virginie ledoyen Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Suffering from "issue fatigue"? That would be an understandable response to the fall movie season, in which a flock of serious, issue-driven, adult-oriented dramas clamor for attention. In most cases, the filmmakers are sincere in their desire to convey a message or sound a warning. Too often, however, fictional films collapse under the weight of good intentions. Documentaries have an inherent advantage in that they ostensibly portray a measure of truth, while dramatic treatments are immediately suspect due to their obvious need to create a story arc that will obey the rules of narrative storytelling and provide a degree of entertainment value. It's far too easy to fall into the trap of melodramatic plot devices, Dickensian coincidences and third-act "twists" that surprise no one.

Holly, which opened yesterday in New York before expanding later in the month to other cities, does not entirely avoid conventions. A simple synopsis sounds like a thousand other well-meant movies: shady Patrick (Ron Livingston) agrees to do something for fellow American Freddie (Chris Penn). His motorcycle breaks down and he is stranded at a brothel overnight, where he encounters Holly (Thuy Nguyen), a 12 year old Vietnamese girl who has just been sold into prostitution. His heart goes out to her pathetic situation and he tries to save her. He also crosses paths with a slick, slimy brothel customer (Udo Kier) and an earnest welfare worker (Virginie Ledoyen).

My initial reaction was to recoil at the prospect of yet another movie in which a Noble White American Is The Only One Who Can Save Yellow (or black or brown or whatever) People In Developing Nations From Themselves And In The Process Save Himself. But director Guy Moshe and producer Guy Jacobson, who collaborated on the script, are smarter than that.

*A guest review today, from Nick Schager, of Slant Magazine


There's nothing new about the films of Francis Veber, director of The Dinner Game and The Closet. Decidedly old-school throwbacks to both classic Hollywood comedies of manners and bouncy French farces, the filmmaker's hits are pure superficiality, their intricate plot machinations and oversized performances containing barely a whiff of emotional or intellectual depth. Veber isn't about character development or thematic subtext; he's about light, frolicsome fun, the kind in which myriad strangers find themselves hopelessly embroiled in outrageous circumstances, and then stumble and bumble their way out of trouble and into love. With The Valet, he continues his career dedication to fanciful humor, spinning a tangled yarn about a restaurant valet, his small business-owning love interest, a corporate bigwig, his cold, greedy wife, and his supermodel lover, all of whom find their fates intertwined after a tabloid photographer takes an ill-advised picture.

The snapshot in question is of CEO Pierre Levasseur (Daniel Auteuil) and his gorgeous celebrity mistress Elena (Alice Taglioni), and it threatens to ruin Levasseur if it leads to divorce, as his wife Christine (Kristin Scott Thomas, speaking seamless French) is the majority shareholder in his companies. As a random passerby is also featured in the photo, Pierre claims that Elena was actually with this stranger, a cover story that forces Pierre to find the man and pay him to pose as Elena's lover for the paparazzi hordes. After an amazingly quick search, the innocent sap in question turns out to be François Pignon (Gad Elmaleh) – the name of most of Veber's naïve protagonists – a porter who lives with his clingy best friend Richard (Dany Boon) and who has recently had his marriage proposal rebuffed by lifelong love and deep-in-debt bookstore proprietor Emilie (Virginie Ledoyen), who is being aggressively pursued by a sleazy cell phone salesman (Patrick Mille).

It's funny; I'm not not a big fan of blood and gore in the movies, and occasionally I get a little squeamish at the Hostel variety of horror, but show me a guy cleft in two with a broadsword and I don't even bat an eye. Sometimes, I even get a sick little giggle out of it. I've always enjoyed historical epics; why else would I have I sat through all of the classic "sword and sandal" flicks and their various incarnations of the last few years?

Variety announced that John Malkovich has joined an international cast that includes Michael Madsen, Peter O'Toole, and Virginie Ledoyen for Raoul Ruiz's Love and Virtue. The film centers on the crusading battles and romantic intrigue during Charlemagne's empire. The film was written by Mia Sperber and Stefano Prates, who used the epic poems The Song of Roland and Orlando Innamorato as inspiration for the story. The poems are full of all those things that are usually in medieval poems, like treacherous nobles, love-smitten knights, and Saracen armies -- which in the end guarantees at least a few large-scale battle scenes. No word yet on who Malkovich will play, but I'm sure it will involve one of his bizarre accents. Love and Virtue will begin production this March on location in Belgium and Luxembourg.