J. (Jake Lloyd, the future young Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace). J.J. is the son of neighbor Monica (Marisa Tomei), who needs someone to watch him because she has taken a job after being abandoned by her abusive husband Frankie (David Sherrill). Mildred becomes J.J.'s surrogate mother, doting on him. One night, Monica takes Mildred to a local bar, where they meet a Canadian trucker named Big Tommy (Gerard Depardieu). Big Tommy turns out to be a sweet guy with a yen for older women, and a romance begins between the two of them. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi

In this beautifully mounted historical drama, Angelo Pardi (Olivier Martinez), an Italian soldier, is fleeing his country in 1832. After the fall of Napoleon, Austria is swooping down on Italy to take control of the nation, and like many patriots, Pardi is hoping to escape to France and fight for their freedom abroad rather than submit to Austrian rule. However, as Pardi discovers upon arival, an epidemic of cholera is sweeping the land, leaving death in its wake and causing most people to be fearful of strangers, who may well be infected. As he tries to outrun a trio of mercenaries who have been hired to take him back to Italy, he finds himself accused by a group of villagers of infecting their water supply. Trying to escape would-be captors on all sides and searching for refuge in a rainstorm, Pardi finds a house and takes shelter inside. Unknown to Pardi, Pauline (Juliette Binoche), the lady of the house, is at home, but to his pleasant surprise, she welcomes him cordially rather than sending him away. It seems that Pauline's husband is missing, and as she desperately wants to find him and Pardi needs to escape to friendlier circumstances, they travel together through the French countryside, hoping to avoid both the disease and the tragedy travelling in its wake. Reportedly the most expensive French production ever made at the time of its release, Le Hussard Sur Le Toit (released in the United States as The Horseman on the Roof) was nominated for ten Cesar Awards (the French Oscar); it won two, for Best Cinematography and Best Sound. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

This deftly made French psychological thriller terrifies with its exploration of an experiment gone horribly wrong. Dr. Marc Lacroix, a psychiatrist specializing in brain functions, is obsessed with the link between mind and spirit. To find his link he studies the criminally insane. He builds a secret machine, known only to his mistress Marianne, in which he hopes to exchange minds between humans. He simultaneously wants to help the mentally ill recover, and he wants to experience their madness. He chooses the psychotic killer, Zyto, a man who stabbed at least three women, for his experiment. The initial experiment is successful and the two exchange minds. But trouble ensues when Zyto refuses to reverse the switch. There is little Marc can do when Zyto takes over Marc's life, and more ominously his wife and child whom are unknowingly in mortal danger. Marc, encased in Zyto's body, is returned to the asylum. Will Marc's wife recognize the danger? Will Zyto kill again? ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Veteran Russian writer-director Nikita Mikhalkov's film about the impact of modern civilization on an idyllic part of Mongolia won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for an Oscar as Best Foreign Film. A farmer (Bayyartu) and his wife, who live in a rural part of Inner Mongolia, have three children. Chinese population control policies prevent them from having any more. The farmer sets out for the nearest town to obtain birth control. He comes upon a Russian truck driver (Vladimir Gostyukhin) who has ended up in a lake. The farmer takes the man back to his farm, and after initially being appalled at the lack of civilization, the Russian becomes enchanted with the peaceful life of the backwards countryside and decides to stay. But his presence presages big changes for the peasants. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi

Edmond Rostand's classic drama of inner and outer beauty is given a lavish treatment in this acclaimed French production. Gérard Depardieu portrays the title character, a brilliant, charismatic swordsman with a generous spirit and a genius for poetry. It would seem that such a man would have no trouble attracting women, but Cyrano considers himself doomed to loneliness by an unattractive face featuring an oversized nose. His feelings of inadequacy are emphasized when Roxane, the beautiful woman he adores, attracts the attention of Christian, a young cadet in Cyrano's service. Christian lacks the poetic gift, however, and he ironically turns to Cyrano for help in winning Roxane's love. What follows is a tale of deception, with Roxane falling in love with the ineloquent Christian thanks to Cyrano's words of love. The underlying narrative has become quite familiar to modern audiences through retellings and variations from the 1950 adaptation starring José Ferrer to Steve Martin's Roxanne. Director Jean-Paul Rappeneau's interpretation stresses the tragic majesty of the original, setting a vigorous performance by Depardieu against a beautifully designed reproduction of the period and an emphasis on the sound and poetry of Rostand's original language; the subtitles for the film's English release were penned by renowned British author Anthony Burgess. This attention to detail creates a particularly faithful cinematic rendering of the original work that met with positive critical responses. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi

The grim post-World War I era in Europe is grist for director Bertrand Tavernier's mill in Life and Nothing But. Philipe Noiret portrays a French major who is supervising the gruesome task of counting and identifying the corpses still strewn over the battlefield. Noiret is obsessed with the notion that, by doing his job above and beyond the call of duty, he can somehow make up for the carnage in which he participated a few years earlier. The major's mission is intercut with short vignettes involving the families and loved ones of the dead, and with the efforts by another officer to find a suitable candidate for an Unknown Soldier testimonial. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A fading television personality and radio quiz-show host is shielded by his right-hand man from learning his show has been cancelled in this situation comedy. Rivetot (Gerard Jugnot) is the loyal longtime assistant to Mortez (Jean Rochefort) who believes the news of the show's demise will be fatal to his boss. He tries to keep the news from Mortez as long as possible as the show travels from town to town. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Kiefer Sutherland won a Genie Award for his performance in Bay Boy. In 1937 Nova Scotia, Donald Campbell (Sutherland) lives with his dirt-poor parents (Liv Ullmann and Peter Donat). His folks hope that Donald will enter the priesthood, but he isn't keen on this. For one thing, he harbors "unnatural" feelings towards a nun; for another, one of the local priests has made sexual advances towards him. Donald prefers to spend his time with pretty sisters Saxon and Dianna (Leah Pinsent and Jane McKinnon) -- but even this becomes untenable when the boy witnesses a homicidal hate crime committed by the girls' father, police constable Tom Coldwell (Alan Scarfe). It is in this intolerable atmosphere that Donald finally comes of age, which is the point to which the film is leading. Weighed down with an unnecessarily complex script, Kiefer Sutherland comes off quite well in Bay Boy; the other performers -- even the estimable Liv Ullmann -- tend to be one-note stereotypes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

An aspiring young actress (Valerie Kaprisky) accepts a leading role in a film version of Dostoyevsky's The Possessed. Dissatisfied by her performance, the eccentric filmmaker (Francis Huster) begins a rigorous course of indoctrination, sexual domination, and acting lessons, leaving the mentally exhausted girl unable to distinguish between the real world and that of the film. Arty, challenging, and some say over the top, the film was honored with the Special Jury Award at the Montreal World Film Festival in 1984. ~ Yuri German, Rovi