Jean-Pierre Darroussin Movies

Aki Kaurismaki's La Havre stars Andre Wilms as Marcel, a free-spirited, good-natured writer who is currently making a living as a shoeshiner. He meets Idrissa (Blondin Miguel), an African refugee and helps the young man hide from officials who want him deported., Meanwhile, Marcel's loving wife suffers from a serious illness. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Retired gangster Charlie Matteï (Jean Reno) embarks on a violent quest for revenge after being pumped full of bullets by his former associates, and left for dead in this pulpy crime thriller from director Richard Berry. Few men could survive having 22 bullets tear through their flesh, but somehow Charlie has managed to get back on his feet. Upon discovering there is a price on his head Charlie sets out to learn who signed his death warrant as police work to track down his would-be-killers. When all clues lead Charlie back to his childhood friend Tony Zakia, he is forced to consider the prospect that he may have been betrayed by one of his closest allies. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A daring band of rebels takes on Nazi forces in Europe in this wartime drama from director Robert Guédiguian. Born in Armenia, Missak Manouchian (Simon Abkarian) had settled in France by the time World War II broke out; a Socialist who stood in fierce opposition to the Axis forces occupying his country, he and a handful of other leftists formed the FTP-MOI, a faction of the French Resistance comprised of immigrants who came to France before the war. Working beside Manouchian was his wife, Mélinée (Virginie Ledoyen), a poet-turned-underground fighter; Marcel (Robinson Stévenin), a Jewish volunteer who is an excellent shot with a rifle; and Thomas (Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet), a passionate Marxist with a skill for making bombs. Along with several other activists, the FTP-MOI wage a propaganda campaign against the Nazis while targeting selected Axis leaders for execution. But despite their cunning and talent, Manouchian and his partners find it difficult to keep their work a secret, and in time they're found out by a ruthless detective (Jean-Pierre Darroussin) with the Vichy police. L'Armée du Crime (aka The Army of Crime) was based on the true story of a French resistance group dubbed "the Army of Crime" in Vichy propaganda pieces. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A man seems poised to get away with murder even as he tries to clear an innocent man in this drama from director Edouard Niermans. Grégoire Duval (Jean-Pierre Darroussin) is a druggist who runs a successful shop in the early 1960's. Duval is a well-respected citizen, but he has a dark side, and one night, when he propositions a young woman who rejects him, he flies into a rage and kills her. There are no witnesses to the crime and Duval tells no one about what happened. When the woman's body is found, Duval is not suspected, and instead Khader (Lahcen Razogir), the woman's Algerian boyfriend, is arrested and charged with the crime. With the Algerian war a fresh and unpleasant memory in the minds of most French citizens, Khader seems like a likely culprit, and circumstantial evidence is quickly stacked against him. Duval's conscience begins to get the better of him, and he begins visiting the courtroom during the trial, pointing out the flaws in the prosecutors' case. However, Duval realizes that his neighbors are so eager to believe that Khader is a murderer that there may be no saving him. Le Septieme Jure (aka Jury Duty) received its North American premiere at the 2008 Montreal World Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Director Martin Valente weaves this elaborate tale of intersecting lives that originally screened at the 2007 Montreal World Film Festival. Unemployed Sara is down in the dumps, but her best friend Isa is determined to liven things up by taking her downsized friend on a weekend holiday in Portugal. Meanwhile, disgruntled filmmaker Paul packs his bags for Lisbon in order to support his latest cinematic misstep as pharmacist Yves contends with a troublesome neighborhood dog, touring musician Nina makes a pit stop to visit her seven year old son, tone def police captain Vince continues to strum his guitar, and youthful grandmother Hélène is forced to face reality after being asked to babysit her grandson Ross. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Two men find themselves sharing a lifetime of experiences and observations over the course of a summer in this low-key comedy-drama from France. After the death of his mother, an artist (Daniel Auteuil) well known for his nature studies inherits his family's vacation house in the country. The artist notices that the house's once-impressive vegetable garden has fallen into neglect, and he hires a local gardener to put it back into shape. To his great surprise, the gardener (Jean-Pierre Darroussin) turns out to be an old friend from his school days, and as the gardener gets to work, he and the artist talk about where their lives have gone since they last saw one another. Over the next several months, the gardener and the painter chat about life, love, work, family, vegetables and anything else that crosses their minds as they casually pass along their life's stories and what they learned along the way under the warmth of the summer sun. Dialogue Avec Mon Jardinier (aka Conversations With My Gardener) was adapted from the memoirs of artist Henri Cueco. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

French acting mainstay Jean-Pierre Darroussin stars and makes his directorial debut with this offbeat French drama. For Charles (Darroussin), life has become synonymous with bourgeois imprisonment. Married to a snotty art maven-cum-socialite on the ritzy Right Bank, he longs to escape from the social shackles that confine him. In a moment of complete desperation, Charles drops out and moves into a humble apartment situated in a multi-ethnic neighborhood. Ostensibly, he's moved there to do some writing, and virtually seals himself off from the outside world altogether, but the neighbors make that a veritable impossibility - especially after a gorilla named Tomas (Ivan Franek) beats his unfaithful wife within an inch of brain damage and thus loses control of his sexy teenage daughter Sabrina (Amandine Janin). Lo and behold, she winds up in the custody of Charles, along with a seamstress, Isabelle (Valerie Stroh) who has taken a job as a nanny/guardian for her. This film sports an unusual denouement; after Charles falls ill in the story, the motion picture lapses into "parallel realities," thus presenting multiple alternate endings concurrently. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Cesar award-winning actor Jean-Pierre Darroussin makes his feature directorial debut with this satirical tale about a well-to-do Parisian lawyer who takes flight from the middle class. Charles Benesteau (Darroussin) is a forty seven year old lawyer who has grown tired of bourgeois hypocrisy. The husband of a terminally pretentious art maven, Charles leaves behind his marriage and comfortable house for a modest apartment on a multi-ethnic, working class neighborhood. Though at first his new, low-rent lifestyle brings Charles a level of happiness never achieved in his posh old neighborhood, things quickly turn chaotic when his feuding neighbors stick him with their troubled teenage daughter as they wage World War 3 behind paper-thin walls. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Audrey Tautou, who rose to international stardom with the title role in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's worldwide smash Amélie, reunites with the director for this drama, set during the darkest days of World War I and its immediate aftermath. Mathilde (Tautou) is a pretty but frail young women who was left with a bad leg after a childhood bout with polio. Mathilde lives in a small French village with her Aunt Bénédicte (Chantal Neuwirth) and Uncle Sylvain (Dominique Pinon), and is engaged to marry Manech (Gaspard Ulliel), the son of a lighthouse keeper who is fighting with the army near the German front. Manech is one of five soldiers who have been accused of injuring themselves in order to be sent home; in order to discourage similar behavior among their comrades, Manech and the other soldiers are sentenced to death, and the condemned men are marched into the no man's land between the French and German lines, where they are certain to be killed. Mathilde receives word of Manech's death, but in her heart she believes that if the man she loved had been killed, she would know it and feel it. Convinced he's still alive somewhere, Mathilde hires a private detective (Ticky Holgado) shortly after the end of the war, and together they set out to find the missing Manech. Jodie Foster appears in a supporting role as a Polish expatriate living in France. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A couple's marital woes lead to a terrifying ordeal in director Cédric Kahn's Red Lights. Co-written by Gilles Marchand (Who Killed Bambi?) and Kahn's frequent writing partner Laurence Ferreira Barbosa, Red Lights is based on a novel by Georges Simenon. In the film, Antoine (Jean-Pierre Darroussin) seems to be looking forward to taking his wife, Hélène (Carole Bouquet), for a long drive. The plan is to leave Paris and pick up their children at camp that evening, then spend a couple of weeks in the country relaxing. But when Hélène keeps him waiting, Antoine begins to drink. After several beers and a scotch, the couple hit the road, and immediately run into traffic leaving the city. Antoine has been hearing stories of horrible accidents on the road all evening, but that doesn't stop him from driving like a madman. When Hélène complains about his erratic driving, things just get worse. When they're not bickering, they're glaring silently out at the dark road. Eventually, Antoine decides to pull over for another drink, and when Hélène threatens to take the car and continue on without him, he takes the keys with him into the bar. When he gets out, he finds that Hélène has gone, leaving a note on the car saying she's continuing on by train. Antoine races to the train station, but he's too late, so he wanders into a nearby bar. There, he buys a drink for a sullen young man (Vincent Deniard), who later approaches him in the parking lot, asking for a ride. The two soon come to a police roadblock, and Antoine begins to suspect that his traveling companion is the escaped fugitive for whom the cops are looking. Red Lights had its U.S. premiere at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

A handful of men who are standing in the shady side of 50 depend on one another to sort out the romantic and personal complications facing them in this comedy from France. Manu (Jean-Pierre Darroussin), Antoine (Bernard Campan), Alex (Marc Lavoine), and Jeff (Gérard Darmon) are four close friends who've known each other for years, and lately seem to be spending a lot of time helping one another with women and midlife crises. Manu, who runs a delicatessen, is single, with two ex-wives and three grown children to his credit; lately, he's been dating Juliette (Florence Thomassin), who is young and beautiful, but not especially bright. Antoine is a school teacher who, for the past 15 years, has been married to Lili (Fabienne Babe); however, when he learns that she had a brief fling with another man, he's not certain he'll ever be able to forgive her. Magazine publisher Alex constantly pledges his fidelity to his wife, Nanou (Catherine Wilkening), when in fact he's been chronically unfaithful for years, though Nanou (to her frustration) has been unable to prove it. And Jeff, Alex's business partner, has been divorced from his first wife, Françoise (Ludmila Mikael), for over a decade; lately, he's been keeping company with Elsa (Zoé Félix), a lovely and loving woman who happens to be half his age. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A throwback detective attempts to unravel the mystery behind the disappearance of a young Parisian student named Rachel in this noirish mystery from director Guillaume Nicloux. His life a smoky and meaningless haze of women and seedy investigations, private eye François Maneri (Thierry Lhermitte) agrees to take the case of a missing student in an investigation that grows increasingly complex. First speaking to Rachel's family and friends, François soon discovers a dark and complicated past that few of those who were close to Rachel knew about. As François moves ever closer to discovering the truth behind Rachel's disappearance, facts become blurred and the truth a complex maze of sordid details that threatens to envelop the detective in the same darkness that swallowed Rachel. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi