Three intriguing titles top my list of indie films to check out this week on DVD. Coincidentally, two of them feature actors who also directed (or directors who also acted).

Taiwanese film Help Me Eros, directed by and starring Lee Kang-Sheng, became slightly notorious at the Toronto film festival because droves of otherwise hardy film critics walked out of a press screening, either out of boredom or disgust. Ryan Stewart stayed, even though the first scene made him consider vomiting and the film as a whole was an unpleasant experience. Any film that provokes that strong a reaction, of course, makes it a perfect choice for adventurous renters who don't mind gambling a few dollars on the possibility that they'll never finish watching the movie. (The plot doesn't really matter in this case, does it?) DVD extras are limited to various trailers.

The English-language Big Dreams, Little Tokyo, directed by and starring Dave Boyle, is a culture clash comedy. Boyle plays a man who wants to become a language instruction guru, while his Japanese American roommate (Jason Watabe) wants to become a Sumo wrestler despite his slight build. KJ Doughton at Film Threat gave it a four-star rating ("a fresh filmic entree"). DVD extras include an audio commentary, behind the scenes interviews and "making of" footage, deleted scenes, web spots, and more.

French flick Heartbeat Detector (AKA La Question Humaine), directed by Nicolas Klotz, arrives with little fanfare that I can recall, though it did enjoy a brief, limited theatrical run earlier this year, and Scott Foundas admired "its epic sense of humanity" in the pages of The Village Voice. Mathieu Amalric (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) plays a company psychiatrist with odd methods of motivating the corporate troops. DVD extras appear to be non-existent.

I had never heard of Jacques Mesrine before today, but I should have. Take a look at this Wikipedia entry, which matter-of-factly details the dozens of murders, bank robberies and prison escapes pulled off by the legendary French criminal over a 20-year "career." The best part is that he once fled from a sentencing hearing by taking the judge hostage. How can that possibly work?

Anyway, the story's obviously well-known in France, and it has finally made its way to the screen in a two-part biopic called Public Enemy No. 1, starring (who else?) Vincent Cassel as Mesrine. Budgeted at $80 million, it's one of the biggest French productions ever. At least the first of the films is slated to get an October release in France, and the American rights have gone to Senator Entertainment -- the distributor that helped bury All the Boys Love Mandy Lane after the Weinsteins dumped it. Its president promises to do better with Public Enemy, hoping to have the first film in American theaters by the end of the year. He compares it to GoodFellas and Scarface. Honestly, though, Mesrine sounds like more of a badass than Tony Montana.

The movies were directed by Jean-François Richet, who made the not-terrible American remake of John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 a couple of years back. They co-star Gerard Depardieu and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly's Mathieu Amalric (who will also be seen in Quantum of Solace). Oh, and Ludivigne Sagnier, whom I just saw in the very good Love Songs.

"When you can't tell your friends from your enemies, it's time to go."

The first trailer for Quantum of Solace (aka the next James Bond film) has just arrived online (watch above or over on Moviefone in glorious HD), and I'm totally hooked. First thing I noticed is there seems to be quite a bit more action this time around, including what looks to be a pretty slick speedboat scene. Like in Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace (which picks up right where Royale left off) appears to leave us with a Bond (Daniel Craig) who still can't differentiate between what's personal and what's simply business. Once again, M (Judi Dench) continues to chase after Bond, who's still somewhat of a loose cannon.

Starring Mathieu Amalric, Olga Kurylenko, Gemma Arterton and Jeffrey Wright, Quantum of Solace finds Bond on the hunt for the organization responsible for the death of his shady ex-girlfriend, Vesper Lynd. His mission eventually leads to an environmentalist (Amalric) hell bent on taking over the country's water supply. Those interested can check out the full, official synopsis after the jump.

Quantum of Solace arrives in theaters on November 7th, 2008. What do you think of the trailer?

A whole new batch of images from the next James Bond flick, Quantum of Solace, have just arrived online. So, in honor of a badly beaten-up Daniel Craig, we've decided that now is definitely the right time to launch our official Quantum of Solace photo gallery -- complete with good guys, bad guys and women who may or not be good or bad. (Can I just say that I absolutely love this photo above. Obviously they've had a long night -- and even though he's all sorts of damaged, Bond has that "I bet I could still tap that" look on his face.)

What do we know about Quantum of Solace? Well, it picks up right where Casino Royale left off, and it follows 007 on a mission to figure out which moron came up with the name for this film. I kid, I kid. Actually, we're with Bond as he attempts to figure out more about the organization that blackmailed Vesper -- a mission that ultimately leads him to several countries and to a couple of men; one of which, Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), is conspiring to take total control of one of the world's most important natural resources. There's double the action, double the intensity and (we hope) double the love-making.

Quantum of Solace arrives in theaters on November 7. Check out our brand new gallery below.

Yes, I know what the actual title of this film is, but I think it's so eye-poppingly awful that there's a very good chance it will be changed at some point before release, so I see no need to mention it now. We're talking about a film that has to be marketed internationally -- surely cooler heads at Sony will step in and demand a title that's reasonable? What was their second choice, by the way? James Bond in Footpounds of Complacency? Either way, someone needs to start minding the store over there because now the actors are going around giving away major plot details. It's not often that I have to issue a spoiler warning over something an actor said while out promoting their film, but consider this that spoiler warning and beware. Speaking to BBC Newsround, Gemma Arterton, who I had incorrectly figured for a Moneypenny early on, says that her character, an MI6 agent named Fields, is tasked with trying to "keep Bond under control" in Bolivia, but for her trouble the character "sort of comes to a sticky end." Thanks, Gemma.

Meanwhile, Mathieu Amalric is also talking up his character, the main villain, and says (another spoiler alert) that he's going to get into physical training for a big fight scene with Bond that will come at the end the picture. Is Bond in the habit of engaging in fisticuffs with his main adversaries? Not really. Anyway, that's also much more than I wanted to know, since for all we know this guy could have exited halfway through, like Le Chiffre. Based on the flurry of details that have emerged in the last week, I already think I have a good handle on exactly what will happen in this film, structure-wise, and that's too much info. In other, less spoiler-filled news, Detroit News is also running a piece on the set design for the film, and informs us that a massive MI6 set -- "a two-story suite of steel-gray furniture and frosted glass offices" -- will be featured this time around.

[Via MI6]

Just in case you weren't paying attention yesterday, Quantum of Solace is the title of the latest James Bond movie (previously referred to as "Bond 22"), which arrives in theaters this November. Yes, it sounds a little Supermanish, but as Jessica pointed out, the title does come from 007 creator Ian Fleming himself. So, we mustn't make too much fun of it, even if 2008 is fast becoming the most ridiculous year for movie titles (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull; Repo! The Genetic Opera). Yesterday, we also received the official plot synopsis of the sequel, a direct follow-up to Casino Royale. Now, as if the new installment was coming out this month instead of nine months from now, Empire has put up some new cast photos in order to acquaint us with the main characters of Quantum of Solace.

Of course, if you've seen Casino Royale, you're already familiar with at least four of the seven characters, and there isn't much that's new or interesting about the looks of Bond (Daniel Craig), M (Dame Judi Dench), Rene Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini) or Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright). But it is quite exciting to see the beautiful new Bond girls, Agent Fields (Gemma Arterton) and Camille (Olga Kurylenko), and the new villain, Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), who Empire describes as being refined, as if he "could almost be Bond with madder eyes." I guess I was jokingly half-hoping Amalric's villain would have a fat lip and one of his eyes sewn up, but that would just be preposterous. These Craig-starred Bond films are certainly less hokey than that, and most of us agree that they're better that way.

Well, it's official. After referring to the latest Bond movie as Bond 22 for what seemed like forever, BBC News reports that producers of the 22nd installment of the Bond franchise say the official title will be...wait for it...Quantum of Solace. To be honest, my first reaction was -- huh? Then, however, I found out that the title was taken from a collection of short stories published by Bond creator Ian Fleming back in 1960, so I guess it has some retro charm in spite of the fact that it sounds kind of awkward; don't you think? (Once again, Daniel Craig might have been messing with us all, just a little, with hints that "007" was the official title.)

The announcement came during a press conference at the new Pinewood Studios, where the film has begun shooting. Journalists were shown some clips of Bond swinging out of an explosion of an art gallery in Italy, as well as a meeting between Bond (Daniel Craig) and M (Judi Dench) in a snowy locale.

It was only a couple of weeks ago that they finally announced their new Bond Girl, Olga Kurylenko. So sure, the production has taken it's time assembling the cast around Daniel Craig; but now that it is all said and done, they have managed to put together a pretty interesting ensemble. There are some familiar faces from Casino Royale returning -- Giancarlo Giannini as Mathis and Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter. Plus, there are also some first-timers to the Bond franchise including critically acclaimed French actor Mathieu Amalric as our bad guy and Gemma Arterton as MI6 Agent Fields. We've gotten a couple of images from the film, but so far, most of the details about the story are still being kept under lock and key. So, if you can't wait for November 7th when Quantum of Solace hits theaters, stay tuned for any updates that come our way.

UPDATE: After the jump, you will find the film's synopsis, courtesy of Columbia Pictures. Read at your own risk!

It still doesn't have a title, and it still doesn't officially have a Bond girl, but according to Empire magazine, Bond 22 has found its villain. Of course, we don't know the character's name nor anything about him, except that he will be played by French actor Mathieu Amalric (Munich). The casting of Amalric was actually announced a few weeks ago by Fox News, but it couldn't be confirmed until Empire today got it out of the actor himself. He did hint at one loose detail about the movie, that it would be about childhood. Now, in the context of the quote, it actually appears that Amalric is saying that the desire to play a Bond villain stems from his childhood, but Empire understood his words differently, or at least spun them so that it seems like he said Bond 22 will focus on 007's childhood (as if James Bond Jr. and Agent Cody Banks weren't bad enough, now we may get a precocious young Bond). Empire also points out that Eva Green has dropped hints that Bond 22's villain will be her Casino Royale character's boyfriend, which would make sense now that we've heard Green will not appear in the next film, though photos of her character will.

This news would indicate that the Denver Post was wrong in claiming Robert Knepper would be playing the next Bond villain. Unless, of course, there's multiple bad guys -- a trend Hollywood has been a fan of lately. Either way, Amalric is an excellent choice to play the (or a) Bond baddie, and not just because he has that same foreign creepy look that Casino's Mads Mikkelsen has. The actor is receiving rave reviews for his starring role as a paralyzed sufferer of locked-in syndrome in Julian Schnabel's critically acclaimed new film, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Fans of Amalric's need not worry that because of Bond 22 he will be more sought after for big Hollywood movies (as if any Bond villain actor ever was). The actor told Empire that taking the role is simply funny to him, it's not necessarily what he wants to do with his career and he will continue doing "very small French film[s] for free with [his] friends."