Mathieu Amalric Movies

Directed by Bruno Podalydès (who helmed the "Montmartre" segment of the omnibus Paris, I Love You), Bancs Publics chronicles three intersecting stories in the city of Versailles: an office worker who hangs a banner reading "Lonely Man" beneath his window, the feuding families and couples in a busy town square, and the employees and customers of a local shop. This sprawling and droll exploration of the estrangement of modern life boasts a star-studded supporting cast that features a veritable who's who of French cinema, including Olivier Gourmet, Emmanuelle Devos, Mathieu Amalric, Chiara Mastroianni, Hippolyte Girardot, Pierre Arditi, and the grande dame herself, Catherine Deneuve. ~ Sandra Bencic, Rovi

Described by one source as France's equivalent of John Hillcoat's The Road, this gloomy, apocalyptic chronicle transpires in a desolate future dystopia. Mathieu Amalric stars as Robinson, a man searching desperately for his lost love amid the ruins and vestiges of civilization. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

A filmmaker going though a midlife crisis stumbles into a new way of examining life in this comedy drama from France. Bertrand (Mathieu Amalric) is a movie director who has lost touch with his muse and is desperate to come up with an idea for his next picture. While visiting a funeral home as he tries to brainstorm, Bertrand becomes stuck in a coffin and ends up spending the night trapped in a box. Shaken but strangely invigorated by the adventure, Bertrand realizes he needs new experiences and finds a good source for them when a chance meeting leads him to an urban commune known as the Kingdom. Led by Uma (Asia Argento), the young people who make up the Kingdom often dress in animal costumes and engage in unusual consciousness-expanding rituals. Fascinated by what he's found, Bertrand becomes a frequent visitor at the Kingdom, and while his girlfriend, Louise (Clotilde Hesme), tries to encourage him in his self-exploration, she's frequently bemused by his methods. De la Guerre (aka On War) was screened as part of the Directors' Fortnight series at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The devastating reverberations of a profound tragedy echo through generations of a long-suffering French family in this emotional family drama from director Arnaud Desplechin. When Abel and his wife, Junon, started a family, it seemed like the seeds of true happiness had been planted. But while their daughter, Elizabeth, was healthy from the day she was born, things quickly turned dark when her brother Joseph was diagnosed with a rare and deadly genetic condition. Joseph's only hope for survival was a bone marrow transplant, but Abel, Junon, and Elizabeth were all incompatible. In one last, desperate chance to save their son's life, Abel and Junon conceived a third child. But not even little Henri could save his ailing brother's life. Joseph died at the age of seven, and neither his siblings nor his parents have ever found the strength to recover. Years later, family relations have deteriorated beyond the point of repair; the tensions between family matriarch Elizabeth and her cynical brother Henri finally culminating in a violent confrontation in which Elizabeth banishes her alcoholic brother and refuses him further contact with his troubled adolescent nephew, Paul. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A caustic apartment owner finds her attempts to evict the ragtag occupants of a 3,000 square foot rent-controlled apartment challenged in a most unexpected way in director Pascal Thomas' communal comedy. Thanks to a legal loophole known as "the Law of 1948," a cap was placed on some rental units around Paris preventing real-estate speculation. As long as the original resident still resides on the premises, the statue still applies. Though Marie-Antionette (Gisele Casadesus)'s name does indeed remain on the lease, the free-spirited grandmother rarely stays at the apartment for any extended length, leaving Francisca (Laetitia Casta), her husband Martin (Mathieu Amalric), and the couple's daughter the primary beneficiaries of the unique law. Of course with all of that room there's plenty of space for others to enjoy, and in addition to three of Francisca's best friends additional occupants include a senile grandmother (Carmen Durand) and egocentric independent filmmaker Adrien (Pierre Arditi). When acrimonious landlord Charlotte Falingard (Noemie Lvovsky) makes it her mission to clear out the apartment in order to turn a tidy profit, former law student Francesca stands firm in challenging the conviction by putting her education to good use. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

The astonishing true-life story of Jean-Dominic Bauby -- a man who held the world in his palm, lost everything to sudden paralysis at 43 years old, and somehow found the strength to rebound -- first touched the world in Bauby's best-selling autobiography The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (aka La Scaphandre et la Papillon), then in Jean-Jacques Beineix's half-hour 1997 documentary of Bauby at work, released under the same title, and, ten years after that, in this Cannes-selected docudrama, helmed by Julian Schnabel (Basquiat) and adapted from the memoir by Ronald Harwood (Cromwell). The Schnabel/Harwood picture follows Bauby's story to the letter -- his instantaneous descent from a wealthy and congenial playboy and the editor of French Elle, to a bed-bound, hospitalized stroke victim with an inactive brain stem that made it impossible for him to speak or move a muscle of his body. This prison, as it were, became a kind of "diving bell" for Bauby -- one with no means of escape. With the editor's mind unaffected, his only solace lay in the "butterfly" of his seemingly depthless fantasies and memories. Because of Bauby's physical restriction, he only possessed one channel for communication with the outside world: ocular activity. By moving his eyes and blinking, he not only began to interact again with the world around him, but -- astonishingly -- authored the said memoir via a code used to signify specific letters of the alphabet. In Schnabel's picture, Mathieu Amalric tackles the difficult role of Bauby; the film co-stars Emmanuelle Seigner, Marie-Josée Croze, Anne Consigny, and Patrick Chesnais. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

As a Parisian petrochemical company forges on into the 21st century, the in-house human resources psychologist leads a probe that proves the ghosts of the previous century still hold sway over current events in director Nicolas Klotz's labyrinthine drama. Simon (Mathieu Amalric) is a human resources worker who has spent the last seven years working at the Paris branch of a powerful German-based company called SC Farb. In addition to assessing the hiring and firing practices of the company, Simon was also charged with the task of conducting motivational workshops. When Assistant Director Karl Rose (Jean-Pierre Kalfon) implores Simon to conduct a clandestine assessment of firm director Mathias Jüst's (Michael Lonsdale) mental health after rumors of erratic behavior begin to circulate in the German head office, the shrewd human resources worker forms a factory orchestra as a means of stealthily gauging the stability of his violin-playing subject. Later, a comprehensive investigation of company archives and anonymous letters begin to snake ominously back in time to the darkest days of World War II. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

This tough and gritty French-language crime drama represents the premier installment in a two-part series of features on the life and doings of notorious Gallic hood Jacques Mesrine (1936-1979). Mesrine is played, in both installments, by actor Vincent Cassel, who reportedly underwent massive weight gain and weight loss to convincingly portray the volatile Mesrine at various periods of his life. Director Jean-François Richet begins in 1979, with Mesrine's uncommonly violent death, whereby he and a beautiful young woman are suddenly (and fatally) ambushed by Parisian police not far from Mesrine's place of birth. Richet then flashes back to the Franco-Algerian War of the late '50s and a brutal interrogation undergone by Mesrine. Following a military discharge, Mesrine returns to his parents' suburb of Clichy, where his dad has arranged a pathetic job for him in a lace-making factory. Never one to take humiliation lying down, Jacques perceives burglary, larceny, and racketeering as much-superior options and decides to pursue a life of crime via a "business partnership" with childhood buddy Paul (Gilles Lellouche), who works for mobster Guido (Gérard Depardieu).

As the years pass, Jacques works his way up through the ranks of the underworld; via Paul, he also meets and falls hard for two women: Pigalle streetwalker Sarah (Florence Thomassin), and Sofia (Elena Anaya), a beautiful Spanish woman with whom he cohabitates after doing time in a French prison. Following a brief and unsuccessful attempt to "go straight," Jacques reconnects with Guido, then finds it necessary to escape from France to Canada with his new mistress, Jeanne (Cécile De France). Unfortunately, another prison sentence is waiting for him there, replete with brutal solitary confinement, but the possibility of a daring escape beckons. The second half of the Mesrine saga, entitled Mesrine: L'Énnemi Public No. 1 for French release, followed immediately after and picks up where this installment wraps. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Annick Raoul's ten-minute short feature A Little Bit Under the Weather concerns Serge (Mathieu Amalric), a man who wakes up in a dream state but cannot be sure that he is actually sleeping. He also discovers that he's playing in an orchestra, but does not know the music being played. All that he is certain of is his overwhelming desire to escape from this situation and go elsewhere. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi