Emmanuelle Devos Movies
- 2009
This wild, raunchy, gag-a-minute French farce concerns Hervé (Vincent Lacoste), a skirt-chasing 14-year-old boy struggling to contend with social awkwardness and the fact that he isn't the sharpest tool in the shed. Nor do female respond favorably to him either: he suffers rejection after rejection, until he draws some attention from gorgeous and popular classmate Aurore (Alice Tremolieres). Suddenly, with Aurore at his side, Hervé lands in the middle of the most exclusive social circles, but finds himself surrounded by a series of wild and unruly characters. Meanwhile, he struggles to contend with the emotional ups and down of a young adolescent. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vincent Lacoste, Anthony Sonigo, (more)
- 2008
Alain Resnais, one of the towering figures of the French New Wave, demonstrates he still has plenty to say in this drama based on a novel by Christian Gailly. Marguerite (Sabine Azéma) is a successful dentist with a busy practice and an offbeat hobby, flying small airplanes. One day, while running errands, Marguerite loses her wallet, and it's found by Georges (André Dussollier), a seemingly happy man with a wife, Suzanne (Anne Consigny), and two children (Vladimir Consigny and Sara Forestier). As Georges looks through the wallet and examines the photos of Marguerite, he finds he's fascinated with her and her life, and soon his curiosity about her becomes an obsession. Georges' attempts to integrate himself into Marguerite's life begin to alarm her, and she hires a private security team (Mathieu Amalric and Michel Vuillermoz) to keep him away, but Georges is determined that his new love for her will not be denied. Les Herbes Folles (aka Wild Grass) received its world premiere at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mathieu Amalric, Sabine Azéma, (more)
- 2008
A confidence man stumbles into a scam that's not only lucrative but might actually help people in this comedy-drama inspired by a true story. Paul (Francois Cluzet) is a minor league swindler who after getting out of jail finds himself in a small town in Nord-Pas-de-Calais, where the economy has been in the doldrums ever since a major road construction project was abandoned. Paul tries to pull a small scale con on someone while posing as a representative of a large construction firm, and when word gets around that one of the company's men is in town, word spreads that the highway project is on again, and local subcontractors are eager to give Paul cash payments to be part of the job. Soon Paul is managing a big road building operation, even though he doesn't know the first thing about construction, and a number of men who've been out of work for months are on his payroll. Paul also find himself working side by side with the town's mayor, a lovely widow named Stephane (Emmanuelle Devos), and the two drift into a romance, but how long can Paul keep up this game before he's found out? A L'origine (aka In The Beginning) also stars Gerard Depardieu, Vincent Rottiers and Soko. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Soko, François Cluzet, (more)
- 2008
Belgian writer/director Fien Trouch follows up her multi-layered 2005 drama Someone Else's Happiness with this nuanced tale of a mother still haunted by the disappearance of her young daughter five years earlier. Ever since her daughter went missing, Grace (Emmanuelle Devos) has lived a life of quiet despair. But as Grace contends with an endless flood of minor absurdities around her apartment complex, her partner Lukas (Bruno Todeschini) has become a helpless victim to his own overwhelming grief. The couple has long since ceased communicating, and when the family dog dies, the despair is too much for Lukas to handle. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emmanuelle Devos, Bruno Todeschini, (more)
- 2007
A middle-aged man studying the Mur des Noms in modern-day France recalls the time 20 years prior when he and his mother were viewing the trial of Klaus Barbie with rapt attention in this introspective drama from director Amos Gitai. The year was 1987, and Rivka lived with her son, Victor, in a disheveled apartment littered with antiques and memorabilia. The opening session in the trial against the so-called "butcher of Lyon" is being televised, and Rivka is struggling to keep her emotions under control as she prepares dinner. Meanwhile, Victor sits in his office attempting to assemble his family tree. But he too is watching the trials, and doesn't seem to hear a word spoken to him by his secretary. As mother and son sit down for dinner together, the mere mention of Barbie's trial is enough to cause Rivka to excuse herself from the table. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeanne Moreau, Hippolyte Girardot, (more)
- 2007
When a woman who always placed the needs of others before her own develops a fierce independent streak and decides to start taking her writing seriously, the friends and family who were always her top priority have little choice but to watch on in befuddled bemusement. Elaine Weiss (Emmanuelle Devos) is a Paris schoolteacher with a rather selfless reputation; most days, after catering to the needs of her old-fashioned husband, their young daughter, her neurotic widowed mother, and a classroom of kids, she never had so much as a minute to herself. But having neglected her own needs for so long, Elaine finally begins to wonder what life would be like if she could just live by her own rules for a while instead of constantly bending over backwards to make everyone in her life happy. When Elaine buys a laptop, takes up smoking, and begins spending late nights with her handsome young publisher, her husband (Gérard Darmon) is at first tolerant of her quest for independence. But later, when Elaine begins staying out late with her handsome young publisher, things around their once-happy household begin to grow noticeably tense. Meanwhile, Elaine's clingy, Yiddish-speaking mother seems hopelessly clueless about her daughter's artistic aspirations despite the fact that the entire family comes together weekly for their boisterous Shabbat dinners. Perhaps the only one who can truly understand Elaine'e newfound need for self-fulfillment is her later father. Though he may not be there to console her in person, he still offers comfort and guidance during Elaine's regular visits to his graveside. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emmanuelle Devos, Gérard Darmon, (more)
- 2005
"Fontaine Leglou" (Emmanuelle Devos) is a silly name, and so, perhaps, that is why many silly things keep happening. As Gentille opens, Fountaine is walking down a Paris street, and stops to confront a man whom she suspects is following her. She tells him he looks normal, but she's sorry, she doesn't have time to have coffee with him. When he convincingly protests that he was not following her, she apologizes and asks him to have coffee. Fontaine would seem to have a relatively good life. She works as an anesthetist at a fancy mental hospital, and she's got a live-in Nobel Prize-winning arctic scientist boyfriend, Michel (Bruno Todeschini), who seems to love her. But there's clearly something nagging at her. She walks around in a perpetually distracted state, and frequently mistakes other peoples' identities and their intentions. When Michel proposes to her, she needs some time to digest it before she responds. There's a suave patient -- a doctor himself -- at her job, Philippe (Lambert Wilson), who seems attracted to her, and she clearly feels something in return. Meanwhile, Michel is growing impatient with her indecisiveness. Perhaps a visit from destiny will help her make a choice? Writer/director Sophie Fillières's offbeat romantic comedy, which also features Michael Lonsdale, Bulle Ogier, and Julie-Anne Roth, was shown by the Film Society of Lincoln Center in 2006 as part of their annual Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emmanuelle Devos, Bruno Todeschini, (more)
"What would you think if I shaved my moustache?" asks Marc (Vincent Lindon) of his wife, Agnès (Emmanuelle Devos), one fateful night as they prepare to visit friends for dinner. She's never seen him without it, but while she goes to do some last-minute shopping, he impulsively shaves the moustache off. Thus begins a tragic odyssey that leads Marc to question every relationship in his life, and even his own identity. Marc's journey into darkness begins when Agnès returns home. At first, he playfully tries to conceal what he's done. When he finally reveals his bare face to her, with a flourish, her reaction is...nonexistent. She baffles him by appearing not to notice the change. Confused, he says nothing, and they proceed with their plans for the evening. When the couple's friends Serge (Mathieu Amalric) and Nadia (Macha Polikarpova) also fail to make note of the change in Marc's appearance, he begins to get angry, believing that Agnès is playing an elaborate prank on him. In the car on the way home, he loses his temper, and it's her turn to be baffled. What moustache? How can she have noticed that he shaved his moustache when he's never had one? While Agnès begins to question her husband's sanity, Marc frantically searches for evidence of his former facial hair. Things only get worse for Marc, as no one at his job remembers him having a moustache either, and before long, he discovers that there are other details of his life that only he remembers. The Moustache marks the directorial debut of Emmanuel Carrère, who adapted his own novel with Jérôme Beaujour (She's One of Us). The film was shown as part of The Film Society of Lincoln Center's 2006 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vincent Lindon, Emmanuelle Devos, (more)
A man finds his heart and soul torn between loyalty to his family and a need to be redeemed from his violent lifestyle in this powerful drama from France. Tom (Romain Duris) is a man in his early thirties who finds himself caught between two very different worlds. Tom loves music, and longs to have a career as a concert pianist; he also has talent, and is taking advanced music lessons from Miao-Lin (Linh Dan Pham). But Tom supports himself working as a collection agent for his father, Robert (Niels Arestrup), a mid-level gangster and loan shark, as well as helping Sami (Gilles Cohen) and Fabrice (Jonathan Zaccai), two of Robert's cronies who put together crooked real-estate deals. Tom's hair-trigger temper makes it easy for him to adapt to the violent life of a gangster's muscle man, but he wants to give his creative side a chance to grow, and struggles to get his skills in order for an audition with a concert promoter interested in his music. Tom is also walking on a wire with his employers by having an affair with Aline (Aure Atika), Fabrice's wife, and is forced to mediate a bitter feud between his father and a Russian gangster, Minskov (Anton Yakovlev). A remake of James Toback's acclaimed directorial debut, Fingers, The Beat That My Heart Skipped (aka De Battre Mon Coeur S'Est Arrêté) was nominated for the Golden Bear award at the 2005 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Romain Duris, Niels Arestrup, (more)
A woman struggles to hold on to the man she loves in this drama set in the 1930s from Belgian filmmaker Frédéric Fonteyne. Elisa (Emmanuelle Devos) is a housewife who is passionately devoted to her husband, Gilles (Clovis Cornillac), who works in a steel mill. Despite taking care of twin daughters and unfailingly seeing to the cooking and cleaning in their home, Elisa is as adoring of Gilles as she was on the day they met, and she eagerly tends to his ravenous sexual appetite. However, while most men would be thrilled to have a wife like Elisa, after years of marriage she begins to suspect that he might be having an affair with her sister Victorine (Laura Smet) while Elisa is pregnant with their third child. Elisa is too much in love with Gilles to leave him, but while she can accept her husband's faults, neither she nor her husband are certain if this is a casual fling or a love affair that will put an end to their relationship. La Femme de Gilles (aka Gilles' Wife) was adapted from a novel by Madeleine Bourdouxhe. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emmanuelle Devos, Clovis Cornillac, (more)
The stories of two desperate characters turn out to share an important link in this drama from French filmmaker Arnaud Desplechin. Nora (Emmanuelle Devos) is a woman in her mid-thirties who wants people to believe that her life is going just the way she wants. But a look below the surface shows this isn't quite the case; she's been divorced twice, her latest relationship is on the rocks, her ten-year-old son, Elias (Valentin Lelong), is becoming increasingly withdrawn, and her father (Maurice Garrel) is in poor health. When Nora learns that her father's digestive problems are actually cancer and he may only have a few days left to live, she desperately wants to turn to Ismael (Mathieu Amalric), her second husband. But Ismael is having a crisis of his own after a pattern of increasingly strange behavior has led him to an involuntary stay in a mental hospital. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emmanuelle Devos, Mathieu Amalric, (more)
A wealthy but dysfunctional family teeters on the brink of collapse in this emotional drama leavened with a strong dose of dark comedy. Federica (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi) is the daughter of a wealthy Italian business magnate (Roberto Herlitzka) who relocated himself and his family to France in the 1970s, after a wave of kidnappings among the rich and prominent led him to fear for their safety. Years later, Federica and her siblings -- brother Aurelio (Lambert Wilson) and sister Bianca (Chiara Mastroianni) -- still feel lost and disconnected, and with their father on his death bed, they each confront their feelings in their own way. Emotionally distant Aurelio plans a long and expensive vacation, while Bianca is in a sour mood that refuses to lift. Federica, who is attempting to establish herself as a playwright, tries to focus on her work, but she finds herself romantically torn between her current beau, down to earth Pierre (Jean-Hugues Anglade) and her former lover Philippe (Denis Podalydes), who despite his infatuation with her can't tear himself away from his wife and child. Il Est Plus Facile Pour un Chameau... was the first feature film from Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, who wrote and directed the film as well as playing Federica. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Chiara Mastroianni, (more)
- 2003
French filmmaker Hélène Angel directs the medieval drama Rencontre Avec le Dragon (The Red Knight). Daniel Auteuil stars as the titular knight, an immortal adventurer named Guillaume de Montauban who was scarred in a terrible fire. Naïve teenager Felix de Sisteron (Nicolas Nollet) wanders out to join the hero on his adventures. Meanwhile, Guillaume travels with Raoul de Vautadour (Sergi Lopez), a man who unwittingly turns into a wild beast at night. Gilbert Melki plays the bad guy, Micholas Mespoulede. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Auteuil, Nicolas Nollet, (more)
- 2003
Pascal Bonitzer's heavily plotted comedy Petites Coupures (Small Cuts) opens with journalist Bruno (Daniel Auteuil) and his wife, Gaelle (Emmanuelle Devos), having it out over his affair with Nathalie (Ludivine Sagnier). After an invitation from Bruno's uncle Gerard (Jean Yanne), Bruno and Nathalie travel to the town where Gerard is mayor. Bruno learns that his aunt is having an affair. Gerard is aware of his wife's infidelity and asks Bruno to take a letter to the man who has cuckolded him, a doctor named Verekher (Hanns Zischler). On his way to the doctor's home he meets Marie (Dinara Droukarova), and once there he encounters the mysterious Beatrice (Kristin Scott Thomas). Small Cuts was screened at the Berlin Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Auteuil, Kristin Scott Thomas, (more)
- 2002
With Laurent Cantet's Time Out (L'Emploi du Temps) as an inspiration, actress-turned-director Nicole Garcia's fourth feature film, L'Adversaire, is a fictionalized account of what may have gone through the mind of real-life serial killer Jean-Claude Romand. Daniel Auteuil portrays Jean-Marc Faure, who, like Romand, had fooled his friends, family, and the bank for 18 years. Though those who knew Faure believed he was a physician employed by the World Health Organization in Geneva, he actually had no qualifications for the position, and had never held a real job. As part of the façade, Faure commuted to Switzerland daily, and obviously knew his way around the WHO. However, he had no job to perform there. Though he acquired an enormous overdraft at the bank, they believed he was a well-known doctor, and incorrectly assumed he would repay them shortly. Nearly two decades after his original untruth, Faure is nearly found out. Rather than enduring the shame of his long-time fraud, Faure opts to murder his wife, children, and parents. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Auteuil, Géraldine Pailhas, (more)
A middle-aged Frenchwoman is either experiencing delusions of grandeur or the full force of destiny in director Tonie Marshall's 2002 romantic drama Nearest to Heaven (Au Plus Pres Du Paradis). When single non-fiction book author Fanette (Catherine Deneuve) accidentally bumps into former schoolmate Bernard (Bernard Le Coq) -- who was smitten with Fanette in school but whose affection remained unrequited -- she is reminded of another man whom she loved intensely. This other man, Philippe, left a huge impression on Fanette as she begins to lose herself in reminiscences over the brief, intense relationship the two experienced. After catching a number of screenings for the 1957 film An Affair to Remember -- which was also Fanette and Philippe's favorite film during their fling -- Fanette gets the notion from what may or may not be a figment of her imagination to go to New York and visit the observation deck of the Empire State Building. Setting out under the pretense of putting the finishing touches on her latest book, she arrives in the States and discovers her usual photographer has been replaced by the single and somewhat attractive male photographer Matt (William Hurt) -- which further confuses Fanette when she eventually develops feelings for him. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Catherine Deneuve, William Hurt, (more)
The English-language debut of French director Arnaud Desplechin, Esther Kahn charts the ascension of a lower-class Jewish girl from a turn-of-the-century London ghetto to one of the stage's leading actresses. Esther (Summer Phoenix) feels set apart from her large, raucous family, who are all employed in the garment business. Her life is changed when she attends a Yiddish theatre performance, and she is suddenly determined to become an actress. After joining a small theatre company, she becomes the protégé of Nathan (Ian Holm), a stage veteran who instructs her in her chosen craft. Esther gradually works her way up in the ranks -- taking a lover, brainy French theatre critic Philippe (Fabrice Desplechin), along the way -- until she is cast in the title role of Hedda Gabler, which she performs to great acclaim. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Summer Phoenix, Ian Holm, (more)
- 2000
Robert (Andre Dussolier) is a stylish and neurotic 50-year-old with an insatiable appetite for women. One day, he reluctantly accompanies his sister to the hospital where her friend Claire (Emmanuelle Devos) has just given birth. Claire is an old flame of Robert's, and the combined impact of seeing her again and the fact that she has used his name for one of her babies makes Robert realize he is still in love with her. As Claire already has a new partner, the father of her child, Robert is particularly shocked and horrified by this discovery. At a bistro later that same day, he gets a second shock in the form of Marie-Pierre (Helene Fillieres, the sister of the film's director, Sophie Fillieres), a young waitress he's chatting up. In the course of their flirtation, Marie-Pierre makes Robert an offer: she will fall in love with him and conduct a full-blown love affair. This makes Robert feel pretty good, so he accepts, but soon enough he discovers that Marie-Pierre, who is nicknamed Aie (French for "ouch") is a bit of a twisted sister. Prone to vomiting up everything she eats and brushing her teeth compulsively with airline toothbrushes given to her by her pilot father, Marie-Pierre gives Robert's brain pause for thought even as his hormones are stampeding blindly ahead. But before he can break off his involvement with her, Robert decides to pay a visit to Claire's apartment, where he finds Marie-Pierre, and the two end up hiding in a closet together and resuming their affair. On a subsequent visit to her parents' house, Marie-Pierre shares some even more bizarre details about her already off-kilter personal history. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- André Dussollier, Hélène Fillières, (more)
What do three hitmen, a lost foreskin, and the pope have to do with each other? This wacky French comedy answers this question and many more. Set during the 1997 papal visit to Paris, 23-year old father Jonas (Clemont Sibony) is given his son's foreskin in a wad of tissues after the bris and solemnly told to bury it in three days without fail. Three days later, Jonas suddenly remembers his sacred duties while playing keyboards at a bar mitzvah and tries to leave. Unfortunately, the bar mitzvah boy's father comes to believe that Jonas has been flirting with his drunk and buxom wife Sophie (Emmanuelle Devos) and orders him murdered by three of his crack hitmen. Later, when Jonas tries to comfort Nina (Rona Hartner), a Romanian hell-bent on seeing the pope, he unwittingly gives her the exact wad of tissues that contain the foreskin. Tracking down Nina and finding a suitable place to bury the foreskin in the urban scrawl of Paris proves to be no easy task. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clément Sibony, Rona Hartner, (more)
- 2000
Camille de Casabianca writes, directs, and stars in this romantic comedy about social class and judo. After she is dumped by her husband, Valerie (de Casabianca) looks for solace in judo. Instead, she finds hunky martial arts instructor Bruno. Though she is a well-to-do architect and he is strictly blue collar, the two inevitably fall in love. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michèle Bernier, Camille de Casabianca, (more)
- 1999
In this bittersweet look back at the trials of growing up in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Emilie (Magali Woch), Ines (Ingrid Molinier), Stella (Julie-Marie Parmentier), and Marion (Camille Rousselet) become friends as they share the humiliations that are a part of adolescent life -- going to school, dealing with your parents, dealing with the emotional abuse of your peer group. La vie ne me fait pas peur spent several years in production; during a layoff in shooting, director Noemie Lvovsky shot a television film with the same characters entitled Petites, and later incorporated footage from the TV project into this film. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Magalie Woch, Ingrid Molinier, (more)
- 1999
What if you could step 70 years into the future from a portal in your bathroom? French director Cedric Klapisch asks this question and many others in this oddball sci-fi flick. The film opens at a wild Buck Rogers-themed New Year's Eve party on December 31, 1999. After smoking a requist amount of drugs, 25-year-old Arthur (Romain Duris) and his girlfriend Lucie get in the millennial spirit with a spontaneous romp in the bathroom. She is aching to have a kid, though Arthur is more ambivalent on the matter, and at the critical moment, he withdraws. Later, he uses that same bathroom for its intended purpose, and he discovers a ceiling panel that transports him to the sun drenched Paris of the 21st century, which could easily be mistaken for northern Africa. Much of the city looks like a Moroccan souk set amid the Sahara. Only the occasional Mansart roof and the now much shorter Eiffel Tower poking out of the sand reminds Arthur that he is indeed in Paris. He soon meets a white-haired old man named Ako (played by New Wave veteran Jean-Paul Belmondo) who informs him that he his Arthur's son. Ako and his offspring beseech the still vacillating Arthur to impregnate Lucie ASAP so that they may exist. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Romain Duris, Jean-Paul Belmondo, (more)
This historical drama is based on the true story of Artemisia Gentileschi, the first woman to achieve success as a painter. In 17th century Italy, noted artist Orazio Gentileschi (Michel Serrault) is a portrait artist enjoying a certain degree of success and acclaim. His 17-year-old daughter Artemisia (Valentina Cervi) would like to follow the same path as her father, but women are not allowed to pursue careers in the arts, and the convent where she attends school forbids students to sketch nude models. Eager to learn, Artemisia begins posing for herself by use of a mirror; her father discovers her secret but is enthusiastic about her work, and he takes her out of school so he can tutor her in painting and drawing. Orazio forbids her to draw male nudes, but curious Artemisia persuades local men to serve as her models, and her work steadily improves. In time, Artemisia and her work come to the attention of Agostino Tassi (Miki Manojovic), a friend of her father who is a well-known painter and something of a rake. Tassi is impressed by both the art and the artist, but when he and Artemisia begin a love affair, he finds himself on trial for rape. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Serrault, Valentina Cervi, (more)
- 1997
In this zany French comedy, a writer chooses the day he and his family are to move out into the country to quit his publishing job and take a lucrative position writing for a television sitcom. On this day, everything possible goes haywire, beginning with the early arrival of the four Romanian illegal aliens Alain hired to do the moving. He is at his old job cleaning out his desk when his wife calls with the bad news that the movers have arrived four hours early. Shortly thereafter a fight breaks out amongst the Romanians and they leave Alain high and dry. Alain then beseeches his friends to help him pack and move furniture. Unfortunately, his good buddies don't provide as much assistance as he needs. Alain's day goes from bad to worse when he is called in for an emergency story meeting with his new boss at the network. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Danyboon, Emmanuelle Devos, (more)
