Ludivine Sagnier

In the new film "Love Crime," actress Ludivine Sagnier plays a meek junior financial executive steamrollered by a powerful superior (Kristin Scott Thomas) who frequently takes credit for her ideas. The two find themselves locked in an escalating feud fueled by ambition, jealousy and something resembling desire. But when Sagnier appeared this summer at a Los Angeles Film Festival screening of the movie, which arrives on VOD and in Los Angeles theaters next week, she coyly told the audience, "No matter what you see, I'm innocent.

In the new film "Love Crime," actress Ludivine Sagnier plays a meek junior financial executive steamrollered by a powerful superior (Kristin Scott Thomas) who frequently takes credit for her ideas. The two find themselves locked in an escalating feud fueled by ambition, jealousy and something resembling desire. But when Sagnier appeared this summer at a Los Angeles Film Festival screening of the movie, which arrives on VOD and in Los Angeles theaters next week, she coyly told the audience, "No matter what you see, I'm innocent.

One silent look from the French actress Ludivine Sagnier can tilt a cinematic world on its axis. In Claude Chabrol's "A Girl Cut in Two," in theaters today, Sagnier plays Gabrielle, a TV weather girl in love with a married novelist (Francois Berleand). As a birthday treat, this jaded Lothario, twice her age, ushers her upstairs at his gentleman's club, where she's to pleasure his friends. Vaguely aware of his plan, and self-destructively complicit, Gabrielle downs her drink as realization dawns on her face.

That Nazi evil was so pervasive and widespread has yielded, over the decades, a steady stream of splendid films illuminating the myriad aspects of the Holocaust and, in turn, the equally myriad facets of human nature. Adapted by the veteran French director Claude Miller from Philippe Grimbert's autobiographical novel, "A Secret" is one of the finest. A complex, subtle telling of how a French Jewish teenager, Francois (Quentin Dubuis), in 1955 learns how his parents, Hannah (Ludivine Sagnier)

That Nazi evil was so pervasive and widespread has yielded, over the decades, a steady stream of splendid films illuminating the myriad aspects of the Holocaust and, in turn, the equally myriad facets of human nature. Adapted by the veteran French director Claude Miller from Philippe Grimbert's autobiographical novel, "A Secret" is one of the finest. A complex, subtle telling of how a French Jewish teenager, Francois (Quentin Dubuis), in 1955 learns how his parents, Hannah (Ludivine Sagnier)

It can be strange, meeting for the first time someone you have just recently seen naked. Such is the case with the 24-year-old French actress Ludivine Sagnier. As a troubled, tempestuous girl in "Swimming Pool," prone to sunbathing topless and having lusty nighttime encounters with strangers, her character is like a fantasy-league version of French women.

Based on an autobiographical novel by Latif Yahia, an army lieutenant who was forced to become a body double for Saddam Hussein's notoriously decadent son Uday, "The Devil's Double" strives to be an absorbing and suspenseful adventure. Despite numerous pluses — Lee Tamahori's vigorous direction, handsome cinematography, outstanding production design, an impressive dual performance by Dominic Cooper as Uday and Latif — the film is more wearying than entertaining. That's because as a character, Uday is not intriguing, and Michael Thomas' script places the emphasis on him when Latif has by far the more interesting story, much of it not covered in the film.

There have been many attempts to bring Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's seminal drama "The Seagull" to the screen. The results have been decidedly mixed. Sidney Lumet's 1968 feature failed to capture the Chekhov magic despite a first-rate cast headed by Vanessa Redgrave and James Mason. Slightly more effective was PBS' 1975 version starring a young Frank Langella and Blythe Danner. Now the French are having their way with the classic tale.

A tiptop theatrical production of "Tartuffe," "The Misanthrope" or another great Molière comedy offers audiences a banquet of hypocrites, poseurs and passionate, often obsessed characters whom Cupid -- or social ambition -- has rendered nearly insane enough to forget their rhymed couplets. A film portrait of the French dramatist, therefore, requires at least some of the fire and ice you'd find in an ideal Molière staging. And "some" is what you get here.

For the beguiling and bittersweet "Love Songs," French writer-director Christophe Honore has imaginatively strung together the plaintive music and lyrics of 13 Alex Beaupain tunes, some of them already extant, others written specifically for the film. So well integrated are the songs, which enrich the story and its characters immeasurably, that dialogue flows into them with an easy naturalness.

One silent look from the French actress Ludivine Sagnier can tilt a cinematic world on its axis. In Claude Chabrol's "A Girl Cut in Two," in theaters today, Sagnier plays Gabrielle, a TV weather girl in love with a married novelist (Francois Berleand). As a birthday treat, this jaded Lothario, twice her age, ushers her upstairs at his gentleman's club, where she's to pleasure his friends. Vaguely aware of his plan, and self-destructively complicit, Gabrielle downs her drink as realization dawns on her face.

It can be strange, meeting for the first time someone you have just recently seen naked. Such is the case with the 24-year-old French actress Ludivine Sagnier. As a troubled, tempestuous girl in "Swimming Pool," prone to sunbathing topless and having lusty nighttime encounters with strangers, her character is like a fantasy-league version of French women.

Whenever Charlotte Rampling narrows her sly cat eyes in a movie, it's always a surprise that anyone walks away unscathed. Famous for her haughty cheekbones and a body that directors love to film unclothed, the British actress has built a screen persona playing intimidating, outwardly unattainable women.

For "8 Women," the young director Francois Ozon has congregated some of the greatest actresses in French cinema--but having gotten his women, like too many men, he doesn't know what to do with them. A summit of icons and heartbreaking beauty, the cast of "8 Women" includes Danielle Darrieux, Catherine Deneuve, Fanny Ardant, Isabelle Huppert, Emmanuelle Beart and Virginie Ledoyen, who have worked with some of their country's finest directors in some of their most memorable films.