The tenth in a series of made-for-TV movies based on stories from the Bible, this drama stars Louise Lombard as Esther, a common Jewish woman who rose to wealth and power when she captured the heart of the King of Persia. Eventually, Esther opted to use her influence to win freedom and a better life for her people. Esther also stars F. Murray Abraham as Mordecai, Jurgen Prochnow as Haman, Ornella Muti as Queen Vashti, and Thomas Kretschmann as King Ahasuerus. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide.

Un Couple ?patant (An Amazing Couple) is the second installment in the ambitious French-language trilogy directed by Belgian-born filmmaker Lucas Belvaux. Where the first film, Cavale (On the Run), was a film noir thriller, this sequel is a lighthearted romantic comedy in the style of a classic French farce. Schoolteacher Cecile Costes (Ornella Muti) is worried about her husband, Alain (Fran ois Morel). He's overly concerned with his physical health and well-being, so much so that he keeps his hospital appointments a secret from his wife. Thinking he's been having an affair, Cecile hires Pascal Manise (Gilbert Melki) to spy on him. Alain then starts to suspect Cecile of being unfaithful, even though he knows Pascal is married to her friend Agnes (Dominique Blanc). An Amazing Couple was following by the third installment in the trilogy, the melodrama Apr s la Vie (After Life). ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide.

Actress and filmmaker Asia Argento directed this faithful screen adaptation of the fictional J.T. Leroy's fictional memoir, which documents a boy's truly harrowing road to adulthood. Jeremiah (Jimmy Bennett) is the seven-year-old son of Sarah (Asia Argento), an unstable and unwed mother who abandoned her son and left him to be raised by foster parents. Jeremiah has come to love his guardians, and is devastated when Sarah arrives at their doorstep, demanding her child back. Threatening Jeremiah with torture if he tries to run away, Sarah introduces her young son to drugs and encourages her one-night-stand paramours to help discipline her son when she feels his behavior is inappropriate. Sarah marries a man named Emerson (Jeremy Renner), but abandons him shortly afterward; Emerson responds by molesting Jeremiah, and soon the child is left in the care of his grandparents (Peter Fonda and Ornella Muti), members of a fundamentalist Christian sect which emphasizes child discipline that's strict to the point of abus

This ambitious attempt to film a portion of Marcel Proust's epic novel {-Remembrance of Things Past} stars Jeremy Irons as Charles Swann, a Jewish intellectual who has managed to overcome growing anti-Semitism in 19th century France and travels in an elite social circle. But Swann has become obsessed with Odette (Ornella Muti), a courtesan who cares more for money than Swann's passion for her. In time they marry, but Swann soon realizes his desire for her is based purely on physical lust for someone with whom he has no rapport, or even much affection, and the relationship begins to erode the social acceptance Swann struggled to achieve. Meanwhile, the Baron de Charlus (Alain Delon) finds himself similarly attracted to a young man who does not share his desires. Un Amour de Swann was much praised for its production design and the cinematography of frequent Ingmar Bergman collaborator Sven Nykvist, though many felt director Volker Schlondorff failed to capture the narrative depth and complexity of Proust's nove