Oren Moverman's THE MESSENGER: review and filmmaker interview

Grief is good, they say; it allows you to move on. If so, there'll be plenty of move-
ment for most of the characters in THE MESSENGER, a new film co-written (with Alessandro Camon) and directed by Oren Moverman. I'm trying to recall another film in which grief -- and so much of it -- has been as palpable as it is in this surprising movie. We can hear it and see it, of course, but Mr. Moverman (below)

makes certain that we feel it, too. It's that raw.

The whole of this relatively quiet movie, in fact, is raw. Nerve endings are frayed. Not only can you see this in the poor, shocked recipients of the news of their loved one's death, but in the faces and voices of the two military men who announce the deaths to the victim's next of kin. Played by Woody Harrelson (below, right, as the jaded vet) and Ben Foster (below, left, as the younger rookie), these two have their own demons to fight, even as they screw up their courage in order to drop the dreadful news.

The scenes between the messengers and their "prey" are so strong, so beautifully -- gut-wrenchingly -- handled that everything else necessarily pales beside them. This presents the movie with an insurmountable problem, and though Moverman does as good a job as any novice filmmaker (his writing credits are rather amazing -- see the interview below -- but this is his first stint behind the camera), there's no way he could create anything as powerful as these reverse "annunciations."

In order to make the movie more palatable for mass taste -- not that any film that has dealt with the current wars in which American is engaged has been able to attract the masses -- a relationship must bud between one of the messengers and a newly-made widow. Because the widow is played by Samantha Morton, shown left, the incandescent quietude that this great actress possesses is more than able to hold our interest. But the film's construction is flawed. Circuitous and rambling, the story -- such as it is -- meanders. A victim's shirt bears a little too much symbolism and, in the scene in which it figures so heavily, the dialog goes awry, even though the words flow nicely from Ms Morton's mouth.

What saves the movie, in addition to those great grief scenes, is Moverman's refusal to pander to what audiences supposedly want (and usually get). He doesn't tie up loose ends too tightly, nor give us the good old-fashioned all-out brawl we're expecting from a group of rude boys. (Instead he quickly cuts to the after-effects plainly seen on our messengers' faces.) Even in the one scene that really does not need to be in the film -- the wedding visit -- the writer/director manages to cushion the expected crazy behavior (and dress: see below) with some subtlety.

Harrison is terrific, as always, and Mr. Foster, after playing one character creepier than the next (Alpha Dog, 3:10 to Yuma, 30 Days of Night), is a joy to watch as he find all kinds of ways to make good and merciful behavior appear as fascinating as the sleazier sort. Family members who hear the bad news are played by a roster of fine actors, including Steve Buscemi, Yaya DaCosta, Peter Friedman and Halley Feiffer. As a nod toward our increasingly bilingual country, there's even one presentation made in Spanish.

Moverman is on record elsewhere, and in the interview that follows, explaining that he would have liked to make a movie with nothing in it but the grief scenes. I'd have gone for that and, in fact, might have preferred it. As it is, The Messenger is an auspicious entry into directing for this new filmmaker. I hope it manages to attract a larger audience that have the Iraq/Afghan war films we've been given so far.

The messenger begins its theatrical run this Friday, November 13 in New York City and Washington DC. Click here, and then click on "Theaters" to see the film's upcoming playdates.

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TrustMovies meets with Oren Moverman in his suite at the W Hotel, just off Union Square in Manhattan. He's seems genuine, gracious and more than ready to talk:

TrustMovies: In the NY Times piece from last Sunday, it’s interesting how you say that you wanted to do nothing but grief scenes, but of course, as you also say, that would not be heavily attended by the masses. And yet, it seems to me that you’ve still made a movie that is not going to be heavily attended by the masses:

Oren Moverman: What I was saying was that were we to concentrate on that part of the movie, it would have been an enormously powerful film, if it was 90 minutes with one notification after the other, but with no narrative. But I also acknowledge that this would be somewhat of an experimental film.

It would be. And even if was a narrative it would seem like a documentary. But that’s sort of the way you shot your movie, isn't it?

It is very close to that, yeah. Doing it one notification after the other would be a challenge to your ability to feel – over and over again – it may not have the space to let you breathe, so that might be overwhelming.

Yes, because, even in real life these two guys would have their time away from the grief moments. And your movie is like that, too.

Yeah, yeah. That’s what life is -- and not just in the military. We all deal with this.

You are Israeli, right? How did you come up with this particular subject and film?

The Messenger is even more foreign that that, because my co-writer – Alessandro Camon -- is Italian. So we are both immigrants here and we both have our “outsider” perspectives. And we’re both interested in similar things. Alessandro actually started out as a producer.

How old are you both?

He’s 45 and I am 43. This is my first film as a director. As a writer, and I co-wrote I’m Not There with Todd Haynes, Married Life with Ira Sachs, and Jesus’ Son with Alison Maclean.

Of all the Iraq movies I've seen, your film reminded me most of The Lucky Ones. Did you see that one?

Hmmm... Yes, I did.

That's probably because both films look at Iraq from the more glancing perspective rather than dead-on. Your film reminds me of that other film, in that it tackles our current war(s) more obliquely than any almost other film I’ve seen.

Right.

Your movie does the oblique thing via the grief of those left behind and puts us in touch with something we really need to feel and understand.

I hope so. One of the things we tried to do is actually have a movie that makes you feel that you have feelings. I think that many movies kind of dull yourfeelings and kind of manipulate them a lot. We were very aware of how dangerous it was to shoot these scenes.

Is that why you did these as improvisations?

Yeah. Just keep it in the moment, keep it raw: one take, with no rehearsals. The actors had not met each other, either.

Not even Steve Buscemi?

They knew that Steve and Samantha Morton were going to do a scene but not which one. But they didn’t meet or speak with them. The rest they did not know at all.

Was Samantha Morton pregnant during this shoot?

No, but she had had a baby four months before the shoot. .

Ah. She is so amazing. I swear, she could turn me straight.

(He laughs) She is so… There is no one like her. Not in terms of acting, not in terms of how she looks. She is so sexy and beautiful and real..

Even with all that extra poundage, I found her more attractive. More so than when she was really thin.

She is a woman, a real woman.

Is she good to work with?

People have different experiences, but my experience was completely wonderful. We had a very loving set. Love was the commodity we were all using. That sounds cliched and all, but that was the only way to make this movie.

Maybe she’s the kind of actress who gets into a role and holds onto it . Like in that film about the British serial killer – Longford -- with Jim Broadbent, where she played Myra Hindley….

Well, she’s not a method actress or anything. She doesn’t stay in character. In fact, she snaps out of a character like that (Moverman snaps his fingers). It’s almost frightening in a kind of way, but she is so good.

It’s also wonderful to see Ben Foster in a gentle role. He can do creepy like no one else: He's like the new Richard Widmark. So I was grateful to see a different side of him.

He has lots of different sides that he has yet to put forward. He’s phenomenal.

One more thing I want to ask you: What’s next for you? Or even better: If you could do anything you ever wanted to do, what might that be?

Well, I have all kinds of projects that are ready to go forward. But that is a really tough question. (He considers for a moment) If I could do anything…?

Maybe in the back of your mind, something special you’d love to do but you think it would never happen.

I don’t have that kind of project. I try to keep my goals realistic.

Well, you’re an Israeli.

Exactly. I am trained in practicality! So nothing comes to mind, but you know what: If I ever wake up in the middle of the night with something in mind, I will give you a call! But it’s funny – I guess I didn’t realize this till now, but I have never been shooting for the impossible, I shoot for the possible. Otherwise it would be too frustrating. And I have no more hair left to pull out!

All photo are from the film except that of Mr. Moverman
with Harrelson and Foster, which is by George Pimentel,
© and courtesy of WireImage.com

Siegel, McGehee, Gordon-Levitt, Collins (and yellow & green) offer UNCERTAINTY

Writer/director/produ-
cers David Siegel and Scott McGehee have now collabora-
ted on four films, be-
ginning with Suture in 1994 and continu-
ing with The Deep End in 2001, Bee Season in 2005, with UNCERTAINTY their latest. What unites their work in my mind is the near-consistent sense of an exercise, rather than a fully imagined and lived-in story at the heart of each film. The exer-
cise quotient is high-
est in the duo’s first and last endeavors, with The Deep End and Bee Season adhering on the surface to more conventional narrative styles. Yet the exercise is always present, and though I’m sure this sounds like I am knocking their films, I don't mean to. An exercise, after all, can be challenging and productive.

TrustMovies is of two minds about the work of McGehee (above, left) and Siegel (above, right), all of which is quite fascinating in its way, and while I am somewhat disappointed in their results, I always look forward to their next film. These are highly intelligent filmmakers who like to explore different avenues -- even if their explorations are still reduced to a sort of “game,” in which the filmmakers, their characters and we viewers are enmeshed.

These writer/ directors also surround them- selves with talent aplenty, particu- larly where their cinematography is concerned. I don’t know that I’ve ever thought of the term black-and-white without Suture (shot by Greg Gardiner) coming quickly to mind. (The Deep End was shot by Giles Nuttgens.) With their latest endeavor, they’ve outdone them- selves, clarity- wise, using the Chinese cinematographer Rain Li, whose capture of New York City’s bridges, rivers, subways, parks, rooftops and especially Chinatown is alternately ravishing or ratty and always right. The twosome casts its films with care, as well. Who can forget Tilda Swinton in The Deep End? In Uncertainty, they’ve cornered two of our finest young actors, Joseph Gordon-Levitt (above, left) and Lynn Collins (below, right) for their leads and brought in Olivia Thirlby and Assumpta Serna for choice backup roles. No surprise: Everyone delivers.

The story concocted by McGehee and Siegel starts off quietly and then jolts us with, first, a symbolic then soon after a quite literal bang. We’re in alter- nate scenarios: what if this happened? Or what if that? One version is seemingly benign, the other murderous. (I could not help thinking, particularly at the beginning of the film, that the thriller scenario would have made a nifty little movie of its own, were it only better plotted. This team does have some trouble providing believable plot twists.) What seems to me unique about the movie is that its scenarios are color-coded: yellow (for caution?) and green (for go?). Part of the fun of the film comes in noticing where and how these colors crop up – in the costumes, especially, but elsewhere, too. The green is quite social, full of family and rescue; the yellow is lonely and circumscribed. As the film progresses, each scenario grows more like its other. While I wouldn’t trade the mother in the green version for the assassin in the yellow, still, she can be pretty scary in her way. Eventually the two versions seem almost to unite, first during a fireworks display (the film takes place on July 4th) and later in sex and then sleep.

Free will and chance enter heavily into the equation, and I suspect the filmmakers believe in them both. At least Uncertainty seems to say as much. If the movie begins better than it ends, this is all too often the case, and not only in the work of this duo. Great ideas seem more available than is the ability to play them out properly. Moment to moment, however, the movie is quite watchable, with Collins and Gordon-Levitt on point throughout. Uncertainty begins its On-Demand run tomorrow November 11, via most major cable providers. Consult yours and then go to IFC On-Demand to select. Theatrically, the movie opens Friday, November 13, exclusively at NYC's IFC Center.

Sebastian Gutierrez's WOMEN IN TROUBLE is a four-star hoot. And then some.

Carla Gugino as a nun? No, wait: she's only playing a nun. In a hard-core movie. Because she's the country's leading female porn star, Elektra Luxx. You're lining up already? Smart move. Sebas-
tian Gutierrez's giddy and goofy WOMEN IN TROUBLE is a delight, start to finish -- and I do mean "finish": If you leave before the closing credits are completely over you'll have

missed one of the funnier bits. If you've a taste for frisky, ensem-
ble fun, I can almost guarantee you'll enjoy this little romp.

As writer/director, Mr. Gutierrez (shown, right) gave us one of the more interesting (if not wholly successful) vampire movies of the past decade, Rise (with Lucy Liu and Ms Gugino, among others) and the wonderful cable-TV creep-out She Creature, as well as Judas Kiss (from 1998). He also wrote Snakes on a Plane. (Say what you will: I thought it was a lot of dumb fun.) You'll notice I am not mentioning Gothika. If I ever get to interview Gutierrez, we'll probably find a way to blame that one on the film's director.

In any case, this guy is getting better and better. With Women in Trouble, he's credited as director, writer and producer, so if you don't like it, there's only one man to blame. But I think you will, particularly if you are the kind of movie buff who can appreciate a film that goes over the top -- and then beyond -- with a smile and some style. Gutierrez tosses together quite a group of women. Start with a trio of porn stars (Gugino, shown below), Emmanuelle Criqui (at bottom) and Adrianne Palicki, of TV's Friday Night Lights, and if the latter, shown at left with her director, does not hit the bigger-time very soon, after her delightful turn here as a dumb sweetie-pie, I shall be very surprised); two sisters (played by a very fine Connie Britton and Sarah Clarke); the latter's husband (Simon Baker) and their unusual daughter (Isabella Gutierrez); an about-to-be-married stewardess (Marley Shelton); and a famous rock star (Josh Brolin). There are others, including Joseph Gordon-Levitt, but let's leave it at this.

The manner in which Gutierrez has managed to link these characters is creative and amusing enough, but how they play off each other, in ways expected and not, is even more so. If every joke is not equally successful and some moments are more piquant than others, I suspect you'll be chuckling hard enough to barely notice. The women in this filmmaker's world maybe engaged in sleazy work and lots of deception, but they are so gorgeous to view and the actresses all so game and radiant, that we root for them. And anyway, most of the men on view are crumb-bums of a particularly high (or low) order. The movie is "camp," all right, but unlike last weeks' The Fall, this one is intentionally so.

Occasionally Gutierrez does some- thing visu- ally special -- such as his rapid-fire montage of thoughts that fly through a woman's mind about her upcom- ing baby. The flashes seem slick, yes, but also smart and real. And when the guy cribs -- as in what looks like an homage to Bobcat Goldthwait and Sleeping Dogs Lie, at least he's stealing from the smart guys.

Women in Trouble is being released via Screen Media, a company that is "classing up" its act considerably with this juicy treat. The fun begins Friday, November 13, in New York City and L.A. You can check for specific theaters here.

Andrew Jacobs' FOUR SEASONS LODGE: the summer of aging Holocaust survivors

"I was the only one of 300 people left alive," explains a Holocaust survivors who now spends some of each summer along with others of his kind in an isolated rural re-
sort in New York's Catskill Mountains. Because this seasonal holiday has been go-
ing on for 25 years, time and attrition has culled the group's membership consider-
ably -- and will even more before this 97-minute film has drawn to a close.
The new documentary about these aging seniors, by Andrew Jacobs (shown at left), with some of its photography done by Albert Maysles, is a catch-as-catch-can look at their lives as they prepare for, arrive at, spend their holiday in, and then leave -- perhaps for the last time -- FOUR SEASONS LODGE, their hallowed place of refuge that also provides the film's title. At one time, we are told, there were 150 of these post-Holocaust survivor colonies. Now there is but one and, thanks to Jacobs and his crew, we're visiting it: hearing the memories and watching these old friends interact by way of jokes, parties, meals, singing, dancing and discussion.

Regarding religion, it seems that most of the guys don't believe in god, while the gals do. One of the singers on hand could give the infamous Mrs. Miller a run for her money, another seems to be channeling Carmen Miranda. For me the most interesting people proved the two women, Olga and Genya, life-long friends who consistently squabble but seem to enjoy each other immensely. I wish we learned more about these two. Some of the most interes-
ting talk centers around love and relationships during WWII: "They would say, whenever a marriage proved no good, that Hitler was the matchmaker." Any suspense the film musters hangs on whether or not the resort will be shut down at the end of this year. Yet, at this point in time, even if it does not close this year, then it will the next. Or the next, as fewer and fewer survivors remain.

There's no real narration in the film, just footage and sound. Some of that sound rings awfully prosaic and cliché -- "Every good thing comes to an end" (everything bad thing doesn't?) -- but then, that's how most of us speak past a certain age (and sometimes well before that age). For all the in-your-face footage, we don't get to know any of these very people well because, other than their Holocaust experience, we learn only a pittance about their background and current lives. It appears that Jacobs, Maysles and the other photographers shot the film on the fly. Everything is often in a state of agitation, as though every moment had to be LIVED: Let's eat, let's dance, let's joke, let's sing! As one woman notes, "This is our revenge on Hitler. To live this long, this well, is a victory." Still, I found myself wondering how much more might have been gained from some quiet, lengthy one-on-one chats that probed a bit. Perhaps the participants preferred not to. Genya, for instance, seems unable to talk about wartime, saying that she may do this one day -- on her deathbed.

There is something about this movie that signals us, because it deals with holocaust survivors, that it must be automatically interesting. And it is -- though I am not certain, after we've seen as much as we now have about that subject, that it is interesting enough. For that matter, I'm not sure my life or those of most of the people my age that I know -- say, the little co-op building here in Jackson Heights where we live and where most of our co-tenants are seniors or fast approaching that state -- would be all that interesting, either. Our lives could be quite fascinating if they included our past and how we interact now with the world outside, rather than within only our small, constrained group. But this is something -- by necessity, I suppose -- that we get little of from Four Seasons Lodge. Instead, it's all Holocaust, all the time: reminiscing about, living in the shadow of, and reacting against. This is fine, so far as it goes, but it's not enough.

And don't let the nice, juicy kiss (above) -- which might have you imagining you're in store for more Cloud 9 -- fool you. Four Seasons Lodge, tame indeed in that regard, has other things on its mind regarding relationships. The film opens this Wednesday, November 11, via First Run Features, at New York City's IFC Center. Upcoming playdates, with theaters and cities, can be found here (click, then scroll down).

BAM Does France -- 5 New Films: Cavalier, Mouret, Novion, Ozon and Podalydès

Beginning in 2002, BAMcinématek -- the repertory film program at BAM Rose Cinemas -- has presented a yearly program of new French films. The eighth installment, which starts this Wednesday, November 11, and plays through Sunday, November 15, is made up of five new films -- four of which TrustMovies has viewed. The fifth, a still from which appears above, is RICKY, the new film from François Ozon, which screens Friday, November 13, at 6:50 and 9:15 but will be opening theatrically via IFC this December, so we'll cover it at that time. (Find the entire program, with dates, ticket availabilities and other information here.)

You could, if you were so inclined, think of this mini-series as a kind of preview -- something to whet your appetite for the longer, ten-day series Rendez-vous with French Cinema that appears each March from the Film Society of Lincoln Center. However you choose to look at it, the quartet of films under consideration below varies widely in terms of content, style and quality. At the top of the heap is a movie that's so much fun, I'd suggest seeing it now, in case the opportunity should not arise again (you never know regarding foreign films -- particularly those without a "star" pedigree). The film in question, PLEASE PLEASE ME (Fais-moi plaisir!) by and staring Emmanuel Mouret (of last year's winning Shall We Kiss?), is so funny and bizarre that, by its conclusion, I think I can safely predict you'll find little with which to compare it.

Beginning in a manner that makes it seem the same sort of French philosophical/moral comedy as Shall We Kiss (including two of its stars: Mouret -- at right, above -- and Frédérique Bel), the film soon, via a kind of Rube Goldberg scenario of events, travels into a near-surreal realm that combines whimsy with deadpan slapstick and visual comedy as good anything we've seen since maybe the best of Blake Edwards. Because much of what transpires occurs in the oddball home of the President of France, the movie becomes all the more comic, satirical and loony.

The cast includes a serenely deadpan Déborah François (above, right), who -- with this nifty role added to her roster of those in The Child, The Page Turner and the recent Unmade Beds -- may be one of the most versatile actresses in all of France. Also on hand are Judith Godrèche (shown prone, above) as the daughter of the aforesaid President and a raft of fine actors chosen as much for their visual presentation, I suspect, as for their talent. Closing this mini-festival, Please Please Me plays Sunday, November 15, at 2, 4:30, 6:50 and 9:15.

Speaking of fine casts (Catherine Deneuve, Thierry Lhermitte...) I'm trying desperately to recall another film with as starry a roster (Julie Depardieu, Chiara Mastroianni...) as the one provided by PARK BENCHES, written and directed by Bruno Podalydès. Watching as the names (Josiane Balasko, Olivier Gourmet...) are cleverly listed and take longer to unspool than do some entire movies, your jaw opens wider and wider. There would seem to be nary an actor (Hippolyte Girardot, Pierre Arditi...) in all of France (except, perhaps, Fanny Ardant) who did not work on this film. To what avail? There's the catch. M. Podalydès starts out well enough, as a woman (Florence Muller) traverses quite a lengthy distance to arrive at her office; once there, she and her co-workers notice a sign hanging below an apartment window across the way: Lonely Man. What could this mean? Ideas are offered, from the possibility of suicide to "what a great way to seduce the ladies!" From there, we go exploring: to that apartment with the signage, to a nearby mini-park, and finally into the equivalent, I think, of a French hardware store, where we meet the quirky staff and the equally quirky customers.

Along the way we get a little philosophy, humor, and lots of talk (see photo above), but little action, regarding love and sex, as we watch everyday people -- young, old, and in-between -- go about their every day. Some of this is fun but much of it, at a nearly two-hour running time, grows tiring. The dialog, occasionally keen, is too often prosaic, and the visuals and the visual style are nothing special. You could cut out half the movie and not lose much (except perhaps that amazingly stellar cast: Claude Rich, Michel Aumont.... The end brings things full circle, but by then it's a little late. This might have made a better hour-long show for TV, but with only half that cast (Nicole Garcia, Vincent Elbaz...). Park Benches screens Saturday, November 14, at 2, 4:30, 6:50 and 9:15.

Odder still, but with a stronger raison d'etre is Alain Cavalier's exploratory IRENE. Cavalier, whose most famous work (in the U.S., at least) is probably Thérèse, most likely had to make this movie. It's an extremely personal documentary in which he pieces together memories, objects, sounds, writings, locations, recordings, anything and everything he can find to bring together as complete as picture as possible of his late wife. That he succeeds more for himself than for the viewer is almost a foregone conclusion, and yet the film he's cobbled together is not without interest and moments of great feeling.

Irène died in a car accident (or was it a kind of suicide?) in 1972, so her widower has had nearly 40 years to suffer and digest. He recalls his late wife's sometimes violent orgasms (her sexual habits tended toward humiliation), reads from her diaries, remembers both her dreams and his. Frogs and rabbits dot the way, and at one point Cavalier gives us the image of an egg inside a watermelon to show us what happens in a breached birth. (It's an effective image!) Yet there are times that simple camera placement seems awry. Instead of showing us a childhood home, he lets us see only the signage (a plaque that reads "3"), or when he does latch onto a swell image -- a roll broken in two and a glass of wine -- he'll decide to hold it ad infinitum. Finally, I think, the writer/director has not been able to organize his own tale, let alone that of Irène's, so that, instead of fully entering this world, the viewer feels like a voyeur who might like to know more -- but can't. Irène (what a splendid, evocative poster, above!) plays Thursday, November 12, at 4:30, 6:50 and 9:15.

The French have long excelled at coming-of-age stories, probably because they realize, better than do many American filmmakers, how much more than "close family" is involved in most young people's growing pains. Writer/director Anne Novion understands this, and her first full-length feature GROWN UPS (Les Grandes personnes) is a testament to these forces -- including, in this case, a foreign country and culture. A single-parent dad and his daughter vacationing in Sweden are the centerpieces, around which swirl youth and maturity in the form of a hot, blond would-be rocker and an attractive older actress.

Not much happens in Grown Ups, which is part of its charm, but an awful lot almost does. And because the father is played by there's-no-one-quite-like-him Jean-Pierre Darroussin (above, left), the actress by Judith Henry, and the daughter by newcomer Anaïs Demoustier (above, right), who was nominated for a César for this role and can also seen of late in Give Me Your Hand), the time passes quickly and pleasantly. Tourist traffic from France to Sweden ought to have multiplied exponentially due to this film. Not only do the locations look gorgeous, the natives seem exceptionally attractive and friendly. Grown Ups screens Wednesday, November 11, at 4:30, 6:50 and 9:15.

Click here for directions to BAM.

An On-Demand "Must": Balasko, Baye, Caravaca & Carré in A FRENCH GIGOLO

In line to become one of those French cinema treasures like Moreau, Signoret, or Deneuve (but more comedic), Josiane Balasko, who will turn 60 next year (she's shown below with her cinematog-
rapher Robert Alazraki), has appeared in 67 films, written 20 and directed seven. While her acting is almost always on point, her film-making skills can be up and down. TrustMovies is delighted to report that this lady is at the top of her game with the new A FRENCH GIGOLO (Cliente is the origi-
nal title), a timely, funny, fla-
vorsome film that looks at everything -- from sexuality to the economy, family to friend-
ship, American Indians to home-shopping TV -- with savvy eye and brain in-gear.

As the director and adapter (of her own novel), Balasko (above, right) tells the story of an attractive and successful middle-aged woman (the ever beautiful and intelligent Natalie Baye), who, after a divorce from her husband, takes to bedding male escorts from time to time, a practice that she finds works well with her busy schedule as a TV show host and enables her to enjoy attractive men without getting too close. Her sister, played by Balasko, works with her on the show, the production staff of which appears to serve as the pair's pleasant and closely-knit "family."

One fine day a new escort, winningly played by Eric Caravaca (above), with whom Balasko worked a few years back on the very dark and strange policier Cette femme-la, brings an added je ne sais quoi to his "escorting" -- and everything changes. From this premise, which works extremely well because the psychologies and back stories of the film's characters are so tellingly conceived, Balasko and her crack cast open up various worlds to us -- a family, the escort business, that TV show (below) -- that seem both specific and real, but more important, highly entertaining.

One of the more interesting touches Balasko provides as filmmaker is having her characters talk to us from time to time, briefly and without undue fuss. They don't stop, stare into the camera and explain things, as is often done. Rather, we hear their voice as they go about their business, almost as though they're part of a novel that has suddenly come to visual life. Economical and un-showy, this provides us added information, along with the characters' thoughts and feelings, and it works quite well.

Because everyone in this ensemble is given his or her due, we come to care for them rather a lot, particularly the three most important characters: the gigolo, his client and his wife. The latter is essayed by the lovely young actress Isabelle Carré (above), who, interestingly enough, played opposite Ms Baye a few years back in another terrific film about love, sex and unusual relationships: Noémie Lvovsky's Les Sentiments. Balasko also sees to it that we care about both the sister and an American Indian, played with charm, humor and an easy dignity that's never pushed by George Aguilar (below with Ms Balasko.)

Because of the manner in which the central situation is set up -- and then handled so well -- it's inevitable that someone must lose. Yet how it all plays out provides a thoughtful, funny and moving exploration of love and sex in difficult economic times, the differing meanings this has for women and men, and how both will use and abuse it, even when they try their best not to.

Ms Baye, in particular (shown at right), gives a meaty performance, in which she looks her age (but very well), allowing a little flab to show along with the intelligence, feeling and style. In fact, she's yet another French cinema treasure. Catch her award-winning performance in Le Petit Lieutenant, if you have not already. French Gigolo just made its On-Demand debut via most major cable companies. Check your TV reception-provider, go to IFC-on-Demand -- and bask in another sophisticated pleasure from France.

Czechs and Balances: Jan Hrebejk's BEAUTY IN TROUBLE is a Don't-Miss DVD

What is it about those Czechs? In particular a film-
maker such as Jan Hrebejk (below), who has directed some 19 movies, written or co-writ-
ten a few of these and is also a sometimes actor? Over the past decade, three of these films have been must-sees for TrustMovies -- Divided We Fall (Musíme si pomáhat from 2000, a

multi-award-winner also nominated for an Os-
car), Up and Down (Horem pádem from 2004 ) & BEAUTY IN TROUBLE (Kráska v nesnázích, made in 2006, released theatri-
cally in the U.S. in 2008, and now at last on DVD). Is it the best of the three? Maybe. In any case, it is so good as to be unmissable for anyone who enjoys the bracing complexities of life that foreign films so often supply.

What makes this movie -- as others from Hrebejk -- so wonderful is the filmmaker's keen understanding of the complexities of the human character as it confronts the compromises that must be made to survive and grow. How Hrebejk's people manage this -- in films that are as funny as they are dramatic and real -- is what makes this guy a great filmmaker.

Hrebejk places ensembles front and center in stories that bring disparate folk together. Beauty in Trouble offers up two families -- and the new family that has come from them -- then tosses in an unusual character who stirs the whole pot to terrific effect. This fellow named Richard is played with the expected charm and sophistication but also a truckload of strength by the fine actor Jirí Schmitzer (shown at right). He may seem saint-like initially, but don't let that fool you. He's wealthy, too, and has put that wealth to very good use -- as much for himself as for others.

Through no fault of his own, Richard comes into the lives of a husband and wife, played respectively by Roman Luknár (above, right) and Anna Geislerová (above, left) -- the later being the titular "Beauty." And is she ever. She's a terrific actress, too, easily able to bring us, via the help of Hrebejk's fluid direction and a fine screenplay by Petr Jarchovský into her thoughts and feelings so that we can't help but understand and empathize with some increasingly complicated situations.

These include moving in with mom and step-dad, above (which of course brings up the past and a lot of unresolved issues), and prison (shown below),

which leads to trying to raise a couple of kids on one's own...

a funeral...

a real estate deal gone south (the tricks of the trade in a country that's moved quickly from Communist dictatorship to extreme capitalism have rarely been exhibited so startlingly)...

and a Italian villa-cum-estate to die for.

And yet. Compromise is everywhere. So is surprise, beauty, sadness, immense humor and even fundamentalist religion in a formerly godless country -- together with a view of life both broad and mature enough to take in all of this.

Beauty in Trouble, though jam-packed with plot development, never rings false because each new wrinkle makes sense and is grounded so well by the characters involved. It's the rare film that leaves you elated by its quality yet chastened by the view of humanity that you've just witnessed -- and which you will immediately come to realize is that of you and me and everyone we know.

You can purchase Beauty in Trouble from Amazon and elsewhere, or rent it from Netflix (Blockbuster can't be bothered to carry this title) or, if you're lucky, some independent dealer near you who caters to smart, humanistic tastes.