Gaspard Ulliel Movies
As the only child of a stylist father and a mother who produced runway exhibitions, French actor Gaspard Ulliel came of age in the shadow of the Parisian fashion world. Ulliel undertook an early foray into drama, when an adult friend of the family sought to establish an agency for child actors and -- impressed by Ulliel's visage and natural ability -- asked the then 11-year-old actor to join. Ulliel instantly agreed, and debuted with roles in numerous French telemovies.Ulliel's first taste of international exposure arrived in 2001, when the 17-year-old actor appeared as Louis in Christophe Gans and Pascal Laugier's fantasy and martial arts epic Brotherhood of the Wolf (aka La Pacte des Loups). Derived from a legendary series of events in French history, the picture weaves the tale of a strange, rhinoceros-like beast that prowls the countryside and devours hundreds of victims, but is countered by a team of local warriors. Although the role of Louis was a relatively small part, Ulliel's work caught the eye of the brilliant French director André Téchiné, who cast the teenager opposite the luminous French actress Emmanuelle Béart in his WWII drama Strayed (aka Les Égarés, 2003). As Yves, a rough-hewn, working-class Frenchman who helps lead Béart's widow and her children to safety in an isolated, rural cabin (and subsequently conducts an affair with Béart), Ulliel impressed everyone with his haunting presence. As one journalist observed, this role finally "made critics take notice."
Ulliel continued his history of pairing up with French screen goddesses when director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (of Delicatessen and Amélie fame) enlisted him as the missing soldier lover and fiancé of Audrey Tautou's Mathilde in the 2004 wartime romance A Very Long Engagement (aka Un Long Dimanche de Fiançailles). The picture swept away the hearts of critics and the public when it premiered in late 2004 and received two Academy Award nominations. And although Ulliel's character is, by the very nature of the story, offscreen for much of the film, he made an enduring impression and continued his career ascent. Ulliel received premier onscreen billing for the first occasion in 2005, as Simon, a young man en route to spend Christmas with his über-dysfunctional French family, in Rodolphe Marconi's disturbingly intimate drama The Last Day (aka La Dernier Jour). That same year, Ulliel joined the massive ensemble cast of Richard Dembo's La Maison de Nina, and shot "Marais," Gus Van Sant's contribution to the film-a-sketch Paris, Je t'Aime (2007), while gearing up for his American debut. That debut (a natural for Ulliel, who speaks fluent English) arrived in the form of Peter Webber's 2007 horror picture Hannibal Rising -- the Dino de Laurentiis Company's fifth installment in the ongoing series of films about Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter, the psychopathic madman who devours his victims. In the film, Ulliel plays Lecter at a young age. The story finds him watching helplessly, and driven over the edge into insane fury, as his family is slaughtered by a bunch of crazed soldiers; he then ultimately enrolls in medical school to learn how to extract brutal anatomical revenge on the war criminals responsible for extinguishing his clan. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
Curious filmgoers looking to get better acquainted with the silver screen's most notorious cannibalistic serial killer are sure to get their fair share of shocks and thrills as director Peter Webber teams with author Thomas Harris to explore the early life of well-read psychopath Hannibal Lecter. Based on author Harris' gruesome novel of the same name, Hannibal Rising travels back in time to World War II-era Lithuania, where an impressionable, well-to-do young boy named Hannibal (Gaspard Ulliel) was forced to watch helplessly as his family was massacred and his young sister suffered a terrifying fate at the hands of desperate, famished soldiers. After seeking temporary shelter at the Soviet orphanage that was once his family's home, Hannibal later flees to Paris in search of his long-lost uncle. Though his uncle has passed away, his uncle's beautiful Japanese widow, Lady Murasaki (Gong Li), warmly accepts the frightened orphan into her home. But even the love and kindness of this generous stranger isn't enough to calm the raging storm that is brewing inside this troubled young boy. Plagued by nightmares and determined to seek vengeance on the murderous war criminals who brutalized his family, the profoundly disturbed but academically gifted Hannibal enrolls in medical school in order to hone the skills that will allow him to exact horrific justice. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gaspard Ulliel, Gong Li, (more)
- 2006
Best known for such films as My Own Private Idaho and Good Will Hunting, director Gus Van Sant contributed this short film to the anthology Paris, Je T'Aime. It concerns a young gay man who senses an immediate soul-to-soul connection with a boy he encounters in a Parisian picture-framing shop -- but doesn't recognize a certain irony about the lad that constitutes a barrier between them. Le Marais also features a cameo by singer Marianne Faithful. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marianne Faithfull, Elias McConnell, (more)
Twenty acclaimed filmmakers from around the world look at love in the City of Lights in this omnibus feature. Paris, Je T'Aime features 18 short stories, each set in a different part of Paris and each featuring a different cast and director (two segments were produced by two filmmakers in collaboration). In "Faubourg Saint-Denis," Tom Tykwer directs Natalie Portman as an American actress who is the object of affection for a blind student (Melchior Belson). Christopher Doyle's "Porte de Choisy" follows a salesman (Barbet Schroeder) as he tries to pitch beauty aids in Chinatown. Nick Nolte and Ludivine Sagnier are father and daughter in "Parc Monceau" from Alfonso Cuarón. Animator Sylvain Chomet turns his eye to a pair of living, breathing mimes in "Tour Eiffel." An interracial romance in France is offered by Gurinder Chadha in "Quais de Seine." In "Le Marais" from Gus Van Sant, a man (Gaspard Ulliel) finds himself falling for a handsome gent (Elias McConnell) who works in a print shop. Isabel Coixet tells the tale of a man (Sergio Castellitto) who is making his final choice between his wife (Miranda Richardson) and his lover (Leonor Watling) in "Bastille." Juliette Binoche plays a grieving mother in Nobuhiro Suwa's "Place des Victoires," in which she's greeted by a spectral cowboy (Willem Dafoe). Richard LaGravanese's "Pigalle" finds a long-married man (Bob Hoskins) turning to a prostitute for advice on pleasing his wife (Fanny Ardant). Gérard Depardieu and Frédéric Auburtin direct Gena Rowlands and Ben Gazzara as longtime marrieds meeting for one final pre-divorce encounter in "Quartier Latin." Steve Buscemi learns a lesson about local etiquette in the Paris Metro in "Tuileries" from Joel and Ethan Coen. In "Loin du 16ème" by Walter Salles, a housekeeper (Catalina Sandino Moreno) longs for her own child as she tends to the infant of her wealthy employer. Elijah Wood stars in "Quartier de la Madeleine," a vampire tale from Vincenzo Natali. Wes Craven presents another fantasy in "Père-Lachaise," in which an engaged young man (Rufus Sewell) receives romantic advice from the spirit of Oscar Wilde (Alex Payne). A postal worker from Colorado (Margo Martindale) shares her thoughts on her visit to Paris in mangled French in Alexander Payne's witty "14th Arrondissement." Other segments include "Place des Fêtes" from Oliver Schmitz, Bruno Podalydès' "Montmartre," and "Quartier des Enfants Rouges" by Olivier Assayas, which stars Maggie Gyllenhaal. Paris, Je T'Aime received its world premiere at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Rodolphe Marcnoi's The Last Day concerns the troubled history of a family. Eighteen-year-old Simon (Gaspard Ulliel) meets the attractive 17-year-old Louise (Melanie Laurent) while he travels on a train to spend Christmas with his family. She joins him on his visit home. Simon's mother, Marie (Nicole Garcia), is happy to see her son, but dad (Christophe Malavoy) loves to complain and harass his family, and sister Alice (Alysson Paradis) competes fiercely with her brother. The family mistakenly believes that Simon and Louise are intimately involved with each other. Eventually, their interactions reveal buried truths about various members of the family. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gaspard Ulliel, Nicole Garcia, (more)
- 2005
Richard Dembo's third directorial effort, La Maison De Nina, concerns a group of Jewish children living in an orphanage in Paris at the end of WWII. Soon there is an influx of children at the orphanage whose parents did not survive the concentration camps. Eventually those newcomers and the orphans who already lived there are feuding over the importance of their Jewish heritage. The children must deal with their grief in a variety of ways including religion, music, and one poor child by deciding to not talk. Dembo, an Oscar winner in 1984, passed away while the film was in post-production. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Agnès Jaoui, Sarah Adler, (more)
Audrey Tautou, who rose to international stardom with the title role in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's worldwide smash Amélie, reunites with the director for this drama, set during the darkest days of World War I and its immediate aftermath. Mathilde (Tautou) is a pretty but frail young women who was left with a bad leg after a childhood bout with polio. Mathilde lives in a small French village with her Aunt Bénédicte (Chantal Neuwirth) and Uncle Sylvain (Dominique Pinon), and is engaged to marry Manech (Gaspard Ulliel), the son of a lighthouse keeper who is fighting with the army near the German front. Manech is one of five soldiers who have been accused of injuring themselves in order to be sent home; in order to discourage similar behavior among their comrades, Manech and the other soldiers are sentenced to death, and the condemned men are marched into the no man's land between the French and German lines, where they are certain to be killed. Mathilde receives word of Manech's death, but in her heart she believes that if the man she loved had been killed, she would know it and feel it. Convinced he's still alive somewhere, Mathilde hires a private detective (Ticky Holgado) shortly after the end of the war, and together they set out to find the missing Manech. Jodie Foster appears in a supporting role as a Polish expatriate living in France. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Audrey Tautou, Gaspard Ulliel, (more)
A woman struggles to trust a man who has become her protector and benefactor in this French drama set during World War II. In 1940, as German troops invade France, Odile (Emmanuelle Béart), a woman who has recently lost her husband, is desperate to get her two children, Philippe (Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet) and Cathy (Clémence Meyer), away from the fighting by heading south, though the roads are choked with others eager to do the same. When the road Odile is traveling is strafed by German bombs, she and her children abandon their car and take to the woods, where they are soon joined by Yvan (Gaspard Ulliel), a headstrong teenager who is also fleeing the advancing Nazi forces. Odile isn't certain the hot-headed young man is such a good traveling companion, but Philippe wants him around to help protect the family from the Germans, and he gives him his late father's watch as an inducement to stick around. Late one night, in need of rest, Yvan finds a huge abandoned house, and he and Odile quickly take it over. The house seems to be a safe haven, and the four travelers decide to stay for a while. Philippe finds a role model in Yvan, and lonely Odile finds herself drawn to him, though, with the passage of time, she becomes eager to learn more about his past, which he hesitates to discuss. Strayed (aka Les Égarés) was adapted from the novel The Boy With Grey Eyes by Gilles Perrault. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emmanuelle Béart, Gaspard Ulliel, (more)
- 2002
A group of friends and mutual acquaintances embark on a number of vacations -- concealed or otherwise -- for relaxation and unexpected romantic hijinks in French actor/director Michel Blanc's fourth directorial effort, the romantic ensemble comedy See How They Run. While hosting a dinner party, the well-to-do Elizabeth (Charlotte Rampling) and Bertrand Lannier (Jacques Dutronc) learn that their neighbors Veronique (Karin Viard) and Jerome (Denis Podalydes) -- who used to be successful but are currently hiding their financial woes -- will be vacationing in the same resort town at the same time. Impulsively, Elizabeth invites her friend, and fellow dinner party guest, Julie (Clotilde Courau), to join them and thus make a party out of the event. However, Bertrand backs out of the trip while claiming to have to work -- only to schedule a rendezvous with his lover, his transsexual secretary (Mickael Dolmen), instead. Meanwhile, the Lannier's teenaged daughter, Emilie (Lou Doillon), has been planning a parentally endorsed vacation to the United States with one of her friends, but is in actuality going on a romantic retreat with one of her father's employees, Kevin (Sami Bouajila). As the separate excursions commence, a number of romantic couplings spring up -- as well as a number of new friendships -- that will have long-lasting effects on all of the vacationers' lives. See How They Run received the honor of being selected for inclusion into the 2002 Montreal World Film Festival. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlotte Rampling, Jacques Dutronc, (more)
French legend has it that a creature known as the Beast of Gevaudan -- a huge, wolf-like monster -- was responsible for the violent deaths of over 100 persons in the mid-18th century, and this horror fantasy blends the lore of this fabled beast with a story of two men who set out to capture it. After a number of mutilated corpses begin appearing across the French countryside, naturalist Chevalier Gregoire de Fronsac (Samuel Le Bihan) is dispatched by the King to find and capture the animal responsible for the killings. Mani (Mark Dacascos), an Indian from Canada and an experienced hand in the wilds, is hired to assist de Fronsac in his work. Gregoire's assignment earns him the acquaintance of Marianne de Morangias (Emilie Dequenne), the lovely daughter of the idly wealthy Count de Morangias (Jean Yanne), but Gregoire receives a much chillier welcome from her brother Jean-Francois (Vincent Cassel), who, despite having lost an arm to a lion in Africa, is quite the huntsman himself. As Gregoire and Mani arrive in the village of Gevaudan, they're drawn to a local house of prostitution, where the animalistic allure and supernatural powers of Sylvia (Monica Bellucci) prove to have a profound effect on the naive Gregoire. Jim Henson's Creature Shop provided the special-effects expertise for the creation of the Beast of Gevaudan. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Samuel Le Bihan, Mark Dacascos, (more)
