Bertrand Bonello Movies
Bertrand Bonello trained as a classical musician and played in an orchestra, accompanying Carole Laure and Françoise Hardy, among others, on tours and in the recording studio. He composed music for short films (including his own) as well as for commercials. His first feature film was Quelque Chose d'Organique (#Something Organic) (1998), a co-production of France and Canada. Bonello moved to Montreal, Canada in 1991. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide- 2008
A filmmaker going though a midlife crisis stumbles into a new way of examining life in this comedy-drama from France. Bertrand (Mathieu Amalric) is a movie director who has lost touch with his muse and is desperate to come up with an idea for his next picture. While visiting a funeral home as he tries to brainstorm, Bertrand becomes stuck in a coffin and ends up spending the night trapped in a box. Shaken but strangely invigorated by the adventure, Bertrand realizes he needs new experiences and finds a good source for them when a chance meeting leads him to an urban commune known as the Kingdom. Led by Uma (Asia Argento), the young people who make up the Kingdom often dress in animal costumes and engage in unusual consciousness-expanding rituals. Fascinated by what he's found, Bertrand becomes a frequent visitor at the Kingdom, and while his girlfriend Louise (Clotilde Hesme) tries to encourage him in his self-exploration, she's frequently bemused by his methods. De La Guerre (aka On War) was screened as part of the Directors' Fortnight series at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mathieu Amalric, Asia Argento, (more)
Written and directed by filmmaker Ilan Duran Cohen, this French comedy centers on the relationship between a gay man and his loving grandmother. Though the young man is in a committed relationship, his grandmother's new housekeeper throws an unexpected wrench in the gears. Starring Reine Ferrato and Guillaume Quatravaux, Grandsons received honors at the 2004 Venice Film Festival. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Reine Ferrrato, Guillaume Quatravaux, (more)
Director Bertrand Bonello adapts the Greek myth of Tiresias to a modern day setting with this unforgiving tale of a transsexual prostitute held captive by a man obsessed with her ethereal beauty. Bound in her lonely prison and deprived of the hormones that keep her from reverting back to manhood, Tiresia's increasingly obvious masculine traits slowly begin to repulse her captor until he brutally blinds her and leaves her to die. Tiresia's will to live is strong, however, and though the bizarre beauty lives on devoid of her sense of sight and trapped in an indefinable twilight zone somewhere between man and woman, her power of second sight gradually emerges until Tiresia becomes more in tune with the world than ever before. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clara Choveaux, Thiago Teles, (more)
A man who traded in his artistic ambitions for commercial success now finds himself at a personal and professional impasse in this drama. Jacques (Jean-Pierre Leaud) is a filmmaker who in the 1970s directed a number of top-grossing porno movies; more than two decades later, Jacques's struggles to get out of adult movies into something more satisfying have not borne fruit, and his efforts to make porn films that are more sensual and less obvious don't go over well with his producers. Jacques would just as soon get out of the business and complete a more personal project he was forced to abandon in the mid-'80s, but directing porn is the only work he can find that pays enough to put a dent in the debts he's racked up, as well as those of his wife Jeanne (Dominique Blanc). As Jacques tries to decide what to do with his career, he gets a surprise telephone call from his son Joseph (Jeremie Renier); Joseph turned his back on his father years ago when he found out what he did for a living, but the boy, now a college student and a political activist, has decided it's time to reconnect with his dad. Le Pornographe features Jean-Pierre Leaud's character directing two real-life French porn stars, Ovidie and Titof, in an explicit sex scene for one of Jacques' films. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Pierre Léaud, Jérémie Renier, (more)
- 1998
"To love with your molecules is only possible at the beginning of a relationship" theorizes Marguerite who has been married to Paul for five years; miraculously the molecules in their pairing are still at work. Except for one thing: they live in Montreal, and molecules do not like the cold! Paul who works in a zoo, takes care of his sick son from another relationship and his father who is a clandestine immigrant. Marguerite is terribly bored. One day her molecules explode, and she runs away with the brother of the parish priest -- though she refuses to make love to him. The film begins with a very long take of an intended kiss between Paul and Marguerite; another long take shows Paul killing Marguerite. It is all a big flashback. Slowly, it all gets quite boring because there is no intrigue. Viewers understand that there is something wrong with the relationship but may be left wondering why they should care. The continuous voiceover -- first Paul, then Marguerite -- does not help either. Director Bertrand Bonello seems to be searching for a personal style, but it ends up being a futile intellectual exercise, mainly because the style he is trying to adopt is claustrophobic, and to say the least, rather heavy to digest. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Romane Bohringer, Laurent Lucas, (more)
