A Wonderful Spell

A Wonderful Spell

2004 · 110 min · ★ 6.3 · Drama

Set in the summer of 1942 during WWII, the film traces the trajectory of simple people thrown into extraordinary lives, revealing the heart-warming flame of hope and humanity that endures, even in times of war and dispair. As young Julien, his family and a group of friends traverse the French countryside after fleeing the institution they called home, Julien must deal with his father's extreme violence and his mother's rosy fantasies and once again form a family that society tries to forget.

Directed by Dominique Cabrera · Written by Antoine Montperrin

Your Rating

Where to Watch

Rent or Buy

Cast

Make it a double feature

2h 36m together

A Wonderful Spell

Rester là-bas

Both from Dominique Cabrera.

More from Dominique CabreraSee all →

Rester là-bas

Rester là-bas · 1992

MovieDocumentaryHistory

Algiers. From the port to the souks, passing through the Jardin d'Essai, Dominique Cabrera transports us to the land where she was born, on the other side of the Mediterranean "where the sea is saltier". If most of the pieds-noirs left Algeria in the summer of 1962, some -a minority- remained. By going to meet them, the director makes her own inner journey.

Un petit cas de conscience

Un petit cas de conscience · 2002

Un petit cas de conscience

Two lesbians are victims of a break-in. Together with their clan of friends, they undertake a wild investigation, with suspense and rigour, to arrive at the truth. Sensitivities are aroused around life choices, and political choices. Questions of morality comically embellished with words of abuse falling into drunkenness.

Ça ne peut pas continuer comme ça!

Ça ne peut pas continuer comme ça! · 2013

Ça ne peut pas continuer comme ça!

With the President of the Republic very ill, an advisor offers an unusual suggestion: hire a double to replace him during his convalescence. The lucky chosen one is a member of the Comédie-Française but he is also shy, unexciting and often consigned to the supporting role...But a seismic change is about to happen in the Republic.

Chronicle of an Ordinary Suburb

Chronicle of an Ordinary Suburb · 1992

Chronicle of an Ordinary Suburb

MovieDocumentary

On September 26, 1992, four towers in the Val Fourré neighborhood of Mantes-la-Jolie were destroyed. In the spring of 1991, Dominique Cabrera proposed to some of the former residents to retrace their steps. They go through their old dwellings evoking the memories of the past years. All the life of the housing estate resurfaces, convivial, and to say the least, happy.

L'air d'aimer

L'air d'aimer · 1986

Ici là-bas

Ici là-bas · 1988

MovieDocumentary

Here: France in 1987, there: Algeria in 1963. How can we accept this legacy? A film about memory through portraits of Dominique Cabrera's family. "Reflections on the feelings aroused in me by my Pied-Noir parents' experiences of the Algerian War."

Ceux qui nous restent (Chronique d'un cinéma en lutte)

Ceux qui nous restent (Chronique d'un cinéma en lutte) · 2019

Ceux qui nous restent (Chronique d'un cinéma en lutte)

MovieDocumentary

Une poste à la Courneuve

Une poste à la Courneuve · 1994

Une poste à la Courneuve

MovieDocumentary

A few days in the life of the postal workers and customers at La Courneuve.

Hi Mister Comolli

Hi Mister Comolli · 2023

Hi Mister Comolli

MovieDocumentary

A few months before he died, Jean-Louis Comolli meets up with Dominique Cabrera for some free conversations with Isabelle Le Corff. They talk about cinema, life, love, death and Chassagne-Montrachet wine. There is laughter and smiles. One is not really serious at the age of eighty.

Nadia and the Hippos

Nadia and the Hippos · 2000

Nadia and the Hippos

Single mother Nadia is surviving on welfare while transport strikes are paralyzing France in December 1995. While watching the news, she recognizes the father of her child among the strikers and decides to go and search for him. But she has nowhere to go. The film, shot almost entirely at night, carries documentary qualities, part of which is due to the appearances of actual railroad workers in several group scenes.

The Other Shore

The Other Shore · 1997

The Other Shore

This film deals with the aftermath of the Algerian war of liberation. Georges Montero, an Algerian-born Frenchman, manages an olive canning factory in Oran. He travels to Paris for a cataract operation. Marinette, his sister, and Belka, his friend and a recent immigrant, want him to return to France permanently. Friction develops between the two friends as Georges is pressured to sell his factory. Friendship developed between Georges and his surgeon, who as a French Arab has severed ties with his culture and country of origin.

Tomorrow and Again Tomorrow, Journal 1995

Tomorrow and Again Tomorrow, Journal 1995 · 1998

Tomorrow and Again Tomorrow, Journal 1995

MovieDocumentary

French filmmaker Dominique Cabrera made this documentary diary by videotaping for nine months during 1995, probing her own life as a single mother in a Paris suburb and capturing her depression, therapist, lover, and intake of food and Prozac

The Milk of Human Kindness

The Milk of Human Kindness · 2001

The Milk of Human Kindness

MovieDramaComedy

A woman, scared by motherhood and her new born baby, runs away from her home and family to find a shelter at her upstairs neighbour's place.

Corniche Kennedy

Corniche Kennedy · 2017

Corniche Kennedy

Corniche Kennedy. In the blue of the Mediterranean, at the foot of luxurious villas, the young kids of Marseille defy the laws of gravity. Marco, Mehdi, Franck, Mélissa, Hamza, Mamaa, Julie : girls and boys dive, take flight, take risks to experience life to the fullest. Suzanne devours them with her eyes from inside her chic villa. Their free bodies, their excess. She wants to be part of them. She will be part of them.

Belleville Tokyo

Belleville Tokyo · 2011

Belleville Tokyo

Un couple se dirige vers un train en partance pour Venise. Sur le quai, Julien annonce à Marie qu’il part en rejoindre une autre et s’en va, la laissant seule à Paris, enceinte. Bouleversée, Marie se refuse à être victime de cette situation. Elle trouve du réconfort dans son travail auprès de ses deux « cow-boys » de patrons, Jean-Jacques et Jean-Loup, qui dirigent un cinéma du quartier latin spécialisé dans les films classiques américains…

Mensch

MovieDocumentary

As death hovers, Dominique films precious moments of a great love story.

More Like This

Miss Meadows

Miss Meadows · 2014

Miss Meadows is a school teacher with impeccable manners and grace. However, underneath the candy-sweet exterior hides a ruthless gun-toting vigilante who takes it upon herself to right the wrongs in the world by whatever means necessary. For Miss Meadows, bad behavior is simply unforgivable.

My Life Without Me

My Life Without Me · 2003

My Life Without Me

MovieDramaRomance

A fatally ill mother with only two months to live creates a list of things she wants to do before she dies without telling her family of her illness.

Italian for Beginners

Italian for Beginners · 2000

Italian for Beginners

MovieComedyDrama

Several lonely hearts in a semi-provincial suburb of a town in Denmark use a beginner's course in Italian as the platform to meet the romance of their lives. The film, which unspools the connections and family drama shared between the students, complies with several aesthetic principles of Dogme 95 movement.

Fire

MovieDramaRomance

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.

Monsoon Wedding

Monsoon Wedding · 2001

Monsoon Wedding

MovieComedyDrama

A stressed father, a bride-to-be with a secret, a smitten event planner, and relatives from around the world create much ado about the preparations for an arranged marriage in India.

Cléo from 5 to 7

Cléo from 5 to 7 · 1962

Cléo from 5 to 7

Agnès Varda eloquently captures Paris in the sixties with this real-time portrait of a singer set adrift in the city as she awaits test results of a biopsy. A chronicle of the minutes of one woman’s life, Cléo from 5 to 7 is a spirited mix of vivid vérité and melodrama, featuring a score by Michel Legrand and cameos by Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina.

Monster

Monster · 2003

MovieCrimeDrama

In 1989, prostitute Aileen Wuornos befriends and enters a relationship with a young woman named Selby. Determined to straighten out her life, Aileen's limited education lands her back on the corner. She's raped by a trick, who she kills. A string of murder and robbery follows that ultimately leads Aileen to becoming America's first female serial killer.

Wingwomen

Wingwomen · 2023

MovieActionComedy

Tired of life on the run, a pro thief decides to retire — but not before one easy last job with her partner in crime and a feisty new getaway driver.

The Last Mistress

The Last Mistress · 2007

The Last Mistress

MovieDramaRomance

Secrets, rumors and betrayals surround the upcoming marriage between a young dissolute man and virtuous woman of the French aristocracy.

Anatomy of Hell

Anatomy of Hell · 2004

Anatomy of Hell

A woman employs a gay man to spend four nights at her house to watch her when she's "unwatchable".

The Mourning Forest

The Mourning Forest · 2007

The Mourning Forest

A young woman working at a retirement home takes an elderly man living there on an excursion into the countryside, but the two wind up stranded in the titular forest.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter