Laurent Lucas Movies

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, All Movie Guide

A middle-aged man is forced to come to terms with traumatic events from his childhood in this drama. Not long after the end of World War II, young Alexandre Gérard (Jordan Chemama) was an orphan was an orphan who was handed over to M. de Montferrand, a gentleman who was already taking care of six orphaned boys at his estate near the German border. Alexandre was of Algerian heritage, and soon found himself an outcast among his fellow orphans; they welcomed him with violence, and he used his knowledge to get even with them. However, when a full-grown Alexandre (Laurent Lucas) returns to Alsace thirty years later, he can barely remember anything that happened, and can't recall how the other six boys vanished. It's not until Alexandre is shown a photograph of himself tied and beaten at de Montferrand's home that the terrible truth begins to comes back to him. La Saison des Orphelins (aka The Orphans' Season) received its North American premiere at the 2008 Montreal World Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Suffocated by her loveless marriage and desperate to experience the dopamine-fueled rush of true lust, a bored housewife abandons her family and career in order to be with a lover that isn't afraid to shun society in pursuit of artistic freedom. Michèle may be married to Paul, but the man she truly longs for is rebellious musician Thomas. Though Michèle and Thomas have managed to keep their passionate fling a well-guarded secret to this point, the time has finally come to give up the ghost of Michèle's failed marriage. Now Michèle is determined to see her affair through to the ultimate conclusion, and if that means leaving her husband and child behind she is ready and willing to make that sacrifice. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Earning frequent comparisons to the finer work of David Lynch for its defiantly unpredictable and enigmatic narrative twists, neophyte director Brice Cauvin's political thriller Hotel Harabati opens at a Parisian train depot, with a European couple in their mid-thirties, Philippe (Laurent Lucas) and Marion (Helene Fillieres, waiting to journey to Venice. Without substantial explanation, they promptly retrieve a suitcase that doesn't belong to them; labeled with the words "tel Harabati" (or 'Hotel Harabati'), it contains a massive amount of neatly-rolled foreign currency. They decide impulsively to skip their Venetian tour and hearken back to the City of Lights, but deceive kith and kin, fabricating accounts of Venice to Philippe's mother Nelly (screen legend Anouk Aimee) . In time, the couple begins to search for new living quarters for themselves and their two little boys; open talk of the bag dissipates, yet Philippe's paranoia mounts, particularly given the discussions of neighborhood bombings on the local news and sightings of an unsavory character who exudes a menacing aura - and who may or may not be connected with the suitcase. Cauvin co-authored the original script with Jerome Beaujour and Pierre Schoeller; Julie Gayet (Les Gens qui s'aiment) and Anthony Roth Costanzo (A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries) co-star. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

A traveling entertainer falls prey to a disturbed recluse in director Fabrice Du Welz's twisted, slow-burn riff on Deliverance and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Having finished his latest performance at a remote retirement home, wandering singer Marc Stevens (Laurent Lucas) packs his gear into his van and sets out towards his next gig. Unfortunately for Marc, the fog-shrouded roads of rural France are more treacherous than he ever anticipated. When his van breaks down in the middle of the night and a skittish local promises to lead him to a nearby inn owned by the eccentric recluse Paul Bartel (Jackie Berroyer), it appears that luck may be on Marc's side and he will be back on the road with the light of the morning sun. This isn't your average bed and breakfast, though, and Bartel certainly isn't the kindly innkeeper he initially appears to be. When Marc's van is set aflame and his increasingly menacing host makes a most disturbing claim, the soft-spoken singer will be forced to fight for his life against not only Bartel, but an entire village of deeply disturbed woodsmen. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

French filmmaker Jean-Marc Moutout makes his feature debut with the drama Violence des Echanges en Milieu Tempéré (Work Hard Play Hard). Jérémie Rénier stars as Philippe Seigner, an ambitious young executive at a management consulting firm. Things are going well for him at work and he starts dating single mom Eva (Cylia Malki). Soon his boss, Hugo Paradis (Laurent Lucas), chooses him for a special job auditing a company outside of Paris. When Philippe realizes that he's been effectively downsizing a company, he begins to feel a moral opposition to his task. Work Hard Play Hard was nominated for the Golden Leopard at the 2003 Locarno International Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Director Bertrand Bonello adapts the Greek myth of Tiresias to a modern day setting with this unforgiving tale of a transsexual prostitute held captive by a man obsessed with her ethereal beauty. Bound in her lonely prison and deprived of the hormones that keep her from reverting back to manhood, Tiresia's increasingly obvious masculine traits slowly begin to repulse her captor until he brutally blinds her and leaves her to die. Tiresia's will to live is strong, however, and though the bizarre beauty lives on devoid of her sense of sight and trapped in an indefinable twilight zone somewhere between man and woman, her power of second sight gradually emerges until Tiresia becomes more in tune with the world than ever before. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Marina de Van, a frequent collaborator of director François Ozon's (she co-wrote several films with him, in addition to starring in See the Sea and Sitcom), makes her feature directorial debut with In My Skin, which she also wrote. De Van stars in the film as Esther, a self-conscious young woman who works for a public relations firm. Her life seems to be going well. Her boyfriend, Vincent (Laurent Lucas of With a Friend Like Harry...), wants to live with her. At work, she's in line for a promotion and the opportunity to run a prestigious campaign for a jewelry company. One night at a party with her friend, Sandrine (Léa Drucker), Esther wanders into the backyard and stumbles, scratching her leg on a piece of scrap metal. She goes back to the party, and later realizes that her injury is much more severe than she had thought. There's a huge, ugly gouge all the way up her shin, and she's bleeding profusely. She goes to a doctor, who patches her up and tells her she might need a skin graft. But Esther becomes obsessed with the wound. She won't let it heal, sneaking away during work to cut herself. As her leg becomes an ugly scarred mass, she begins to notice a problem with her arm. Before long, she's alienated Vincent and jeopardized her job with her compulsive, self-destructive behavior. But she continues on her grotesque downward spiral. In My Skin was shown at Lincoln Center in New York as part of their 2003 Rendez-vous with French Cinema. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Dominik Moll directs this black comedy about a family outing gone to hell. The film opens with Michel (Laurent Lucas) and Claire (Mathilde Seigner) on the edge of a nervous breakdown in a cramped hot car with three screaming children. At a roadside rest stop, Michel meets Harry (Sergi Lopez) who, after some encouragement, recalls that they went to high school together. Harry and his girlfriend Plum (Sophie Guillemin) weasel their way into Michel and Claire's life, and soon the two are following the haggard family to their tumbledown summer cottage. Though he seems friendly enough, Michel and Claire start to notice that something is not quite right with their newfound friend -- he recites from memory a poem Michel wrote 20 years ago, he suddenly buys them an expensive new Jeep when their old car dies, and he has a tendency to kill people who get on his nerves. This film was screened in competition at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

For Emma (Karin Viard), the good news is she's pregnant. A professional musician, Emma has wanted a child for some time, and even though her boyfriend Simon (Laurent Lucas) seems less than excited about fatherhood, Emma welcomes the prospect of becoming a mother. The bad news, however, is Emma soon finds out she also has breast cancer, and she is forced to weigh a complicated series of health options. The most effective treatment for her cancer would be hazardous for the fetus, while the course of action that would offer the least harm to her unborn child would not be especially helpful for keeping Emma alive. With the guidance of a pair of compassionate physicians, Emma begins chemotherapy treatments that will hopefully keep both her and the fetus safe until it can be safely extracted. Karin Viard received praise for her performance in this film, which was shown in the "Directors Fortnight" series at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Eight years after Les Amants du Pont Neuf (1991), which failed at the box office, Léos Carax returned with Pola X, a French/German/Swiss co-production with Catherine Deneuve and the young Guillaume Dépardieu in a story of love, incest, and descent into hell. Pierre (Dépardieu) lives with his mother in Normandy, not far from the banks of the Seine River where Victor Hugo's daughter drowned with her lover. The good-looking mother and son are happy, healthy, and wealthy, and they love each other deeply. Pierre is romantically attached to the beautiful and delicate Lucie (Delphine Chuillot) and visits her every morning with the motorcycle he has inherited from his father. One summer night, his mother tells him that she has chosen a date for his wedding. Overexcited, Pierre rushes through the night to break the news to Lucie. As he is speeding down the road, a strange creature with a familiar face suddenly leaps from the dark. She tells him in broken French that she is his sister. Pierre is shocked, but he decides to believe her and make up for the mistake of his father.

The film took its inspiration from Herman Melville's Pierre, or, the Ambiguities, which Carax read when he was 18, the same age as the hero of the story. The first part of the film sets an idyllic tone with a fairy tale atmosphere of life among the rich and beautiful. This is in sharp contrast to the world Pierre plunges into when he meets Isabelle (Katerina Golubeva), who claims to be his half-sister. Carax, who has been against nudity in his films, shows the two literally engaging in mutual oral sex onscreen, although this was not included in the original script. (One may insert here that Golubeva, who is known from Sarunas Bartas and Claire Denis films, was the girlfriend of Depardieu in real life.) The fusion of the two leads to the creation of Pierre's book. This is a highly stylized film that is at times reminiscent of German expressionism. It is constructed in opposites: black and white, high and low, good and bad. Elements of fantasy are mixed with reality. Carax tries to introduce a new film language, often at the expense of the emotional quality of the film. Despite its weak points, it is still a work that exhibits the exceptional talent of its director. Golubeva exudes a certain magic in depicting the half-real, half-imaginary character of a vulnerable and somewhat lost Madonna. The title is an acronym of the French title of Melville's book, Pierre, ou, les Ambiguites. The film screened in competition at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide

"To love with your molecules is only possible at the beginning of a relationship" theorizes Marguerite who has been married to Paul for five years; miraculously the molecules in their pairing are still at work. Except for one thing: they live in Montreal, and molecules do not like the cold! Paul who works in a zoo, takes care of his sick son from another relationship and his father who is a clandestine immigrant. Marguerite is terribly bored. One day her molecules explode, and she runs away with the brother of the parish priest -- though she refuses to make love to him. The film begins with a very long take of an intended kiss between Paul and Marguerite; another long take shows Paul killing Marguerite. It is all a big flashback. Slowly, it all gets quite boring because there is no intrigue. Viewers understand that there is something wrong with the relationship but may be left wondering why they should care. The continuous voiceover -- first Paul, then Marguerite -- does not help either. Director Bertrand Bonello seems to be searching for a personal style, but it ends up being a futile intellectual exercise, mainly because the style he is trying to adopt is claustrophobic, and to say the least, rather heavy to digest. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide