Mathieu Amalric Movies

Jean-Henri Roger's Lulu stars Elli Medeiros as the title character. Lulu is a transsexual who lives with John (Gerard Meylan). One of the town drunks she serves at her bar accuses her of killing a local criminal. A detective (Bruno Putzulu) starts a quirky investigation into the charge. A journalist (Jean-Pierre Kalfon) with affectionate feelings for Lulu figures in the plot. Lulu was shot on Digital Video. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Directed by Mathieu Amalric, a well-respected actor who has starred in such acclaimed French exports as Olivier Assayas' Late August, Early September and Arnaud Desplechin's My Sex Life, Wimbledon Stadium is an adaptation of a novel by Italian author Daniele Del Giudice. Its narrative revolves around a young, nameless woman (Amalric's frequent co-star Jeanne Balibar), who is traveling through Italy on a mission to attempt to learn why one of the country's most illustrious intellectuals, a man who influenced the work of many writers, was not himself a writer. In the process, the protagonist learns a great deal about her own work as a writer. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

This droll comedy from France was based on a popular stage play by the 18th century author Marivaux. As a lark, an attractive young heiress (Sandrine Kiberlain) disguises herself as a man as she travels with a servant for a weekend getaway to the estate of her close friend the Countess (Isabelle Huppert). En route, the heiress, introducing herself as "The Chevalier," encounters Lelio (Mathieu Amalric), the Countess' fiancée. Talking "man to man," Lelio confides that he isn't really in love with the Countess, but he is eager to get his hands on her dowry. He'd prefer to marry another woman he's met, who has an even greater fortune -- the heiress. However, he has already agreed to pay the Countess a considerable fortune if he breaks off the engagement; he's hoping that someone else will take her off his hands so that he can woo the heiress and come out ahead. The heiress, now aware just how much of a louse Lelio is, agrees as the Chevalier to romance the Countess, knowing that if "he" can win her away from Lelio, he'll be out of an income on both sides. Director Benoit Jacquot filmed La Fausse Suivante in a theater, using vintage costumes and minimal props to help retain the flavor of the stage production. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Olivier Assayas directed this French drama, examining several relationships over a year's span, capturing varying textures and shades of feeling between people from late August of one year until early September of the next. Gabriel (Mathieu Amalric) and Jenny (Jeanne Balibar) separate, despite the affection that still binds them. A new love develops between Gabriel and young designer Anne (Virginie Ledoyen) as they overcome their fears and uncertainties. At his publishing job, much of Gabriel's emotional energy is spent on his close friend Adrien (Francois Cluzet), a once-promising novelist whose recent writing failed to repeat the critical and commercial success of his early novels. Jenny, who remains friends with Adrien, embarks on a new relationship with Jeremie (Alex Descas). When an old illness reappears, Adrien must come to terms with an early death; he begins an affair with 15-year-old schoolgirl Vera (Mia Hansen-Love). The personal tragedy of Adrien's death impacts on the fabric of friendships, as the individuals in the group reflect on death, life, and the future. Jeanne Balibar's performance won her the "Best Actress" award at the 1998 San Sebastian Film Festival. Shown at the 1998 Toronto Film Festival and the 1998 New York Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

In this romantic French drama, auteur Andre Techine offers an intense, intimate look inside the complex relationship between two emotionally dysfunctional people. Neither Alice (Juliette Binoche) nor Martin (Alexis Loret) seem emotionally healthy enough to sustain a relationship, but somehow they manage to stay together amidst their many personal problems. The two met in Paris, where Martin fled after escaping the oppression of his recently deceased tyrannical father. Once in the City of Light, the depressed Martin attempts suicide and later accepts an offer to stay with his half-brother Benjamin (Mathieu Amalric) and his roommate Alice, a violinist, in their ramshackle garret. Shortly thereafter, Martin is spotted by a modeling agent and finds steady work on the city's catwalks. At first, Martin and Alice do not get along. He is brutish and incapable of expressing emotion. He pursues her, but Alice is not terribly interested, until her sexual frustration and need to be loved gets the better of her, and she succumbs to his advances. She then decides to leave Benjamin and travel with Martin to a modelling assignment in Granada, Spain. There the two are briefly happy, but as time passes, Martin's self-absorption increases. Alice's announcement that she is pregnant precipitates a crisis in which Martin reveals that he caused his father's death. Unable to bear the guilt and pain any longer, he commits himself to a mental institution and then requests he be given his day in court. Alice is convinced that Martin is innocent of the crime with which he has charged himself. When he insists on going to court, she goes there to save him from himself. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this comedic slice-of-life, a young man who has been away for a long time comes back home to visit his mother, an egocentric literary critic consumed by the world of books. His sister is pretty much wrapped up in herself, his father is a journalist and somewhat of a dreamer, in short, no one in his family is prepared to help him confront the major trauma of his childhood: the suicide of his brother. As the story unfolds, the young man faces these personalities in a series of humorous interludes (i.e., "shut up and eat your soup," as the title suggests in French, seems to summarize the family's attitude to his queries). Director Mathieu Amalric has a good sense of natural, human interactions that carry this film beyond the limitations of its low budget and limited, four-week shooting schedule. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This gentle French comedy, takes an intellectualized look at the nature of a crush as it tells the tale of 20-year-old Claire, a young woman seemingly suffering a terminal case of ennui. She glumly goes through the minimal motions of living until she falls in love with handsome Gregoire, a highly intelligent philosophy student. He gives her an unusual translation of Le Journal d'un seducteur by Kierkegaard. This is no ordinary philosophical tome and anyone who opens it becomes strangely aroused and susceptible to love. Not only is Claire entranced by the book's magic, her psychoanalyst also finds himself ensnared. Meanwhile, mysterious Gregoire seems to hold the key to the mysterious book in his refrigerator, and if he doesn't, then the corpse therein just may. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Otar Iosseliani's comedy of manners is about eccentric old ladies and the equally eccentric guests who visit the ladies' mansion in a Parisian suburb. Though the picture's surrealistic touch, deliberately unhurried pace, and attention to detail are reminiscent of the later works of Luis Buñuel, Iosseliani is certainly an artist in his own right. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide