Isabelle Sadoyan

The Adolescent

Louise, la femme du maire

In the summer of 1939, 13-year-old Marie goes with her parents to visit her grandparents in a small town near Avignon. Marie discovers her femininity and falls for a young Jewish doctor, but he prefers Eva, Marie's mother.

Three Colors: Blue

Maid

The wife of a famous composer survives a car accident that kills her husband and daughter. Now alone, she shakes off her old identity and explores her newfound freedom but finds that she is unbreakably bound to other humans, including her husband’s mistress, whose existence she never suspected.

Mr. Klein

Examined Woman

Paris, France, 1942, during the Nazi occupation. Robert Klein, a successful art dealer who benefits from the misfortunes of those who are ruthlessly persecuted, discovers by chance that there is another Robert Klein, apparently a Jewish man; someone with whom he could be mistakenly identified, something dangerous in such harsh times.

That Obscure Object of Desire

Jadiner

After dumping a bucket of water on a beautiful young woman from the window of a train car, wealthy Frenchman Mathieu, regales his fellow passengers with the story of the dysfunctional relationship between himself and the young woman in question, a fiery 19-year-old flamenco dancer named Conchita. What follows is a tale of cruelty, depravity and lies -- the very building blocks of love.

Subway

La Femme du Préfet

Fred, a raffish safe blower, takes refuge in the Paris Metro after being chased by the henchmen of a shady businessman from whom he has just stolen some documents. While hiding out in the back rooms and conduits of the Metro, Fred encounters a subterranean society of eccentric characters and petty criminals.

The Eighth Day

Georges' Mother

Georges has Down syndrome, living at a mental-institution, Harry is a busy businessman, giving lectures for young aspiring salesmen. He is successful in his business life, but his social life is a disaster since his wife left him and took their two children with her. This weekend his children came by train to meet him, but Harry, working as always, forgot to pick them up. Neither his wife or his children want to see him again and he is driving around on the country roads, anguished and angry. He almost runs over Georges, on the run from the institution since everybody else went home with their parents except him, whose mother is dead. Harry tries to get rid of Georges but he won't leave his new friend. Eventually a special friendship forms between the two of them, a friendship which makes Harry a different person.

Merette

Mme Magnoux

Merette is a pretty child, living within a patrician, strictly Calvinist family in the Switzerland of the 19th century. She is happy, until her mother dies, and Merette blames God, and gives up her religion. Her family turns against her, the villagers reject her, and her priest drives her into isolation.

The Things of Life

The Nurse

The mind of Pierre Bérard, a successful middle-aged architect, is torn between his unstable present with Hélène, his younger lover, and his happy memories of the past with Catherine, his ex-wife; but his true destiny awaits him at a crossroads on his way to Rennes…

The Lady Banker

Sister Hermance

Ambitious Emma Eckhert successfully makes her way into a world previously reserved for men: that of high finance. She quickly becomes popular with small savers, but leads a scandalous life that will cost her.

Elles et moi

Madame Bonel

January 1939. The fall of Barcelona seals the defeat of the Spanish Republicans. Five hundred thousand of them choose exile. Upon arriving in France, the men are disarmed and interned in camps. As for the families, the administration distributes them among makeshift centers, several of which are in Ardèche. Elles et moi chooses to follow the fate of the Esteva family during these terrible months and the five years of war that follow. Lluis, the father, lives in hope of reconquest. Pilar, his courageous and energetic wife, feels that this new country will become her home for a long time to come. She thus leads her two children, Isabel and Ignacio, into this new life...

Mother

Anna

Henri Verneuil was born Achod Malakian of Armenian parentage on October 15, 1920, in Rodosto, Turkey, and his family fled to France and settled in Marseilles when he was a young child. He later recounted his childhood experience in the novel Mayrig, which he dedicated to his mother and made into this 1991 film with the same name.

Summer Hours

Eloïse

After the death of a septuagenarian woman, her three children deliberate over what to do with her estate.

The Return of Martin Guerre

Catherine Boëre

Village of Artigat, southern France, summer 1542, during the reign of Francis I. Martin Guerre and Bertrande de Rols marry. A few years later, accused of having committed a robbery, Martin suddenly disappears. When, almost a decade later, a man arrives in Artigat claiming to be Martin, the Guerre family recognizes him as such; but doubts soon arise about his true identity.

Ismael's Ghosts

Le fantôme de Rose

Just as the disheveled and alcoholic filmmaker Ismaël embarks on a difficult new film project, his life is sent into a tailspin. His wife Carlotta, presumed dead for 20 years, come crashing back into his life creating chaos in his work and his current romantic relationship with the starry-eyed astronomer Sylvia.

588 rue Paradis

Anna

A successful playwright reflects on his journey from his Armenian roots to adapting in France, forty years after his family's move to Marseilles. He now goes by a new name to fit in better with French society.

Aram

Tante Anouche

Aram, an ex-soldier from the Armenian cause, has come to France to close an arms deal under secret service surveillance. Held responsible and banished by his faher for his brother's injuries in a terrorist ttack, he's also come to seek revenge for the drama that has marked his family and his life.

The Children of the Marshland

The film is set in Marais, a quiet region along the banks of Loire river in 1918. Riton is afflicted with a bad-tempered wife and three unruly children. Garris lives alone with his recollections of World War I trenches. Their daily life consists of seasonal work and visits from their two pals: Tane, the local train conductor and Amédée, a dreamer and voracious reader of classics.

House of Time

Madame Bénichou

Robert d'Eglantine invites his friends to spend a few days in an old country house where he proposes them to embark on a daring adventure with a surprising destination.

A Man and a Woman: 20 Years Later

La boulangère

Jean-Louis and Anne have had their fling and separated. Now 20 years have passed. He is still dating various women. She is now a big-time director whose most recent film was a very expensive bomb. She comes up with the idea of making a romance based upon her fling with Jean-Louis. She contacts him to gain his permission. Jean-Louis is still in racing and goes away for a desert rally while she begins filming. She finds the mood of their romance difficult to recapture in her film.

A Butterfly Kiss

la cliente du salon de coiffure

Billie and Louis have the good fortune of loving each other passionately and of having a family. But then one day terrible news turns their existence and that of their friends' upside down. Marie, a famous actress who is Billie's friend and confidant, redoubles her determination to give life, while Alice, her nurse, fighting for freedom, maintains that life 'is here and now and in the moment.' A film about love, hope, and the conviction that the force of life, despite the toughest tests, will always gain the upper hand.