Yanne, Jean

Brotherhood of the Wolf - Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition)

If you crave an over-the-top historical kung fu-fantasy epic with a good dose of voluptuous nudity, bravura machismo, and passions so intense they verge on ridiculous, then Brotherhood of the Wolf is your movie. Based (loosely) on an 18th-century legend, this French film follows a hunky scientist (Samuel Le Bihan, who's sort of a second-string Christopher Lambert) and his Iroquois sidekick/spiritual partner (Mark Dacascos) as they pursue a monstrous wolf ravaging the French countryside. Along the way Le Bihan gets entwined with a beautiful noblewoman (Émilie Dequenne) and a gorgeous prostitute (Monica Belluci) with secrets. The plot grows more and more incomprehensible, but the mix of torrid emotions, outrageous action sequences, and lurid titillation is really what the movie is about. Ignore the highbrow philosophizing and confused political intrigue; just enjoy the sensual images. --Bret Fetzer

Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 01/27/2009 Run time: 151 minutes Rating: Nr

The Horseman on the Roof

In a world ravaged by revolution and violence two strangers discover their only chance for survival is each other. Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 01/04/2005 Starring: Juliette Binoche Olivier Martinez Run time: 119 minutes Rating: R

Olivier Martinez (Unfaithful, The Chambermaid) plays Angelo, an exceptionally gallant, Italian soldier-in-exile hiding out from his Austrian enemies in rural France, where a cholera epidemic is sweeping the countryside. Helped in a tough spot by a countess (Juliette Binoche), Angelo swears his unyielding protection to her as she searches for her missing husband. The nobler virtues hold sway as Martinez suppresses his own deepening love and desire for the lady, an admirable posture that has ironic consequences when the countess herself becomes deathly ill. Jean-Paul Rappeneau, maker of the ornamental but empty Cyrano de Bergerac, directs this adventure-romance to a nice pitch of vitality and high drama. The two leads establish a great chemistry (they became offscreen lovers and parents), like watching a pair of thoroughbreds running in the same race. --Tom Keogh

Indochine

Régis Wargnier's 1992 Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film is a bit like watching paint dry, despite its exotic locale and lead performance by the legendary Catherine Deneuve (Belle de Jour, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg). Deneuve plays a wealthy French landowner, born and raised in Indochina, from 1930 until 1955, the year of a Communist takeover. The brewing political changes bound to upset her fortune and destiny find an even more personal parallel in her relationship with an adopted daughter (Linh Dan Pham), who grows up and becomes independent. The outline of this scenario sounds pretty good, but the film is flat and unworthy of its star. --Tom Keogh

Set in french-occupied indochina from the 1930s to the communist revolution 25 years later. Special features: subtitles in english spanish and french production notes interactive menus talent files bonus theatrical trailers scene selections digitally mastered audio & anamorphic video & more. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 06/24/2008 Starring: Catherine Deneuve Run time: 156 minutes Rating: Pg13

Brotherhood of the Wolf

If you crave an over-the-top historical kung fu-fantasy epic with a good dose of voluptuous nudity, bravura machismo, and passions so intense they verge on ridiculous, then Brotherhood of the Wolf is your movie. Based (loosely) on an 18th-century legend, this French film follows a hunky scientist (Samuel Le Bihan, who's sort of a second-string Christopher Lambert) and his Iroquois sidekick/spiritual partner (Mark Dacascos) as they pursue a monstrous wolf ravaging the French countryside. Along the way Le Bihan gets entwined with a beautiful noblewoman (Émilie Dequenne) and a gorgeous prostitute (Monica Belluci) with secrets. The plot grows more and more incomprehensible, but the mix of torrid emotions, outrageous action sequences, and lurid titillation is really what the movie is about. Ignore the highbrow philosophizing and confused political intrigue; just enjoy the sensual images. --Bret Fetzer

Brotherhood of the Wolf (3 Disc Collectors Edition)

If you crave an over-the-top historical kung fu-fantasy epic with a good dose of voluptuous nudity, bravura machismo, and passions so intense they verge on ridiculous, then Brotherhood of the Wolf is your movie. Based (loosely) on an 18th-century legend, this French film follows a hunky scientist (Samuel Le Bihan, who's sort of a second-string Christopher Lambert) and his Iroquois sidekick/spiritual partner (Mark Dacascos) as they pursue a monstrous wolf ravaging the French countryside. Along the way Le Bihan gets entwined with a beautiful noblewoman (Émilie Dequenne) and a gorgeous prostitute (Monica Belluci) with secrets. The plot grows more and more incomprehensible, but the mix of torrid emotions, outrageous action sequences, and lurid titillation is really what the movie is about. Ignore the highbrow philosophizing and confused political intrigue; just enjoy the sensual images. --Bret Fetzer

This Man Must Die

A hit and run driver kills a child. The child's father Charles wants to do everything to revenge the death of his son. After a long investigation a chance meeting puts him in the presence of Paul a despicable garage owner who terrorizes his family. Paul is the murderer of Charles' son. Charles waits for the right moment to face Paul and to bring him to justice. System Requirements:Running Time: 110 MinutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: FOREIGN/LATIN UPC: 825307906196 Manufacturer No: PH90619

Weekend

Jean-Luc Godard and Luis Buñuel enjoyed an ardent misanthropic duel in the '60s and '70s, but who won is anyone's call. Godard's Weekend lays down the trump in a harrowing and darkly funny allegory in which social mores fray along political lines. Played out in a metafilm in which characters question their own reality, a morally bankrupt Parisian couple tries to leave the city on a much-loathed country holiday with the wife's parents. Along the way, endless traffic jams, sudden violence, and vistas of gory car crashes underscore their corrupted values. Their lethal encounter with the in-laws and kidnap by an anarchic band of radical cannibals finds the couple--and presumably "decent" society with them--reverting to a nasty primitivism. The idea is of course that the bored, apathetic heart of the bourgeoisie is never far from acting out its most homicidal fantasies. --Alan E. Rapp

The Butcher

Le Boucher (The Butcher) is possibly Claude Chabrol's best known and critically acclaimed film. At a friend's wedding Helen meets Popaul (Yanne) an ex-soldier with combat honors from Algeria and Indo-China who has returned to his hometown and the family trade of butchery. The two are attracted to each other but Helene is reluctant to get involved as a previous lover has hurt her. Shortly after Popaul's arrival in town the body of a murdered girl is found. When Helene discovers a second victim and a vital piece of evidence that seems to link Popaul to the murders she reluctantly suspects her new found friend. Consistently taut with engrossing twists Le Boucher (The Butcher) is an intense and enthralling thriller. System Requirements:Run Time: 93 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: FOREIGN/LATIN Rating: NR UPC: 825307906295 Manufacturer No: PH90629

This 1969 masterpiece by Claude Chabrol is a high point of the French New Wave director's mid-career, as well as that of actress Stephane Audran, Chabrol's then-wife. Audran plays a lonely schoolteacher who develops an inexplicable draw toward an ex-army butcher (Jean Yanne) who may or may not be a serial killer plaguing a small town. Drawing on Hitchcockian themes of exchanged guilt and shared secrets, Chabrol constructs an extraordinary relationship between the two characters that marries unspoken self-awareness with constant suspense over the unresolved nature of their bond. The film becomes so responsive to their tiny, meaningful gestures, their pregnant silences, and the comic-tragic synchronicity of their insulated world that the mere blinking of an elevator light speaks volumes about the hell of privileged knowledge. Le Boucher returned Chabrol to the backdrop of the French provinces, which he had visited before in his debut, Le Beau Serge, and later in La Ceremonie. --Tom Keogh

Victory

Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 12/26/2008 Run time: 99 minutes Rating: R

Filmed in 1995 and marginally released in Europe in 1998, Victory deserves a better life on video. Adapted by director Mark Peploe from Joseph Conrad's 1915 novel Victory: An Island Tale, this exotic melodrama takes place in the Dutch East Indies in 1913 and '14, where the reclusive Mr. Heyst (Willem Dafoe) lives alone on the secluded island where he once operated a coal mine. Rumored to have killed his business partner, Heyst makes a rare trip to a nearby island, rescues a beautiful violinist named Alma (Irène Jacob) from a wretched hotelier, and returns home with reward-seeking killers (Sam Neill, Rufus Sewell) in close pursuit. A misanthropic pacifist, Heyst faces a dual dilemma: he's fallen in love and must protect Alma at all costs. Preserving Conrad's literary elegance, Peploe opts for a simmering escalation of tension, with a conclusion that Miramax deemed too downbeat for U.S. audiences. Boasting fine performances and breathtaking locations, this gripping film is ripe for rediscovery. --Jeff Shannon

Madame Bovary

Gustav Flaubert's celebrated novel of obsessive ardor undergoes a dazzling retrofit for the screen, courtesy of French neurosis-master Claude Chabrol. The basic story (a woman's selfish quest for happiness ends up obliterating all she holds dear) may be the same, but Chabrol's talent for biting through to the dark marrow of passion makes this a startling experience, even for people familiar with the source material or the numerous other cinematic adaptations. Casting Isabelle Huppert in the title role (she's at least a decade older than the standard conception of this willfully tragic heroine) was a potentially risky gambit that paid off big; underneath her glorious surface lies a startling foundation of brilliant ice. The same can be said about this stunning film. Viewers intrigued by this potent actress-director pairing may also want to check out The Story of Women and the wonderful La Ceremonie. In French with English subtitles. --Andrew Wright