Vuillermoz, Michel

A Very Long Engagement

Both epic and intimate, A Very Long Engagement reunites Audrey Tautou and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the star and director of the hugely popular Amelie. A young woman named Mathilde (Tautou, Happenstance)separated from her lover by World War I refuses to believe he's been killed and launches an investigation into his fate--an investigation that spins in all directions, creating dozens of miniature stories (including that of an Italian prostitute avenging the death of her own lover by elaborate means) that shift to and fro in time. The dazzling curlicues of narrative put brutality and tenderness back to back, shifting between crushing inevitabilities and miraculous rescues with deft storytelling skill and the lush visual style of the director of Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children. Through it all, Tautou--fierce and luminous--anchors the movie effortlessly. She's among the most emotionally engaging actresses in cinema, with the kind of expressive beauty that transcends language. A gorgeous, far-reaching film; the huge cast also includes Jodie Foster (The Silence of the Lambs), Gaspard Ulliel (Strayed), and Dominique Pinon (Alien: Resurrection). --Bret Fetzer

The film is set in France near the end of World War I in the deadly trenches of the Somme, in the gilded Parisien halls of power, and in the modest home of an indomitable provincial girl. It tells the story of this young woman's relentless, moving and sometimes comic search for her fiancC)e, who has disappeared. He is one of five French soldiers believed to have been court-martialed under mysterious circumstances and pushed out of an allied trench into an almost-certain death in no-man's land. What follows is an investigation into the arbitrary nature of secrecy, the absurdity of war, and the enduring passion, intuition and tenacity of the human heart.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary
Deleted Scenes:With Director audio commentary
Documentaries:Paris in the 20'sThe Zepplin Explosion
Featurette:The Making of A Very Long Engagement
Theatrical Trailer

Avenue Montaigne

French for "Orchestra Seats," Avenue Montaigne offers an outsider's perspective on an insular world (the original title is Fauteuils d'Orchestre). After bidding adieu to her grandmother (Suzanne Flon in her final performance), sunny Jessica (Cécile De France, L'Auberge Espagnole) moves from Mâcon to Paris. Upon securing a job as a waitress in a popular café, she meets high-strung soap star Catherine (Valérie Lemercier), burnt-out pianist Jean-François (Albert Dupontel), and secretive art collector Jacques (Claude Brasseur), who comes equipped with a pretty girlfriend and a handsome son (Christopher Thompson). Though the tousled Jessica has little in common with these posh Parisians, she affects each of their lives in ways both big and small. Directed by Danièle Thompson (La Bûche) and co-written with her son, Christopher, Avenue Montaigne serves as the flipside to French phenomenon When the Cat's Away, in which a young woman meets the people in her neighborhood while searching for an errant feline. In this case, the surroundings are more upscale, but the residents are just as susceptible to fear and insecurity. Though the idea of a sympathetic look at the upper class will surely strike some as off-putting, Thompson makes it work. The genuine affection she feels for her characters--privileged and underprivileged alike--and the grace with which she keeps several plot strands going at once proves that the spirit of Robert Altman lives on in the most unlikely of places. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Directed and co-written by Dani le Thompson 'Avenue Montaigne' centers around Jessica (Cecile de France) a beautiful young woman from the provinces who comes to Paris and lands a job waiting tables at a chic bistro on fabled Avenue Montaigne the city s nexus for art music theater and fashion. Jessica s customers include a popular TV actress (Val rie Lemercier) who is courting a major Hollywood director (Sydney Pollack) for her first serious film role; a wealthy art collector (Claude Brasseur) who is about to liquidate a lifetime s worth of treasures at auction; and an illustrious classical pianist (Albert Dupontel) who is at odds with his manager/wife (Laura Morante) as to where his career is headed. Precisely because Jessica doesn t know how celebrated these people are her guileless and completely unintimidated engagement in their lives has a transforming effect on them and ultimately her.Run Time: 106 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: PG-13 UPC: 821575551755 Manufacturer No: TF-55175

Bon Voyage

Occupied France the subject of a deft, breezy comedy? Believe it. Bon Voyage gathers a collection of romantics, fools, and survivors, and puts them together in Bordeaux in 1940. Loosely arranged around the ditzy figure of a famous grand-dame actress (Isabelle Adjani), these hapless creatures trip over each other very amusingly during the course of a couple of frantic days. The central character is actually a young writer (the winning Gregori Derangere), who's torn between panting after the actress or aiding the pretty daughter (Virginie Ledoyen, 8 Women) of an important scientist trying to escape to England. It would be hard to say that any of this amounts to anything substantial, but director Jean-Paul Rappeneau whips it together very attractively, and the Bordeaux location offers luscious views of a pre-war city. Rappeneau's delightful 1966 comedy La Vie de Chateau, set in Normandy just before D-Day, treads some of the same turf. --Robert Horton

How Much Do You Love Me?

In this gleeful, bawdy sex comedy, Francois, a balding, downtrodden office worker tells the gorgeous prostitute, Daniela (Monica Bellucci), that he's won the lottery and invites her home to spend his money. The ensuing negotiations of cat-and-mouse are played out with verve and wit by both, and by a supporting cast of vicariously engaged friends and neighbors, including Gerard Depardieu as Monica Bellucci's bedraggled mobster boyfriend, Charly.

My Sex Life... Or How I Got Into An Argument

Paul (Mathieu Amalric) is a graduate student in philosophy, nearing 30 years of age, and in a state of stasis: mired in the now-stifling world of academia as a junior instructor, he's stuck on a thesis he can't finish and a 10-year relationship he can't end. When a former classmate turned academic rival is hired on as a full professor, it's too much for the self-pitying scholar. About all he can do is engage in endless conversations about heady French philosophers, drink, and escape his stifling existence in a series of sexual relationships with the gorgeous girlfriends of his buddies. Arnaud Desplechin's study of identity crisis on the cusp of adulthood is filled with so much neurosis, jealousy, guilt, denial, rationalization, and malaise that everyone's bound to identify with something. My Sex Life... is three hours long and the characters never stop talking; stripped of its character dynamics and spot-on behavioral observations it might seem like a Gallic apology for libido-driven male behavior. But Desplechin entirely justifies the entire three hours with a film rich in character, wry humor, and genuine affection. --Sean Axmaker

Paul Dedalus is standing at the crossroads of his life. He must choose his direction in life, in his career, and in his love life as he sits in fear of the despairing life that his father is unable to escape from. Featuring an extraordinary cast of France's most promising young actors and actresses, "My Sex Life" is a witty look at a group of twenty-something grad students trying to cope with life, love and everything in between.

Palais Royal!

Fauteuils d'Orchestre

Bon Voyage

Gentille

Les Soeurs Fachees