Laurence Côte

Scénarios sur la drogue

A young woman convenes with her extended family in a provincial village where her cousin, in a coma, is hospitalized after attempting suicide.

While on a joyride with the headlights turned off, two men hit and kill another man carrying a satchel full of money. The two men decide to take the money and throw the body into a pond and bury the money in a coal hill. The next morning the police discover the body of a kidnapped 12-year blind girl, Melody, in a warehouse near the site of the hit-and-run. They determine that the kidnapper saw the girl's father bringing the ransom to him and also witnessed the hit-and-run and the men stealing the ransom.

30 ans, l'âge des responsabilités... Martin s'apprête à partir en vacances avec sa femme Ariane et sa fille Cerise, 4 mois... C'est alors qu'il croise Constance, son ex, son amour de jeunesse, elle-même flanquée de deux marmots. C'est décidé : on passera quelques jours ensemble, au soleil, dans la maison familiale. Comme au bon vieux temps.

The film will tell what happens to a group of characters, precisely between July 14 and August 15, 1994 in Paris. It will tell the story of three young ladies, Louise, Ninon, Ida, in the summer of 1994, their adventures in the big city. On the streets, in the gardens, in ballrooms and in libraries and lofts, deserted at the time of holidays and summer heat, Louis, Ninon and Ida proceed on mysterious paths.

Antoni Farrazzi, a seasonal worker in the maintenance of the ski lifts, is called to the resort of Nivance, run by a certain Matthias, who supports the reputation of the resort with a subterfuge. Antoni is going to meet Josefa, a beautiful and amnesiac woman who lives with Matthias and whom he once knew as a child.

The son of an editor discovers that one of his father's writers is a former criminal from the Eastern bloc.

Sauveur (Savior) needs someone to save him, and so he begins to look for his father, a fast- talking ladies' man. The son becomes attached to his misanthropic father, and soon a crippled woman photographer and a gigolo with a killer smile also enter the scene, and the situation becomes more and more impossible.

In the middle of the night, someone brings Ivan's body home to his wife and his young son. Flashbacks reveal the relationships among Ivan and his brother Alex, a cop with a cleanliness fetish; siblings Juliette and Jimmy, Ivan's partners in a seedy nightclub; the love triangle of Alex, Juliette, and Marie, a professor of philosophy; and of Alex and his nephew, Ivan's dour, stoic son. Ivan's death changes every relationship.

Paris, October 1948. Nino, Gilles, Donald, Barbara and their friends are a new breed of spectators. They discover the cinema as art, they are moviegoers. They will try to realize their grand project: to found a film club. "My film first wants to be a testimony of young people who have lived for a passion. Cinema"

Anna, Joyce, Claude and Lucia are all students under the tutelage of Constance Dumas, a renowned film instructor. Lucia moves in with the other girls. Soon after, she is attacked on the street outside her home and saved by a mysterious stranger.

Esther is a want-to-be author, trying to get her first novel published . She is about to get married to David, a young doctor. She feels quite unconfortable between her mom harassing her with the wedding preparation, her sister urging her to think twice before, her fiancé who falls for her best friend and a clairvoyant who tells her she will meet another man pretty soon. When she runs into Adam, a childhood friend, something clicks in her. She decides to reinvent her life. It is now time for her to make a real choice

Eric Renard is a drug addict torn between drugs and his dream of becoming a writer. After a failed robbery, he is sent to a rehabilitation center for delinquents in the countryside where he meets Kamel who will help him get off drugs.

Suzy, a beautiful woman, is coming back to Paris to attend the funeral of her lover, a married man. Cecile, his wife, is holding Suzy responsible for his suicide. By finding Suzy in Paris, Cecile is trying to seek the truth by playing a psychological game on her.

Godard blends elements of literature, cinema and other artistic medias from different historical periods in order to make a stance on how words can be subverted and manipulated to many different contexts, sometimes bearing a similar significance to the original material or even creating an alternate context.

Olivier, Rémi and Pascale are three friends who have known each other since childhood. As they approach middle age, they each experience something of a crisis in their lives. Olivier, a doctor before becoming wheelchair bound, faces a bleak future after the break up of two relationships. The fact that Rémi and his wife Estelle are unable to have children puts an increasing strain on their marriage. And Pascale, a filmmaker, is on the point of leaving her husband to pursue an affair with an opportunistic career politician.

In this French-Portuguese film -- directed by Jacques Rivette's screenplay collaborator Christine Laurent -- French vocalist Laure Constant (Laurence Cote) goes to Montevideo, Uruguay, to see her old lover Colossus (Jose Olivera), but when he's a no-show, she becomes involved with several other men, while listening to advice from some older French women who are costume designers. Shown at the 1997 Locarno Film Festival.

1956, a handful of families survive in makeshift shelters in appalling poverty and daily violence. A man, Joseph Wresinski , a priest, himself born into great poverty, decides to settle among those he calls "his people". Among these families, that of Jacques. His life will be transformed by his meeting with Father Joseph. His own, but also that of the people who will join the fight of this revolutionary priest. A fight against assistance and charity which, he says, “push the poor into indignity

The mid-life crisis of a middle-aged, depressive college professor/author provides the center of this French character study. Abel Vichac has really let himself go. Though a successful writer, and supposedly working on a book about 'regret,' he is barely functioning. He can't sleep at night. During the day he is easily distracted, irresponsible and moody. He also ignores his patient live-in lover Aliette who has stuck by him for 10 years. As he mopes through another day, he gets into several awkward occasions. One of his students, Florence tells him off in a café. A young woman, Catherine hears this and afterward introduces herself as a fan. Later he decides to find her address and visit her apartment. There Abel meets Catherine's roommate Aurore and the former's jealous boyfriend Bruno for a tense scene. He is returning home when Abel encounters his brother's former lover Olga and this creates more awkwardness.

Lola, a young, energetic and cheerful student lives in Paris. She’s preparing to sit her law thesis, and works part-time at Chloroville, “Our green fingers look after your interior plants”. She has split up with Simon, a lawyer in his thirties who is always busy defending “the trial of his life”. Their stormy relationship held Lola back, and although they’ll love each other forever, it won’t be on an everyday basis.

Composed entirely of literary quotations from many different sources and from several historical periods, the loose narrative concerns a drifter found by a rich woman who soon falls in love with him. A drowning accident takes place and the drifter dies, but some time later he reappears in the woman’s life looking for a job. Or could it be the man’s twin brother?

The story of boys who were condemned to the severe reformatory regime in a French penal ‘colony’. It’s run by a former prison warden, based on ‘rehabilitattion’ trough manual labor and strict discipline. Young Reynard, a novice to crime and juvenile detention, meets horrible hardened villains and sadistic staff as well as people with some heart among fellow inmates and their supposed educators.

When Professor Thibaud, a great bone specialist, asks Joëlle, a simple young girl, to donate her bone marrow in view of a transplant, she agrees without hesitation. Despite the pain and the risks, she only thinks of saving a human life. Just one condition is imposed : the giver is not allowed to meet the transplanted in any case. However it is more than she can take, so Joëlle sifts through the medical network until she meets Arnaud. The more she advances, the more she becomes attached to her transplanted, to the point where she believes that her marrow influences his dreams and desires. Ambiguity will reign throughout this love comedy.

Despite being busy with his profession of soldiery, Brantome manages to find much more time for amorous dalliances with the ladies of the 16th-century French court than for battles. Unfortunately for him, his true love, Victoire, is beyond his reach most of the time. He more than compensates for this in the arms of others.

Karl Escher, the son of a prominent banker, was accused of embezzlement and forgery at the bank and went to prison for three years. After his release, he seeks revenge against his brother Franz, whom he believes to be the real culprit.

With the dangerous smoothness of a tiger stalking his prey, Peter has circled the au pair Michèle. She quickly succumbs to his fascinating charisma and experiences for the first time a hitherto unknown, tender security. "I'll kill you," says Peter, as gently as cold-bloodedly. A macabre joke or a serious warning?

Lucien is a high school student lost in a meaningless adolescence. One day, he comes across a book by Nietzsche. This literary encounter is an absolute love at first sight, which leads to their meeting - in real life. The philosopher will then help Lucien to open himself to the girl he has a crush on.

In a barren, arranged marriage to an amateur swami who seeks enlightenment through celibacy, Radha's life takes an irresistible turn when her beautiful young sister-in-law seeks to free herself from the confines of her own loveless marriage.

Hippolyte, the chef at the small Paris restaurant of the title, is losing his sense of smell - and without that, you can’t cook. Not in France. The restaurant has to close. Guests and customers of the ailing master chef gather for one last fabulous meal. Between courses, personal conflicts are explored and flashbacks flesh out incidents from the lives of the restaurant owners.

La vie est dure, nous aussi is a sentimental comedy with a protagonist who is extremely discreet, extremely solitary and extremely egotistical. Charles, a native of Marseilles, is now living in Paris, and he has to take care of the dog of a girlfriend. He is also an insomniac and a hypochondriac. But he has one virtue: he loves to listen to people. Walking the dog opens up new territories for Charles who is discovering something new each day. One day a girl crosses his path, and he immediately recognizes her as the love of his life. There is one problem. How is he going to find her?

The quiet agony of a mother whose daughter grows up to pursue her own life is chronicled in this realistically presented French drama. The Circuit Carole of the title refers to a motorbike racetrack. Jeanne and her 20-year old daughter Marie share a small apartment in a working-class Parisian neighborhood; the two live harmoniously, but the daughter is restless and anxious to set out on her own. Marie then takes a job in a northern suburb and their lives are forever changed. The racetrack is near her work; Marie is enthralled by the racers and their fast machines. Along with her new boyfriend, a racer, Marie begins riding herself. She then moves out of her mother's flat, leaving Jeanne bereft of companionship and a purpose in her life. Her silent, deeply internalized grief eventually drives her completely mad.

Cheyenne, a journalist, decides to leave Paris after being laid off and to settle down in the middle of nowhere, far from the society she hates. The trouble is that she leaves Sonia, her true love, behind. The latter, a teacher who loves her job, refuses to give up everything - including her comfort - to follow her. Sonia makes all the efforts in the world to forget Cheyenne, whether in the arms of Pierre, a charming anarchist, or in those of Béatrice, a gay woman who soon proves perverse and dangerous, only to realize that her heart belongs to Cheyenne and nobody else.

Why did Ariane Fisher, a young woman in her thirties, come to the hospital to die without telling anyone? To whom should this disappearance be reported? This is what Alice, the night nurse, and Prudence, the social worker, will try to find in the bag containing the few personal belongings brought by Ariane.

Rolando Colla made his directorial debut with this Swiss-French-Italian period drama about a Breton woman who disguises herself as a man to join a ship's crew during the 18th century. Rebellious 24-year-old Anne Bruneau is abandoned at the altar by her fiancé Yann. Unaware that Yann was drunk and fell down a well, Anne reacts to his absence by cutting her hair, dressing like a man, and signing on with a ship captained by a dwarf. When Yann learns what happened, he begins running south to Marseilles to rejoin her. Aboard the ship, Anne's disguise is discovered by the captain and the ship's doctor. With an Arab, she jumps ship, hiding with hookers in Marseilles while still maintaining her disguise.

This time, Felix is risking a lot. The director summoned his mother and threatened to deny him the access to the establishment. But what could Felix have done? And what kind of establishment is it exactly?

Joëlle, a simple and energetic young woman, works as a hairdresser for Mrs. Delbarre. When Professor Thibaud, a great bone specialist, asks her to donate her bone marrow for a transplant, on the condition that she does not seek to know the recipient, she accepts without hesitation. But the temptation is too strong and she investigates in order to discover the person who benefited from her generous gesture. It is a handsome young man with whom she immediately falls in love.

An unnamed man narrates the downward trajectory of his life from beyond the grave, from delinquency to the string of fateful decisions and foolhardy moves that tied him inextricably to the opiate that was the elusive love of his life.

Simone Veil's life story through the pivotal events of Twentieth Century. Her childhood, her political battles, her tragedies. An intimate and epic portrait of an extraordinary woman who eminently challenged and transformed her era defending a humanist message still keenly relevant today.

Odile, a textile worker, and her colleagues are told to evaluate newly-arrived young Tunisian women over a span of four days. Although there is no good solution, Odile will try to make the right choice.

When Lili, 26 years old, poor, single mother of three, is wrongly accused of abuse and the social services take away her children, she collapses. But this is without counting on the luminous meeting of other women. With them, Lili fights to rebuild her family.

Sixteen-year-old Logan is an adolescent uncomfortable in his own skin. Only his science fiction dreams of a better life on Mars draw him away from his ordinary life, which is as equally difficult at home or at school, where he's only seen as an aggressive loser. One evening, he receives a visit from a mysterious man who insists that he has come from the future and that he is also Logan, but forty years older. He then asks the younger Logan to carry out a mission as unexpected as it is important: to save humanity.

A four-story omnibus depicting different Czech slices-of-life from the titular city.

André Masson, an auctioneer at the famous Scottie’s auction house, receives a letter one day stating that a painting by Egon Schiele has been discovered in Mulhouse at the home of a young worker. Very skeptical, he makes the trip and has to face the truth: the painting is authentic, a masterpiece gone missing since 1939, confiscated by the Nazis. André sees this discovery as the pinnacle of his career, but also the beginning of a struggle that could jeopardize it. Fortunately, he will be assisted by his ex-wife and colleague Bertina, and by his eccentric intern Aurore.

Sylvie, a Belgian girl living in London, arrives at her local police station. She starts to tell how she was picked up in a nightclub by the handsome Ajay, and the listening DC Judd realises he is onto a most unusual case

When Blanche meets Grégoire, she thinks she has found the one. The ties that bind them grow quickly, and a passionate affair ensues. Together, they relocate. For Blanche, far from her family, from her twin sister, Rose, a new life begins. But little by little, she finds herself caught in the grip of a deeply possessive and dangerous man.

An elliptical, poetic film about an American woman sportswriter who wanders around Paris remembering traumatic experiences in her life.

Paul Barral, mayor of a small mountain town at the foot of Mont-Blanc, is fighting to maintain business and protect the school from an announced closure. Not without determination, the Mayor may have found the solution.

Alex, 43, is not a man of many responsibilities. He works as a tow truck driver in the car repair garage run with an iron fist by his mother Antoinette. She hopes he will someday take over the business, but Alex manages to consistently prove that he’s not up to the task. One day, he assists a woman whose car broke down and ends up spending the night at her place. The next morning, she is nowhere to be found, and Alex discovers he is alone... with three kids!

Pierre does his best to successfully complete the chaotic construction site for which he is responsible. Bodies are exhausted by untenable deadlines. However, the work must continue, unabated. And without accidents.

French adaptations of the stories by Agatha Christie.

Nos enfants chéris

Les Invisibles