Nolot, Jacques

The Witnesses

André Téchiné`s lush drama follows a close knit group of friends who are faced with the dawn of a sexual revolution in the early 1980s. THE WITNESSES tracks the relationship of a young writer played by Emmanuelle Béart (8 WOMEN, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, STRAYED), her detective boyfriend, a reknown doctor and how their lives collide when a young, attractive gay man joins their circle. Set in Paris and the countryside, Téchiné blends the storylines and parallel lives with an erotic naturalism, yet never ignoring the consequences of sexual freedom.

Directed by acclaimed French director André Téchiné (WILD REEDS, CHANGING TIMES, STRAYED) and starring Emmanuelle Béart (8 WOMEN, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, STRAYED), Michel Blanc (M. HIRE), Sami Bouajila (DAYS OF GLORY), Julie Depardieu ( A SECRET, BLAME IT ON FIDEL, A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT), Johan Libéreau, Constance Dollé.

Rendez-Vous

Future star Juliette Binoche made a sensational early splash in Andre Techine's 1985 Rendez-voux, one of the director's typically unpredictable projects. Binoche plays a struggling actress whose new Paris apartment brings her into the orbit of the meek realtor (Wadeck Stanczack) who found the place and his aggressively dashing roommate (Lambert Wilson). There's also a grizzled director (the great Jean-Louis Trintignant) looking to cast Romeo and Juliet. Techine wrote this sexually explosive movie with Olivier Assayas (Late August, Early September), which might help explain its fluid, dreamy forward motion; nothing happens according to realistic logic, but it seems to make sense as it hurtles along. The following year Techine made Scene of the Crime, which established him as a major French director. Binoche's live-wire performance is an indication of the risk-taking that was to come, and here she is already one of the most beautiful women in cinema. --Robert Horton

In her first major screen role, Academy Award®-winner Juliette Binoche (The English Patient) gives a raw and electrifying performance as sexual free-spirit Nina, who moves to Paris to become an actress. She has a profound impact on three men. Paulot (Wadeck Stanczak) is a timid real estate clerk infatuated with her. His roommate, Quentin (Lambert Wilson), is an emotionally scarred actor who performs in live sex shows. Scrutzler (screen legend Jean-Louis Trintignant) is a stage director who casts Nina in his production of Romeo and Juliet. Co-written by Olivier Assayas (Irma Vep), Rendez-vous is a mesmerizing study of love, loss, and redemption that earned director Andre Techine (Wild Reeds) Best Director honors at the Cannes Film Festival.

Before I Forget

Jacques Nolot stars and directs a tale of a downward spiraling gay gigolo, struggling to cope with his advancing age, poverty, loneliness, writers block, and the increasing complications of HIV disease. When his wealthy benefactor dies after thirty years of lavish support, his inheritance is challenged by the benefactor`s family, leaving him destitute. Underscoring his every move is the fear of being forgotten, or worse: dying back where he started on the streets. Young hustlers, drugs, alcohol, and countless cigarettes provide momentary distractions, but ultimately, he must face his inner demons in order to be free of them.

Under the Sand

François Ozon's Under the Sand revolves around a tender, frightening contrast not easily forgotten: the dead live on only as long as we remember them. Marie (a luminous Charlotte Rampling) and Jean (Bruno Cremer), a middle-aged couple, are on vacation. As they ready the beach house almost wordlessly, a long-standing, intense love is immediately understood. While Marie naps on the shore, Jean goes off for a swim from which he never returns. Six months later, back in her empty Paris apartment, Marie goes about her life as if Jean is still there with her, reading in bed, massaging her feet, sitting at the breakfast table. At dinner parties and lunch dates, her close friends are visibly appalled her behavior. It becomes clear that Marie's place in society is increasingly precarious with a ghost at her side: her husband's bank accounts remain frozen because no body has been identified, her lectures at the university end abruptly in silence, her untimely laughter frightens a new lover. Ozon does not manipulate the viewer with surprise endings or try to charm with gags. Instead, we are intimately drawn into Marie's refusal to let go and her awful panic as Jean begins to fade. --Fionn Meade

Named one of People Mag's "Most Beautiful People", Charlotte Rampling gives one of her most acclaimed performances in Francois Ozon's mesmerizing tale of loss and grief. For many years, Marie and Jean have happily spent their vacations together at their country house. One day at the beach, Marie naps in the sand while Jean goes for a swim. When she awakens, he is gone. Did he drown? Did he run off? Distraught, Marie notified the authorities but after an extensive search, no body is found.

Artemisia

A widely acclaimed critical favorite honored with a Golden Globe nomination as Best Foreign Language Film, ARTEMISIA is the highly provocative true story of a young woman whose bold pursuit of artistic freedom and physical desire threatened the elite powers of her time! Artemisia Gentileschi, the beautiful and talented daughter of one of Italy's greatest painters, is forbiden to fully pursue her own passion for painting. When she convinces a renowned and unconventional artist to tutor her, however, he not only liberates her in the world of art, but initiates her into the treacherous world of sex and love! Following the controversy of a theatrical release that saw the original NC-17 rating overturned on appeal, Miramax Films is proud to present this important and powerful motion picture complete and unedited!

Wild Reeds

This resonant, engrossing 1994 film by André Téchiné (Thieves) is an unusual coming-of-age story set at a French boarding school in 1962, when news of France's war in Algeria is still plentiful. Téchiné focuses on a handful of students, measuring their transition into adulthood against the reality of love, sex, and the war's controversial cost. Strikingly sensitive and sophisticated, beautifully dramatized, and perfectly acted by a young cast, the film feels like one of those universal touchstones for the final days of childhood grace. Téchiné's typically blunt-but-gentle manner is perfectly suited for this tale of youthful gains and losses. --Tom Keogh

My Favorite Season

A troubled family, living in genteel, suburban comfort in the south of France is jolted by the deteriorating health of their elderly grandmother and the reappearance of an absented sibling. Catherine Deneuve plays Emilie, a disillusioned parent and frustrated wife, who finds herself drawn away from her unimaginative husband toward her brother, a jealous and charismatic neurosurgeon. Structured like a novella with four chapters, Téchiné's film is riddled with long stretches of ponderous, often humorless, philosophical dialogue. Deneuve's Emilie remains inexpressive and remote; she occupies the moral center of the film, but her characterization isn't generous enough to grant us access to her motivations. Daniel Auteuil fares better as brother Antoine--his odd features and intelligent eyes communicate fathomless restlessness and longing. Spectacular, jaw-dropping footage of Southern France provides a gorgeous backdrop for many scenes, lending a depth and resonance that might otherwise be lacking. Bonus: Marcello Mastroianni's daughter Chiara portrays Emilie's daughter; she's a delight to watch and she acquits herself marvelously. --Miles Bethany

To Paint or Make Love

Beach Cafe

Under the Sand

François Ozon's Under the Sand revolves around a tender, frightening contrast not easily forgotten: the dead live on only as long as we remember them. Marie (a luminous Charlotte Rampling) and Jean (Bruno Cremer), a middle-aged couple, are on vacation. As they ready the beach house almost wordlessly, a long-standing, intense love is immediately understood. While Marie naps on the shore, Jean goes off for a swim from which he never returns. Six months later, back in her empty Paris apartment, Marie goes about her life as if Jean is still there with her, reading in bed, massaging her feet, sitting at the breakfast table. At dinner parties and lunch dates, her close friends are visibly appalled her behavior. It becomes clear that Marie's place in society is increasingly precarious with a ghost at her side: her husband's bank accounts remain frozen because no body has been identified, her lectures at the university end abruptly in silence, her untimely laughter frightens a new lover. Ozon does not manipulate the viewer with surprise endings or try to charm with gags. Instead, we are intimately drawn into Marie's refusal to let go and her awful panic as Jean begins to fade. --Fionn Meade