Julie Delpy Movies

After several years of making films to please only himself, French director Jean-Luc Godard once more invites the audience to the party with The Detective. Not that there's anything so blase as a linear plot or appealing characters, but at least some of Godard's isolated vignettes are accessible this time around. Set in the Hotel Concorde at St. Lazare, the film is set in motion when miserably married Nathalie Baye and Claude Brasseur attempt to collect a debt from mob-plagued boxing manager Johnny Hallyday. Meanwhile, hotel detective Jean-Pierre Leaud tries to solve an old murder case. These two gossamer plot strands are used to tie together Godard's scattershot views on modern life, with emphasis on the voyeuristic potential of the recent video-camera boom. The director dashed off The Detective to raise money for a film he truly cared about, the controversial Hail Mary. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This critically acclaimed French drama blends film noir and science fiction elements in a story about a strange and deadly plague. A sexually transmitted disease called STBO is sweeping the country; it's spread by having sex without emotional involvement, and most of its victims are teenagers who make love out of curiosity rather than commitment. While a serum that can treat the disease has been formulated, it's been locked away in an inaccessible government building, and most of those suffering can't get at it. A woman known as "The American" (Carroll Brooks) has hired Marc (Michel Piccoli), who is deep in debt and desperate for cash, to steal the drug; Marc enlists the aid of Alex (Denis Lavant), the teenage son of one of his close friends, to help pull off the robbery. Alex is in love with Lise (Julie Delpy), a girl his age that he's been involved with, but he finds himself attracted to Anna (Juliette Binoche), Marc's younger lover who is determined to stand by her man. Mauvais Sang received the Alfred Bauer Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival and the International Fantasy Film Award at the Fantasporto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this 1987 film, director Bertrand Tavernier depicts French life in the Middle Ages as dreary, unromantic, and brutal. The story begins when a warrior leaves home to fight in the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) between France and England. Before his departure, he gives his young son, François, a sword to safeguard his mother and her virtue. One day, after the boy opens a bedroom door to find his mother willingly submitting to a man, he uses the sword to kill the man and becomes traumatized with guilt and enmity toward his mother. Years later, François (Bernard Pierre Donnadieu) must go off to war as a chevalier, or knight. While he is away, his daughter, the gentle and loving Béatrice (Julie Delpy), sees to the needs of her little brother and her feckless mother. Although the castle in which they live is a sepulcher of shadows and stone, Béatrice maintains her spirits as she looks forward to the day when her father's voice will once again echo in the corridors. After four years of war in which he was held captive for a time by the English, he returns to the castle, a hardened warrior who has renounced God. Inside his twisted mind, he still carries the memory of that terrible day long ago, the day he discovered his mother was an adulteress. Giving the demons within him free rein, he begins to abuse everyone around him: He insults, bullies, and pillages the local village. He even forces his son Nils Tavernier to wear women's clothes and become the prey in a hunt. As he descends deeper into depravity, it is innocent Béatrice who suffers the most. Whether he has completely destroyed her, or whether she will rise up and destroy him, becomes the central focus of the film as it moves toward its conclusion. The dialogue is in French with English subtitles. ~ Mike Cummings, All Movie Guide

Eighteen year old Marie (Julie Delpy) keeps the news of her parent's death in a car wreck from her 12-year-old brother Eric in this implausible melodrama. She and Eric go on vacation as planned, but Marie resorts to stealing after their own money is stolen. Marie soon has reason to use the scissors she keeps in her purse for protection, as she stalks the young driver who caused her parents' fatal crash. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This drama was based on the true story of a young German Jew who survived the Holocaust by falling in with the Nazis. Solomon Perel (Marco Hofschneider) is the son of a Jewish shoe salesman coming of age in Germany during the rise of Adolf Hitler. In 1938, a group of Nazis attack Solomon's family home; his sister is killed, and 13-year-old Solomon flees to Poland. Solomon winds up in an orphanage operated by Stalinist forces; when German forces storm Poland, Solomon's fluent German allows him to join the Nazis as a translator, posing as Josef Peters, an ethnic German. In time, "Peters" is made a member of the elite Hitler Youth, but since Solomon is circumcised, he can be easily revealed as a Jew, and he lives in constant fear that his secret will be discovered. Solomon's close calls include an attempted seduction by Robert Kellerman (André Wilms), a homosexual officer, and his relationship with Leni (Julie Delpy), a beautiful but violently anti-Semitic woman who wants to bear his child for the glory of the master race. Europa, Europa (shown in Europe as Hitlerjunge Salomon) also features the real Solomon Perel, who appears briefly as himself. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Jonathan Younger (Donald Sutherland) runs his offbeat storage facility as if it were an odd amalgam of a nightclub for the rich and famous and a pied a terre for The Addams Family. He greets each customer and potential customer with the flair and sinister graciousness of Bela Lugosi at the door of Castle Dracula. From time to time, mysterious organ music audibly emanates from the basement. His wife (Lolita Davidovich) has the messy business of making sure that this very ordinary business pays the bills. Both of them are hoping that their son (Brendan Fraser) will come back from his pricey college studies in England and take over the business. Things take a sharp left turn when some of his customers become media celebrities, suspected of killing the man in their family. This quirky black comedy was made by the director of the sublimely zany Baghdad Cafe. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

An American ex-con gets caught up in a Parisian bank heist that goes wrong in this ultra-violent thriller. Zed (Eric Stoltz), a safe-cracking expert fresh out of prison, travels to France to participate in a robbery planned by his friend Eric (Jean-Hughes Anglade). But first, Zed decides to indulge in some relaxation with a gorgeous, kind-hearted prostitute by the name of Zoe (Julie Delpy). This idyll, however, is interrupted by Eric, who leads Zed and the other criminals on a long night of drinking, drugging, and debauchery. The next day, the thieves find themselves hung over and exhausted, and the plan soon goes disastrously wrong, turning into a hostage situation. Even worse for Zed, he discovers that the lovely Zoe also works as a teller at the bank, forcing him into a tricky moral dilemma. Writer and director Roger Avary, best known as the co-screenwriter of Pulp Fiction, creates a similar combination of black comedy, extreme violence, and hip attitude. Critics of Quentin Tarantino's films raised similar objections to Avary's reliance on bloody violence and a detached sensibility, while the film's fans acclaimed its fast-paced action. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

Richard Linklater's third feature -- set, like his other works, over the course of one 24-hour period -- Before Sunrise is a sweet, intelligent romantic comedy filmed primarily in Austria. It stars Ethan Hawke as Jesse, a young American travelling through Europe. On a train he meets Celine, a French student portrayed by Julie Delpy. Together they leave the train to begin exploring the city of Vienna, walking and talking into the wee hours of the night and slowly falling in love as the minutes before Jesse's return to the U.S. tick away. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Professor Larsen, the director of the International Center for Astro Monitoring is listening to radio transmissions from deep space when he receives a disturbing string of code, that to him heralds the coming of alien invaders. When thousands of people suddenly disappear from the red-light district known as Sepulveda, his worst fears are confirmed. To prove that aliens are behind the mayhem, he is sent there to investigate. Larsen is assisted by his lab helper Oscar, his bodyguard Stavro and by Eva, the beautiful daughter of a politically powerful hermaphrodite named Purpur. Their investigation leads them into a bizarre and seamy futuristic world of eroticism, political intrigue and danger. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Tony (Daniel Baldwin) runs a rather intriguing Hollywood brothel. His primary hookers -- Francesca (Julie Delpy), Mimi (Georgina Cates), and Dolly (Pamela Gidley) -- are given to elaborate, costumed, role-playing fantasies to please Tony's peculiar, highly emotional clientèle. The harlequin-outfitted harlots find their lives suddenly complicated by their increasingly strange customers, a relentless husband (Patrick Dempsey), and a political rally involving a sexually uninhibited mayoral candidate (Seymour Cassel). ~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide

Mika Kaurismaki directed this British-French-Finnish romantic comedy adapted from Richard Rayner's autobiographical novel about a series of Hollywood misadventures. Vacationing in the North of England, aspiring Los Angeles actress Barbara (Vinessa Shaw) stops briefly in a village where she meets town undertaker and obit writer Richard (David Tennant) -- who just can't stop thinking about her. Flying to California, Richard arrives at the Japanese restaurant where Barbara is a waitress, and a relationship begins -- while Richard learns about Hollywood at the hands of various hustlers and agents. Shown at the 1998 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

In this satire, parents who are worried that their children might not be walking the straight and narrow path discover a rehabilitation camp designed to curb alternative lifestyles. Megan (Natasha Lyonne), a high school student and member of the cheerleading squad, seems like an ordinary enough teenage girl, but her habit of honestly expressing herself and lack of romantic enthusiasm for her boyfriend convince her very repressed parents, Peter (Bud Cort) and Nancy (Mink Stole), that Megan is becoming a lesbian. So Megan is shipped off to True Directions, a camp for gay and gay-leaning teens, where Mary Brown (Cathy Moriarty) attempts to deprogram kids with homosexual tendencies. The first step in the process is to get each teen to admit to their homosexuality, which Megan is loath to do, since she doesn't believe she's a lesbian -- or at least she didn't think so before she met her new friend Graham (Clea DuVall), who seems quite sure that she likes girls. Meanwhile, Mary's son Rock (Eddie Cibrian) may be exempt from the camp's activities, but he turns more than a few heads among True Directions' male inmates. Noted female impersonator RuPaul appears as a camp guide, and Julie Delpy has a cameo as a "lipstick lesbian." ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Two college students who have been brought into the ER test positive for meningitis, whereupon Carter (Noah Wyle) and Lewis (Sherry Stringfield) scramble to prevent an epidemic. Other cases this week include a self-circumcision and a bizarre method of injecting heroin. Elsewhere, Abby (Maura Tierney) briefly bonds with an injured fireman. Elizabeth (Alex Kingston) continues to be investigated by Infection Control, and also argues with Greene's (Anthony Edwards) daughter Rachel (Hallee Hirsh) over the proper care of her own baby daughter, Ella. And Benton (Eriq La Salle) warns Roger (Vondie Curtis-Hall) to stay away from Reese (Matthew Watkins). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide