Jean-Philippe Ecoffey Movies

This tense psychological drama from France concerns Antoine Lahoud (Roschdy Zem), a forty-year-old attorney who believes himself destined for more ambitious pursuits than the meaningless, petty criminal cases he finds himself pursuing. Circumstances change when Antoine receives an offer from the venerable attorney Henry Marsac (Jean-Philippe Ecoffey) to help him defend wicked, evil criminal clients; Antoine agrees but soon learns that the assignments come with messy strings attached. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

With an off-beat sense of humor to match its erratic central character, this original comedy-drama features Jean-Philippe Ecoffey as Yves, a young man who works as a cop at night. The catch is that Yves turns to petty crime during the day, partly to impress Aurore (Aurelle Doazan), a nurse he idolizes from afar. His criminal hobby seems hard to understand, since it's doubtful that they will really get him anywhere with Aurore; besides, she already has a boyfriend. Nevertheless, Yves starts out by robbing a post office and ends up trying to run over Aurore's boyfriend, an act which finally gets him into serious trouble. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

With a plot more tangled than a spider's broken web, this French drama follows the romantic obsession of Max (Vincent Cassel), a young corporate hotshot who leaves his successful new world behind to search for his elusive lost love Lisa (Monica Bellucci). His mad quest begins after he accidentally overhears Lisa's melodic voice speaking in the phone booth next door. But before he knows it she is gone. Still, he is so elated that he abandons his plans, lies to his fiancee, and after leaving his luggage with his pal Lucien (Jean-Philippe Ecoffey), sets off to find her. The hunt leads to a fabulous apartment, where he saves a girl from a suicide thinking that she is Lisa. But this girl, Alice (Romane Bohringer) is as drab and mousy as Max's Lisa is beautifully feline. Max becomes involved with Alice, unaware that she also dates Lucien. Meanwhile the real Lisa attempts to break free from her obsessive rich lover who may have murdered his wife. For this reason, she continues to avoid her apartment, which she has generously loaned to Alice. When these characters collide, the stage is set for a tragic denouement. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this French romantic drama, Stephane (Michel Feller) wants to form a romantic bond with Sabine (Clotilde de Bayser), and to do this has left his pregnant girlfriend behind. Sabine would rather be with Bruno (Jean-Philippe Ecoffey) her former boyfriend, a stage actor. Bruno in turn is much more interested in his current girlfriend. Each person is, in his or her own way, attempting to deal with issues of maturity and responsibility and repeatedly fails to find happiness or even a decently tranquil compromise between their desires and the realities of their situations. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This film is the directorial debut of 29-year-old Graham Guit, who co-scripted with Eric Neve. Young Frenchman Lenny (Melvil Poupaud) takes some cocaine from London to Paris where he makes a risky connection with dapper drug dealer Joel (Jean-Phillippe Ecoffey) and his violent henchman Sammy (Issac Sharry), splitting the scene to get a plane ticket before they discover he's cut the coke. Joel's girlfriend Juliette (Romane Bohringer) seduces Lenny and makes off with the cash. But then Juliette falls for Lenny, decides to double-cross Joel, and departs with a suitcase of cash -- so she thinks. Instead of money, the suitcase contains many valuable vials of the drug Special K. While Lenny and Juliette search for a buyer so they can unload the Special K, Joel and Sammy are in hot pursuit. Shown at the 1997 London Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

This symbolic drama from director Benoit Jacques underscores the characters' human need for affection. Children steal lemons for the thrill, while women steal other women's men from them just to prove they can. Drug smuggling, clandestine love affairs, and two lovers involved with the production of Shakespeare's Othello carry on with their own off-stage tragedy. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Boys will be boys and girls will be girls, but one child isn't so sure in this Belgian comedy drama. 7-year-old Ludovic (Georges DuFresne) is happy, healthy, and good-natured, but there's a bit of a problem -- he has decided that he's a girl. While his parents Hanna (Michele Laroque) and Pierre (Jean-Philippe Ecoffey) try to understand, Ludovic stubbornly refuses to listen to reason from his parents, teachers, or schoolmates. His fondness for wearing girl's clothes and frequent pronouncements to strangers that he's going to be a woman when he grows up become increasingly worrying, and things come to a head when Ludovic declares that when he's older, he plans to marry Jerome (Julien Riviere), the boy next door. It hardly helps that Pierre's boss, Albert (Daniel Hanssens), is also Jerome's father, and that he's notoriously closed-minded about gender issues. Will Pierre keep his job? Will the stress spoil Pierre and Hanna's marriage? And will Ludovic find the right shade of lipstick? Ma Vie En Rose was the first feature for director and screenwriter Alain Berliner. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Two women who were best friends since childhood come to realize the toll that adulthood has taken on their understanding of each other in this acclaimed French drama. Mina Tannenbaum (Romane Bohringer) and Ethel Benegui (Elsa Zylberstein) first met when they were ten years old. As young Jewish girls growing up in Paris, both felt like outcasts among their schoolmates, and they began to bond as fellow outsiders. That's about all they have in common. As a child, Ethel was a pudgy extrovert from an upper-middle class family who was eager to make friends, while slender and serious-minded Mina preferred to follow her own path and keep her own counsel, and she was raised under less privileged circumstances. Mina and Ethel have remained close friends as adults, but they are still as different as night and day. Mina, still an intelligent iconoclast, has made a name for herself as an artist, while Ethel happened into a career as a pop culture journalist. Ethel has had a number of unsatisfying relationships with men, while Mina is usually too afraid to approach the men she's attracted to. And while both Ethel and Mina value each other's friendship, in time they begin to realize how little they have in common -- and they provide each other with as much aggravation as comfort. Mina Tannenbaum was the debut feature for writer and director Martine Dugowson; it earned her a Cesar Award nomination (the French Oscar) for "Best First Film." ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A successful prostitute attempts to fashion a homeless man into her ideal pimp in this unconventional, darkly humorous French drama. Marie (Anouk Grinberg) has no real need for a pimp, being a self-reliant, unabashed woman so fond of her job as a hooker that she is able to convince strangers to try it themselves. Indeed, her financial success allows her to take care of Jeannot (Gérard Lanvin), an impoverished vagrant whom she finds on the streets. She provides him with a bath and a place to sleep, and the two rapidly become lovers. Nevertheless, Marie is soon imploring Jeannot to act as her pimp, begging him to slap her around and take her money. He takes to his new role and soon decides to talk a manicurist (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) into becoming the next member of his stable. The newcomer's inexperience proves to be his downfall, however, as the manicurist lands him in trouble with the law. Director Bertrand Blier attempts to create a controversial look at sexuality by combining black comedy with scenes of smoky sensuality, though many critics found the central premise and the presentation of Marie's contradictory, masochistic character too unconvincing for the film to be fully successful. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

A disparate, small group of smugglers try to expand their income by carrying illegal cargo across the French-Swiss border in this routine tale of life on the shady side. Paul (Hugues Quester) works as a mechanic in his father's car repair shop, but he makes extra cash by smuggling goods and people across the border. He dreams of getting his pilot's license and going to Canada to work. Mali (Berry Berr) works in a factory and smuggles narcotics across the border for extra lucre. Finally, Jean (Jean-Philippe Ecoffey) works on his father's farm and is not at all interested in smuggling until he meets Mali. After he agrees to help Paul smuggle some gold into Switzerland, he has no idea that Paul realizes the police are hot on his trail. The results are disastrous. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide