Elsa Zylberstein Movies
One of the more prominent actresses to emerge from the new young French cinema, Elsa Zylberstein has appeared in a diverse array of films since making her debut in 1988.Born in Paris on October 16, 1969, Zylberstein grew up in one of the city's suburbs. She took an interest in dance at a young age, and she trained as a classical dancer for years. Her training led her to study the dramatic arts at a conservatory; after completing her studies, Zylberstein made her film debut in René Feret's Bapteme (1988). Three years later, she earned a fairly substantial role in Maurice Pialat's acclaimed Van Gogh, a historical drama about the famous painter.
But it was with director Martine Dugowson's Mina Tannenbaum (1994) that Zylberstein had her first true leading role. Starring alongside Romane Bohringer as one of two Jewish girls growing up as best friends in Paris, the actress earned strong notices for her performance. She again teamed with Dugowson and Bohringer for Portraits Chinoise in 1996, gracing the ensemble romantic satire with her portrayal of an insecure, self-pitying young Parisian. The following year, Zylberstein became more recognizable to an English-speaking audience with her role in Metroland, a British drama starring Christian Bale and Emily Watson. Cast as Bale's Bohemian lover, Zylberstein imbued the film with much of its erotic heat, defining her character with both unself-conscious sex appeal and intelligence.
For the most part, Zylberstein has remained most visible in French films, playing intelligent, complex women in dramas and screwball comedies alike. One of her more celebrated films of the late '90s was Raúl Ruiz's Le Temps retrouvé, a highly praised adaptation of Marcel Proust's legendary novel of the same name. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
- 2008
A successful lawyer, Eloise's life would be complete if only she could find a successful relationship. She signs up for a speed dating program, and what follows is a bizarre and often funny experiment in what happens when seven men and seven women take off on a race to find a significant other. ~ Cammila Albertson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Elsa Zylberstein, Jacques Bonnaffé, (more)
Their relationship fractured when older sister Juliette is sentenced to 15 years in prison, two siblings wage an emotional battle to rebuild their relationship, overcome the secrets that keep them apart, and finally express the thoughts that have lain dormant for well over a decade. The moment Juliette was convicted, her parents declared that they wanted nothing to do with her. Now, after 15 years behind bars, Juliette is a free woman and in desperate need of a human connection. When Juliette's younger sister, Léa, is approached by a prison social worker and asked if she would be willing to provide her recently paroled sibling with a place to live, she doesn't hesitate to open her doors and share her home. But Léa is happily married with two adopted daughters, and her husband, Luc, is uneasy with the arrangement. Still, the house is large, the couple is used to having company, and the two young girls are thrilled to have a new aunt. As Juliette gets settled, Léa does her best to make her feel welcome. Likewise, Léa's colleague Michel and emigrant couple Samir and Kaïsha also offer to help Juliette readjust to life on the outside. Along the way, Juliette slowly begins to emerge from her shell and Léa realizes just how much she missed her sister. Perhaps if she can put aside her feelings of guilt long enough to truly understand her sister's plight, these two strangers can finally remember what it means to be family. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kristin Scott Thomas, Elsa Zylberstein, (more)
- 2006
Years before the United States entered what has come to be known as "the War on Terrorism," Giles Boulouque was a French judge who gained a certain infamy as a result of his efforts to fight terrorism in his nation. In 1987, Boulouque released an Iranian man who was suspected of being a high-ranking member of an international terrorist network following an exhaustive two-hour interview. Many believed the suspect was freed as part of an agreement with Lebanese kidnappers who has abducted a handful of French reporters in a political action; Boulouque was widely criticized for his actions, and later was the subject of legal action when he discussed the matter with a French reporter, raising the ire of other Middle Eastern activists with suspect ties to Iran. Boulouque's professional reputation never recovered from the public outcry against him on both sides of the political fence, and in 1990, he committed suicide. His daughter Clemence Boulouque was only thirteen years old when her father died, and in his documentary La Fille du Juge, filmmaker William Karel examines Giles's public disgrace, the events that led to his downfall, his private life, and how the downward spiral of his life has impacted his daughter to this day. La Fille du Juge (aka My Dad Is Into Terrorism) was adapted from Clemence Boulouque's memoir, Mort d'un Silence. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Clement Boulouque, Elsa Zylberstein, (more)
- 2006
A talented trompe l'oeil artist finds her dedication to her slacker husband slipping until the aimless but amiable spouse develops an invention that could lead bring the pair fame and fortune in writer/director Michel Leclerc's breezy romantic comedy. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Elsa Zylberstein, Kad Merad, (more)
An orthodox Jewish teen living with her family in France attempts to balance her religious upbringing with her increasingly complex view of the outside world in director Karin Albou's incisive meditation on religion, philosophy, and the weight of romance on the mind of a growing girl. Eighteen-year-old student Laura (Fanny Valette) lives with her widowed mother (Sonia Tahar), her sister (Elsa Zylberstein), and her brother-in-law (Bruno Todeschini) in the suburban Paris neighborhood of Sarcelles. Though her exposure to the world thus far has been culturally limited due to the fact that her family resides in a neighborhood is often referred to as "Little Jerusalem" due to its large Jewish population, Laura's studies have told her that the world is full of interesting and diverse people. An overly serious and self-disciplined girl whose outward maturity defies her youthful age, Laura vows to avoid romance before finding that fate doesn't always play by the rules. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Fanny Valette, Elsa Zylberstein, (more)
Director Chantal Akerman helmed this offbeat comedy about a mother and daughter who find themselves living together again for the first time in many years. Still reeling emotionally from the recent death of her husband, Catherine (Aurore Clément) has chosen to leave her old home and move in with her grown daughter, Charlotte (Sylvie Testud). While Charlotte is sympathetic, she's something less than enthusiastic; her mother's mood swings and the clutter of her collected belongings are cramping her home and her style, and when Catherine decides to revive her career as a piano teacher, the constant parade of youngsters bludgeoning the keyboard makes it all but impossible for Charlotte to complete her latest writing project. Catherine and Charlotte decide to look for more spacious living quarters, while Charlotte is also in search of her own office space. As a steady stream of prospective tenants check out their home, Charlotte makes friends with a pregnant woman looking for a new flat (Natacha Régnier), while her search for a space of her own brings Charlotte a relationship with a like-minded realtor (Jean-Pierre Marielle) and an unlikely collaborator in Michelle (Elsa Zylberstein), a poet who enjoys tinkering with Charlotte's prose. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sylvie Testud, Aurore Clément, (more)
A gifted artist wages a personal war against his demons as well as a world that refuses to accept his creative vision in this biographical drama based on the true story of Amedeo Modigliani. Modigliani (Andy Garcia) was an Italian Jew who was living in Paris in the 1910s, when the city's bohemian community was in full flower. While Modigliani was a uniquely gifted painter and sculptor, his friend and rival Pablo Picasso (Omid Djalili) had already found fame and fortune; Modigliani's work had yet to reach a significant audience beyond the city's creative inner circle. Though Modigliani stubbornly refused to compromise his vision for the sake of sales, he was alternately troubled and enraged by the lack of acceptance for his art, and was known to buffer his bruised ego with alcohol and opium, which made his often unpredictable and sometimes violent behavior all the more volatile. Modigliani also had a mistress, Jeanne Hebuterne (Elsa Zylberstein), who had been disowned by her wealthy family for falling in love with a Jew and having his child out of wedlock. When Hebuterne discovered she was pregnant again, Modigliani faced pressure to marry her, and had to face the practical question of how to support his offspring. Modigliani's fate rested upon winning an annual art competition in Paris, which would have given him a needed influx of cash, leaving him understandably enraged when Picasso also chose to enter a work in the contest. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Andy Garcia, Elsa Zylberstein, (more)
Antoine de Caunes' second feature, Monsieur N. is a historical mystery thriller about Napoleon. Sir Hudson Lowe (Richard E. Grant) is assigned to guard Napoleon (Philippe Torreton) while the latter is in exile in Saint Helena. A local girl, Betsy (Siobhan Hewlett), has a crush on the exiled leader. This, along with the fact that keeping Napoleon on the island is costing the British a great sum of money, leads Lowe to consider drastic action. Monsieur N. was screened at the 2003 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
- Starring:
- Philippe Torreton, Richard E. Grant, (more)
Master filmmaker Raúl Ruiz adds a black comedy to his far-reaching body of work with That Day, a playful meditation on money, death, and false spirituality. Livia (Elsa Zylberstein) and Pointpoirot (Bernard Girardeau) are, respectively, a spoiled society woman who suffers from delusional visions of heavenly apparitions and a crazed serial killer on the loose after a successful prison break. It isn't long before fate brings the two together, and after thwarting Pointpoirot's initial attempts to murder her, Livia soon warms to the charming sociopath. The duo makes short work of Livia's greedy family -- who were planning on killing her and collecting her fortune, anyway -- and as the death count rises, a romance develops between the two. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bernard Giraudeau, Elsa Zylberstein, (more)
Mathias Ledoux directs the straight-to-video crime thriller Three Blind Mice, an English-language co-production from France and the U.K. Edward Furlong stars as Thomas Cross, a computer programmer who witnesses the murder of his friend Cathy (Valérie Decobert) via her Web cam. When he tries to tell the police what happened, he realizes that he doesn't know her real name or address. He teams up with Internet specialist Detective Claire Bligh (Emilia Fox), who's been assigned to the case. They do an investigation of their own to find the identity of the killer. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
- Starring:
- Edward Furlong, Emilia Fox, (more)
Gilles de Maistre's political thriller Féroce (Ferocious) is about a man seeking revenge. Arab Alain (Samy Naceri) decides to join a fascistic French political party in order to assassinate the leader, Legle (Jean-Marc Thibault). Alain comes to this decision when his girlfriend's brother is murdered after he had defaced some of the party's paraphernalia. To improve the party's public stance on immigrants, Alain is hired as a security guard. Legle's daughter is attracted to Alain, who is tempted enough by the girl to abandon some of his religious convictions. Ferocious was screened at the Paris Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
- Starring:
- Samy Naceri, Jean-Marc Thibault, (more)
- 2001
Two people on opposite sides of the law are brought together under unusual circumstances in this thriller. Lea (Elsa Zylberstein) is a young woman with a checkered past who has just finished a stretch in prison and is waiting for her teenaged brother, Sammy (Vincent Martinez), to pick her up. As it turns out, Sammy has been nurturing an impressive criminal career of his own, and he's killed in an ambush with plainclothes police officers within Lea's sight. Traumatized, Lea isn't sure where to turn, and finds solace in the arms of David (Richard Berry), a police detective who is dealing with a crisis of his own -- he confiscated two kilos of heroin during a drug bust, which ruthless criminal, Zak (Pascal Greggory), is demanding as ransom after kidnapping David's nine-month-old son. While their tragedies have brought them together, what Lea doesn't know is that David is the policeman who shot her brother, and soon they both find themselves at odds with one another's allies in the French criminal underworld. Un Ange was a rare foray into theatrical filmmaking for established television director Miguel Courtois. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Richard Berry, Elsa Zylberstein, (more)
- 2000
Raul Ruiz's Love Torn in a Dream is introduced with a fake newsreel, taking place in postwar France, in which the cast of the film meet with the producer, who explains the film's complex weave of nine narratives. A diagram in which each story is represented by a letter of the alphabet explicates the intertwining of the nine tales. As the producer explains each actor's role, the film begins. The stories, rooted in folklore, bump up against each other as the film leaps back in forth in time. They involve a jewel stolen from a painting, a mirror that "steals" what it reflects, a seminary student who dresses as a priest to hear the nuns' confessions, brothers who combat each other in their search for a group of rings, a man whose everyday life is predicted by a website 24 hours in advance, a Catholic who finds out he's really Jewish, and a treasure map that leads to a pirate's chest. Each of the main cast members plays multiple roles. Ruiz veterans Melvil Poupaud and Elsa Zylberstein play the lead roles, while Lambert Wilson, Christian Vadim, Diogo Dória, José Meireles, and Rogério Samora play supporting roles. The film won the FIPRESCI Award at the 2000 Montreal World Film Festival, and was shown as part of the "Film Comment Selects" series at New York's Lincoln Center in 2003. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi
- Starring:
- Melvil Poupaud, Elsa Zylberstein, (more)
- 1999
The collision between family life and career lies at the heart of this comedy hailing from France. A mother of two small children, Eva's life goes from stressful to insane when she is told that she is a project finalist for the design of a massive European hospital. She and her working husband Philippe (Frederic Diefenthal) try desperately to balance their commitments to their kids, careers, and themselves. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Starring:
- Elsa Zylberstein, Frédéric Diefenthal, (more)
An ambitious project of Chile-born, Paris-based Raul Ruiz, this psychological drama brings to the screen the famous classic of Marcel Proust with fidelity to its interior monologues and streams of consciousness. Proust (Marcelo Mazzarella), on his deathbed in his small apartment on Rue Hamelin, is looking through old photos and remembering his life, as real characters intermingle with fictional ones from his novels. The period is 1914-18, when WWI is raging. Hidden in Paris, thanks to his asthma, Marcel Proust wanders into the night. He finds an aging courtesan in Café de la Paix, which is deserted by the curfew. Charlus, the seducer of young boys, is at the Palais des Felicites where he meets his lovers. Gilberte returns alone to Tansonville to evade the confiscation of her chateau by the Germans after the death of her husband at the front. Famous violinist Morel is hiding in a decrepit hotel. The demoralizing effects of war affect all the characters, hastening their decadence or transforming them into caricatures. In the whirlpool of the grotesque specter of war, Marcel finds refuge in his childhood memories to escape the atrocities around him. Death and decadence, the evanescence of human existence, and the relations between space and time are some of the main themes explored in this film, which reflects the works of Marcel Proust in every detail. Raul Ruiz has on his side a very good screenwriter, Gilles Taurand, and an impressive cast: Catherine Deneuve and John Malkovich, who have collaborated with Ruiz before, Emanuelle Béart, Vincent Pérez, Pascal Greggory, and the Italian man of theatre, Marcello Mazzarella. Shown in competition at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi
- Starring:
- Marcelo Mazzarella, Emmanuelle Béart, (more)
- 1998
British TV host Antoine de Caunes (Eurotrash) stars in this French comedy about gay clarinetist Simon. His mother and wealthy uncle know he's gay, so the uncle says he'll give him $2 million dollars and a house if he will get married. Simon, who can barely survive on his income as a piano-bar musician, turns down the offer -- but then he meets soprano songbird Rosalie (Else Zylberstein), who sings Yiddish favorites for senior citizens. After she takes Simon to meet her large family of Hassids, those wedding bells might yet chime. Filmed in Paris and New York with French, English, and Yiddish dialogue. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Antoine de Caunes, Elsa Zylberstein, (more)
- 1998
Roger Planchon directed this French-Spanish biographical drama about artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (Regis Royer). Accepted at the Beaux-Arts painting classes in Paris, Lautrec loses his virginity to an artist's model and then falls into an affair with painter Suzanne Valadon (Else Zylberstein). When she leaves him, Lautrec turns to absinthe, contracts venereal disease, and dies at age 37. Although little of his art is seen in the film, some scenes are designed to parallel both his pictures and the images of the Impressionists. Shown at the 1998 Venice Film Festival and the 1998 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Regis Royer, Elsa Zylberstein, (more)
- 1997
His estranged wife is worth millions, but poor Paris resident Richard is homeless and jobless. He applied for unemployment benefits and now faces charges of fraud. To save himself from nine months in jail he must find his wife and force her to tell the courts the truth, that though she has married a politically-ambitious American governor and is filing U.S. tax returns, she is technically still married to Richard. But as she lives in America, how can he get to her? Opportunity knocks when Richard learns that she and her husband will be attending an international conference at an exclusive Paris hotel. To get in he will need a disguise. Meanwhile, at the hotel, the concierge and the director are panic stricken by the prospect of a surprise visit by an unknown auditor who is coming to check out allegations of a hotel-run prostitution ring. They immediately banish all their call girls from the premises, but one refuses to leave without a fight. She too is eventually ejected, and while in the middle of the street she has a charming encounter with Richard, who is disguised as a bum. When the seeming vagrant ambles into the hotel, the managers immediately mistake him for the auditor and instead of booting him out, the hoteliers roll out the red carpet and treat Richard like a king. While he continues his endeavors to see his wife, several other subplots add to the confusion, including one in which a naive couple from the country tries to reach the American governor in hopes of hashing out an international business deal. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Elsa Zylberstein, Jacques Gamblin, (more)
- 1997
Ariel Zeitoun directed this French comedy depicting Ashkenazic-Sephardic rivalries in the Jewish garment district of Paris. Tunisian-Jewish businessman Alain Berrebi (Michel Boujenah) courts Ashkenazi princess Arlette Stern (Elsa Zylberstein). Her father David (Maurice Chevit) learns of the death of a rural Auvergne peasant who once hid David and his cousin Nathan (Felix Fibich) from the Nazis. Nathan is now a NYC diamond dealer on West 47th Street. David, Nathan, Arlette, and Berrebi head for the funeral in Auvergne. There they encounter the deceased peasant's son, Jean Bourdalou (Gerard Depardieu), who operates the family's restaurants in Paris. Arlette does a romantic take on Bourdalou, which sends the distraught Berrebi off to cry on the shoulder of his mother Gaby (Gina Lollobrigida). Back in Paris, Bourdalou and Berrebi make plans to open a trendy fashion restaurant in Manhattan. The title of this movie is a pun reference not only to shirt size and the central characters' wide scope of ambitions, but also to XXL, a Paris porn channel. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michel Boujenah, Gérard Depardieu, (more)
- 1997
- R
- Add Metroland to Queue
An unexpected visit causes a man to wonder what path he should have taken in life in this drama. In 1977, Chris (Christian Bale) and Marion (Emily Watson) are a staid married couple living in a working-class community near the outskirts of London, where the Metro tube line dead-ends. While Marion is reasonably happy, Chris is bored and restless, and he often daydreams about how his life could have been different. Chris and Marion first met in Paris in 1968, when revolution was in the air and they were both footloose bohemians exploring the world. Chris was briefly in love with Annick (Elsa Zylberstein), a wild, beautiful, and high-spirited young woman, but he married Marion instead, and he frequently wonders if he made the right choice. One day, Chris receives a telephone call from his old buddy Toni (Lee Ross), who was his best friend back in his days in Paris. While Chris has joined the working class, Toni is still following his muse around the world, drifting through Europe, America, Africa, or anywhere else the breeze takes him. Toni is visiting England and invites Chris to leave Marion behind and join him in his travels. Already in an unsure state of mind, Chris finds himself calling practically every aspect of his life into question -- he even wonders if Marion might be attracted to Toni, whom she's never cared for. Metroland was adapted by Adrian Hodges from the novel by Julian Barnes. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Christian Bale, Lee Ross, (more)
In this comedy, layers and layers of personal lies provide the glue that holds a trendy, shallow group of Parisians together. The story centers on Ada, a deeply indebted, but promising young fashion designer who has just purchased an apartment with her lover and holds a housewarming party to celebrate. The bulk of the story unfolds episodically as assorted neurotic characters come to call and begin to intermingle. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Helena Bonham Carter, Romane Bohringer, (more)
- 1996
Despondent, guilt-racked Martin sits in the middle of a country road waiting for someone to run him down, just as he accidentally struck and killed another years before. The incident has destroyed his life with his adopted family and ruined his marriage. Now he has nothing left to live for. The first car that comes is driven by his sister Claire. She manages to stop in time, but soon afterward both die. This compelling French mystery follows police as they try to piece together the tragic scenario by interviewing the residents of the coastal Normandy town where Claire and Martin lived. These people give both fictional and true accounts of Martin and Claire's lives. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Elsa Zylberstein, Eric Caravaca, (more)
Best known for their historical epics that examine class and social issues in British life through a thick lens of tasteful production design and good manners, director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant set their sights on an American protagonist for a change with Jefferson in Paris. As the title suggests, Jefferson in Paris deals with the five years that Thomas Jefferson (Nick Nolte) spent as U.S. ambassador to France prior to the French Revolution; while Jefferson is sympathetic to the revolutionary forces in France, he's become well enough acquainted with the ruling aristocracy that he finds himself torn between the two sides of the issue. Jefferson, a recent widower, also becomes friends with Maria Cosway (Greta Scacchi), who is married to a foppish British artist; while it's obvious the two are in love, neither is in a position to do anything about their infatuation. And while Jefferson's daughter Patsy (Gwyneth Paltrow) loves her father, she's very upset with him when he sends her to a convent school. In this midst of this personal turmoil, Jefferson's younger daughter Polly (Estelle Eonnet) arrives in Paris, with her slave Sally Hemmings (Thandie Newton) in tow. Attractive and bright (if uneducated), Sally catches Jefferson's eye, and a friendship develops that grows into something deeper; in time, Sally becomes pregnant, and her family claims that Jefferson is the father. At the time Jefferson In Paris was released, the question of Sally Hemmings' relationship with Thomas Jefferson was a matter of lively historical debate; since then, genetic evidence has shown that, while Jefferson's paternity can't be proved beyond a doubt, it is likely that he did father children with Hemmings. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Nick Nolte, Greta Scacchi, (more)
- 1994
Two women who were best friends since childhood come to realize the toll that adulthood has taken on their understanding of each other in this acclaimed French drama. Mina Tannenbaum (Romane Bohringer) and Ethel Benegui (Elsa Zylberstein) first met when they were ten years old. As young Jewish girls growing up in Paris, both felt like outcasts among their schoolmates, and they began to bond as fellow outsiders. That's about all they have in common. As a child, Ethel was a pudgy extrovert from an upper-middle class family who was eager to make friends, while slender and serious-minded Mina preferred to follow her own path and keep her own counsel, and she was raised under less privileged circumstances. Mina and Ethel have remained close friends as adults, but they are still as different as night and day. Mina, still an intelligent iconoclast, has made a name for herself as an artist, while Ethel happened into a career as a pop culture journalist. Ethel has had a number of unsatisfying relationships with men, while Mina is usually too afraid to approach the men she's attracted to. And while both Ethel and Mina value each other's friendship, in time they begin to realize how little they have in common -- and they provide each other with as much aggravation as comfort. Mina Tannenbaum was the debut feature for writer and director Martine Dugowson; it earned her a Cesar Award nomination (the French Oscar) for "Best First Film." ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Romane Bohringer, Elsa Zylberstein, (more)
