Mathilde Seigner Movies

Meet the Celliers: despite their appearances as an ordinary and seemingly unremarkable French family, a host of severe dysfunctions linger just beneath the surface that continue to upset their lives and threaten to tear everyone apart. Patriarch Henry (Patrick Chesnais), an ex-corporate manager, evinces signs of extreme, multi-leveled regression; his wife Mady (Charlotte Rampling), a sexagenarian housewife, spreads wicked gossip about their two girls; daughter Alice (Mathilde Seigner, still rebounding from two abortions, obsessively paints drug-addled Madonnas; and that's only the beginning. The family's future takes an unusual turn when a mysterious stranger, the jaded, loner policeman Jacques (Olivier Marchal) turns up and wields dramatic influence over everyone. This newcomer succeeds in drawing out long buried neuroses and hang-ups and exacerbating virtually every conflict in the household. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

A woman's grief and her mother's madness lead to strange and unforeseen consequences in this offbeat drama based on a novel by Ruth Rendell. Betty Fisher (Sandrine Kiberlain) is a promising young writer who has a four-year-old son, Joseph (Arthur Setbon). Betty's mother, Margot (Nicole Garcia), comes to visit her from Spain. Betty's relationship with Margot is difficult at best; Margot is emotionally unstable, and once attacked her daughter with a pair of scissors when she was a child. While spending time with Margot, Betty loses track of Joseph for a while, and the boy is severely injured when he falls out of a window. While Joseph is rushed to the hospital, he never regains consciousness and dies later that day. Betty is understandably distraught, and as she sinks deep in sorrow, Margot snatches Jose (Alexis Chatrian), a boy the same age as Joseph who is the son of Carole (Mathilde Seigner), a waitress with a serious drug habit who often delegates care of her child to her new boyfriend, Francois (Luck Mervil). Margot claims that Jose deserves a better parent than Carole, and she gives him to Betty to care for; while Betty is fully aware of the impropriety of Margot's action, the loss of Joseph has left such a void in her life that she reluctantly accepts the child as a way of dealing with her sadness. Betty Fisher et Autres Histoires was directed by one-time Francois Truffaut associate Claude Miller. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A woman discovers that the joys of parenthood are not making her especially happy in this dark comedy/drama. Christelle (Marilyne Canto) is a new mother who isn't dealing well with the anxieties of caring for her child. One day, she suffers a severe panic attack while alone with the baby, and her neighbor, Claire (Dominique Blanc), takes her and her baby over to her apartment while trying to soothe her nerves. Christelle's husband, Laurent (Patrick Bruel), arrives home to discover both his wife and child missing and goes frantically searching for them, unaware they're in the apartment next door. Before he can find them, Laurent has to leave to have lunch with several members of the family, including his brother and his wife, who also happens to be Christelle's sister. Tempers begin to fray, and Laurent ends up in a shouting match with his family as he is forced to declare his own shortcomings as a husband and father. Meanwhile, as Claire tries to calm Christelle, she reveals that she's having her own problems -- Claire has been having an affair with a married man (Sergi Lopez). Le Lait de la Tendresse Humaine was written and directed by Dominique Cabrera, who previously explored her own problems with depression and anxiety following the birth of a child in the documentary Demain et Encore Demain. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Claude Miller directs this surreal comedy about a woman's nightmarish trip to the hospital. Beset by troubles with her family, her married lover, and her studies, anthropology grad student Claire (Anne Brochet) suffers from fainting spells and migraines. After a couple of unnervingly bizarre consultations with Dr. Fish (Yves Jacques), she is sent to a neurological hospital to recuperate. There she shares a room with Odette (Mathilde Seigner), who was recently paralyzed, and with elderly Eleonore (Annie Noel), who is harmless, though simply stark raving mad. This film was screened at the 2000 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

A visually stylish comedy with dramatic overtones from director Tonie Marshall, Vénus Beauté (Institut) looks at the lives of three women who work at a small but successful beauty salon. Angele Nathalie Baye is an attractive woman just edging into middle age who is looking for companionship without commitment, even when it comes knocking. Her co-worker Samantha (Mathilde Seigner) has more boyfriends than she knows what to do with, and Marie (Audrey Tautou), the youngest of the group, is still learning the ropes of both love and beauty treatment. Fans of classic French cinema will want to keep an eye peeled for guest appearances from Emmanuelle Riva, Micheline Presle and Edith Scob. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this satirical French comedy, divorced and unemployed father Henri (Hippolyte Girardot) recruits others who are jobless, evicted, living with parents, surviving on welfare, or staying in shelters. With his core group of the eight unemployed young people, Henri's objective is to form his own political party. One member of the group, however, is Antoine (Gad Elmaleh), head of a successful software firm, who poses as a jobless loser while romancing ex-communist Solange (Florence Pernel). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide