Jean-Pierre Darroussin

Jean-Pierre Darroussin

Birth : 1953-12-04, Courbevoie, Hauts-de-Seine, France

History

Jean-Pierre Darroussin is a French film actor. He was born in Courbevoie, France on December 4, 1953. His films include the 2004 thriller Red Lights. Description above from the Wikipedia article Jean-Pierre Darroussin,licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Profile

Jean-Pierre Darroussin

Movies

And the Party Goes On
Henri
In Marseille, Rosa, 60, dedicated her life to family and politics with the same sense of duty. Everyone considers her unwavering, until the day she falls in love with Henri. For the first time, Rosa is afraid to commit. Between the pressure of his family, politics and a desire to indulge in her feelings, the conflict is difficult to sustain.
All Your Faces
Restorative justice programs offer a safe space for dialogue between offenders and victims - supported by professionals and volunteers. Among the participants are Chloé, a victim of sexual assault; Grégoire, Nawelle, and Sabine, victims of burglary and snatching; while Nassim, Issa, and Thomas are offenders, convicted of violent robberies. In this emotional and difficult journey, they must overcome resentment to find solace and forgiveness. And perhaps, at the end of the road, some of them might even find healing.
The Grand Restaurant IV
For this new year, Pierre, the director of the Grand Restaurant is thinking big to try to get the famous star from the famous Michalon guide! And for that, he settles at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. Pierre faces an unscrupulous culinary critic, who will offer him a dubious deal: to dismiss his historic chef in exchange for this famous star. Will the manager of the Grand Restaurant accept?
School Society
Daniel
Virginie Thévenot, a somewhat special math teacher, takes advantage of a general strike in a college to try an extraordinary experiment with a small group of students. She takes a bet: let them do what they want... A spark that will ignite the spirits of teenagers, cause a small revolution within the college, and turn their lives upside down.
Rumba Therapy
Gilles
Tony is a macho middle-aged school bus driver in the provinces with no friends or relations. A sudden heart attack throws him into a tailspin. Tony's convinced he's going to die. When his cardiologist warns him : We all need others. Alone, we're nothing. Tony decides to reconnect with the daughter he abandoned twenty years earlier, when she was just a baby. Still a coward, he's unable to screw up the courage to actually confront her directly. So he decides to sign up for a dance class she's teaching in Paris. Incognito, of course. To get to know her gradually… in a desperate attempt to give some meaning to his empty life. In the process, he has more than a few dance steps to learn!
Little Nicholas' Treasure
Director
In the peaceful world of Little Nicholas, there is Daddy, Mommy, the school, but above all, his band of friends. They are called The Invincibles, but above all they are inseparable. At least they think so. But when Dad gets a promotion and announces that the family is moving to the south of France, Nicolas' world falls apart. How can he imagine life without his best friends?
The Grand Restaurant III
Jean-Jacques
He had opened his Great Restaurant twice, in 2010 and 2011, as part of an entertainment broadcast on France 2. Pierre Palmade “reopens it after work” in the form of a fiction offered by M6. Exit the brewery. The artist has chosen to shoot his film at the Froufrou, the restaurant at the Théâtre Édouard-VII, in Paris, a chic establishment with rococo decor, more solemn and therefore more appropriate to important moments in life, to his big announcements that make the subject of a series of sketches. They are interpreted by a cast of stars just as prestigious as that of his comrade Muriel Robin a few weeks ago in I Love you coiffure , on TF1. As a common thread, Pierre Palmade in the role of the host busy satisfying his customers, while ensuring that his mother (Marthe Villalonga), his competitor (Florence Foresti) and her cook husband (Jean Leduc) do not transform the evening in disaster.
Home Front
Rabut
Burgundy, France. Solange's 60th birthday celebrations are violently interrupted by her estranged brother, Bernard. His outburst will reawaken painful memories and reveal untold stories of the Algerian War.
Monsieur Deligny, vagabond efficace
Narrator
Famous educator Fernand Deligny tries to find ways to communicate beyond language with troubled and autistic children in his care.
Gloria Mundi
Richard Benar
Daniel leaves prison. He returns to Marseilles where Mathilda, his daughter, has just given birth. Nicolas, her spouse, a self-employed driver, is exhausted while Mathilda is a sales assistant on a trial basis. But, one night, Nicolas is assaulted by taxi drivers determined to reduce unfair competition.
The Dazzled
Le Berger
Camille, is the eldest of a large family. One day, her parents enter a religious community which gradually, regimentation becomes sectarian and Camille will have to fight to assert her freedom and save her brothers and sisters.
Chacun pour tous
Martin
In order to participate with medal options in the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games, the national coach of France decides to form a basketball team composed mostly of fake mentally retarded. Once in Australia, the fraudsters must fake their disability by living with the other athletes in the Olympic village or by attending the media in the post-match press conference.
Promise at Dawn
Zaremba
From his childhood in Poland to his adolescence in Nice to his years as a student in Paris and his tough training as a pilot during World War II, this tragi-comedy tells the romantic story of Romain Gary, one of the most famous French novelists and sole writer to have won the Goncourt Prize for French literature two times.
The House by the Sea
Joseph
By a little bay near Marseille lies a picturesque villa owned by an old man. His three children have gathered by his side for his last days. It’s time for them to weigh up what they have inherited of their father’s ideals and the community spirit he created in this magical place. The arrival, at a nearby cove, of a group of boat people will throw these moments of reflection into turmoil.
La loi de Julien - Le bon fils
Maître Julien Meunier
A Woman's Life
Le baron Simon-Jacques Le Perthuis des Vauds
Normandy, 1819. Jeanne is a young woman full of childish dreams and innocence when she returns home after finishing her schooling in a convent. She marries a local Viscount, Julien de Lamare, who soon reveals himself to be a miserly and unfaithful man. Little by little Jeanne’s illusions are stripped away.
La Mort d'Auguste
Antoine Mature
Heat Wave
Daniel Huot-Marchand
In a small village of the South of France, life is made difficult by a sweltering heat wave and its corollary, a worrisome lack of water. Everyone is under great pressure, especially the farmers whose fields are not irrigated. Which is the reason why the residents are less and less well-disposed toward one of them, Joseph, a mentally retarded young man whose never-ending antics are becoming, in such fraught context, something of an intolerable inconvenience. The mayor tries desperately to calm things down but nothing helps...
Get Well Soon
Hervé Laurent
After an accident, Pierre, a sixty years old grumpy man, ends up stuck on an hospital bed with a cast. While Pierre dreams of silence and solitude with his strong character, the whole world seems to invite himself to his hospital bed. Powerless, he has to support the daily visits of doctors,nurse and hospital staff then his closes including his brother Herve. Visits after visits, funny or touching, Pierre starts to reconsider some people and reexamine his environment. And after all, his stay becomes a second chance ...
Ariane's Thread
le chauffeur de taxi / Le metteur en scène
Ariane is having her birthday party but no one comes. She decides to leave at the seaside and take part with her life that disappointed her.
Paris Follies
Xavier Lecanu
Long married 50-somethings Brigitte and Xavier are prize cattle breeders in regional France. Life is good, but the departure of their children from home has thrown Brigitte’s world into flux, as she finds herself locked into routine. She keeps hoping for something else, something more. A party held by students on the adjoining property accelerates this latent crisis and Brigitte impulsively sets off for Paris under the guise of a doctor’s appointment. The city immediately invigorates her, and when she meets a charming Danish gentleman, she impulsively allows herself to be flattered by his attentions…
Calme
Frenchmen 3
Manu
One of a Kind
The father
When Frédi loses his mother, he realizes she has passed her healing gift on to him. Frédi rejects it totally, tangled up in his own unhappiness, until a fatal accident changes everything. He is forced to acknowledge that he had healing hands.
Fanny
Honoré Panisse
"Fanny" is the second part of the "Marseille trilogy", made by Marcel Pagnol with the generic name of "Marius, Fanny and César". Fanny falls in love and is abandoned by Marius. Now she discovers she is pregnant. Her mother and Marius's father, César, persuade her to accept the romantic advances of a much older man. To save face, Fanny accepts to marry Honoré Panisse, a rich merchant of the Vieux Port, 30 years her senior who will recognize her son.
Marius
Panisse
"Marius" takes place in Marseilles' Old Port, at the La Marine Bar, owned by César and his son Marius. Marius' biggest dream is to embark on one of the boats passing by his dad's bar and to set off to a faraway land. Fanny, a young and pretty seafood peddler, has secretly been in love with Marius since her childhood; Marius, never admitting it, has always loved Fanny. One day, a sailor drops by La Marine and offers him a job on an exploratory ship. Trying to hold him off and to make him jealous, Fanny confesses his love to him and provokes a fight between Marius and one of César's old friends, Panisse, a boat merchant, who despite his old age, has been courting Fanny for a while. Torn between the call of the sea and his love for her, Marius abandons his dream to be with Fanny who gives herself to him. As César and Honorine, Fanny's mother, are getting ready for the wedding, Marius changes his mind, drawn back to the call of the sea.
Jasmine
France, end of the 70s: Alain is the author of several cartoon films. His romantic meeting with a young Iranian student, Jasmine, changes the course of his life. Teheran, 1978: The revolution sweeps away the despised regime of the Shah. Alain has joined Jasmine, their love grows in secret, with the hope that a new life is possible. The introduction of the Islamic Republic will destroy their illusions, and separate the two lovers ... For how long? 30 years later, it is time for Alain to revisit the theatre of his memory. Several faded blue aerograms, Super-8 films ... Not much remains. With his fingertips, from the bottom of the heart, he resurrects the past, image by image. In the restitution of a mysterious and oppressive Teheran, in the helter-skelter of history, beings of paste and blood fight, like many others, for love and freedom.
Rendez-vous à Kiruna
Ernest
Calm at Sea
October 1941. Eighteen months into France’s occupation by German troops, young Communist members of the Resistance shoot dead an officer of the German Army. In retaliation, Hitler demands the deaths of 150 Frenchmen, as 'retribution'. The targets are to be mostly young men believed to share the assassins’ political convictions. Most of these men are taken from an internment camp for opponents of the occupation; a 35-year-old French rural administrator is ordered to select the victims. Although the parish priest appeals to their conscience and moral sensibilities, both the German military and their French helpers slavishly follow their orders.
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
Michel
A union pensioner and his wife are robbed, but find that merely getting the assailants brought to justice is not enough for their consciences.
Early One Morning
Paul
Monday morning. Paul Wertret, 50, heads off to his job as a manager at the International Credit and Trade Bank. He arrives at 8 o'clock on the dot, as usual. He enters a meeting room, takes out a gun and kills two of his bosses. Then he locks himself in his office. As he waits for the inevitable police assault, this ordinary man looks back over his life and the events that led him to commit such an act.
Le Havre
Monet
Marcel Marx, a former bohemian and struggling author, has given up his literary ambitions and relocated to the port city Le Havre. He leads a simple life based around his wife Arletty, his favourite bar and his not too profitable profession as a shoeshiner. As Arletty suddenly becomes seriously ill, Marcel's path crosses with an underage illegal immigrant from Africa, who needs Marcel's help to hide from the police.
The Great Restaurant II
The bisexual swinger
The great restaurant reopens with new extravagent costumers and the same beloved manager.
The Well Digger's Daughter
André Mazel, father of Jacques
It's the beginning of the WWII. South of France. Patricia, 18, is the oldest daughter of a well-digger, Pascal, who considers her a princess because of her moral qualities. She's kind, devoted. One day, she briefly meets a young man, Jacques, the son of Mazel, owner of the shop where her father buy his material. He's handsome and teasing. Her father's friend, Felipe, would love to marry her, and he invites her to an aviation show. She accepts his invitation only because she knows Jacques is a pilot and will be there. Soon, she'll carry his child, and he'll be gone, and the family will have to deal with this out-of-wedlock pregnancy...
Holiday
Michel Trémois
22 Bullets
Martin Beaudinard
Charly Matteï has turned his back on his life as an outlaw. For the last three years, he's led a peaceful life devoting himself to his wife and two children. Then, one winter morning, he's left for dead in the parking garage in Marseille's Old Port, with 22 bullets in his body. Against all the odds, he doesn't die...
Ya basta!
A specialised center is closing its doors. The mentally handicapped inhabitants helped by their educators are taking their destiny in their own hands.
The Queen of Clubs
Simon Sarasian
Aurélien and Argine have never been able to leave each other. Brother and sister, they have always lived together. Aurélien secretly makes ends meet for them by dealing in stolen metal. One night, his accomplice Simon suddenly arrives.
The Ordinary People
Bruno Couffe
The Muller company organizes a reception to mark the launch of a new product. During the evening, we discover that this is actually a coaching exercise for company executives. Gradually, rumours about the upcoming acquisition of the company start to emerge and everyone finds themselves trying to save their place.
Army of Crime
Inspecteur Pujol
This gripping historical drama recounts the story of Armenian-born Missak Manouchian, a woodworker and political activist who led an immigrant laborer division of the Parisian Resistance on 30 operations against the Nazis in 1943. The Nazis branded the group an Army of Crime, an anti-immigrant propaganda stunt that backfired as the team's members became martyrs for the Resistance.
Bulles de Vian
Self
"Vian Bubbles" - On June 23, 2009, fifty years to the day after the death of Boris Vian, a supernatural phenomenon crosses all of France: in the streets, one sings everywhere his songs and one expresses oneself only in the language of the poet. In Paris, Antoine de Caunes wakes up to discover the strange "vianic" epidemic, which also affects radio waves and the small screen. A boss of channel proposes to him to organize, for the same evening, a show dedicated to the songs of Boris Vian. Jean-Pierre Marielle tells us the story of this phenomenon, as supernatural as inexplicable. A tribute in songs to the glowing cast.
Bank Error in Your Favour
Étienne
After working with the bank for a long time, Julien decides to open a restaurant with his best friend. Unfortunately, when the bank refuses to grant him a loan, he comes up with a plan.
Grown Ups
Albert
Every year, Albert buys his daughter an initiatory journey to a European country. For her 17th birthday he chooses a trip to Sweden to look for a Viking's treasure. When they arrive in the rented house, it is occupied by Anika and Christine, forcing them into an unusual cohabitation.
Le 7ème juré
Grégoire Duval
Le voyage aux Pyrénées
Alexandre Darou
Getting away from it all causes more problems than it solves in this comedy from the French writing-directing team of Jean-Marie Larrieu and Arnaud Larrieu. Alexandre Darou (Jean-Pierre Darroussin) and his wife Aurore Lalu (Sabine Azema) are a pair of well-known actors who need a break from the tension and fast pace of their lives in show biz. Adopting the names "Mr. and Mrs. Go," Alexandre and Aurore head for a village high in the mountains of Southwest France, where they hope to enjoy some relaxing downtime and they won't be bothered. However, Alexandre and Aurore underestimated their own fame, and it isn't long before everyone in the town knows that a pair of movie stars are in their midst. As the couple head into the hills, Alexandre and Aurore discover they don't have much of a talent for roughing it, and while she believed that getting away from the city would help her deal with a recent bout with nymphomania, getting back to nature only increases her appetite for other men.
Lady Jane
François
Centers on three childhood friends: Muriel, Francois and Rene. Partners in crime (burglaries, to be precise), the three end their "criminal" activities after one of their attempted burglaries fails. They vow never to see each other again until, however, Muriel's son is kidnapped, which leads the three to join forces again to get the ransom money.
Waiting for Someone
Louis Renard
Three story-lines run in parallel in a town in Ile de France. Louis, a divorced café proprietor, flirts with every woman he bumps into, but doesn't develop any deeper relationship with them, except a growing affection for Sabine, the prostitute he sees regularly at a local hotel. His sister Agnès is a teacher, and is apparently happily married to Jean-Philippe, but he works very hard and doesn't seem to have been giving her all the affection she needs recently. She bumps into Stéphane, a young man recently returned to the town whom she knew as a child. He is obsessively interested in a young family who live nearby. The film gradually explores the hidden feelings and desires of each of the main characters. Will any of them find happiness?
Frenchmen 2
Manu
Alex, Antoine, Jeff and Manu. Four friends, four years later. Their relationships, friendship, shared secrets, feelings of guilt and their desire to change and improve.
Fragile(s)
Yves
Il y a des jours où le destin entrecroise les vies, où les solitudes s'animent sous l'effet du hasard, où un événement bouleverse le cours de plusieurs vies. Six personnages vont se croiser, se réunir, s'abandonner, se retrouver alors que rien ne les prédisposait à se rencontrer. Un lien existe pourtant entre eux. Et le destin va se charger de le leur rappeler.
Conversations with My Gardener
Léo, the gardener aka 'Dujardin'
A successful artist, weary of Parisian life and on the verge of divorce, returns to the country to live in his childhood house. He needs someone to make a real vegetable garden again out of the wilderness it has become. The gardener happens to be a former schoolfriend. A warm, fruitful conversation starts between the two men.
Premonition
Screenplay
A Parisian lawyer moves to a working-class neighborhood in an attempt to shed his social conditioning and bourgeois values.
Premonition
Charles Bénesteau
A Parisian lawyer moves to a working-class neighborhood in an attempt to shed his social conditioning and bourgeois values.
Premonition
Director
A Parisian lawyer moves to a working-class neighborhood in an attempt to shed his social conditioning and bourgeois values.
Armenia
Pierre
This is a story about returning to ones ancestral homeland. Anna is a cardiologist who discovers her father has fled to his native Armenia after being diagnosed with a heart problem. Despite their contentious relationship, she sets out to bring her father back for this operation. Anna is a tough-minded, headstrong woman with little feeling for her fathers homeland or patience with its politics and socially intrusive culture, yet she finds this journey not only a reunion of sorts, but one of reconciliation as well.
Toute la beauté du monde
Michel
This is the story of Franck and Tina. Franck loves Tina, but she can't love him. The man of her life has just died and she's having a nervous breakdown. During a journey to Asia, where Tina attempts rediscover her zest for life, Franck gradually becomes indispensable as a guide, traveling companion and, soon, friend... Will Tina eventually fall in love with him?
Le Cactus
Renard
Sami and Patrick are long-time friends. Sami is a hypochondriac. One day, following a misunderstanding at the hospital, Sami thinks he has an incurable neurological disease. He decides to live his last moments to the fullest and goes to India to be treated by a great local "doctor". In the meantime, his friend Patrick, who has been accompanying and supporting him without knowing that this illness is in fact fictitious, finds himself without a wife or job. The initial situation seems to be reversed; Patrick is out of luck and Sami seems less and less ill.
How Much Do You Love Me?
André Migot
After winning the lottery, François goes to a bar in Pigalle and offers one hundred thousand Euros per month to a prostitute named Daniela to live with him as his wife until his money runs out.
Saint-Jacques… La Mecque
Claude
Three siblings who detest each other and hiking must complete together a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in order to be eligible to inherit their mother's wealth.
A Very Long Engagement
Benjamin Gordes
Young Frenchwoman Mathilde searches for the truth about her missing fiancé, lost during World War I, and learns many unexpected things along the way. The love of her life is gone. But she refuses to believe he's gone forever — and she needs to know for sure.
My Father is an Engineer
Jérémie / Joseph
Her parents and a former lover try to help a woman out of an apparently unjustified catatonic condition.
Cause toujours !
Bruno
This way-offbeat comedy from Gallic director Jeanne Labrune concerns two young French women, best friends Léa and Jacinthe. While Jacinthe develops a fixation with the moths that begin to cluster in frightening quantities throughout her apartment, Léa finds herself drawn to a dim-witted fellow employed by a local supermarket, then impulsively decides to follow him home via train. When Léa mysteriously disappears during the days that follow, Jacinthe naturally grows concerned about her friend and decides to investigate.
Robert Guédiguian, cinéaste
Self
For over twenty years, Robert Guédiguian has been making films that occupy an essential place in French cinema. In film after film, he evokes the social chronicle of his working-class childhood. We witness an adventure rich in reflections on the film director’s profession, political commitment, the intimate relation between real and fictional characters, and a shared desire to create.
Red Lights
Antoine
A cross-country trip turns out to be a nightmare for a troubled couple.
Frenchmen
Manu
The life of four best friends in Paris: Antoine (a gym school teacher), Jeff (director of a monthly journal), Alex (Jeff's associate in the monthly journal and a Don Juan) and Manu (owner of fine food store). Their time is shared between their respective jobs, their relationship with women (their own and others...) and the times they meet together to discuss about life and play sport lottery.
Les bronzés, le père Noël, papy et les autres
Les Bronzés, le Père Noël, Papy et les autres....Discover or rediscover the emblematic scenes of these cult films that have crossed generations without getting old. Go behind the scenes of these unusual films through completely unpublished anecdotes and funny stories told by the authors themselves.
Special Delivery
Raphaël
An unexpected phone call from a certain Kirsch sets off a crisis between Catherine and Raphaël that will affect all those around them, be they close friends or casual acquaintances.
If I Were a Rich Man
Aldo
Between Alice, a hospital nurse and Aldo, a shampoo sales representative, things have turned sour of late. Alice blames her husband for lacking ambition and contemplates divorce.One day Aldo wins the ten million euro lotto prize. But, unwilling to share the bonanza, he keeps mum about it, all the more as he finds out Alice has an affair with Gérard, Aldo's former friend and ... new boss. However, Aldo, leading a double life, starts spending his money ...
The Landlords
Patrick Bertil
Directed by Rémi Waterhouse, Mille Millièmes is centered around an eccentric ensemble of apartment residents. Kindness is noticeably absent among their quarters, as demonstrated by a dating pair of neighbors whose request to have their apartments connected was flatly denied. To make matters worse, beggars gathering at a charity event are cruelly tormented by various tenants during the Christmas season. Last but not least is the Portuguese concierge whose services are in danger of being replaced by a more cost-effective alternative, and a widow whose recent loss earns her no sympathy from the rent-demanding landlords.
Marie-Jo and Her 2 Lovers
Daniel
Marie-Jo and Her Two Lovers (French: Marie-Jo et ses deux amours) is a 2002 French drama film directed by Robert Guédiguian. It was entered into the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.
A Private Affair
Homme Apolus
Divorced private detective Francois Maneri is assigned by his agency to investigate the disappearance of Rachel, a young student who has been missing for six months. After interviewing Rachel's family, friends and classmates, Francois is attacked and injured by an anonymous assailant and becomes reluctant to continue his search. But when Rachel's body is found, Francois is drawn deeper into the investigation as he discovers the dead girl's secret life.
August 15th
Raoul
Three men are abandonned by their wives for a few days in the summer holidays. They are alone with five kids to feed and a house to maintain. And they will learn what they did wrong with their wives.
L'Art (délicat) de la séduction
Monsieur Hubert
The film follows Etienne, a 40-year-old car designer, who takes time off from work to study sexual mastery from a Zen master and several prostitutes, in the hopes of having the sexual skill to impress Laure. Laure, a blonde who was introduced to him by his friend Jacques, told Etienne on January 1 that she will not have sex with him until May 27 that year at precisely 9 PM.
Don't Make Trouble!
(segment "Poitiers, voiture 11")
Twelve short stories about racism in every day life.
Tomorrow's Another Day
Xavier
Such an inconsequential event - the unfortunate purchase of a package of cling film - reveals the character and behavior of a small group of individuals caught up in the chaos of today's society. Though it creates arguments and inner questioning, this event - and its various consequences - also creates bonds.
The Town Is Quiet
Paul
A dark tale of working-class life in Marseilles, a city in crisis. Interesting characters include a hard-bitten but compassionate fish market worker with a drug addicted daughter and a moody bartender with a shocking secret life.
Who Plucked the Feathers Off the Moon?
Lucien
Two sisters have to deal with the traditional issues of growing up and the unusual problem of caring for an unstable father in the drama Qui Plume La Lune?
Season's Beatings
Gilbert
Christmas, family, and infidelity. Yvette's husband has died, and her grown daughters join her at the grave: Sonia, wealthy, bourgeois, and generous; Louba, living with their dad Stanislas, singing at a Russian restaurant, penniless, the mistress for the past 12 years of a man who will never leave his wife; Milla, the youngest, acerbic, lonesome. Christmas was when they learned their parents were divorcing 25 years ago. Over the next few days, yuletide depression, Louba's pregnancy, Sonia's crumbling marriage, Stanislas's overtures to Yvette, and Milla's attraction to the man who's her father's rent-free lodger lead each one to re-examine self, family, and hopes. Is renewal possible?
Inséparables
Robert
Twenty years ago, Robert left his home in the provincial northern town of Boulogne to make it as an actor. His career never amounted to much, as he managed only a couple of acting jobs on TV. Without warning, he returns to his hometown and drops in on his sister who is in the throes of a sordid affair with her married boss. Later, Robert drops in on his younger brother, who is mentally retarded and lives with his elderly mother. As the film progresses, it quietly, sensitively depicts Robert's disruption of the lives of the members of his family.
C'est quoi la vie ?
Marc, le père
In this drama, three generations of the same family work together on a farm in rural France. Elderly Noel takes pride in having worked this land nearly all his life. His son Marc now carries most of the responsibilities of the farm (as well as the debts), and he's starting to buckle under the strain. And Marc's son Nicolas hasn't decided what to do with his life; he has little interest in farming, but he isn't sure where his real talents lie. One day, after helping his cows give birth to new calves, Marc gets word that he must destroy all his cattle to prevent the spread of Mad Cow Disease. This proves the last straw for Marc, and he commits suicide. Noel doesn't handle his son's death well and ends up in a retirement home, while Marc's wife gets a job as a cashier and Nicolas looks for work (with little success) while searching for a beautiful and mysterious woman to whom he gave a ride.
La finale
Henri
A low-income housing estate in the south of France, at the time of the soccer World Cup. The daughter of the leader of an extreme right-wing party sets out to discover the world of the fans.
Where the Heart Is
Joël Patché
From the director of Marius et Jeannette, this story of two working-class families is a fable with an optimist streak. A young black man, Francois, is wrongly accused of rape by a racist policeman. The story is told in voiceover by his childhood friend, neighbor, and the mother of his future child, Clementine, who is white. The city is Marseilles as in the previous film, symbolic with its churches, prisons and ruins. Except in this film, director Robert Guediguian also ventures outside, taking the story to Sarajevo; two different cities, one devastated by war, the other by a bad economy and unemployment. A la Place du coeur won a Special Jury Prize at the 1998 San Sebastian Film Festival and was also shown at the 1998 Toronto Film Festival and the 1998 Montreal Film Festival.
The Octopus
Gabriel Lecouvreur, 'le Poulpe'
Gabriel, dit Le Poulpe (The Octopus) is a laid-back private investigator who works on cases for his own pleasure. He is drawn to the fictional Loire Valley port of Angerneau, with his lover Clotilde who has been summoned by the police concerning the defacement of a deceased relative's grave. Since Angernau is her home town, she wants to leave it as soon as possible to avoid old acquaintances, but Gabriel stumbles on intriguing events concerning the cargo of a ship in port.
Beware of My Love
Voyageur de commerce
Muriel, a writer nearing 50 whose older lover won't live with her in Paris, meets a man on a train - Samuel, an Arab. He's attracted to her and pursues her, dropping in, asserting himself. She's willing to connect. He's passionate, then boorish, then jealous and possessive. He seems fixed on "Who's the strongest?," while she wants respect and trust. She's self-possessed as well as sexually charged, willing to laugh, and alternately firm and forgiving. He has little money, no immigration papers, few prospects, and a gambling jag. What does each want, and why does she stick with it? Is this colonial strife, war between the sexes, or a love story?
Marius and Jeannette
Dédé
Jeannette is a single mother living in a working-class community in Marseilles; she tries to support herself and her two kids on her salary as a check-out girl at a supermarket and lives in an apartment complex where everyone is thrown into close proximity with everyone else. Marius is working as a security guard at a cement factory that has gone out of business; he's also squatting in the building, since the plant is soon to be demolished and he'll be needing his money later on. One day, Jeannette happens by the factory, and spotting several cans of paint, tries to take two of them home with her. Marius spots her and tries to chase her away, while she rails at him with curses against the capitalist system. The next day, an apologetic Marius appears at her doorstep, cans of paint in hand; the two soon become friendly, and a romance begins to bloom, though it quickly becomes obvious that Jeannette's romance novel fantasies are a bit off the mark from what Marius has in mind.
Family Resemblances
Denis
An upper middle-class French family celebrates a birthday in a restaurant. In one evening and during one meal, family history, tensions, collective and separate grudges, delights, and memories both clash and coalesce.
Mon homme
Un client
In Lyon, where many are unemployed, Marie is a prostitute who loves her work: she's thoughtful and exuberant toward clients old and young, slim or flabby. One night, a homeless man sleeps in the foyer of her apartment house; she gives him a hot meal, then a place on the floor to sleep by her radiator, then she offers herself. She falls in love, giving him new life, clothes, a place to live. When he grouses that he must bar hop while she uses the flat for her work, she finds them a larger flat. He grows restless, seducing a manicurist and pressing her to prostitution. He's arrested for procuring, so Marie must decide what to do; he, too, must face the consequences of his choices.
À la vie, à la mort !
Jaco
À la vie, à la mort ! (1995) In Estaque, a northern suburb of Marseilles, stuck between oil refinery smokestacks and the Mediterranean sea, a handful of die-hards has taken refuge in a cabaret. There is José, the owner, a big-hearted gypsy who loves cars and women's bodies; Joséfa, his wife, the establishment's stripper despite her advanced years and Marie-Sol who climbs the hill every day to visit Notre-Dame de la Garde and beseech Virgin Mary to give her a child. There is Patrick, her husband who has been unemployed for ages but who is kind despite appearances and their friend Jaco who is having a hard time. His wife and daughters hate him for not keeping up on the mortgage repayments. Last but not least is Papa Carlossa who believes that Franco still rules Spain and fantasizes about bumping him off.
Madame Petlet's True Story
In this mainstream French comedy, a television writer creates a hit series based on the experiences of her housekeeper. The writer Nathalie does this in desperation as she has a deadline and is utterly blocked. She goes to Petlet and begins transcribing her memories of the lively goings on in her rural home village. Each memory is an episode in itself, and the show becomes a smash hit, but when Petlet realizes that her boss has been cashing on her life stories and taking all the credit, she gets angry and quits leaving Nathalie with no maid and no one to watch her children. Later Petlet's adult children demand that their mother return to demand credit and a piece of the action. But Petlet remains undecided.
Cold Water
L'inspecteur
An outer suburb of Paris, 1972. Gilles and Christine, both sixteen, are classmates and lovers who have become frustrated with the aloofness of their families and the general monotony of their lives. When the pair are caught shoplifting, Christine's father ships her off to a home for emotionally disturbed children, temporarily putting space between her and Gilles. Luckily for them, though, she escapes and the couple contemplate running away together.
Cache Cash
Jean
Antoine, 11, is on holiday with his grandfather. One night he catches thieves hiding their booty in a pond. Antoine seizes the 40 million. But Liza, his new friend, is the daughter of one of the criminals. Both children soon face threats.
L'argent fait le bonheur
Le Curé
How the mothers of a deprived suburb of Marseille will create a solidarity committee under the aegis of the parish priest. Gathered in assembly, they will invent a solution to the endemic misery of their city.
Kitchen with Apartment
Fred
Jacques and Martine, an ordinary bourgeois couple, invite to dinner a friend whom they have not seen the last ten years. Since then he has become a media star and everything has to go just right at dinner.
Little Nothings
Domrémy
Lepetit, an ambitious and determined man, is named the new CEO of a department store. His mission is to improve the store's financial position. He decides that the human factor will be his catchword and introduces new methods, which he also applied to himself. But tensions slowly arise between members of the staff.
L'amour en deux
Matthias
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.
Le cri du cochon
On vacation in the country, a group of friends are requisitioned by a city official to work at the slaughterhouse.
Dieu vomit les tièdes
Cochise
Three men and a woman from a city in the south of France made a pact as teenagers to never forget that they were children of the poor.
White Nightmare
J.P.
Four racists plan to assault a local Arab man, but soon things get out of control.
Mado, poste restante
Le berger
In this gentle comedy, Mado (Marianne Groves) is the letter-carrier for her small town, and she is constantly on the lookout for a good Catholic man who shares her enthusiasm for sunrises. She even puts up posters on trees and walls advertising her interest. The townspeople make fun of her, but she isn't discouraged. Her best friend is Germaine (Isabelle Gelinas), a pretty girl whose moral standards are not as strict as Mado's. When a film director (Oleg Yankovsky) arrives in town, everyone is agog, but Mado is particularly keen to find out about him. However, it seems that he has his eye on Germaine, and he isn't really in her league anyhow.
My Best Pals
Dany Péquou
They are the best friends of the world. Five friends who shared everything: may 68, hippies years, the rock and their love for Bernadette. This Bernadette has left them to become a rock-star, and is back 15 years later for a weekend. Jean-Marie Poire describes with this movie the portrait of a generation with lots of humor served by excelent actors.
He Died with His Eyes Open
Moulard
Police Inspector Staniland is investigating the death of a pianist. While conducting his investigation and looking through the victim's apartment, he meets Barbara, the mistress of the murder victim. Barbara confesses to the crime, but Staniland, based on his observations and experience, does not believe her. He then sets out to find the truth.
Slices of Life
L'ami du dragueur / Le journaliste
A series of humorous sketches on life: "A Night to Remember", "Summit Showdown", and "A Book? That's personal!"
Ki lo sa?
Dada
A group of children from the same neighborhood meet a few years later. When the day comes, they meet again and take stock of their lives.
Our Story
le second passager
Robert Avranche, a middle-aged, alcoholic garage owner, is sitting on a train, reflecting on the emptiness of his life. An attractive young woman, Donatienne, suddenly enters the compartment and offers to make love to him. Robert accepts but, when the woman leaves the train afterwards, he decides to follow her...
Après tout ce qu'on a fait pour toi
The journalist
Divorced parents are concerned about the behavior of their teenage son who is rebelling against society.
Is This Reasonable?
Henri
A young journalist comes from Nice to Paris to meet with the famous judge, Simon, hoping he will help her understand a case. She does not know that, according to the will of fate, in the office of judge was fugitive criminal. The couple hit the road.
Celles qu'on n'a pas eues
Amédée
In a train compartment, 6 people who do not know each other tell the story of their troubles in love. Only one of those seems to be a positive one.
Psy
Jacques
Marc runs a psychotherapy course at a large country house belonging to his wife Colette. His clients are depressed and his job is to cure them of their neuroses.
Hothead
Photographer (uncredited)
François, a miserable football player, becomes a town hero after bringing victory in an extremely important game. He uses his fame for revenge on the team star for the previous mockeries.
The Thieving Magpie
Maria, who's not as young as she used to be and who helps people older than her, is living from hand to mouth. She can't quite accept her precarious situation and steals a few euros here and there from all those lovely people she looks after with such devotion, and who adore her for it… But after an accusation of abuse of a vulnerable person, Maria winds up in police custody.
Les Impatiences
Le Vampire du soleil levant
Tiens ferme ta couronne
Fanon
Le Théorème de Marguerite