The Proprietor Reviews

The sort of picture that gives art-house movies -- and French actresses of a certain age -- a bad name. French legend Jeanne Moreau stars as a Marguerite Duras-style novelist in this pretentious confection directed by Ismail Merchant, better known as the producing half of art-movie duo Merchant/Ivory. Moreau is Adrienne Mark, whose racy youthful memoir Je m'appelle France (Call Me French) was made into a groundbreaking New Wave movie a la HIROSHIMA, MON AMOUR, then remade in the US, which is presumably why she can afford to live in New York in high style. Vulgar producer Virginia Kelly (Sean Young) wants the rights to the novel for another go-round, but Mark returns to France to provoke literary controversy and brood about her mother's murder by the Nazis.