Dominique Pinon Movies

An underground lair serves as the point of inspiration for this deeply whimsical fantasy comedy (with echoes of Jodorowsky's Rainbow Thief) from French cause célèbre Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie, The City of Lost Children). The locale is post-9/11 Europe. As arms dealers go head to head with one another in a series of violent skirmishes -- suggesting that an apocalyptic cataclysm may be lingering on the horizon -- the unfortunate Bazil (Dany Boon) still reels from the long-ago death of his father from a roadside bomb, an event that left him orphaned as a boy. Now employed in a low-paying job as a video-store clerk, and still trying to determine how he fits into the scheme of things, he gets hit by a stray bullet from a drive-by shooting and promptly lands in the hospital. Upon release, he finds himself broke and unemployed. Hope soon crops up, however, in the form of Placard (Jean-Pierre Marielle), an ex-convict living in a scrap dump with a motley group of social outcasts -- all of whom welcome Bazil with warmth, compassion, and hospitality. Sure of his place for the first time in his life, Bazil joins forces with them to turn the dump into a lovely underground home, filled to the rafters with extraordinary inventions and sculptures. Soon after, the possibility of revenge against the munitions manufacturers responsible for Bazil's dad's death presents itself. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

An artist trying to climb the ladder of success spends his time with one who had fallen past most of the rungs in this whimsical comedy from Spain with an international cast. Zeta (Edu Soto) is a struggling writer trying to make a name for himself, but his agent (Jagvier Mejia) doesn't believe in his work and keeps giving him jobs ghost-writing for others. Zeta's latest assignment is to finish a novel for someone else in a mere four weeks, but he's having a hard time finding the inspiration for the project. Zeta spends much of his spare time at a neighborhood bar, Café Rossingol, a hangout for bohemians and eccentrics where he's fallen for one of the barmaids, Alicia (Barbara Goenaga), though she's made it clear she doesn't want to be in love with anyone. The Rossingol is run by Pascal (Dominique Pinon), who used to be the leader of a theater troupe, but ever since their venue was torn down to make room for a public sculpture, he's been reduced to serving drinks to others. Pascal gets word that several members of his old company are coming back to town for a visit, including beautiful singer Irene (Leigh Zimmerman) and her accompanist Kurt (Michael Jenn). While Pascal is excited to see his old colleagues, he's also nervous about what they may have to say to him, and he's giving serious thought to skipping town rather than facing them. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Chaos and quirk reign in this sweetly funny film set in Latvia. An American's arrival in the Baltic country coincides with the Summer Solstice of the year, and he would rather be anywhere else in the world. As he searches for his half-sister, he encounters a cab driver who gives him fondness for this strange country. Midsummer Madness stars Pulp Fiction's Maria de Medeiros and Amelie's Dominique Pinon. ~ Kimber Myers, Rovi

Two thick-headed pals stumble through a town where nearly everyone is as dumb as they are in this manic comedy from Belgium. Jean-Claude (Jean-Luc Couchard) is a loud-mouthed, know-it-all and full time boor who is best friends with Stef (Dominique Pinon), a self-styled lady killer who would do better with the fair sex if he could work up the ambition to wake up in the morning. Stef has decided that despite his lofty ambitions, he may need some help in finding the woman of his dreams, and embracing loyalty rather than logic he turns to Jean-Claude for advice. As Jean-Claude explains his deeply flawed techniques for impressing women, he and Stef cross the paths of a handful of local eccentrics, including perpetual mugging victim Greg (Jeremie Renier), misguided school teacher Nadine (Marion Cotillard), sex crazed Natacha (Melanie Laurent), short-tempered cop Laurence (Florence Foresti), wealthy spoiled brat Fabianne (Marie Kremer), and abattoir enthusiast Claudy (Francois Damiens). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A would-be independent filmmaker moves from Super-8 to 35 mm overnight in this comedy from France. Goran (Clément Sibony) is an auto mechanic who has been given the nickname Kubrick by his pals because of his great love for movies and his desire to someday become a professional filmmaker. Karim (Micky El Mazroui) and Toxic (Dan Herzberg) are Kubrick's two best friends, willing to do anything to back him up. When Karim has a hot date one night and no place to take his girl, Toxic lets him use his apartment and ends up sleeping in a public park. The next morning, Toxic discovers a film crew has set up for a location shoot in the park, and a member of the crew, mistaking him for a driver, hands Toxic the keys to a truck full of camera equipment, sound gear, and costumes and tells him to park it somewhere else. Seizing a golden opportunity, Toxic turns the truck over to Kubrick, who with the tools at his disposal begins plotting his dream project -- a full-dress screen version of Romeo and Juliet, starring neighborhood beauty Soraya (Karina Testa) and local wise guy Billou (Lorant Deutsch) as the doomed lovers. Ze Film was written and directed Guy Jacques, who shot the film on-location in the neighborhood where he grew up. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The filmmaking team of James Eaves and Johannes Roberts co-wrote and co-directed this follow-up to their debut feature, Sanitarium. Lyndie Uphill stars as Alice, a woman with vengeance on her mind in the wake of her child's brutal murder. Now that similar crimes are being committed, Alice becomes convinced that the killer is out there and she'll stop at nothing to bring him down. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi

One woman decides to change the world by changing the lives of the people she knows in this charming and romantic comic fantasy from director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Amelie (Audrey Tautou) is a young woman who had a decidedly unusual childhood; misdiagnosed with an unusual heart condition, Amelie didn't attend school with other children, but spent most of her time in her room, where she developed a keen imagination and an active fantasy life. Her mother Amandine (Lorella Cravotta) died in a freak accident when Amelie was eight, and her father Raphael (Rufus) had limited contact with her, since his presence seemed to throw her heart into high gear. Despite all this, Amelie has grown into a healthy and beautiful young woman who works in a cafe and has a whimsical, romantic nature. When Princess Diana dies in a car wreck in the summer of 1997, Amelie is reminded that life can be fleeting and she decides it's time for her to intervene in the lives of those around her, hoping to bring a bit of happiness to her neighbors and the regulars at the cafe. Amelie starts by bringing together two lonely people -- Georgette (Isabelle Nanty), a tobacconist with a severe case of hypochondria, and Joseph (Dominique Pinon), an especially ill-tempered customer. When Amelie finds a box of old toys in her apartment, she returns them to their former owner, Mr. Bretodeau (Maurice Benichou), sending him on a reverie of childhood. Amelie befriends Dufayel (Serge Merlin), an elderly artist living nearby whose bones are so brittle, thanks to a rare disease, that everything in his flat must be padded for his protection. And Amelie decides someone has to step into the life of Nino (Mathieu Kassovitz), a lonely adult video store clerk and part-time carnival spook-show ghost who collects pictures left behind at photo booths around Paris. Le Fabuleux Destin D'Amelie Poulain received unusually enthusiastic advance reviews prior to its French premiere in the spring of 2001, and was well received at a special free screening at that year's Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

French history gets turned upside down in this lavishly mounted comedy with an international cast. As Napoleon (David Suchet) prepares for the Battle of Waterloo, he's nearly killed by an assassin. The attempted murder is foiled by Corporal Armani (Dominique Pinon), and a grateful Napoleon promotes the soldier to Field Marshal, not realizing that the rescue was a happy accident rather than an act of heroism, or that Armani's ineptitude will cost him dearly later on. Meanwhile, Napoleon is looking for inside information on the Duke of Wellington (Stephen Fry); accordingly, he is happy to make the acquaintance of Lady Edwina (Alexandra Vandernoot), who claims to be a French spy with some major dirt on the British command. Napoleon is smitten with the comely intelligence agent and soon they're enjoying a fling, but what he doesn't know is that she's actually working with the British to uncover information on the diminutive French ruler. When Edwina beats a hasty retreat, Napoleon thinks foul play is afoot, and he decides to follow her, disguising himself as a peasant woman to avoid suspicion. Though set in France and directed by Spanish filmmakers, Sabotage! was shot in English with an eye toward the American market. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In this comedy, director Patrick Timsit plays a modern-day Quasimodo accused of 17 murders. The film uses the classic story of The Hunchback of Notre Dame to show the comic side of such everyday things as portable phones, Nintendo games, and the World Cup. The screen is always bigger and funnier than life, but the director tries to make a point that observation of life is enough to come face to face with corporal as well as verbal comedy. Using burlesque, he tries to create a more thought-provoking comedy. The highlight of the film was the discovery of a new Brigitte Bardot, Melanie Thierry, alias Esmeralda. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi

Two centuries after Ellen Ripley's death, doctors aboard the space station Auriga clone her using a blood sample taken from Fiorna 161, in hopes of harvesting the queen embryo that was incubating inside of her when she was trapped on the remote penal planet. Finally succeeding after numerous attempts, they remove the alien and repair the clone for further study. Before long, the Ripley clone has gained consciousness, and displays superhuman capabilities that suggest it possesses alien DNA. When Ripley discovers that General Perez (Dan Hedaya) is keeping the queen in a heavily fortified room of the space station, she warns the military man and his scientists that the creature cannot be contained no matter how hard they try. Meanwhile, General Perez has hired a crew of space pirates to deliver the cryogenically frozen bodies of another ship to the Auriga so they can be used to breed more aliens. The leader of the pirates is Johner (Ron Perlman), a gruff mercenary who engages Ripley to no avail. When Call (Winona Ryder), one of Johner's crewmembers, admits that she was sent to assassinate Ripley, General Perez attempts to have the pirates executed. The result is a tense standoff between the pirates and the military men, with the aliens causing havoc after breaking free of their containment cells. Attempting a daring escape, Ripley and the pirates discover the lab where she was cloned before being forced to swim through the mess hall, which has been submerged in water during the aliens' escape. Discovering a carefully guarded secret about Call's past, Ripley attempts to convince her to alter the Auruga's course, which was set to Earth when the ship went into emergency mode. With the fate of mankind hanging in the balance, Ripley is captured by the aliens and taken to their nest, where she comes face to face with the mutated results of the scientists' experiments. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

After a 10-year absence, 27-year-old Amelie (Florence Pernel) returns home to suburban Paris and the decaying motorcycle-dealership/junkyard where she was raised. Her hope is that time has healed the open wound of hostility between herself and her alcoholic older brother Adrien (Dominique Pinon). Amelie dusts off an ancient motorcycle, revs it up, and practices riding inside the immense sphere of metal latticework constructed by her late father. The local popularity of this stunt suggests a broader appeal plus profits, so soon the act goes on the road, where emotions spin out of control. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

This visually inventive French sci-fi/fantasy tale began winning a cult following practically from the moment it was released. Krank (Daniel Emilfork) is a foul, monstrous creature who lords over the inhabitants of a small island; Krank's emotional being is every bit as ugly as his physical personage, largely because he does not have the ability to dream. However, he has developed a machine that can drain the dreams of others from their heads, and he devotes himself to kidnapping children from a nearby harbor town so that he can steal their pleasant dreams. Denree (Joseph Lucien) is one of the children who has been spirited off to the island; Krank discovers that he's an even bigger problem than he imagined when his big brother One (Ron Perlman), a harpoon-wielding mountain of a man, sets out on a rescue mission. Once he arrives on Krank's island, One encounters a brain in a fish tank that has learned to talk, a group of clones who can't decide who is the original, a pair of Siamese twins, an octopus that guides a group of orphaned thieves, and a girl named Miette (Judith Vittet) who says she can guide One to Denree. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi