Hélène Vincent Movies

Albert Dupontel directs, writes, and stars in freewheeling French comedy concerning a glue-huffing homeless man who earns an unexpected modicum of respect after coming into possession of a police uniform. Roland (Dupontel) was wandering the shores of the Seine when he noticed a man hurling himself into the churning waters below. Upon investigating the site from which the man leapt, the curious derelict finds that the jumper, presumably a policeman, had left behind his uniform and a suicide note. When Roland attempts to do the right thing and return the uniform to the police station, he is chased away by overzealous cops before he has the chance to explain what happened. Upon noticing a cafeteria that provides free meals to policemen, Roland decides to make the best of his situation by donning the uniform and ordering dinner. Later, when Roland meets a singing mother (Claude Perron) who is struggling to get her children back from the malevolent in-laws who object of her lifestyle and see her as unfit to parent, the uniformed drifter attempts to use his newfound badge for a good cause. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A young woman tries to ease herself out of the closet without terrifying her parents in the process in this comedy-drama. The year is 1969, and Sacha (Marie Bunel) is a young Belgian woman living in Canada. Sacha's family sent her to Canada to attend medical school, but she hasn't had the heart to tell them that she's dropped out of college to devote herself to her new interest in photography. Sacha also hasn't told her parents that she's a lesbian -- and that she has a new girlfriend, Odile (Macha Grenon). Odile is tired of being kept a secret, and insists that Sacha tell her parents the truth before American astronauts land on the moon in a few months -- or else. Sacha flies home to Belgium for a visit, planning to come clean to her folks, but she discovers they've arranged a huge welcome home party for the entire neighborhood. With everyone so excited that the soon-to-be-doctor is paying them a visit, Sacha wonders when the time will be right to give her family the news. Not that it will be easy to explain things to them anyway: Mother (Helene Vincent) is high-strung and suffering from cancer, Father (Christian Grahay) is the owner of a business about to go bust, sister Elisa (Mimie Mathy) is an embittered midget who talks to her goldfish, and her grandmother (Tsilla Chelton) has a few secrets of her own that she isn't sharing. Que Faisaient Les Femmes Pendant Que L'Homme Marchait Sur La Lune? was the first feature directed by Chris Vander Stappen), who won acclaim for the screenplay to Ma Vie en Rose. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Jet black and unrelentingly nihilistic with only a touch of sentiment, this comedy tells the story of a mildly retarded 30-year-old who leaves the orphanage where he was raised to learn the truth about his parents. In his mind, they died somewhat romantically, perhaps at the hands of the Mafia or maybe they were kidnapped.... The truth is, Bernie's impoverished parents left him to die in a project dumpster when he was only two weeks old. Eventually, after meeting assorted savory and unsavory characters, Bernie learns the truth and finds his parents. The reunion is horribly unpleasant and during a struggle, someone is raped and loses vital appendages. Later Bernie gets involved with a heroin addict trying to escape her tyrannical, jobless and crippled father. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, veterinarian Henri Sauveur (Jean Rochefort) maintains his dignity and calm in the face of an incredible number of irritating or even genuinely upsetting encounters with inveterate pains-in-the-neck. He suffers from the rudeness (and worse) of Parisian drivers, his relatives, and friends and clients. All the same, he manages to convey an admirable appearance of insouciance and a devil-may-care attitude. That is, until he meets the redoubtable Louise Sherry (Miou-Miou). He is so smitten with her charms that his artfully maintained defenses crumble pitifully, and he is reduced to confiding his troubles to a bemused but sympathetic female chimpanzee. This fast-paced comedy features some of France's best-loved actors and comedians, including Claude Brasseur, Jean Yanne, and Jacques Villeret) in walk-on performances. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

As directed by Richard Dembo, the period adventure drama L'Instinct de l'ange (Angel's Wing) unfurls in early 20th century France, where Henry, a wealthy young Frenchman from an aristocratic family, undergoes an extensive cure for tuberculosis at a sanitarium and gets released soon afterward. He longs to join the French flying corps of the Great War - then raging across Europe - but is promptly rejected given the checkered history of his health. Never one to swallow such rejections, Henry - who learned to fly years earlier of his own accord - promptly joins a local fighting squadron and racks up a litany of air victories, which piques the suspicion of his military colleagues. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Young, naive and innocent, Pierre (Manuel Blanc) has dreams of becoming an actor. He is a good-looking and personable boy, and he has just moved to the city to see if he can't accomplish his dreams. He gets a job as an orderly at a hospital and is further supported by an older woman (Helene Vincent), a nurse he has met there, in return for his sexual favors. However, in his acting class, he quickly discovers that he is not overflowing with talent, and his dream of becoming an actor grows dim. Instead, despite the advice of a knowledgeable and worldly older gay man (Philippe Noiret), he becomes a sex worker. It has long been a staple of the movies that certain hustlers and prostitutes maintain a distinction between their work and their lives by not kissing their clients, hence the title of this film, J'embrasse Pas. He grows to love the seedy, degraded lifestyle, and seems to be adapting well to his new profession until he has the poor judgement to fall in love with a high-class prostitute (Emmanuelle Béart) and earns the antagonism of her pimp. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this retelling of the story of Hamlet, the young man is a soldier on leave to attend his widowed mother's marriage to his uncle - a marriage which is unpleasantly near in time to the death of his father. Every element of Shakespeare's tragic story is present, except that, this time, Dede (Luc Thullier refuses to kill anyone, no matter how persistent his father's frustrated ghost is. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This gentle, mildly satiric French comedy follows the romantic adventures of a group of men who have gone with their children to spend the summer in their vacation homes on the Atlantic coast. Some of the men are divorced, some still married, but all are open to meeting new women while their wives and girlfriends are back in Paris. Much of the humor derives from the reversal of the usual situation - - the men are off with the children while the women are back home tied to work and career. The film is loosely structured and episodic as it simultaneously follows the stories of a number of characters. Particularly engaging in the large cast are Michel Robin as an eccentric publisher with a avidly jealous wife and Helene Vincent as a frumpy divorcee constantly on the prowl for a new mate. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Paris was never so grim as in this French satire. Malisard and Prevot (Philippe Noiret and Pierre Richard) are a journalistic team. Their job is to ride around in a city full of burning buildings, thieves and bomb explosions looking for scoops and headline grabbers suitable for the very yellow journalistic slant their paper is known for. Things get out of hand and very hectic when they start covering the apparent disappearance of their own children. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide