Emmanuelle Devos Movies

Students of film history will appreciate the many tributes to famous films of yore which appear in this first-time feature directed and written by former drama teacher Francis Huster. In the story, a mild-mannered bank clerk has heroic dreams of being a real he-man. Given his diffident, shy nature, it comes as a bit of a surprise that not only does he actually have a girlfriend, but he has managed to get her pregnant. However, she doesn't fit his image of himself, and he can't bring himself to marry her. When the bank he works in is robbed by a daring group which includes a magnetically attractive woman, the clerk throws his lot in with them and becomes an outlaw. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This film follows the exploits of a young middle-class girl obsessed with love. The viewer will either love or hate the protagonist as she struggles through her confusion to find true love. Neurotic Nathalie wants love, but cannot make up her mind. She throws her nice boyfriend Antoine out while simultaneously stalking Eric, the hospital orderly who rejected her. Nathalie then tries to sleep with her best friend Christine's boyfriend Fabrice. Fabrice almost gives in, but suddenly rejects Nat. Nathalie is broken hearted and subsequently becomes more depressed and morally bankrupt. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Is there such a thing as an amicable divorce? This French drama, explores the subject in depth as it examines the post marital relations between Jeanne, Romain, and their ten year old daughter Mado. Jeanne and Romain had been married ten years before they mutually agreed to call it quits. Mado lives with her mother and her father has ample visitation. She has adjusted well to the situation, in part because her parents appear to be cooperative and friendly toward each other. But as time passes, cracks begin appearing in their facade. Romain begins to resent Mado's happiness with her mother. Jeanne must balance between work and single-parenthood; she is doing a good job of it. Romain though very strict and controlling really wants the best for Mado, but his wife's success eats at him. To get revenge, Romain tries to instill doubts as to Jeanne's competence in those she loves and works with, eventually he tries to create self-doubt in Jeanne herself. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this satiric comedy-drama from France, Paul (Mathieu Amalric) is an assistant professor of philosophy disenchanted with teaching and distracted enough that he can't (or won't) finish the dissertation that would allow him to become a full professor. Esther (Emmanuelle Devos) has been his girlfriend for nearly a decade; while he's no longer happy with the relationship, he has trouble working up the courage to break it off. He's smitten with Sylvia (Marianne Denicourt), the lover of his best friend Nathan (Emmanuel Salinger); Paul and Sylvia had a brief fling two years ago, and he can't get her out of his mind. However, once Paul gives Esther her walking papers, he starts chasing after Valerie (Jeanne Balibar), while also keeping his eye on Patricia (Chiara Mastroianni), the girlfriend of his cousin (and roommate) Bob (Thibault de Montalembert). It's hard to imagine Paul having much time to think about anything else amidst all this romantic tumult, but when Rabier (Michel Vuillermoz), a former friend, gets a top spot in Paul's department, it leads to an ongoing argument that both adds to and reflects the turmoil of his romantic life. Amalric's performance earned him a 1997 César Award as Most Promising Young Actor. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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