Charlotte Gainsbourg Movies
One of the more compelling French actresses of her generation, Charlotte Gainsbourg initially made her screen name parlaying wayward adolescence into an understated art form. Tall, long-necked, and elegantly gawky, Gainsbourg first impressed critics and audiences with her portrayal of the naive but rebellious protagonist of L'Effrontée (1985), earning a César for Most Promising Young Actress.The daughter of French singer/songwriter/occasional actor and director Serge Gainsbourg and English actress Jane Birkin, Gainsbourg was born into substantial celebrity in London on July 22, 1971. Initially keen on being either an artist or a surgeon, she made her film debut playing Catherine Deneuve's daughter in the 1984 Paroles et Musique. That same year, she courted notoriety when she starred alongside her ever-irascible father in his controversial "Lemon Incest" music video, which featured the two cuddling on a bed surrounded by feathers. More salubrious attention came the young actress' way the following year, when she earned a César for her performance in Claude Miller's L'Effrontée.
After another stint acting alongside her father in his poorly received Charlotte Forever (1986), Gainsbourg again collaborated with director Miller for La Petite Voleuse (1988), portraying a sullen teenager experimenting with sex and various illegal pursuits. She reprised her rebellious teen role for Merci La Vie (1991), a black comedy that cast her and Anouk Grinberg as two young women on a rampage against men and just about whomever else crosses their path. Gainsbourg got an opportunity to broaden her range with Jacques Doillon's Amoureuse (1992), an ensemble piece about a group of young women who come together to discuss life and love, and her uncle Andrew Birkin's The Cement Garden (1994), a drama about extreme familial dysfunction that was the actress' first English language outing.
Gainsbourg made her second English film in 1996, starring as the eponymous heroine of Franco Zeffirelli's adaptation of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. Although the film, which also starred William Hurt, received very mixed reviews, it did succeed in introducing Gainsbourg to a wider international audience. She further enhanced her good reputation when she won her second César -- this time for Best Supporting Actress -- in 2000 for her work in La Bûche (1999), a comedy that cast her as an ambitious businesswoman who takes up with a mysterious man lodging at her father's house.
Gainsbourg remained busy throughout the mid-2000s and enjoyed success as a supporting actress in several highly acclaimed films (21 Grams, The Science of Sleep, Happily Ever After, and Lemming, to name a few). In 2006 she acted and directed the historical drama Golden Door, and co-starred in the award-winning drama The City of Your Final Destination in 2008. The actress portrayed a stay-at-home mother in The Tree (2010), a poignant psychological drama from director Julie Bertucelli, and took on yet another supporting role in 2011's Melancholia. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
- 2010
A family struggling with the loss of a loved one may have found him in a rather unusual place in this drama from writer and director Julie Bertuccelli. Dawn (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is a stay-at-home mother to her four children -- Tim (Christian Byers), Lou (Tom Russell), Simone (Morgana Davies), and Charlie (Gabriel Gotting) -- and a loving wife to her husband, Peter (Aden Young). Peter is out of town on business when he suffers a fatal heart attack; Dawn is emotionally shattered by the news, and isn't sure at first how to get by on her own. The children are supportive to their mom, Tim gets a part-time job to help bring in some extra cash, and Dawn begins working at a plumbing supply store run by kind-hearted George (Marton Csokas), but while they're all trying to move on, they still wish they could have Peter back in their lives. Simone, who is eight, has taken to climbing the big tree in front of the family's house, and she soon explains why to Dawn -- she says she can hear the voice of her father rustling through the leaves. Before long, Simone builds a tree house and spends most of her time listening to her father's phantom voice, and while Dawn understands how she feels, she's not sure how to get her daughter to let go of her father's ghost, especially when Simone reacts poorly to the news that Dawn and George are dating. The Tree was adapted from the novel Our Father Who Art in the Tree by Judy Pascoe. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Charlotte Gainsbourg, Marton Csokas, (more)
- 2009
A man struggling with a failing romantic relationship now has to deal with an admirer he doesn't want in this drama from French filmmaker Patrice Chereau. Daniel (Romain Duris) is a successful self-employed businessman who has been dating Sonia (Charlotte Gainsbourg) for nearly three years. Daniel deeply loves Sonia, and while she feels the same way about him, he often has his doubts; Daniel is irrationally jealous and suspects that Sonia has lost her desire for him, no matter what she does to convince him otherwise. One day, while riding home on the subway, he sees a woman being attacked and tries to come to her aid, to no avail. Afterwards, a stranger (Jean-Hugues Anglade) approaches Daniel and shares his opinions about the incident; Daniel doesn't think much of it until the stranger begins appearing on a regular basis, talking an uncomfortably strong interest in him. The man's interest quickly becomes full-blown staking, and no matter how hard Daniel tries to persuade him that he's not interested in him --including resorting to violence -- the stranger will not believe that Daniel doesn't return his affection. Persecution was an official selection at the 2009 Venice International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Romain Duris, Charlotte Gainsbourg, (more)
This enormously controversial psychodrama-cum-horror film from Danish enfant terrible Lars von Trier charts the degeneration of a marriage into apocalyptic violence, chaos, and insanity following an unthinkable domestic tragedy. The film opens with a prologue. While they make love in their apartment on a snowy winter afternoon, a husband and wife known only as "He" and "She" (Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg) fail to keep an eye on their young toddler. In a horrific turn of events, the child wanders over to an open window, entranced by the snow cascading down, and falls two stories to his death. Von Trier then divides the remainder of the film into four chapters, beginning with "Grief." In that segment, the woman finishes a month's hospitalization, and accuses her husband of apathy over the child's death, but proceeds to take responsibility for it herself; he calmly and rationally guides her through this process. In the second segment, "Pain," she confesses to him that she's most terrified of their property in the forest, because she spent time with her son there over the preceding summer; as a form of therapy, he takes her to that locale on a wilderness retreat. She appears to grow more calm and rational over their first days in that milieu. Yet the recovery, it seems, was only illusory, and the subsequent two chapters, "Despair (Gynocide)" and "The Three Beggars," depict the woman's shocking and abrupt regression into unbridled insanity, culminating with grotesque sexual violence against herself, gruesome acts of destruction against her husband, and an apocalyptic climax. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Willem Dafoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg, (more)
- 2008
- PG13
- Add The City of Your Final Destination to Queue Add The City of Your Final Destination to top of Queue
Historically noteworthy as the first Merchant Ivory production that lacked the involvement of longtime producer Ismail Merchant (he died three years prior to this movie's release), director James Ivory's The City of Your Final Destination embodies an adaptation of Peter Cameron's 2005 novel of the same name, written for the screen by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Omar Metwally stars as Omar Razaghi, a young graduate student in the U.S. who wishes to author a biography on the late Jules Gund -- an enigmatic writer who spent his final years with his family in Uruguay, then committed suicide. Omar writes the Gund clan to request permission to pen the text, but is shocked and baffled by the family's refusal to comply. At the urging of Omar's forceful girlfriend, Dierdre (Alexandra Maria Lara), Omar books a seat about the next flight to Uruguay, visits the Gund enclave, and tries to persuade them to change their minds. Present are Gund's gay twin brother Adam (Anthony Hopkins), his widow Caroline (Laura Linney), his mistress Arden (Charlotte Gainsbourg), and his young daughter by Arden, Portia (Ambar Mallman). Omar works on the family members one by one, but runs into extreme difficulty both with Caroline -- a hateful woman bearing deep-seated resentments, who initially refuses to comply with the project at all costs -- and with Adam, who agrees to participate on the condition that Omar perform a dangerous favor in return. Meanwhile, passions begin to stir between Omar and Arden, and Dierdre decides to pay a visit. Unfortunately, The City of Your Final Destination received severely limited theatrical distribution, and failed to make much of a splash at the box office, despite favorable notices from a number of U.S. critics and Ivory's excellent track record. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Omar Metwally, Anthony Hopkins, (more)
Director Todd Haynes' unconventional biopic of the legendary singer/songwriter Bob Dylan features different actors playing the part of the Minnesota native at various stages of his remarkable career. Among the actors playing the singer are Cate Blanchett, who portrays the man during his Don't Look Back era incarnation; Heath Ledger, as an actor playing one of the fictional Dylans in a movie within the movie; Christian Bale, as the Dylan beginning to chafe at being associated so strongly with political causes; Richard Gere, portraying the post-motorcycle accident period; and Marcus Carl Franklin as the young Dylan who passed himself off as the second coming of Woody Guthrie. Each section of the film not only has a different lead actor, but offers different looks that reflect various aspects of popular culture at the time. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
- Starring:
- Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, (more)
A family living in poverty leaves behind the world they know in hope of finding new opportunities in this historical drama from director Emanuele Crialese. The Mancusos are a family struggling to make ends meet in a small farming community in Sicily in 1913. Life has long been hard for the Mancuso Family, who have lived in the same village for generations, and one day they are visited by a man who claims to be from the United States. The man tells them of the wonder and plenty of life in America, an offers to make it possible for them to travel to the New World and find work there. The Mancusos cautiously accept the offer, but after a dangerous voyage aboard an ocean liner, the family arrives in New York to face a number of new challenges -- the humiliating examination at Ellis Island, and abandoning their old lives and ways as they struggle to assimilate in a massive city that is now their home. Starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, Francesco Casisa and Vincenzo Amato, The Golden Door (aka Nuovomondo) received its world premier at the 2006 Venice Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Charlotte Gainsbourg, Vincenzo Amato, (more)
A man tries to hold on to his bachelor lifestyle by getting engaged in this romantic comedy. Luis (Alain Chabat) is a man in his mid-fourties who has been happily unmarried all his life. Luis nearly wed his sweetheart when he was 21, but the meddling of his mother (Bernadette Lafont) and five sisters drove the young lady away, and since then he's devoted his romantic attentions to short-term relationships while earning a good living working in the perfume industry. However, his family remains determined to fix him up with eligible women, and Luis has grown tired of it. With the help of a colleague, Luis concocts a plan -- his friend's daughter Emma (Charlotte Gainsbourg) agrees to pose as his fiancée and then abandon him at the altar, which should silence his mother and sisters on the subject of matrimony once and for all. While Luis and Emma's relationship is all business, she does a flawless job of convincing his family that she loves him and is determined to be his wife -- so much so that Luis wonders if she might be serious about him after all. Directed by Eric Lartigau, Prête-Moi Ta Main (aka I Do) was a major box-office success in France, attracting nearly three million viewers in its first month of release. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Alain Chabat, Charlotte Gainsbourg, (more)
The charmed life of a successful young engineer is thrown into chaos following a decidedly uncomfortable dinner with his powerful boss and the man's socially scabrous wife in With a Friend Like Harry director Dominik Moll's twisted, semi-supernatural thriller. Upon relocating to an ultra-modern community in the south of France with the promise of a lucrative position at powerful Richard Pollock's (André Dussollier) hi-tech firm, Alain Getty (Laurent Lucas) and his wife, Benedicte (Charlotte Gainsbourg), find their life together going better than they ever imagined. Happy in his work and deeply in love with his beautiful wife, Alain relishes his newfound success before a fateful dinner with Richard and his venomously eccentric wife, Alice (Charlotte Rampling), casts a dark thunderhead over Alain's azure skies. Unable to sleep after the troubling and abbreviated dinner and driven to repair the kitchen sink during a sleepless fit of late-night productivity, Alain is shocked to discover that a lemming has become lodged in the drainage pipes. As Alain attempts to discover just how a rodent native to Scandinavia found its way to a tiny drain pipe in France, a sudden revelation regarding the grim fate of Richard's troubled wife finds the once rational engineer struggling to maintain his sanity, and his marriage, against a malevolent and seemingly supernatural force. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Laurent Lucas, Charlotte Gainsbourg, (more)
Inventive Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind director Michel Gondry takes a surreal trip through the mind of an introverted but wildly creative man whose attempts to balance his colorful dreams with his stark reality are complicated by the arrival of a beautiful woman into his life. Shy Stéphane (Gael García Bernal) has returned to his childhood hometown to accept a new job. When the prospective employment offer fails to live up to expectations, however, Stéphane is at least comforted by the close bond he has formed with his creative-thinking neighbor Stéphanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg). Their blossoming romance finally awakens the sleeping confidence that the withdrawn Stéphane was previously capable of displaying only in his dreams, but Stéphane and Stéphanie find their relationship challenged when lingering insecurities prompt the smitten visionary to confront an old dilemma that can't be solved by the Science of Sleep. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gael García Bernal, Charlotte Gainsbourg, (more)
Writer, director, and actor Yvan Attal takes another look at the ups and downs of love and monogamy in this biting romantic comedy. Vincent (Yvan Attal), Fred (Alain Cohen), and Georges (Alain Chabat) are three Parisian men in their early forties who are coming to the unfortunate realization that their love lives are not what they dreamed of in their youth. Vincent is married to Gabrielle (Charlotte Gainsbourg), and while there's still some spark left in their marriage, it usually appears only after an argument. Vincent is having a furtive affair with a beautiful woman (Angie David), while Gabrielle is tempted to do the same when a handsome man in a record shop (Johnny Depp) begins silently flirting with her. Fred is the bachelor of the group, and seems to have an endless parade of women passing through his bedroom, but no one misses the fact that he longs for the sort of long-term relationship that has so far evaded him. And Georges is reaching the end of his rope with his wife, Nathalie (Emmanuelle Seigner), an abrasive feminist who insists on making every aspect of their lives a political matter, but lacking the courage to break up with her, Georges deals with his feelings in the traditional manner -- he buys a new car. Happily Ever After was Attal's first project as writer and director after his international hit Ma Femme Est une Actrice. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Yvan Attal
Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu makes his first English-language feature with the downbeat drama 21 Grams. Set in an unnamed U.S. urban center, the film uses a nonlinear structure to piece together the intertwined lives of three very different people. Paul (Sean Penn) is a math teacher with a heart problem and a troubled marriage to British wife Mary (Charlotte Gainsbourg). Christine (Naomi Watts) is a former drug addict who lives with her husband, Michael (Danny Huston), and her daughters. Jack (Benicio del Toro) is a born-again Christian with a wife (Melissa Leo) who has stood by him since his days as a criminal. Following a tragic accident, the three main characters are thrown into each other's lives. 21 Grams was shown in competition at the 2003 Venice International Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, (more)
Actor Yvan Attal follows up on his 1997 directorial debut of I've Got a Woman with this wry romantic comedy about a regular guy dealing with his wife's fame and career. Yvan (Attal) is a youngish sports writer who, through some improbable luck, finds himself happily married to the beautiful Charlotte (Charlotte Gainsbourg), a fantastically popular movie actress. All is going swimmingly for Yvan until a stranger plants the seeds of jealousy and doubt in his mind over his wife and her libertine profession. Meanwhile, Charlotte is in London, starring in a movie with a very seductive and sophisticated Terence Stamp. Soon misunderstandings pile upon misunderstanding until Yvan's marriage is on the verge of collapse. Can he keep his marriage together? This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Starring:
- Charlotte Gainsbourg, Yvan Attal, (more)
- 2000
Camille Claudel director Bruno Nuytten brings us a tale of the kind of l'amour fou that only the French can do so persistently. A moody, intense drama that opens with a present day car crash, Passionnement is told partially as an extended flashback centering on events that took place around Bastille Day ten years earlier. On the island of Porquerolles, Alice (Charlotte Gainsbourg) spies on Bernard (Gerard Lanvin), a man who has returned to France after living in Brazil for some years. The two had once been lovers, and Alice's obsession with Bernard -- which apparently didn't wane during their time apart -- sets in motion a string of events culminating with the aforementioned car crash. Dysfunction abounds. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bérénice Bejo
- 2000
Victor Hugo's classic story of one man's struggle to redeem himself -- and another man's efforts to bring him down -- is brought to the screen again (there have been at least 18 previous screen adaptations) in this epic-scale television production with a distinguished international cast. Jean Valjean (Gerard Depardieu) is a man forced by circumstance into a life of crime when he steals bread to ease his hunger, ending up behind bars for 19 years. Upon his release, the destitute Valjean attempts to rob the home of a bishop, but the bishop takes pity on him, and Valjean turns over a new leaf, becoming an honest and upright businessman and civic leader. But Javert (John Malkovich), a former guard at the prison where Valjean served time, is now the Chief of Police, and he's determined not to let Valjean live down his criminal past. Les Miserables also features Jeanne Moreau, Virginie Ledoyen, Christian Clavier, and Asia Argento; the miniseries was produced in two versions, a French-language version for European television that ran eight hours, and a four-hour English-language adaptation that was broadcast in a pair of two-hour installments on January 7 and 8, 2001, on the Fox Family Channel. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gérard Depardieu, John Malkovich, (more)
Noted French screenwriter Daniele Thompson makes her directorial debut with this lighthearted romantic comedy. After the December 21st funeral of Yvette's (Francoise Fabian) second husband, she is consoled by the three daughters from her first marriage to Stanislas (Claude Rich), a Russian-Jewish violinist. The oldest, Lorba (Sabine Azema), lives with her father and makes a living by singing ballads in a Russian cabaret, Sonia (Emmanuelle Beart) is a fastidious middle-class housewife, and Yvette's youngest, Milla (Charlotte Gainsbourg), is a go-getting businesswoman. As Christmas celebrations gather steam, Louba learns that at age 42, she is unexpectedly pregnant by Gilbert, her married lover of 12 years. Meanwhile, Sonia develops a habit of taking five-finger discounts while shopping, and Milla takes up with a mysterious drifter who lives as a boarder in Stanislas' house. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Starring:
- Claude Rich, Françoise Fabian, (more)
Charlotte Gainsbourg stars in this 1990s updating of George Cukor's Gaslight (1944). In an unnamed North American city, young Frenchwoman Catherine (Gainsbourg) stumbles into a police station and confesses to murdering her husband's ex-wife Stella. The cops remain unconvinced, as according to their records Stella was stabbed to death two years previously. The rest of the film is told in flashbacks. Soon after Catherine has left all she knew in Europe, she meets Nick (Charles Powell), a dashing film score composer. Not long afterwards, they marry, and she moves into his luxurious loft in an old apartment building. After learning about Nick's former wife's bloody demise, Catherine begins to notice weird things about the flat: a wine glass smudged with lipstick, crooked paintings, strands of another woman's hair, and a journal emblazoned with "SG." Her growing paranoia is only exaggerated by the odd assortment of people inhabiting the building, including a mysterious, ultra-fashionable German art broker, a wealthy math genius, and a wizened drunk who hobbles around with a cane. Soon Catherine finds herself fighting to maintain her sanity. The Intruder was screened at the 1999 Dinard Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Starring:
- Charlotte Gainsbourg, Charles Powell, (more)
- 1996
This taut psychological chiller tells the twisted story of Anna, a woman living in Paris, whose dreams of her Venetian counterpart, a secretive young woman who lives in a fine palace with her brother and an enigmatic older man, become frighteningly real. Anna's world begins coming apart after she is picked up by the police for witnessing an awful crime she cannot remember seeing. When she realizes that her dream alter-ego is trying to kill her, only her lover Marc's calming and supportive influence can save her from madness. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Charlotte Gainsbourg, Gérard Lanvin, (more)
Though unemployed, Pierre is buoyant, outgoing, affable, and experienced with women. This last is a point he never fails to drive home to Benoit, his gentle, hapless best friend. In an effort to compensate for his romantic failures, Benoit turns to the newspaper personals ads, and meets Marie. Even though his courtship of her is uninspiring, Marie agrees to marry Benoit. Naturally, Pierre meets Marie often. As he gets to know her, he discovers that he is recklessly in love with her, and he arranges his life around seeing her and being near her. He is so overtaken with feeling that he even corners total strangers in order to speak of his love. Benoit -completely unaware of this- suggests that he keep Marie company while he is at work. When everything comes out into the open, the friendship of the two men governs the outcome. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Charlotte Gainsbourg, Yvan Attal, (more)
Director Franco Zeffirelli stresses emotional realism over gothic chills in this restrained adaptation of Charlotte Bronte's classic. The screenplay, by Zeffirelli and Hugh Whitmore, remains relatively faithful to the original story, beginning with a condensed look at the troubled childhood of young Jane (Anna Paquin) and her mistreatment by a cruel aunt (Fiona Shaw). The bulk of the film centers on Jane as an adult (Charlotte Gainsbourg), a prim governess who accepts a position at Thornfield Hall caring for the young Adele (Josephine Serre). There Jane also must deal with the estate's head, Edward Rochester (William Hurt), a mysteriously brooding yet oddly alluring older man. She finds herself drawn to Rochester, but their potential romance is threatened by Jane's fears and Rochester's internal torment. Rather than the spooky visuals of earlier adaptations, Zeffirelli and cinematographer David Watkins opt for a subdued gloominess, placing emphasis on Gainsbourg's and Hurt's wounded portrayals. Fans of the gothic will likely find Zeffirelli's interpretation anemic in comparison to the passionate 1944 version with Joan Fontaine and Orson Welles, though others may appreciate the more naturalistic and faithful approach. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi
- Starring:
- William Hurt, Charlotte Gainsbourg, (more)
A burned out actor begins to question his sanity in this French comedy that stars the writer/director Michel Blanc in a dual role. In the first role Blanc plays himself as an exhausted actor. He has been doing too much TV and too many movies. Odd things begin to happen and Blanc becomes convinced his sanity is slipping away. He is seen going berserk at Cannes with a series of starlets. At Cannes, he meets festival head Gilles Jacob whom he persuades to give the room number of Gerard Depardieu. After Blanc is accused of attempted rape, he goes to a psychiatrist who prescribes peace and quiet in the country. He goes to the Provencial estate of his friend Carole Bouquet. It is there Bouquet and Blanc meet Blanc's devilish double Patrick Olivier. After a lengthy chase the two sit down and decide that Blanc will take only the high quality roles while Olivier will do the rest. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michel Blanc, Carole Bouquet, (more)
- 1993
- NR
- Add The Cement Garden to Queue
Ian McEwan's disturbing novel is given a chilly shimmer in this film adaptation by Andrew Birkin. The film takes place in a concrete slab of a house situated on the outskirts of an English town. The father (Hanns Zischer) is a consumptive creep, while the mother (Sinead Cusack) is a sweet and understanding matriarch. When the father dies of a heart attack after his garden is paved over, it is too much for the mother to bear, and after a few weeks she wastes away and also dies. This leaves the children to fend for themselves. The eldest sister and brother, Julie (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and Jack (Andrew Robertson), have to care for the younger children, Sue (Alice Coultard) and Tom (Ned Birkin). Without parental supervision, the four children give themselves up to their secret longings. Jack hides in corners to masturbate, but Julie uses her sexual attraction to lure Jack into an incestuous relationship. Even the younger children have their problems: Sue is mostly mute and spends all her time obsessively writing in her journal, while Tom feels that deep inside himself he is a girl trapped in a boy's body. The children hide the mother's remains in the basement and live off her bank account. The neighbors don't suspect a thing --that is until sleazy Derek (Jochen Horst) begins to come around in his red convertible, trying to get a date with Julie. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Andrew N. Robertson, Charlotte Gainsbourg, (more)
- 1992
An expectant mother begins to question the identity of her unborn child's father after entering into an extramarital affair with her sister's lover. Marie and Antoine are living together and deeply in love when Marie voices her desire to become a mother. Unfortunately for Marie, Antoine has no interest in starting a family. Shortly thereafter, Marie meets Paul, and coolly rejects his advances. But later, when Paul begins sleeping with Marie's sister Juliette, Marie realizes that he may in fact be the man of her dreams. Subsequently alternating between Antoine and Paul as she wrestles with her nagging conscience, Marie later learns she is pregnant and realizes that she can't be certain which of her lovers is the father. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Charlotte Gainsbourg, Yvan Attal, (more)
- 1991
In this frequently surrealistic romp, a satire on sex, politics, and the business of filmmaking, two young women get together after discovering sufficient provocations in their lives to deliberately set out to wreak havoc in the world around them. Joelle (Anouk Grinberg) has just been thrown out of a moving car by her abusive man-friend, when Camille (Charlotte Gainsbourg) encounters her. Joelle's bitter exclamation Merci la Vie, or "thank you, life" echoes something of Camille's feelings, and the two decide to go on a rampage, picking up and seducing numerous men and then doing things like destroying their cars. Eventually, they set their sights on a "higher" goal and decide to do in an entire town. Meanwhile, it becomes evident that a sinister medical researcher, Dr. Worms (Gérard Depardieu), has infected promiscuous Joelle with a sexually transmitted disease he invented for the sole purpose of becoming the man who finds its cure, which he hopes will make him beloved, famous and rich. At some point, an elaborate series of flashbacks enter the story, and in one sequence, Camille attempts to persuade her feuding parents to get back together long enough to conceive her. Reviewers noted that logic is not a strong point in this film, but they found its fast pace and bright performances vastly entertaining. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Charlotte Gainsbourg, Anouk Grinberg, (more)
- 1991
Amnesty International produced this film, which features more than two dozen greats of French cinema making pleas for the lives of political prisoners around the world. Each filmmaker speaks passionately on behalf of an individual whose life has been warped by political intolerance, imprisonment, torture or murder, as the lives of those prisoners or sufferers are documented onscreen. A variety of directors contributed shorts with this theme, and the ways in which the appeals are dramatized differ markedly from one to the next. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Catherine Deneuve, Philippe Noiret, (more)
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